# Anyone get a MacBook Neo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Lounge\ **Created:** [March 13, 2026, 5:46am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073 "2026-03-13T05:46:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 5:46am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/1 "2026-03-13T05:46:40Z")
It would be nice for two or three hours a night sitting with the wife in the living room… I could get some stuff done on elements and enjoy… Just not sure. For the same price, you could get a M4 mini… ---
**Author:** ![Fuellemann](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/fuellemann/32/22871_2.png) [@Fuellemann](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Fuellemann)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 6:44am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/2 "2026-03-13T06:44:36Z")
I would need a large screen estate for working with elements. So I would need to add an external screen as well - not an option for me. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 7:55am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/3 "2026-03-13T07:55:14Z")
Amazon is out of M4 mini now…. Could be the M5 mini soon… For me - my wife is going to need a computer - perhaps - work from home - this would be the better choice But the FOMO for the Neo 🙂 everyone is raving about it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fuellemann](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/fuellemann/32/22871_2.png) [@Fuellemann](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Fuellemann)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 7:58am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/4 "2026-03-13T07:58:07Z")
Also: never buy a first version from apple. The next one will have the A19 and about 12GB RAM so it is worth the wait ---
**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 9:10am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/5 "2026-03-13T09:10:24Z")
Yes 👍 your right… ---
**Author:** ![dan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/dan/32/28516_2.png) [@dan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/dan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 9:16am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/6 "2026-03-13T09:16:03Z")
On a related note, this is a lovely post about the MacBook Neo and how the wrong computer, can sometimes be the right computer for you. > **[“This Is Not The Computer For You” · Sam Henri Gold](https://samhenri.gold/blog/20260312-this-is-not-the-computer-for-you/)** > > Sam Henri Gold is a product design engineer building playful, useful software. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 10:54am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/7 "2026-03-13T10:54:49Z")
Very nice article… memories Started on a TI 994a in the 1970’s… typing in basic code from magazines… Fun times 🙂 No disk drives yet - saved data to a portable cassette player… ---
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/8 "2026-03-13T12:21:44Z")
I’ll tell you about my recommendation to photographers: the Neo is not the right choice; the base Air is a far better choice. This gets down to RAM and SSD, basically. Has nothing to do with anything else. The RAM and SSD in the Neo are slower. They are also bare minimum (e.g. 8GB, 256GB). The way the macOS works is essentially RAM Doubler (a product I produced at Connectix many years ago): unused memory blocks are used first, compression of memory blocks is used second, and swapping of memory blocks to SSD is used last. In the context of word processing, email, Web browsing, the speed at which those things are done isn’t meaningful; you’d see no performance lag. As you start working with large files (e.g. 45mp raw photos, but I’d guess large Elements projects, too), you trigger more compression and swapping and would see some performance hit. But even more important is how often you’re swapping out to that 256GB SSD. The NAND gates in SSDs have a limit to how often they can be written to. macOS and your applications are going take up, oh, one-quarter the SSD, meaning that the remaining 190GB+ is getting hit more often as swapping happens. TRIM will try to balance the writes, but one thing I’ve found on all the small SSDs is that they do show wear fairly fast in the macOS. Apple caught something they were doing that was acerbating that and fixed it, but still: big projects on a base Neo will likely be swapping a lot. The base Air is the same weight and doesn’t have the same problem, as it is 16GB/512GB, which is enough to reduce the RAM Doubler impacts. ---
**Author:** ![Macsterguy](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/macsterguy/32/667_2.png) [@Macsterguy](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Macsterguy)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2026, 3:58pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/anyone-get-a-macbook-neo/55073/9 "2026-03-15T15:58:35Z")
The Non-Lit keyboard is a deal breaker for me but a great Mac other then that…