★★★★★ 5
Impressive web PC, first time mac user, massive upgrade over a 4 year old Lenovo Yoga 13
Style: 256GB | Magic Keyboard, Color: Citrus, Set: Without AppleCare+
The neo is really impressive for $600. It has a nice screen, an incredibly rigid aluminum chassis, loads web pages and videos super fast, boots quick. Impressive Bluetooth and WiFi range and performance (Bluetooth is so much better then my old laptop), good speakers(for a laptop), good battery life, a decent keyboard, excellent trackpad, decent web cam, looks nice, low heat output and no vents to get blocked, compact and light. Highly recommended for anyone shopping for a compact web machine.
The only negatives on the hardware are: lack of keyboard backlight, the interior edge of the chassis is sharp, not enough to cut you, but enough to be annoying when typing in some positions, not many ports just a normal USB C and a 2.0 speed USB C (both can be used for charging) and screen does not fold flat, so the laptop cannot be stood up against the wall.
I was a bit unsure about the Neo because of it using a cellphone chip, but that was not a problem at all. The Neo is super snappy, as fast as my Workstation/Gaming PC when loading web pages and videos. Also I have not noticed any issues with the amount of RAM, 8GB seems sufficient for running a web browser, just as long as you do not go crazy on tabs in Chrome or if you use Firefox that actually manages tabs properly. As a web browser machine I doubt that this will have any performance issues. I am sure that you would hit limits of the mobile CPU if you do did something serious like video editing, but it is more then enough for more casual use.
As someone who had never used a mac before I was a bit apprehensive about trying a different OS, but really it has been fine. I mostly just use my laptop to run a web browser, so I do not interact with the OS that much and MacOS is really pretty nice in many ways. The hardest thing to get used to will be the copy paste shortcuts using command instead of ctrl. Mostly MacOS functions about the same as windows, just better. You can just shut the lid on the Neo and it actually shuts off without hardly using any battery and instantly resumes when you open it again. When you do shut it down boot time is super fast. Mac's update system is pretty unobtrusive and just not stupid like windows update. Mac wants you to sign up to all of their AI and cloud stuff, but you do not have to. I did not even setup the app store. The only apps that I wanted were Firefox and a system wide EQ for my earbuds. I found eqMac on gethub, the free version works pretty well. Anyway don't let the different OS scare you away, MacOS is pretty decent and not really that much different then windows. I got used to it in 2 days of use. Also it should get 7 years of software support.
Here is a comparison of the Neo with the 4 year old Lenovo Yoga 13 it is replacing. The Lenovo was $550 when new so a very similar price category from 4 years ago. Not sure if this will be useful to anyone so I am putting this at the end, but I figure that a lot of people will be in the same situation switching from a budget windows machine from a few years ago, Overall the Neo is better in almost every way, except for the screen not being able to fold around like the yoga and the lack of a backlit keyboard.
The Neo is much faster, it way outperforms the AMD 4650u in my old lenovo when it comes to loading web pages and videos. My old laptop had started really chugging lately when loading YouTube and twitch videos. Not sure it there is something wrong my old laptop it or if web sites have just gotten that much harder to run.
My old lenovo Yoga 13 has an absurd amount of flex in the plastic chassis, when you pick up one corner of the device the other edge sags visibly, the keyboard flexes noticeably when typing, the entire chassis will twist with very little effort. The chassis has also cracked in several places and I have been having to superglue it back together to keep the chassis from literally falling apart. The Neo on the other hand is completely rigid you can lift it anywhere, no flex in the keyboard, you would have to really try to do anything to this thing, it is amazing for a laptop of any price, much less a $600 one. Unless you really do something terrible to it I expect the Neo chassis to last well beond the lifetime of the hardware.
The battery life on the neo is great, I would say it is about twice that of the lenovo, even though I just put a new battery in my lenovo 6 months ago.
The Bluetooth range on the Neo is at least 2 times better, my earbuds would loose connection to the lenovo if I walked 20 feet away to go to the bathroom. I can walk anywhere in the house and stay connected to the Neo, range of about 40+ feet in the house and about 80+ feet outside. Not only the range is better but also Bluetooth connects faster and just works kind of flawlessly, while in windows I constantly had odd Bluetooth issues. This is with just some basic $30 Anker Bluetooth earbuds.
WiFI range and throughput is also much better then my old laptop
The yogo 13 had a good screen, so I do not find the screen of the Neo a huge upgrade, it is noticeably more vibrant and it is higher res, although I found 1980x1080 to be fine at this size. Also the Yoga 13 screen could fold all of the way back and around into any position you want and it was touchscreen, so some improvements and some downsides. Still the color on the Neo screen is very nice.
The speakers in the Neo are many times better then the the Lenovo, my old Pixel phone even easily outdid the Lenovo, it had impressively bad speakers.
The webcam on the Neo is also a big upgrade over the Lenovo, higher res and just better all around.
The Neo has a macbook keyboard, so generally it is a very good laptop keyboard. It is not my favorite type of keyboard, but it works quite well and is fast to type.
The trackpad is great, it is so much better then any windows computer trackpad that I have used, it functions a bit different so it takes a bit of getting used to, but it is just so much better then windows trackpads.
As the Neo uses a cellphone chip it does not really need any cooling, so there are no vents and the chassis never gets hot or even warm. My old lenovo would get uncomfortably hot when charging and I had to be careful not to block the vents when using it on a bed or blanket, but that is not a problem with the Neo. There are no vents to block.
Overall this thing is just impressive for $600 and I just do not see any windows laptop coming close to competing for a thin and light web machine. Sure if you want something that can game or do more intensive work stuff, but I just wanted something to run a web browser and this does that incredibly well while also being a beautifully well made device.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2026
,
and
Promo Codes Available: