GoKawiilI didn't need to do heavy 4K video editing or complex AI prompting to push the Neo to its limits. All it took for me to crash Apple's hot-selling budget MacBook was opening too many Safari tabs (about 64, give or take).
I've been using the MacBook Neo as my main machine for a month, switching from my work-issued (and more powerful) MacBook Pro. The Neo is the first MacBook to rock an iPhone processor, the A18 Pro chip. It comes with some trade-offs, but my overall experience has been pretty impressive. It handles every program I need. It's lightweight with great battery life. And it's pink and cute to boot.
Watch this: One Month With MacBook Neo: Yes, I Feel the Limits 05:51
But every so often, there are these annoying lags when I'm jumping between Safari browser tabs. I notice it especially when several Google Workspace tools are open at the same time.
And last week, I took it too far while researching. My habit of opening too many tabs choked up the laptop's meager 8 gigs of RAM. Everything came to a halt, the spinning color wheel appeared, and a pop-up warned me that I had to force-quit programs to bring it back to life.
It's making me wonder whether other users who downgrade from more powerful MacBooks will notice the same laggy moments -- and whether I need to change my "too many open tabs" style of working.
In this week's episode of One More Thing, which you can watch embedded above, I explain my experience and wonder whether other students who research and use a suite of Google Cloud services (or disorganized tab freaks like me) will encounter the same wonky moments.
Was it a fluke, or could I recreate it on camera? It wasn't easy, but I did manage to muck it up enough again to get the same warning pop-up that I ran out of application memory. The second time, however, was not as easy.
All that said, I still believe the Neo is a fantastic starter MacBook and even a great secondary travel machine for commuters. It's also Apple's most repairable laptop in ages. I'm on another trip this week, and I'm packing my Neo without a second thought.
But it's making me consider working a little differently as my week progresses to avoid slowdowns and maybe, just maybe, close some tabs.
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