MacBook Neo considered Apple’s most repairable laptop in years

Apple seems to have done more than simply make owning a MacBook more affordable when it launched the Neo. According to a recent teardown, the MacBook Neo is considered one of Apple’s most repairable laptops in years.

Compared to many Windows-based PCs, the Neo isn’t perfect from a self-repair perspective, based on iFixit’s analysis, but it’s a lot better than many recent MacBooks. Apple’s $899 laptop still relies on soldered RAM and storage, and some of the screws are fiddly to work with.

iFixit’s repairability score of six out of ten doesn’t seem all that impressive at first glance. However, the folks at iFixit have complained about Apple’s increasingly trickier-to-repair MacBooks for years. The right to repair community assigned last year’s MacBook Air a five, while the M5 MacBook Pro received a lowly four.

With that in mind, iFixit labelled the MacBook Neo the “most repairable MacBook we’ve seen in about 14 years”. One of the laptop’s biggest improvements is a screwed-in battery, moving away from the glue-based design of recent MacBooks. Similarly, iFixit says the screen is also easily fixed, as are the modular USB-C ports.

Students are the prime target audience for the Mac, and if you’ve seen how some kids treat their laptops, you’d know that the need for repairs is inevitable. Apple’s design choices mean that the company isn’t the sole source of repairs; you can DIY or take it to a local computer repairer and save some money in the process.

Image: iFixit.

Interestingly, iFixit also discovered why the MacBook Neo weighs the same 1.23kg as a 13-inch MacBook Air. Despite shedding size in some areas, the Neo’s screen is heavier, while the mechanical trackpad adds plenty of weight.

Even though Apple has some room for improvement, especially compared to Lenovo’s ThinkPad range, the Neo appears to be a step in the right direction.

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