Apple unveils all-new MacBook Neo with A18 Pro processor, 8GB unified memory, 16-hour battery life, and a US$599 starting price

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/05/macbook-neo-first-benchmarks/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

It's a good article, but after Samsung's shady benchmark reports, I just don't trust what people say about tech until I get mine own hands on it.

Here are a couple of articles for anyone curious on what I am referring to. Check the dates of each article to see how long this has been going on... 😣

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/13/samsung-benchmarking-apps

https://www.techspot.com/news/94969-samsung-once-again-accused-cheating-benchmark-tests.html

I wish it was easy as window. you know to close a program I just do alt f4 and to go to desktop, window M, and so on. VO looks complicated when I listen to podcast on using it to move around the PC. Long live cats.

To a point yes, however you have to from time to time I think its 48 hours if memory serves, you'll have to enter your password to reinable touch id and unlocking with apple watch which not a big deal but its not just enter password once and your set, but again not a big deal as this doesn't happen too much, although the ability to turn off the 48 hours password prompt would be nice but we'll see.

What's the point you're trying to make? TouchID has similar issues, so I don't really understand what you mean with that comment.

If I were to pick up this machine, I'd pay the extra for the TouchID. In my case, I just do not own an Apple Watch. 🤷

Command + 'q', if I am remembering correctly. That is how one closes a program on macOS. 🙂

That the watch assuming one didn't purchace the touch ID would still have caveats. Its true touch ID gets that same as with the watch though.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong as per usual, but I have my Mac setup to allow the watch to unlock it. It maybe does it a couple of times a week but it almost never works. Just randomly every now and again my wrist vibrates and it does it - usually when I don't want it to.

(Also thanks for the explanation of the A vs M chipsets - very interesting.)

For the record, thanks to apple genius marketing team I got my apple watch last after my mac for that reason alone :)
And yes it's very unstable at best. Sometimes it works but often time it doesn't, once I was 3m away and suddenly my mac randomly unlocked. They could do a favour to everyone by putting u1s in macs and watches for actual precision because the current way of doing things is unreliable at best. Never a binary it works it doesn't work. And this similar issue is present with continuity as well as other interop within the apple ecosystem, which is quite bad given that it's the main software and marketing pitch since forever... But I'm quite happy with how things are daily.

Whenever I unlock phone, the watch suppose to do so. Most time I had to unlock the phone 2 times or touch the watch and unlock phone again to make the watch work. Bug in iOS 26. Long live cats.

This has never really worked for me. I think possibly in the time I've had my watch it has managed to unlock the phone twice. iOS 26 has made no difference either way to this.

Unless there is some Nave there is some mysterious magical incantation you need to do with the watch to make it happen but I pretty much gave up on this idea straight away.

First, thanks for reminding me of this.
But why I forgot, is because it rarely works with my Mac. I think my experience mirrors Mr. Green's.
The only direction of unlocking that is reliable for me is each morning my iPhone will unlock my Apple Watch after I put it on.
I have had Apple Watch unlock iPhone when iPhone's FaceID thinks it can't see me, but I do not think this has worked in the past year and it has been demanding my Pin instead.
HomeKey to unlock my Apple HomeKey compatible deadbolt works really well with the watch though. So maybe the Macs just need an NFC chip so we can bump our watches against it.

The mac might ask for a lawyer. When I finished charging watch and use phone to unlock have to do it several times before the watch does also. No issues in iOS 18. 26 is the worse iOS for me. Long live cats.

If Apple had done the macbook neo with 12 gb of ram and 256 gb of storage, for $600, I think that would be a great compromise to cut corners. it's a shot above the standard iPhones, and it's still budget enough to where it shouldn't be too bad. Also, regarding safari not responding and things like that... perhaps. but even on newer installations of Mac OS, I had the issue. I have seen anything from finder, mail, safari, chrome, etc. go not responding. There is one app, however, that I like on the mac, and if it wasn't paid, I wish I could use it. It's Ulysses. To answer the question about garage band and logic pro... it will TECHNICALLY run, but don't expect to get a whole lot done with it without the mac freezing up. Or doing the dreaded not responding. If a 16 gb ram machine does it, an 8 gb ram machine is going to do it even more. Yet again, I have a friend that has am m3 base macbook air with 8 gb of ram, and she's happy with it, so... I also wish, if we were going to have the specs be this stripped down, we should have had a 12 inch machine. but yet again, that would be more r&D for Apple to remake the design and all that jazz.

