Farewell Neo, Hello Air.

[eXan]

Congrats on your switch, it takes decisiveness to make a switch so soon.

One thing I don't see much mention of, is the Air's screen, albeit small, but it gives a user more real estate for windows and toolbars compared to Neo. I found this out recently at the Apple Store where they had put Neo, Air and Pro side by side. The difference was quite noticeable. I supposed such positioning was intended to guide a buyer to the "middle" option considering their margins are likely better than on Neo.

 

[uller6]

You couldn't pay me money to use an Intel Mac, personally 🤣

Intel Macs from about 2011-2015 are the GOAT, and still rock hard in 2026! I have 10 Intel Macs running, most of them with Windows 11 25H2 no sweat. The earliest are a pair of 2009 21" iMacs, each with a 500 GB SSD and 12 GB RAM running windows 7 with uptimes longer than a year. They're rock solid and snappy, but only the Windows 11 machines touch the internet. Intel Macs forever!!!

My main work Mac is a M4 max MBP, and my M2 air is my couch machine. I would have gotten the Neo, but I found the M2 air on marketplace for a good deal and couldn't say no. The M2 air, even with 8 GB RAM, is way faster and more robust than I ever expected it to be, so I think a new Neo would last a good 5-8 years easily. Given my experience with my M2 air, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Neo to anyone.

 

[Mainsail]

They'll be good for moms and grandmas who play Apple Arcade games, check email, and watch YouTube with though. My mom did that for years on an underpowered Chromebook, and that thing was "ancient" even back then. If she were here today the Neo would be perfect for her for a long time.

The Neo is not limited to moms and grandmas. For example, most college students could effectively use the Neo to write reports, build spreadsheets, make presentations, and do all of the things necessary to succeed in academia. There are some majors that need more horsepower, but most would be just fine. It also makes a useable secondary mobile computer for business folks that prefer to put their money into a desktop computer (e.g. iMac or Mac mini).

I prefer the MBA, but it's an exaggeration to say the Neo is limited to Arcade games, checking email and YouTube.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Not the call that I would've made. M4/A18 cores will be supported for longer than M2/A15 cores. Though, 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum for comfortable macOS Tahoe usage that entails using a browser with more than four simple tabs and it's not like we can get more than 8GB of RAM on an A18 Pro.

 

[snipr125]

I wouldn't say slower, I've seen plenty of Neo ssd speed tests come in slower, it's basically within the margin of error. But yes, the 256gb ssd on the m2 is much slower than every other gen. But for most usage cases, it's not something you'll really notice. Higher storage tiers of the m2 were about double the speed. I used own an M2 air with 1tb storage

The MBA M2 256 GB SSD used a single NAND chip resulting in slower speeds than the M1 MBA that preceded it (Had 2 x 128 GB ssds). It was controversial at the time for sure, but Apple fixed this with the M3, M4 base models, to the point where the M5 MBA now is up to 7 times faster. Most wont notice the difference though in daily tasks, its mainly when transferring large amounts of data (Photos, video etc) will you notice.

 

[uller6]

Not the call that I would've made. M4/A18 cores will be supported for longer than M2/A15 cores. Though, 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum for comfortable macOS Tahoe usage that entails using a browser with more than four simple tabs and it's not like we can get more than 8GB of RAM on an A18 Pro.

That's exactly what I thought too, until I had an M2/8 GB in my hands. The M2 is totally fine. Even pushed well into yellow RAM pressure, the machine is perfectly functional and still snappy. Specs on paper aren't the whole story.

 

[conmee]

The MBA M2 256 GB SSD used a single NAND chip resulting in slower speeds than the M1 MBA that preceded it (Had 2 x 128 GB ssds). It was controversial at the time for sure, but Apple fixed this with the M3, M4 base models, to the point where the M5 MBA now is up to 7 times faster. Most wont notice the difference though in daily tasks, its mainly when transferring large amounts of data (Photos, video etc) will you notice.

I forgot this when I made my original comment about M2 having faster storage. I think there were some fairly long threads in here about it. Looking forward to threads discussing a similar next big controversy coming up with Apple swapping TLC for QLC storage in iPhone 18 (>=1GB models).

 

[urbis]

More for the overall package, SSD speeds aren't an issue for me and my usage.

 

[Acronyc]

At least the backlit keyboard. That was just mean.

That reminds me a lot of the 2010 MacBook Air. It was released without a backlit keyboard, then they put it back in the 2011 model. The 2010 11-inch Air was my first Mac and I loved that machine, but it was a bit annoying it didn't have the backlit keyboard as it obviously wasn't a technical or cost constraint.