I can’t scroll more than five posts in my social feeds right now without reading about someone replacing or about to replace their iPad with a MacBook Neo.

And I totally get it. If you were a person that bought an iPad because until now Apple hasn’t had an option for someone that wants an inexpensive MacBook. For years, reviewers have been telling us the MacBook Air hits the “sweet spot” of MacBook pricing. I don’t know about you, but in my corner of the world $1000 is still $1000, and that’s a bunch of money for most people.

For us iPad people, I don’t know that the calculus has really changed. Unless the Neo is hiding a touchscreen, cellular, stylus support, and a detachable screen, there’s no way a Neo could replace an iPad (at least for me).

But that’s not actually what this is about. I’ve been thinking about it, and for an iPad person, I think this might be the first Mac that makes sense as a companion for the iPad you already own.

Video Version

Covering the “One Thing”

My iPad has been handling my computing needs for a few years now, really since Apple added full external display support in 2021. I’ll add the disclaimer that I’m lucky enough to have an employer that supplies a computer for work, so I’ve never really needed my iPad to be everything. Conversely, a work issued computer means that I don’t do anything personal on that machine, which is where the iPad has come in.

All that being said, I know the iPad can’t do everything a Mac can. I’m a software developer, and I can’t really do that on an iPad without resorting to remote options.

But outside of that, the iPad handles all of things I used to have to go back to my Mac for. I even picked up video editing because of my iPad, something I didn’t really have much of an interest in before. Maybe its because I’ve spent most of my career developing on a Mac, but there’s nothing about the Mac or macOS that inspires me to want to be creative, the same way iPad and iPadOS do. For me, the Mac is just a machine for writing software, and that’s okay by me.

There’s really just that one thing….that one task, that I need to go back to my MacBook for.

I think a lot of iPad users also have that “one thing” that they can’t do on iPad or may be easier for them to do on a MacBook. That’s totally okay, not everything translates well to touch interfaces (again, see software development).

For $599, the MacBook Neo provides a cost effective way to handle those one off tasks that your iPad can’t yet do. And that task is going to be different for everyone. The Neo is very likely going to be able to handle anything most people throw at it. And if your workflow exceeds the capabilities of the Neo, you likely already know that.

The Neo Punches Above Its Weight Class

“Even with a phone processor?”, you might ask? I’ve seen a lot of people getting tripped up on this, and I feel like every review I’ve seen or read has concluded that the A18 Pro has plenty of grunt to handle the tasks most people do, with ease. You have to remember, Apple is designing each chip generation as a family. They’re designing these chips to scale from a constrained phone chassis, to something like the Mac Studio with plenty of room for cooling.

This was never not going to be a fast Mac, because all of these iPhone chips in recent years have been overkill for what most people use their phones for. Yes, even with “only” 8 GB of RAM. macOS may not be as optimized as iPadOS when it comes to running on 8 GB of RAM, but in the little bit of development I’ve done on this machine, its been more than enough.

You might ask “why not a Mac Mini? It’s started at $599 for years now?”. Well, I would agree with you, because that’s what I’ve been doing for years now, but these days, people buying a desktop computer are the exception. Computer == laptop for the vast majority these days.

Working Better Together

Apple has more or less stopped advertising their Continuity features for anything but iPhone + Mac, But iPad + Mac has never stopped being an option. Many of those same workflows they advertise for those devices works with the iPad as well. You can copy text from your Mac and paste on your iPad. You can AirDrop files from your Mac back to your iPad. And of course with Handoff, you can start a task on your Mac and finish it up on your iPad.

This collaboration goes both ways. You can use your iPad camera to capture an image and paste it into a document on your Mac. Continuity Sketch lets you sketch a drawing with your Apple Pencil and paste it into a document on your Mac. And with Sidecar, you can use the iPad you already own as an additional display for your Neo.

Playing to Each Other’s Strengths

Some people have long wanted Apple to develop some kind of hybrid 2-in-1 device that’s both tablet and laptop. In early-to-mid 2010’s, PC manufacturers were going all in on these type of devices. But as I look across Best Buy’s lineup, some of these devices are still being sold, but not like they were back in the day. The PC industry seems to have largely retreated from this form factor, likely because there in reality aren’t that many people that really want that style of device.

There are tasks that tablets and laptops are better suited for than the other, and melding them together gives you the worst of both worlds. Most of those 2-in-1’s have ginormous bezels, and end up being super thick in tablet mode, because the keyboards aren’t detachable.

In the Apple ecosystem, it makes more sense to let the tablet and laptop be good at the things they excel at.

The iPad is a great computer for the things people do everyday, like:

• web browsing
• email
• document editing
• gaming

If you have an Apple Pencil, there’s no better note tasking experience. And If you have an iPad Air or iPad Pro, you can even connect it to your existing monitor, keyboard and mouse for a productive desktop setup.

The MacBook Neo is great for those few tasks that aren’t well served by an iPad like software development, or using Chrome-based web browsers. macOS (nee OS X) also has almost 30 years of legacy software that is unlikely to ever be ported anywhere else. The Neo is a great access point for apps like that as well.

In the somewhat manufactured iPad vs Mac debate, people land on different points of the spectrum. For someone like me, that’s embraced the iPad as a serious computer, there’s almost nothing I’d rather do on a Mac.

Other people may lean a bit more towards the Mac side of things, especially if you grew up only using the traditional mouse + keyboard + desktop metaphor.

It can be hard to adjust to a different kind of computer. Think of the Neo as something of an escape hatch to old familiar 😄.

Conclusion

I don’t look at the MacBook Neo as an iPad replacement, mostly because, it’s not an iPad 😁. As always, make the choice that makes the most sense for you and your finances, as far as choosing one of the other. I think there’s more value in supplementing your iPad experience with a Neo than either of them replacing the other.

I’ve written most of this assuming you already have an iPad, but if you for whatever reason were considering buying both…its kind of interesting that you can now buy a MacBook ($599) + iPad ($329) + and an Apple Pencil ($79) for basically the cost of a MacBook Air ($1099) and you get a lot more combined utility. Just a scant few weeks ago, the MacBook was the budget MacBook. Interesting times we live in 😁.