MacBook Neo Reviews: Is Just 8GB of RAM Enough?

The first reviews of the MacBook Neo were published today by selected publications and YouTube channels, ahead of the laptop launching on Wednesday.

Available in Blush, Citrus, Indigo, and Silver, the MacBook Neo is powered by a version of the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro. The laptop is equipped with a 13-inch display, up to 512GB of storage, and a non-configurable 8GB of RAM.

MacBook Neo is Apple's most affordable MacBook ever, and most of the reviews so far call it a great value. In the U.S., pricing starts at just $599, or at an even lower $499 for college students and qualifying educational staff.

The big question: is just 8GB of RAM enough?

Reviews

The Verge's Antonio G. Di Benedetto said the MacBook Neo's 8GB of RAM is "totally adequate" for "the everyday productivity stuff the Neo is meant to handle":

The MacBook Neo zips through the light workloads it's designed for. The A18 Pro chip actually outperforms Apple's M1 MacBook Air (and most Windows laptops) in single-core processing benchmarks, the spec most vital for the everyday productivity stuff the Neo is meant to handle. That's why this $600 laptop excels at light tasks like web browsing and working on Google Docs. The Neo's 8GB of RAM and slow 256GB storage are totally adequate for living this life, but the machine does feel a little slower at the fringes if you know where to look — like how clicking the Applications folder on the dock sometimes takes a second for the icons to populate.

The relatively paltry RAM and storage prevent the Neo from performing as well in heavier creative apps as the MacBook Airs and Pros, but that's fine.

Bloomberg's Chris Welch praised the MacBook Neo's aluminum design, display quality, and the dual speakers on the left and right edges of the laptop:

Even for consumers who stick to more casual computing, the Neo's aluminum build, crisp screen and well-balanced speakers are going to make this a no-brainer purchase for millions. In your hands, the device looks, feels and sounds every bit like a Mac.

Tom's Guide ran its usual battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of display brightness, and the MacBook Neo lasted for 13 hours and 28 minutes. The publication said this is "fantastic endurance for a laptop in this price range," topping the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3's 8 hours and 39 minutes. However, it falls short of the latest MacBook Air, which lasted for 15 hours and 28 minutes in the test.

Additional reviews were published by Ars Technica, CNET, WIRED, and 9to5Mac, among others.