In late 2013, I bought a MacBook Pro. It’s been going strong for the past thirteen years. This week I went all in on the new MacBook Neo. Here’s my take on why I bought Apple’s latest budget-friendly laptop.
I haven’t been blogging much in the last few months. A big reason for this is because I’ve been doing everything in my power to hang on by the fingernails to my very old computer: a late 2013 model MacBook Pro. A laptop so old that many websites no longer even opened properly on it, including components on the backend of, yes, even my own website.
Truth is, this has been going on for a while. To quote Philadelphia’s own Boyz II Men, “It’s so hard to say goodbye to [your MacBook Pro]” or something of that nature.
My MacBook Pro has been with me since the year my son was born. Lots of miles on that machine. And many more words and stories saved inside it.
The front end of my website is fine — what you see. But behind the scenes, I couldn’t even access my own files. The editor where I write my posts was glitchy and becoming a thorn in my side. In my last post, “The dog and the squirrel,” my media library was inaccessible. I could upload new photos but I couldn’t see any of my older photos. I wanted to embed a picture of my dog stored in the media library. Couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t load.
It wasn’t my computer’s fault. It was the lack of browser support for a computer as ancient as mine. A computer birthed during a time when we had a sane, intelligent human being in the highest office in the land. How time flies and sanity plummets.
Old computers and the latest tech don’t play well together
Something that bugs me about technology in general: you can own something that still looks nice and is functionally okay, but companies decide, you know what? We’re not offering any OS updates on your archaic device anymore nor will our fancy new code and processes on our website play nicely with the code and processes your system can handle.
Technically speaking, Apple does do a good job of supporting old machines for a very long window of time. Official support for Big Sur continued until late 2022, which is pretty damn nuts if you think about it. On the one hand, one might say I should’ve sucked it up and bought a new computer then, or at least in 2023 when the fits began.
But mine still worked, mostly, so why buy another computer? The issue tends to land outside of Apple’s ecosystem. Fire up an old computer and see how many modern websites load. There aren’t many. Wikipedia is great about backwards compatibility and from a browser standpoint Mozilla’s Firefox clearly cares.
Most everyone else?
Not so much.
And sure, I could switch operating systems or do a legacy patch; but that carries risks I’m not comfortable with on my old machine and my limited know-how in that area. I felt like there was too much to lose. Too many files. Too many photos. Too many stories I’ve written.
An ode to my MacBook Pro and hello to MacBook Neo
I still have my MacBook Pro. I’m not getting rid of it. I love that beautiful machine. It’s broken in like an old baseball glove. More than likely, I will repurpose it to be my fiction writing machine, a place where all of my short stories get their start and find their end. It’ll be, in its own way, like a (somewhat) modern typewriter.
But I did finally muster up enough courage, telling myself that delaying forking out dough, at this point, is kind of pointless, and so I bought a new computer this week: the MacBook Neo, which launched March 4, 2026.
I’m typing on it right now. Some would call it a significant downgrade that I went from a MacBook Pro to the newly released MacBook Neo, Apple’s most budget-friendly laptop which recently entered the market that should, if the universe makes any sense, put a hell of a dent in Windows PCs and Chromebook sales. My wife and kids both use Chromebooks for school and work. Holy hell, are those laptops bad on the eyes due to suboptimal brightness and garbage resolution.
Before buying the Neo, I watched way too many reviews about it on YouTube. I do this sort of thing for largely anything I purchase. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to choose a new pair of boots. Now, after using it for almost a day, would I say it’s a downgrade? My MacBook Pro was old as molasses. So, downgrade? Nope. Not for how I plan to use it.
MacBook Neo is not meant to be an Air or Pro or iPad
To go back to the YouTube reviews, many of which are positive but some that take the unfair comparison route, let’s pause on that for a moment. The comparisons between the Neo and the Air is apples to oranges, just as comparing the Air to the Pro is pointless — much less the Neo to the Pro. Same goes for the Neo being a replacement for the iPad. They are all designed with different audiences in mind. They all serve different needs. One is not better or worse than the other.
The question should be, “How do I intend to use it?” Everyone may think they’d love to own and drive a Ferrari, but it’s possible you just need a Subaru Forester, a Toyota Camry, or a used pick-up truck. What good is a Ferrari when I need to make a run for gardening supplies at Lowe’s?
