- Apple is rumored to be doubling production of the MacBook Neo
- It will supposedly now ship 10 million units
- Meanwhile, Microsoft commissioned a report to point out the strengths of budget Windows 11 laptops compared to the Neo, and it's been criticized online for its level of bias
Apple's supposedly set to double production of the MacBook Neo to meet demand for the popular budget laptop — although Microsoft is fighting back in the war of affordable notebooks.
Wccftech reports that, according to Tim Culpan, an ex-Bloomberg reporter and one of the more reliable sources of chatter from the grapevine, Apple is boosting production of the first-gen MacBook Neo to 10 million units, up from the initial (rumored) run of 5 to 6 million.
Such a move would make sense, seeing as there's clear evidence that the Neo is selling very well. Indeed, the laptop has been since its launch, with CEO Tim Cook acknowledging recently that demand has been "off the charts" for the Neo, and that Apple could take a while to address supply issues (for this MacBook and the Mac mini).
Wccftech also flagged that Microsoft is directly responding to the popularity of this new MacBook, having commissioned a report from Signal65, which compared wallet-friendly Windows 11 laptops to the Neo, and came out strongly in favor of the former.
Signal65 highlighted a bunch of advantages for the Microsoft-powered devices, as seen in a post on X, which states that Windows 11 notebooks "starting $150 below the MacBook Neo delivered more performance AND up to 56% longer battery life in Procyon Office Productivity testing".
The report from Signal65 also found that Windows 11 laptops, which were at matching (or cheaper) prices to the MacBook Neo, had up to 92% faster CPU performance for multi-threaded tasks (based on Cinebench testing). It also found that the Windows machines were faster in Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft's productivity apps.
Analysis: cherry-picking problems
Okay, so there's an obvious issue with a study commissioned by Microsoft, and that's how the benchmarks and comparisons have been cherry-picked to show Windows 11 devices in the best light against the MacBook Neo (given that Microsoft has paid for this research).
For example, what about single-core performance? That isn't mentioned, just multi-core, and performance was tested plugged in, too, not on battery power. Working off the electrical grid favors the Windows 11 devices as the processor has more ability to benefit from the considerable extra power it can then chug (without throttling to balance battery life concerns).
What also isn't mentioned is the screen of the MacBook Neo being a lot brighter, which favors the battery life of the Windows 11-toting Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x (the laptop rated as having 56% better battery life, and the main point of comparison for the Neo as the cheapest Microsoft-powered model). That Lenovo machine has a bigger battery as well, so it was always going to win on that front.
Other factors, such as the quality of the screen and the speakers, aren't touched upon — areas the Lenovo IdeaPad has been criticized for — and pricing-wise, Microsoft's laptops are also compared to the Neo with discounts applied here. The key comparison with the wallet-friendly Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x mentions it starting $150 cheaper than the Neo, but I could only find it on sale in the US at $50 cheaper (at the time of writing).
As one commenter on X put it: "The review skipped all benchmarks where the Neo was better (single core performance, display, sound). You only took what made the PC look better. This is a reminder to have a more neutral review process and this ain't it."
This isn't to rule out the Windows 11 laptops, mind, or to cast aspersions on the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x, as for the money, it does indeed look like a very good notebook. Granted, it has 16GB of RAM versus the 8GB with the MacBook Neo, and I do worry about the future-proofing with 8GB, as I've said in the past. But it's abundantly clear that for today's everyday computing tasks, the Neo runs nicely and slickly — just manage your expectations of this Apple laptop tackling any demanding workloads.
Ultimately, the battle of the MacBook Neo versus Lenovo IdeaPad or other affordable Windows 11 laptops (and it should also be noted that two of the devices Signal65 considers in its report are much pricier than Apple's hardware) comes down to whether you're happy with macOS or Windows. Are you tied into Apple's or Microsoft's ecosystem? Then your choice may already be made for you. (It's also worth remembering that the Lenovo IdeaPad is an ARM-based PC, with some limitations therein compared to AMD or Intel chips — though granted, Microsoft has been fixing some of those issues).
The MacBook Neo's key strength is its relatively high-quality nature — in terms of the build of the notebook, and that screen, speakers, and so on — for the outlay, but that said, it's here where Apple could struggle as time goes on.
Mainly because, as Tim Culpan points out, paying for new CPUs to be manufactured to go in the rumored revised shipping target of 10 million units is going to cost Apple. Buying that production capacity at a time when everyone is trying to grab what they can is going to be expensive, and the worry is: will that be reflected in the Neo's price? Especially considering the ongoing RAM and component crisis.
One of Culpan's theories is that Apple may only offer the higher-tier model of the Neo — the laptop with 512GB storage — later this year, effectively making the starting price $699 in the US (and an equivalent bump elsewhere) without actually implementing a price hike. Or some 256GB entry-level production may be maintained, but not much, and that model will effectively be out of stock most of the time.
Another theory is price hikes softened by new color options, though I'm unconvinced that a jazzy new colorway or two is going to take much out of the blow delivered by a potential pricing increase in the first year of the Neo's existence.
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