15 Features Missing From the MacBook Neo

Apple's MacBook Neo is exactly the laptop many budget-conscious people have been looking for. It's priced under $500 for students ($599 for everyone else), and has decent enough specs to be a great starter laptop for most users. To make it a 'budget laptop,' though, a few corners had to be cut. As a result, the MacBook Neo is lacking a few features that you might have come to expect from a MacBook. Here are the biggest trade-offs Apple is making to hit the Neo's lower price point.

No Touch ID in the base model

The MacBook Neo's base model doesn't have a Touch ID sensor, which means you'll have to type out your passwords every time you need to enter them. Some people might prefer this over using a fingerprint sensor, but I'd rather pay the extra $100 for it. This variant also comes with 512GB of storage, while the base model only has 256GB.

It lacks a backlit keyboard

Traditionally, Apple's MacBooks have come with backlit keyboards to help you see what you're typing while you're in low light. Unfortunately, the MacBook Neo has cut this feature to help save costs, but it won't make much of a difference in bright environments or to those who don't look at their keyboards while typing.

You won't get a True Tone display

Apple's True Tone display feature automatically adjusts the color and intensity of the display to match the ambient light wherever you are. This means that your display won't be blindingly bright in low light, and colors will appear more natural across a number of lighting conditions. The MacBook Neo doesn't ship with an ambient light sensor, though, so don't expect True Tone support here.

There are no RAM upgrade options

My daily driver laptop is still the M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM. I have no complaints about this laptop, but a couple of times, it has slowed to a crawl while running many apps at once. Sometime, I wish I'd spent a bit more to get 16GB of RAM. Unfortunately, there's no such option for the MacBook Neo. 8GB should be adequate for now, so long as you stick to light use, but it could become an issue in the long run.

Fast charging is missing

Unlike most other MacBooks, the Neo doesn't support fast charging, and ships with a 20W USB-C adapter. However, that should be good enough to charge the 36.5-watt-hour battery, which is smaller than the M5 MacBook Air's 53.8-watt-hour battery.

You won't get any Thunderbolt ports

The MacBook Neo has two USB-C ports (one USB 3, and one USB 2), but neither of these support Thunderbolt. This won't be a problem for most people, but if you use any Thunderbolt-exclusive accessories such as docks or external displays, they won't work with the MacBook Neo.

The Force Touch trackpad has been removed

The MacBook Neo's trackpad doesn't have Force Touch. This means that the trackpad isn't pressure sensitive like those on other MacBooks. It won't support pressure sensitive drawings, multi-touch gestures, or Force clicks.

Other missing features

While I've covered the missing features average users are most likely to notice above, there are a few additional cuts that might impact power users especially. Here are the remaining features the MacBook Neo is missing:

• Center Stage for the front camera

• Wide Color (P3) display

• Neural Accelerators

• Four-speaker sound system (the Neo has two speakers)

• Three-mic array (the Neo has a two-mic array)

• The 3.5mm jack doesn't support high-impedance headphones

• Wi-Fi 7

• Dynamic head tracking support with AirPods

View the full article