Especially I am curious how Ableton will work. It wouldn’t be used as the main machine but as a mobile production station. Any users of this new computer here?

 

It will work, but it's low in RAM. Suitable for small projects.

There a thread on reddit about it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ableton/comments/1rw0yhr/anyone_using_the_macbook_neo_with_ableton/?show=original

And a Youtube video test

 

A lot of people are gonna say that 8gb is not enough... And somehow I would agree... But:
I have a subnotebook with windows 11 that only has 8gb, and it does quite well. As long as I don't open 20 browser tabs besides Cubendo, everything is fine. I can run huge projects without issues. Second BUT:
I don't do samples. I have a lot of recorded tracks and softsynths. I guess it would be different if I used a lot of Kontakt.
//Edit// isn't there a MacBook air for just 100 bucks more that is waaay better? I didn't look into that, came up in some YouTube video

 

Depends on the music. For basic techno loop and DJ stuff it's fine, probably for recording a band as well; but for Orchestral libraries and symphonic stuff the 8GB will not go very far.

 

Macbook Air M1 still outperforms it for audio, it's amazing little machine and you can pretty much get base model in great condition for much less and 16/512 for the price of Neo (found one locally with 92% of battery in perfect condition for 550 bucks). Also M1 Air is actually thinner and ergonomics are better, dunno, Neo makes no sense for audio IMO over M1 Air, if they at least matched all the specs completely, then sure, but right now you can find sealed base M1 Air for the price of Neo and call it a day.

 

Last edited: Mar 26, 2026 at 2:13 PM

just search for 5 years old threads of: is M1 MacBook Air with 8GB and 256GB enough for whatever
then remove backlit keyboard, remove thunderbolt support, and you basically get the answer

EDIT: base model M5 Air with 16GB and 512GB is enough better

 

and remove 2P cores too

Yeah, M5 is the first "double" leap from M1, double the RAM (amount and speed), SSD (amount and speed) and CPU performance (just speed, same amount)

 

Last edited: Mar 26, 2026 at 2:24 PM

problem is performance of an A18 P core is better than M1 P core,
so really depends on how a specific DAW version handles the P and E cores,
James Zhan does such comparisons at YouTube, not sure if he did MB Neo yet - https://www.youtube.com/@JamesZhan

 

It's an excellent mobile sketch pad.

 

He didn't, but the guy in the video I posted did Logic and M1 pulled double the amount of tracks, also A18 P cores aren't really that much faster, but lack of two actual P cores makes bigger difference than slight speed increase.

 

why does everyone do these idiotic soyjak facial expressions

 

Great machine, great value for anything that requires DSP horsepower. For working mostly with samplers, I'd rather have a slower machine with more RAM.

 

It's a great laptop. Should be enough for sketching. Logic should run smooth.

 

You can get a 2025 M4 MacBook Air for 200 more bucks. I think that's a far better deal than a MacBook Neo and will get you much further. Without student discount the price difference is even smaller.

 

The Neo is most certinaly good for music production. I already surpoasses the intel macs and even the first M1. It is a bit slower than the non-pro M4. That means it has great potential for effective music production. Maybe it won't host 100 tracks of plugins...but that's not realistic for most people anyway. Considering that I made full songs on a 2018 iPad Pro using Audio Unit synths like Sunrizer, Model 15, and all the Sugar Bytes iOS apps, the NEO is much more capable.

Just don't expect 128 track instances of Kontakt for Orchestral. 8GB of ram still goes a long way! Look at all the MPCs and the MAschine+ for reference of RAM limitations vs productive output.