As good as it is – you can’t have one!

I picked up my MacBook Neo on the day they were launched.

It’s not often I get things right, but as it turns out, picking up my delightful and currently my favourite Mac that March day was one of the best things I did! As it turns out, Apple has become the victim of its own success with this Mac.

This thing flew off the shelves at a rate far quicker than Apple had anticipated, which has now forced them to review what happens next with this amazing Mac.

In short, it’s all to do with the storage war, which is looming and posing some very real threats for us all.

What makes the MacBook Neo so desirable

I was in London recently using the Neo, and I had a question that kept cropping up in my mind.

It was simply, why does the MacBook Neo have the X factor? Somehow, it invites you to want to pick it up and use it. I can’t logically put my finger on why it is, but this Mac has a way of drawing you in. It’s alluring!

It’s been pointed out to me a few times that by trading in my MacBook Air to buy the Neo, I effectively traded down. Logically, I can’t disagree with that, but here’s the point – I was never using the MacBook Air. It stayed on the desk, and I’d take the M4 iPad Pro out with me instead.

It’s all well and good citing better specs, but if I’m not reaching for it and using it, for whatever reason, then those specs matter not a jot.

The specs will, however, tell you they’re about the same weight, screen size and dimensions and yet the Neo just feels lighter and more portable.

It’s the oddest thing, but I’m not the only one to have noticed it.

As I said, the Neo has the X factor by the bucket load. It has charisma, and it’s that which makes this thing such a success. When Apple first unveiled Apple silicon Macs, it changed everything.

The Neo has had that same kind of effect, all over again, and the bar has been reset by this Mac.

The smart thing about what Apple did with the MacBook Neo was that it was priced so aggressively. It means this Mac is priced and positioned as an entry-level Mac within reach of so many more people, many of them probably first-time users, too, which is hugely important for Apple.

In reality, the Neo is anything but an entry-level Mac – at least that is not what we used to accept as an entry-level Mac, that is, at any rate.

And the fact that it’s within reach of so many more people is what’s led to problems we’re now facing.

The beating heart

You’ll already know that at the very core of the Neo is the A18 Pro chip, which was essentially the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro.

One of Cook’s master plays is making certain to draw the very last drop of profit from all inventory. The original batch of Neos used a binned or slightly less than perfect version of the chip, which had one GPU core switched off. The 16 Pro has a 6-core GPU, whereas the Neo only has a 5-core GPU.

What started as a masterstroke of genius has very quickly turned around to bite them in the backside, though. As word spread of how good this Mac was, Apple was forced to ramp up production of the Neo from an estimated 5-6 million units to 10 million units.

The first run dried up that remaining bunch of A18 Pro chips in double quick time, which meant Apple has been forced to ask TSMC to produce a fresh batch of the chip.

The devil is in the detail here, though. That first batch of chips was based on the 3nm architecture, but TSMC has no spare 3nm capacity to allocate, as AI customers are sucking up nearly all of the available output.

These new chips will be premium, almost better than new, and that comes at a price! Coupled with that is the fact that DRAM prices have also hiked in price considerably since the first run of the MacBook Neo.

So while Apple can almost keep up with demand for the MacBook Neo, they’ve had to make some tough choices to do so.

The rising costs of the Neo

When I bought my Neo, there was a choice of two.

There was the 256GB model priced at £599 or the 512GB model, which was priced at £699. They were identical except for the fact that the more expensive model had Fingerprint ID (and obviously twice the storage). The chip, memory and every other aspect were exactly the same.

Apple will clearly not take a hit on this next run of the Neo, so rather than increase the prices, they seem likely to scratch the cheaper model from the lineup. In real terms, that means the starting price of a MacBook Neo could jump up by £100 without any spec improvement.

It is not only the MacBook Neo that’s facing this crisis. There are supply issues for the Mac mini, M4 Pro Mac mini and Mac Studio, too.

For example, the M3 Ultra Studio is now only available with 96GB RAM – the higher RAM options have been removed. And even if you decide that the config is ok for you, you’ll still have to wait 9-10 weeks to get your hands on one!

The same story holds for the Mac mini. The M4 Pro Mac mini now tops out with 48GB of RAM, which is the model I happen to have. The 64GB option is no longer available. The basic Mac mini is now only available with either 16GB or 24GB of memory – Apple has removed the 32GB model.

The Mac Studio and Mac mini have become go-to Macs for those looking to run AI and agentic models on local machines. This boom again blindsided Apple.

One other soporific detail I heard today, which helps put into context quite the mess we’re facing over the availability of storage, is this. Currently, the memory part of the iPhone accounts for roughly 10% of its cost. Next year it will account for around 45%!

Just let that sink in for a moment!

In short, Apple is doing everything it can to free up chips and memory. I think it also becomes clearer why Apple has gone with the split strategy for the phones, too – it all makes sense now.

They knew this crisis would catch up soon!

Back to the Neo

I’ve just looked online, and Apple is quoting a 2-3 week delivery on any MacBook Neo, no matter what colour or storage choice you make.

If Apple decides that dropping the cheaper Neo is not an option, and a price hike is necessary, then they may decide to throw in some new colours to help soften the blow and give them some good PR to hide behind.

As clever as Apple is, there is no way they could’ve seen quite how popular this Mac was going to be. It’s almost achieving cult status right now.

I mentioned I was in London with my Neo this week. I popped into a grill for some lunch, and the waiter was beside himself – “Is that actually a MacBook Neo?” He just wanted to hold it and feel it for a moment. He’d tried to buy one but again was faced with that 2-3 week delay I spoke about.

Apple got the Neo right on every level. It’s pretty, affordable, practical, and it has that X factor that I mentioned. I’m sure it will end up going down as one of the defining Macs of this decade.

What a way for Cook to sign off, huh?

Is it perfect?

No, but then what is?

I had trouble choosing between whether I should take the iPad Pro or the Neo to take to town with me this week. I went with the Neo in the end as I could get more done on it, and it also feels more portable.

It was the right choice, but I did find its breaking point. Whilst I could import and top and tail some 10-bit Canon Rec 709 footage in Final Cut on the Neo without any problems, exporting the 10-minute clip in 4K was a stretch too far.

But as I’ve written recently, that wasn’t really a failing. It was more me asking a little bit too much of that phone chip in the MacBook Neo! Bless it, though, it gave it a go and did manage to export in 1080p.

Other than that minor hiccup, though, it performed brilliantly the whole day long and for the foreseeable future, the MacBook Neo will be my go-to travel Mac.

It’s also worth mentioning that the battery life has improved significantly now that I’ve had it for a few weeks, and that it’s been through a few charge cycles and got used to my workflow and demands.

The MacBook Neo may not be perfect, but I don’t really care! In my eyes, it can do very little wrong.

I think this is the start of something very special. If you’re tempted to get one yourself, don’t hang about too long, is all I can say.