Personally I only have problems logging in with the watch when my Mac is configured to share its own Internet connection as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and the authentication screen does alert to that fact when it happens, so my guess is that it's working as intended. As for logging in, I cannot personally claim that I've ever experienced any more issues than with TouchID, and that's both with my old 2022 Apple Watch SE as well as the 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 that I'm wearing right now. This also includes unlocking the iPhone, which I may have to perform once manually before leaving home, but after that it just logs in automatically even when FaceID is completely obstructed. Making payments with Apple Pay on iPhone, however, still requires manually entering my passcode even if it would unlock with the watch in other situations. Since I do believe that, in order for the Mac to be unlocked by the watch, both devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network and logged in to the same Apple Account.

The A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo seems roughly comparable to the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H based on Geekbench scores. The A18 Pro is better at single core (3500 vs 2500), while the Ultra 5 is better at multi-core (10000 vs 8500). The 125H is probably the CPU the BrailleNote Evolve will use, unless it uses a second generation Ultra, which makes this very interesting. The Evolve has much more RAM of course (32 GB) but the two CPUs are pretty close. And people are saying the Evolve has good performance, so unless the RAM is a limitation the MacBook Neo should perform about the same.

I understand the above comment should have referred to A18 Pro and not the nonexistent A9 Pro.

That is the chip is in the 16 pro? Why not just use the chip for the 17 pro? I am sure next year apple will do so and increase RAM to 10. Just heard a android phone middle tear to have 12 RAM that would be close to 600$ or higher.

That's odd, usually the phone asks for face id then you can pay instead of putting in passcode, only reason I can think of which would be causing this is not having the contactless and payments option turned on in settings face id and passcode, but if that's turned on then yea that would be odd for sure.

Well, it does but it doesn't. In theory, an m3 or m4 or higher should thoroughly outclass windows machines of a similar caliber. according to geekbench, it does. but geekbench and similar benchmarks are artificial, meaning you don't see how it's going to behave in the real world. just open something like a non apple app like chrome on the mac. It'll take several seconds. before you say, "Patience is a virtue, get some", yes, that is true and good. but when the competition for less money has real-world faster performance with a screen reader... just saying. one thing overall I will give to apple, they have insanely fast processors for all of their devices. their hardware is top-notch, but their software, to me, is where it falls flat.

Yes, I meant the A18 Pro, sorry.

That's odd, usually the phone asks for face id then you can pay instead of putting in passcode, only reason I can think of which would be causing this is not having the contactless and payments option turned on in settings face id and passcode, but if that's turned on then yea that would be odd for sure.

For starters we were talking about unlocking with Apple Watch, so FaceID was never the subject, and secondly for some reason you decided to ignore my explicit mention of an obstructed FaceID for reasons that I don't really expect you to explain, since it's becoming clear that you joined the thread just to harass me in particular again, however as you know I love to argue, so bring it on!

As for the rest of the crowd more in touch with reality and without a petty personal vendetta against me, the obstructed FaceID cases that I was talking about include situations at the supermarket where I just happen to be holding the phone with my hand covering FaceID, or just wearing a face mask and sunglasses to protect myself and others from spreading respiratory diseases. I can't even imagine why anyone would decide to challenge the claims I made regarding this in good faith, but as usual I'm always willing to be educated.

that reply was to suggest what might possibly be causing it; I wasn't arguing, tipical though, you pivit to something something personal vendetta as per usual. Trust me, when I want to argue, I will; this wasn't it. I was troubleshooting. of course, big differense between this, harassing, but clearly you don't get the difference; to be expected. But hey, think what you want. Interesting how every little thing is a argumennt, vendetta, someone going after you... Superiority complex much? Meh. Whatever. If you have it... Best of luck. If you don't, don't care either way. As said though, trust me, not arguing this time. But since your the smartest person in the room, apparently and enjoy lording it over everyone else... By all means, my lord, have at it. Keep trotting over people, clearly that's what you think of most if not everyone here, as per usual.

Interesting how every little thing is a argumennt, vendetta, someone going after you... Superiority complex much?

No, just stating the fact that your only interventions on this thread were to directly target my comments, not to add anything constructive, but specifically to criticize what I say, though from previous interactions I take it that you live in a different reality where I might be some kind of lord according to your own words...

If you have it... Best of luck. If you don't, don't care either way.

The fact that you bothered replying like that shows how little you really care...

But since your the smartest person in the room, apparently and enjoy lording it over everyone else... By all means, my lord, have at it. Keep trotting over people, clearly that's what you think of most if not everyone here, as per usual.

So that's your issue? You couldn't be farther from the truth! But since you aren't even asking, I won't spend time explaining, because you are clearly not interested in knowing, maybe because the delusional reality that you live in feels more comfortable...

Read the thread again. My first reply was troubleshooting, not an argument. You’re the one who jumped straight to ‘personal vendetta.’ If you want to keep inventing conflicts where none exist, knock yourself out. I’m done with the detour — back to the actual topic.
I personally wouldn't get this one for personal use, but for a workplace computer that work / employer gets for you... I mean its not a bad option. Although the 8 GB of RAM might not make it so popular for workplace computers that offices large corporations get their employers, because of the 8 GB of RAM. The touch ID, or lack thereof in the base model, partially I feel like it’s sort of a cash grab, but then again, if Apple is intending to market this computer as like for the workplace, competing with traditional workplace computers, like Dell etc? Not including the touch ID from the get go kind of makes sense, from what I remember, the workplace computers we have which our PCs, del to be specific, for the office do not include the touch ID either. overall, if we’re talking off work, I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a bad option to compete with other brands that make more traditional office work computers, like del, etc. Which, at least to me? Is kind of what I think, Apple is trying to do with this one. Could be wrong, but that’s what it seems like the aim for this one is. Will be interesting to see if schools start adopting these though, although compared to a chrome computer which is cheeper even than this one? We'll see.

Read the thread again. My first reply was troubleshooting, not an argument. You’re the one who jumped straight to ‘personal vendetta.’ If you want to keep inventing conflicts where none exist, knock yourself out. I’m done with the detour — back to the actual topic.

Your first comment to this thread had my name in its very subject line, was totally pointless as I demonstrated in a later reply, then people disagreed with me, and you decided to step up the harassment with yet another comment with my name on it because you felt supported. Not only that but you are yet to make a single on-topic comment to this thread, since that was clearly never your intention, you just came here to criticize whatever I say and are now playing victim as usual. Notice that I'm only taking issue with you in particular, not any of the other people who disagreed with me, because my problem is not with people disagreeing as I'm always open to being educated, my problem is with people trying to manipulate others into questioning my values as a human being.

With or without the touch ID, I can absolutely see this being bought in bulk for public schools, like maybe K through 12, etc. I have to agree with the person that said ChromeBooks might be more viable though, especially with all of the Google web-based applications, including Google classroom. I guess we shall see over the next few months.

On a sidenote, to @Igna Triay & @João Santos, just a little advice.

Get. A. Room.

Thank you, that is all. 🙇

Hi all,

Please, let's get back on topic. If you have a personal disagreement with someone on here, we kindly ask that you please take it off the forum and allow this topic to get back on track.

The lack of touch ID was confusing to me at first, but after reading quite a few remarks from those in the education market it makes a lot more sense to me now.
The education market would prefer the computer not to have any biometrics, as they don’t use it. Given the computers are completely locked down by IT, even if it had the touch ID sensor, the vast majority of its target market would not be using it. Therefore it’s an understandable omission.
Likewise, educational institutions prefer the computers have as little storage as possible because students are never going to be downloading or installing anything on the computers. In fact, they prefer this so much that for many years, Apple made an education market exclusive (by contract only) M1 MacBook Air with only 128 GB of storage. This SKU could not be purchased by regular consumers, only by educational institutions for a reduced price, but it explains why Apple made a lot of of the limitations to this computer that they did.

Sometimes, when looking at choices these companies make, once you understand The “Who” it’s for and the “where” it’s going to be used, it goes a long way in explaining the “why” certain choices were made.

I can see that as well to a point. Although given chromebooks are roughly $170 that's way cheeper than the $600 these macs will cost, that's hard to compete with. I.e, public schools, I don't see them getting these for the most part. Private, maybe, but its hard to tell.

Heard a podcast call primary tech. Those who do work mostly spread sheets and internet work and not heavy work might get it. Apple might make over 4 million to sale. Long live cats.

I think I have to agree. While I cannot speak on ChromeBooks, I do know with MacBooks it is quite easy to lock them down so that users cannot do things like visit certain websites, download content, and a whole laundry list of other restrictive features found through the Screen Time settings. These may be pricier than ChromeBooks, but I definitely think they will be worth it for educational needs.

That is not fun. Locking to avoid watching interesting things, cat playing with dogs, cats what is the fun of that. Long live cats.scratching people.

I got my new MacBook Neo today and VoiceOver has been very responsive in all the apps I’ve used. I haven’t noticed any lag or anything like that. I also installed Parallels and installed Windows 11, and both JAWS and NVDA are very responsive. I haven’t tested Microsoft Office yet but Edge and File Explorer and Bitwarden work well, and Windows starts pretty quickly. Parallels gives 4 GB of RAM and 2 CPUs to Windows by default. This makes MacOS slower especially when starting apps but Windows seems to perform fine. This is my first non-Hackintosh Mac, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but the performance seems pretty good to me.

This is absolutely awesome.

If you can run Windows 11 on only 4 GB, including Microsoft Office, then kudos to you. 😄👍

Looking at the comments here, that's fabulous you can run Windows 11 with Parallels Desktop on just the 8GB RAM on Macbook Neo. I can prove it works, as I have the M2 Macbook air with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, just like the base model Macbook Neo. So yes, it's workable. Quite impressed actually. Like some of you I have no plans to use it heavily; just for a bit of fun.

Windows can work with 4 GB RAM, but it's not what I'd call ideal. I'm glad you managed to get it to work reasonably well.
How is the battery life? I imagine it should be pretty good until you start Windows, and then I'd expect it to start tanking.

I cannot speak for the MacBook neo, but I have a M3 pro, and the battery life does not tank as much as you would think when using Windows. Obviously depends on what you’re doing, but from full charge to like 10% if I’m using Windows all day, you usually get about seven or eight hours easy even if using windows quite heavily.

Today I had a presentation open in PowerPoint on Windows along with a tab open in Microsoft Edge, and two tabs open in Safari on MacOS, and everything performed well including switching between both environments and navigating and using both with no slow down at all.

What is it, exactly? How does it differ from any other type of memory (RAM) configuration?

Edit, the way I understand it, it sort of works on a similar principle as RISC architecture (Reduced Instruction Set Computing), but I would love more clarification. 🙂

The Mac may have been working fine, but I wonder how much stuff was being swapped to disk because of everything you were doing? Do you have the 256 GB or 512 GB model?

Unified memory just means that the same memory is shared between the CPU and GPU, so modern macs have plenty of memory available to use by the GPU compared to any consumer-grade PC. This concept isn't exactly novel, as lots of low-end PCs have been sharing a portion of their memory between the CPU and the GPU for over 20 years, but the difference is that on Macs this memory is actually performant enough for high-end GPU workloads, which is how my 128GB M4 Max Mac Studio runs 66GB LLMs locally with plenty of memory to spare.

As for memory management, Apple's extensions to the Mach microkernel include the ability to compress data, which the system opts into when memory resources become scarce before considering swapping, however even swapping isn't a major problem on modern Macs since their storage is relatively fast compared to old school spinning discs.

I have the 512 GB version. I wonder if there is something like Task Manager or the free command on MacOS that I can use to check how much swap is being used or how much memory is compressed.

You can see all this data and more, IMO AM is better than task manager especially now that microslop is doing... god knows whatever.

You can see all this data and more, IMO AM is better than task manager especially now that microslop is doing... god knows whatever.

You can see all this data and more, IMO AM is better than task manager especially now that microslop is doing... god knows whatever.

The Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder in Applications can be used to gather information about memory usage on your system, and you can also type vm_stat on the command-line to get the information that you are asking. However I doubt you'll have any compressed or swapped pages on the 512GB M3 Ultra model since I never have any on my 128GB M4 Max, unless you are running huge models like DeepSeek R1, but even then the only way to run that specific model on that system is to quantize it, and the quantized versions only require around 300GB, which is way too much for my own Mac but child's play for yours.

For illustration purposes, here's the output of the vm_stat command on my 128GB M4 Max Mac Studio:

jps@alpha transform % vm_stat 
Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 16384 bytes)
Pages free:                             4414106.
Pages active:                           1837901.
Pages inactive:                         1368696.
Pages speculative:                       488540.
Pages throttled:                              0.
Pages wired down:                        227514.
Pages purgeable:                         277626.
"Translation faults":                1800965158.
Pages copy-on-write:                  121472455.
Pages zero filled:                    886219157.
Pages reactivated:                      1015310.
Pages purged:                           7488944.
File-backed pages:                      1621970.
Anonymous pages:                        2073167.
Pages stored in compressor:                   0.
Pages occupied by compressor:                 0.
Decompressions:                               0.
Compressions:                                 0.
Pageins:                               69543622.
Pageouts:                                     0.
Swapins:                                      0.
Swapouts:                                     0.

So the TLDR version of that readout is:
Zero Swapins and zero Swapouts on your 128gb M4 Max.
If I am understanding this correctly, it actually makes the MacBook Neo sound like a viable option.

The stats also mention zero memory compression made on my system, which has been up for 8 days so far since I updated to 26.3.1 recently. My point is that there was no reason for anyone with the 512GB M3 Ultra model to be concerned about swap or compression since my Mac has 4 times less memory and that's never a problem to me either.