MacBook Neo: Why Apple's entry-level notebook is comparatively heavy
At 1.23 kg, Apple's entry-level notebook weighs as much as the MacBook Air – even though Apple claims the aluminum process saves material. These are the reasons
MacBook Neo's trackpad on the scale.
(Image: iFixIt)
The MacBook Neo is not a lightweight: the machine does not undercut the 1 kg mark. Instead, at 1.23 kg, it weighs as much as the MacBook Air M5. It was unclear how this weight came about: after all, the mainboard is significantly smaller and the battery also has a lower watt-hour rating. Furthermore, Apple claimed in the announcement of the Neo that it uses a more material-efficient forming process that consumes "50 percent less aluminum than traditional machining methods." However, this confusingly has no impact on the weight.
7 percent of the weight is just for the trackpad
A teardown, which the repair service provider iFixit has now carried out, provides clues as to why: the chassis of the Neo is actually only slightly lighter than that of the Air – the keyboard with top case and the device base weigh only 8 g less. Apparently, Apple's stated 50 percent less aluminum refers to the material that must initially be used for production (the rest goes into recycling anyway). The display also weighs 48 g more, according to iFixit.
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However, the mechanical trackpad, which can be physically clicked, unlike all other MacBooks in recent years, is particularly striking. The metal "counterpart" in the housing, from which the trackpad is held, weighs almost 86 g on its own and thus accounts for a whopping 7 percent of the total weight. The weight saved on the other components is thus lost again immediately.
Problem of integrated RAM and permanently installed SSD
Meanwhile, iFixit also praises Apple's new design in the Neo – for example, the fact that (almost) nothing is glued and the battery can be removed relatively easily. However, the removal of the keyboard (which can be replaced individually, after all) with very many screws is annoying. It is criticized once again that neither RAM nor SSD can be replaced or upgraded.
However, both are design decisions: the RAM (since Macs with M-chip: Unified Memory) is located in the SoC module as usual with Apple Silicon chips (here A18 Pro), and SSDs are no longer replaceable in all other current MacBooks either. Overall, iFixit gave the MacBook Neo a "Repairability Score" of 6 out of 10 possible points – Apple surely hoped for more here.
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