"The Enchantment of the Mac at an Unprecedented Price: Is Apple's New MacBook Neo a Bargain or a Misstep for Music Producers? It's Complicated"] - Guitar | Technique

In the midst of a good number of other product announcements, Apple has unveiled the MacBook Neo, an affordable laptop that’s designed to compete with Chromebooks and cheap Windows machines and provide “the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price”.

Prices start at an eye-catching $/£599 ($/£499 of you qualify for the education discount) and there are four colour options: Silver, Indigo, Blush and Citrus.

At first glance, arguably the most impressive thing about the MacBook Neo (aside from the low price) is that it doesn’t look like a budget laptop. It has an aluminium (as opposed to plastic) enclosure that should ensure that it feels like a ‘proper’ Apple product. However, rather than using one of the ‘M’ processors that you’ll find in all of the company’s other Macs, the Neo is being equipped with the A18 Pro, which made its debut in the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024.

While some will inevitably use this as a stick to beat Apple with (‘it’s just a phone in a laptop case,’ etc) and say that it should have used the M1 processor at least, there are already suggestions that the more modern and efficient A18 Pro could be at least on a par with that chip, which dates from 2020, and offer better performance in some areas.

What’s more, in comparison to the M1 MacBook Air, which the Neo is already being likened to, the new machine has some advantages. Battery life should be a bit better, the front-facing camera is slightly improved (1080p as opposed to 720p) and more modern WiFi and Bluetooth standards are supported.

In order to hit the low price point, though, Apple has scrimped in a few areas. RAM is locked at 8GB (there’s no option to upgrade this – either at the point of purchase or later on) and the base model has just 256GB of storage. There’s also a 512GB model, which adds Touch ID, too, and will set you back another $/£100, but there’s no option to have a backlit keyboard on either model.

On the connectivity side, musicians will definitely appreciate the 3.5mm headphone jack, but there are just two USB-C ports, neither of which has Thunderbolt capabilities (one is USB 3 and the other USB 2).

(Image credit: Apple)

How will the MacBook Neo fare for music production, then? Obviously, we’re yet to test it (you can pre-order the machine now but it won’t be released until 11 March), but we have a hunch that it might just punch well above its 2.7 pound weight. Sure, it’s not going to have the processing grunt of the also-just-announced new MacBook Air M5 or MacBook Pro M5/M5 Pro Max, but as a starter machine for running GarageBand, for example, it might well do the job. Whisper it quietly, but a lot of musicians don’t actually need as much computing power as they think they do in order to fulfill their creative potential.

The counter argument to this is that, if money is tight, you’d be better off buying a reconditioned or ‘pre-loved’ MacBook that has better specs. We can see the logic here – particularly if you want to get best out of ‘Logic’ Pro, funnily enough – but it’s pretty obvious that buying second-hand is potentially going to get you more for your money than buying new – assuming your purchase is in good condition, works as intended and doesn’t break down after a year or two.

Thinking more big picture, it’s also interesting to draw a comparison between the MacBook Neo and the new iPad Air M4, as they have the same starting price. It’s indicative of how the computing market has changed that, here, the tablet has a more powerful processor than the laptop, but if you want an Apple machine purely for music production, the less powerful Neo might actually be a better bet.

Not only does it have the advantage of running MacOS, opening up a world of plugin possibilities that aren’t available on iPadOS, but it also comes with a keyboard and trackpad – extras that you’ll have to purchase separately if you buy an iPad, and at considerable cost if you want the official Apple variants.

Which leads us to think that, if you want to buy just one Apple device to make music on, and you need it to be portable – if you’re happy to stick to your studio, don’t forget about the fantastic Mac mini – the MacBook Neo would be a better choice.