MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air – Which Should You Buy?

By Josh Teder

I’ve spent well over six months using a MacBook Air, and more recently I’ve spent several months living with both the MacBook Neo and the new M5 MacBook Air side by side. Here’s what stands out on both, what you actually give up by going with the cheaper MacBook Neo, and given Apple’s recent price increases, which one I think you should buy.

Where the Two Really Stand Out

Put them side by side and the first thing you notice is color. The MacBook Neo lineup leans into bolder colors, especially the Citrus one I got, and Apple color matched the keys to the device rather than leaving them plain white. macOS even shifts its color scheme to match whichever color you pick. The MacBook Air’s colors are more subdued and honestly a bit less fun, though the finishes still look elegant.

Switching back and forth, the trackpad is the next thing that jumps out. Both have that same large trackpad footprint, but the Neo’s actually physically clicks down instead of using the Air’s haptic engine. Normally a mechanical trackpad is worse, since the force it takes to click can vary depending on where you press. Apple nailed it here though. It takes the same effort to click no matter where you press, and multi-touch gestures work exactly like they should. The only thing missing is Force Touch, the haptic trackpads’ harder-press gesture that triggers Look Up by default. I rarely use it myself, but it’s worth knowing if you rely on it.

You won’t see this one just by looking at the laptops, but it’s a bigger differentiator: chip and RAM. The MacBook Neo runs an A18 Pro chip, the same family that powers iPhones, with 8GB of RAM, while the M5 MacBook Air gets a full M5 chip with 16GB of RAM. On paper, the M5 is roughly 20% faster single core and 80% faster multi core, plus it has a dedicated neural accelerator for AI workloads. In my actual day to day use though, writing in Google Docs, using Claude, and editing my website, I haven’t felt held back on the Neo.

A smaller thing: the Neo doesn’t have a camera cutout in the display. It has a larger but uniform bezel instead, which I don’t think will make or break anyone’s buying decision, but I actually kind of prefer it over the Air’s notch.

And the last thing that’s obvious at a glance: the base MacBook Neo configuration skips Touch ID entirely, while every MacBook Air has it. I’ll get into whether the Touch ID version of the Neo is worth the upgrade later on, but first, here’s everything else you give up by choosing the Neo.

What You Give Up With the MacBook Neo

No Larger Size Option

The MacBook Air comes in 13 inch and 15 inch sizes, while the Neo only comes in one 12.9 inch configuration. If you’re trying to decide whether the extra screen real estate on a 15 inch Air is worth it, I break down the pluses and minuses in my 13 inch vs. 15 inch MacBook Air comparison.

A Noticeably Different Display

Switch back and forth between the two and the Neo’s display looks a bit less saturated and bluer in warmer lighting. That comes down to two missing features. The first is True Tone, which automatically adjusts white balance based on your ambient lighting. The second is P3 Wide Color. The Neo’s display is limited to sRGB, while P3 is a modern color standard that’s about 25% larger, meaning richer reds and greens on the Air. If you do any visual creative work, that’s a real difference. In my experience the Air also has a slightly, and I mean slightly, better anti-reflective coating.

No MagSafe, Slower and Fewer Ports

Going with a MacBook Neo also means giving up MagSafe 3, Apple’s magnetic charging cable that’s color matched to your laptop and pops off safely if someone trips over the cord instead of sending your laptop flying. More importantly, MagSafe frees up a USB-C port. On the MacBook Air, you always have two USB-C ports free for accessories, even while charging. That’s not true on the Neo. The Air’s ports are also Thunderbolt 4, while the Neo has one USB 3 port and one USB 2 port, so transfers will take noticeably longer.

“On the MacBook Air, you always have two USB-C ports free for accessories, even while charging. That’s not true on the Neo.”

One External Monitor, Less Storage

The MacBook Air can drive two external monitors, while the MacBook Neo is limited to one. Storage is capped at 512GB on the Neo too, while the Air can be configured up to 4TB if you need it.

Battery Life and Charging

Battery life is a bit worse on the Neo in my experience. Apple rates it for up to 11 hours of wireless web surfing versus 15 hours on the Air. The Air also supports fast charging with a 70 watt charger, while the Neo tops out around 35W with no comparable fast-charging feature.

A Few Smaller Things

The Neo supports only Wi-Fi 6E rather than Wi-Fi 7, which I don’t think will matter to most people. If you use GarageBand, Logic Pro, or high-impedance headphones like the studio-grade Sony MDR-M1 I use to master my audio, the Air’s headphone jack supports high-impedance headphones directly, while the Neo’s doesn’t, so you’d need a dedicated amplifier.

The Air also has a 12MP Center Stage camera versus the Neo’s 1080p FaceTime HD camera, though honestly MacBook webcams are all pretty rough compared to just using your iPhone as a webcam with a mount like this one, so I don’t weigh this much either. Speakers are a similar story: the Neo has two, the 13 inch Air has four, and the 15 inch has six. My 15 inch does sound a bit better, but they’re still laptop speakers, so I wouldn’t upgrade for this alone. The last thing you’ll miss on the Neo is a backlit keyboard, which every MacBook Air has.

Price and My Recommendation

Before getting to my recommendation, there’s one last major difference: price. The MacBook Neo retails for $699 here in the US after a recent price hike, while the 13 inch MacBook Air starts at $1,299 and the 15 inch starts at $1,499. That’s a big gap, the Neo is almost half the price of an Air. You can check current pricing across retailers in the Featured Products section above.

So should you get a MacBook Neo or a MacBook Air? If you’re buying this for school, I think for most students, especially anyone who has access to an external monitor at home or in a dorm room, the Neo is a genuinely good option given the price gap. Unless you know you need graphics-intensive workloads the Neo can’t handle (and to be fair, people have thrown 4K video editing at it and it’s held up), or you’re a graphic design student who needs better color accuracy, the Neo is more than enough for Google Docs, word processing, and web browsing. Even as a lifelong student myself, to a certain degree, I’ve genuinely enjoyed using this thing.

If you’re a student, don’t skip Apple’s Education Store. At the time I’m writing this, the education discount brings the Neo down to $599 and the MacBook Air down to $1,199. And if you want to save even more, check eBay for used devices or Apple’s own Certified Refurbished Store.

If you’re just after a casual laptop for around the house, something bigger than your phone, I think most people will still be fine with the MacBook Neo given the price difference. It should last several years. If you plan to store a lot of photos or video on it, I’d bump up to 512GB for a bit of headroom, and I’d spend the extra $100 for the Touch ID version. Touch ID isn’t just for unlocking your Mac, it’s for authenticating in Settings, the Passwords app, and purchases too, and pressing a finger down is just so much easier than typing a password over and over.

Those are my thoughts on whether to get a MacBook Air or MacBook Neo. Let me know what you think, did I miss anything? For more of my Apple comparisons, check out my breakdown of the 13 inch vs. 15 inch MacBook Air, or for more Apple reviews, my iPhone 17 Pro Max review and iPhone Air review.