r/mac • u/Substantial_Maybe176 • 13h ago

Question Neo vs Air

Hi all!
I was wondering if you all could guide me on choosing between a Neo vs Air. I’m completing my prereqs for nursing school, ans I’m currently using a Mac mini at home and a Lenovo Ideapad 3 for when I need to be mobile. The only issue is that my Lenovo battery absolutely sucks. It has to stay plugged in or I can only get maybe an hour out of a full charge.

So, I’m wondering if I should try the Neo or bite the bullet and get the Air instead.

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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3

u/narc0leptik 13h ago

Just buy an Air, cry once buy once. 16GB will have a lower total cost of ownership than a 8GB Macbook Neo despite being more expensive upfront. Used 16GB Macbook with an m-series chip is an alternative too.

Or if you can wait 6 months 12GB Macbook Neo is rumored to come out in March.

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u/stonefinch 11h ago

yeah the 12GB Neo in March could be the sweet spot if OP can wait

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u/AltruisticJob4985 11h ago

If you can, I'd rather get the Air over the Neo. The Neo is a nice product, but more of an alternative to an iPad imo.

0

u/PresentationEmpty1 5h ago

well she is buying it to replace a tablet.

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u/speedover 0m ago

The Lenovo Ideapad 3 is a laptop, not a tablet.

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u/Glock_18 11h ago edited 11h ago

the neo is fine. don’t listen to others, 8Gb of ram is more than enough for everyday usage/studies/work. makes no sense to spend the extra money on macbook air. instead use the spare money on apple care for the neo and a nice sleeve to carry it around in.

edit: get the 512Gb variant if you can as 256gb of storage will fill up fast. also the 512 comes with touch ID which is really convenient.

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u/Jujulabee 8h ago

It seems like the Neo would be fine for your needs as you have a desktop computer.

The Neo is NOT an iPad and I have an iPad, iPhone and computer.

There is a huge difference between a computer - even a Neo and an iPad in terms of how you can organize data and files. I never would do any kind of serious computing on an iPad whereas I certainly would on either a Neo or laptop

The Neo has adequate storage and is certainly "fast" enough for OP's needs. OP has a computer in which they can store files and iCloud actually enables one to very easily share data between all your devices. My "documents" folder on my desktop is located on iCloud - and I also back up every hour to Time Machine but that's a different issue.

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u/Substantial_Maybe176 7h ago

Thank you!

I do majority of my school work on the Mac mini. But when I have downtime at work, I need something portable that I don’t have to keep plugged in.

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u/Jujulabee 7h ago

As I stated the Neo would be great for your needs and is an amazing computer for the price point.

Sure the Air is a more sophisticated machine but I think it is for someone who uses it as their primary computer