The long-rumored low-cost MacBook was released last week as the MacBook Neo. It’s a 13” laptop based on an iPhone chip and offers 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage, and four color options starting at $599. I’ll post my thoughts about it in a bit after some of the reviews come out, but today I’d like to check in on the predictions I made in November. Let’s see how I did.
The table below lists each of the major predictions I made along with an Accuracy Points score. The score ranges from 0 to 1, with partial points allowed. They’re summed up at the end and converted into a percentage.
| Prediction | Result | Accuracy Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| It will be called “MacBook” | It’s called “MacBook Neo” | .5 | I was half right. Fun fact: neo means “new” or a “revived form of”. This is fitting as the Neo is certainly new but also a revival of a lower-cost notebook product for Apple. |
| Powered by an A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 series | Yup | 1 | I followed the rumors and the rumors were right |
| It only supports video output to a single 4K display | Yup | 1 | A limitation of the A-series chips |
| It doesn’t run Intel applications | NOPE | 0 | This was based on my theory that iPhone-destined chips do not include the hardware that makes Rosetta 2 so performant. I assumed that Apple would artificially limit the Neo so that it couldn’t run them as a way to avoid performance criticisms. I can’t find any evidence of that – Apple’s Rosetta 2 page was updated in January and states that “a Mac with Apple silicon” is capable of running it. According to Apple’s Newsroom post about the Neo, it is, in-fact “Apple silicon-powered.” Guess my guess was wrong. |
| It supports USB 3, not Thunderbolt | Yup | 1 | The A-series does not support Thunderbolt and I don’t think Apple would modify the design to do so if it is trying to keep costs down. |
| It leverages a new case design and does not reuse the wedge of the M1 MacBook Air | Yup | 1 | I suggested that it would it look more like an iPad with a keyboard attached. It doesn’t look exactly like that, but it has a similar bezel design to the iPad line and doesn’t use the wedge. |
| It uses a display that is different, and smaller than the M1 MacBook Air | Yup | 1 | The Neo has a 13.0” display versus the 13.3” display on the M1 MacBook Air. It’s resolution is also a tiny bit lower at 2408 x 1506 instead of 2560 x 1600. Fewer pixels than a 13” iPad, more than a 12” MacBook. |
| Two USB-C Ports | Yup | 1 | They learned their lesson from the last iteration of the MacBook. Notice I didn’t say two USB 3 ports. One is USB 2.0, which limits its use to low-performance peripherals like keyboards and mice. It’s technically two ports though, so I get this one. |
| No MagSafe | Correct! | 1 | Last minute leaks indicated MagSafe, but this makes sense as an upsell to the Air |
| Lighter than MacBook Air | WRONG! | 0 | It weighs exactly the same, which is a bummer, but was also an unrealistic expectation. Apple needs to cut costs somewhere and you can’t expect a super light product at the same time. |
| Available in real colors | YES! | 1 | FINALLY. The Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro is selling like hot cakes, but I don’t think the Neo is colorful in response. It was in development way too long for Apple to make a last-minute pivot. The Neo is available in blue, yellow, and pink just like the entry-level iPad. The colors are more muted than the iPads, but make no mistake – these are colors, not shades of grey. |
| Longer battery life than MacBook Air | WRONG! | 0 | 16 hours vs 18 hours. You can’t win them all, but lets reflect on the fact that we are talking about having only 16 hours of battery life. How far we’ve come! |
| No Butterfly keyboard 🙂 | Correct! | 1 | That’s a joke – nobody in their right mind would bring that back! I still get a point though! |
| Priced at around $700 | Kind of | .5 | I’ll happily take half a point for this one. I was right about “around $700” for the higher end model. The lower end model starts at $599 – the same price as a Mac mini. What a pleasant surprise! |
| 256 GB Storage | Yes* | .5 | *In the base configuration at least |
| 8 GB RAM | Yup | 1 | There is debate about whether 8 GB is enough, but for light work it should be fine. This is a limitation of the A18 Pro. If there is an upgrade at some point to the A19 Pro, RAM will bump up to 12 GB. |
| No additional storage or RAM configurations | Kind of | .5 | No RAM upgrades but you can “upgrade” to the higher end model with double the storage. |
| My Score | 12 points / 17 total available | 71% |
All in all, I was 71% accurate. On a standard school grading scale that’s a D, but in reality that’s not bad. I was correct in over ⅔ of my predictions. I mis-predicted the weight and battery life and lost partial credit for believing Apple would be more restrictive in configurations, but I got most of the other stuff right. My bespoke prediction about Rosetta 2 support also appears to be wrong, so I guess I’m not as clever as I think.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this product, which I’ll share in a bit. More to come.
Relatively Ambitious 