Tech Review: Apple’s New Neo

Many customers are drawn to Apple for their design and carefully curated aesthetics rather than for major technological advances. Apple released the Neo laptop to expand their audience in a budget-friendly way, but they aren’t really selling innovation with the Neo; instead, it’s selling aesthetic at a lower price.

Sold in four colors—silver, indigo, blush (pink), and citrus (a neon green)—the Neo has limited memory, and only 8gb of RAM. Functionally, the keyboard, and resolution of the screen have a sharp quality. Though reports state the Neo works slower than typical MacBooks, operating several applications at once worked seamlessly for me. The battery life, however, burned quicker than expected. The lower specifications show that performance is not the main selling point, but that the Apple look is.

Apple says it’s an “amazing Mac at a surprising price,” but, is it? The 256gb Neo is sold for $599 and the 512gb for $699. Comparatively, the 512gb MacBook Air is selling for $1099 (though retailers like Best Buy sold them as low at $699 and have since raised it to $899). While the Neo is more affordable, it’s release increased some of the other laptop’s price.

If you’re a student looking to save a few bucks—because, let’s face it, prices matter—or someone of an older generation looking to do simpler tasks then the time for Neo is now. While the Neo is not necessarily a piece of revolutionary technology, it allows customers a more accessible entry into the Apple ecosystem.