This is how I’d categorize the respective audience for each.
MacBook Neo (starts at $599)
RAM: 8GB only
For the budget conscious who mainly use their computers to browse the Internet, pay bills, check email, and other light, less resource-intensive work. Excellent for writers, high schoolers, college students, most professionals, and a solid 85% of the general population.
MacBook Air (starts at $1,099)
RAM: 16GB, 24GB, 32GB options
Light to medium design workloads, including creative projects, photo editing, and coding. Excellent for creative hobbyists or junior designers who need a little oomph but nothing overkill.
MacBook Pro (starts at $1,699)
RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64 GB+ options
For heavier design work and high resolution video editing. Excellent for photographers, developers, and designers who need the extra juice. It’s the premium machine that can handle anything you throw at it… unless we’re talking about water. Don’t throw water at it.
With all that said, you can get a MacBook Pro that’s far less powerful than a MacBook Air if you don’t know anything about RAM. The opposite is also true. And, honestly, most people don’t know diddly squat about RAM, which is why the Neo, which has, by far, the least amount of RAM available (8GB), makes the most sense for most people.
Why I bought a MacBook Neo instead of another MacBook Pro
When I bought my MacBook Pro in 2013, I didn’t buy it for the same reasons I purchased the Neo. In 2013, design work and all the apps that come along with that type of work were top priority. I needed a machine that could handle those programs and not freeze up with the simplest of edits or catch fire while saving and InDesign or Illustrator file. It was the first Mac I ever bought.
As they say, “Once you go Mac, you never go back.”
But I rarely do anything design-related on my personal computer nowadays. I use it to write more than anything and the Neo meets this criteria. I do a little bit of design and coding at work. For that, I use my work-issued computer, a 15″ MacBook Air (M3 chip).
If you’re wondering why buy a personal computer when I have a work computer that happens to be a MacBook Air, the answer is simple. It’s not allowed because of security protocol. Nor, to be quite honest, do I want to mix personal documents on the same machine as work documents. If my company decides to can me one day, they shut down my access immediately. I don’t want to lose anything.
Plus, work/life boundaries. If I were writing in my spare time on my work computer, I’d probably end up working when I’m off work. And when I’m off work, and I don’t know about you but, I’m not trying to work.
Pros and cons of MacBook Neo one day in
Pros
Small size, lightweight, ultra-portable, fast performance, Touch ID, fanless design, access to built-in apps I couldn’t access on my old machine, excellent battery life.
Cons
No backlit keyboard, keyboard itself isn’t as responsive as my old MacBook Pro, puny charger, trackpad touch is more noticeable, it’s brand spanking new — and I like old things.
I’m sitting in the dark now typing this with a lamp on dim; and I must admit, I do miss having a backlit keyboard. I should probably be asleep now anyways and not sitting here past midnight typing something most people couldn’t give two fudge pops about. With that said, I haven’t been able to sit in bed and type in I can’t tell you how long. My MacBook Pro basically can’t hold a charge off AC power for more than 15 minutes so if/when I wanted to write, I had to sit at my desk with my laptop plugged in. Otherwise, the battery would dwindle down to nothing in no time flat.
And then there was the fan which wasn’t always an annoyance, but has been since, I don’t know, maybe late 2022 or 2023. If I even attempted to open a website that had any level of complexity to it, the fan would hum to life and the whole machine would get hot in my lap.
But what a machine it was in its heyday. The testament to the late 2013 MacBook Pro’s durability is, well, the fact that it’s 2026 and I just now bought a new laptop.
I like to hold onto things if you can’t tell. I still have a t-shirt from 1999 Summer League Basketball. I wear it all the time. Kinda smells when I sweat. The arm pits are a bit tougher material than the rest. But it’s still going strong 27 years later. They really don’t make things like they used to.
I’m hoping, however, that’s not the case with my new MacBook Neo because it’s a fun little machine. I have faith that Apple will not and did not put out an inferior computing machine. My experience using Apple products since 2013 tells me I don’t need to worry. They just get things right.
I’m looking forward to punching out hundreds of thousands of words on my MacBook Neo just as I did with my late 2013 MacBook Pro.