{"id":22,"date":"2026-03-08T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/?p=22"},"modified":"2026-03-08T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:00:00","slug":"these-are-5-reasons-why-im-opting-for-apples-599-macbook-instead-of-an-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/?p=22","title":{"rendered":"These are 5 reasons why I’m opting for Apple’s $599 MacBook instead of an iPad"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been years since I last invested in one of the best laptops, but now my trusted Chromebook is looking a little worse for wear. For a while, I\u2019ve been toying with the idea of replacing it with the iPad Air with M3 \u2014 until Apple unveiled the rather attractive MacBook Neo.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s first entry-level MacBook is one of three new models on the way (along with the MacBook Air M5 and MacBook Pro M5 Pro), marking Apple\u2019s first budget MacBook starting at $599\/ \u00a3599\/ AU$899. Though I\u2019ve gone my whole life without having owned an Apple laptop, the MacBook Neo has me in a trance, and I\u2019m seriously tempted to abandon my initial plan to convert to iPad for a number of key reasons.<\/p>\n

The MacBook Neo puts the iPad in a very vulnerable position indeed, especially since more users gravitate towards iPads over MacBooks as a simpler option, primarily because of the laptop’s high price point, which also saves them money on advanced features they know will go unused. The Neo shakes this up, not just because of its value, but because of its simple yet plentiful tools \u2014 and I like what I see.<\/p>\n

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1. iPads and its accessories are annoyingly expensive<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Price-wise, the MacBook Neo is more or less the same cost as the best iPads, with the exception of the standard iPad range, which starts from a slightly lower price point ($349\/ \u00a3329\/ AU$599). But it adds up even more if you want all the gear, such as the Apple Pencil (starting from $79\/ \u00a379\/ AU$139), or the Magic Keyboard (starting from $249\/ \u00a3249\/ AU$399).<\/p>\n

2. macOS offers a better experience <\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

As far as operating systems, macOS is a lot more flexible than iPadOS for multitasking and app availability, especially when it comes to offering full-featured versions of apps such as Adobe Creative Cloud. More often than not, iPadOS versions of popular apps aren’t as extensive in comparison, which isn’t a huge setback if you’re using an iPad as a tablet, but rings alarm bells if you want to use it like a laptop, as iPadOS is designed to be touchscreen first.<\/p>\n

Historically, iPad has also been late to the game with rolling out its own versions of popular apps. It didn\u2019t make its WhatsApp debut until May 2025, and its official Instagram app followed in September 2025.<\/p>\n

3. Same size, same fun colors\u2026<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

The MacBook Neo comes with the same 13-inch screen as most iPad models and, for the first time in forever, comes with a variety of fun color options, just like the standard iPad lineup. Despite the lack of a touchscreen, the MacBook Neo adopts similar design quirks \u2014 plus you don\u2019t have to fork out more money to add a keyboard, what more could you want?<\/p>\n

4. \u2026and the same Liquid Retina display <\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Similar to the iPad Air\u2019s screen size and color options, the MacBook Neo also packs Apple\u2019s high-res Liquid Retina display, which could\u2019ve easily been compromised to lower the cost even more.<\/p>\n

5. Solid battery life that gets you by <\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

As well as display quality, the battery life on the MacBook Neo is pretty solid for a base-level laptop. Packing an all-day battery life that can run on a single charge (it\u2019s up to 16 hours for continuous video playback), the Neo matches the iPad Air on the battery front.<\/p>\n

Follow on Google News<\/strong><\/em> and add us as a preferred source<\/strong><\/em> to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!<\/em><\/p>\n

And of course, you can also follow on<\/em>YouTube <\/strong><\/em>and <\/em>TikTok<\/strong><\/em> for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on <\/em>WhatsApp<\/strong><\/em> too.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like this article? For more stories like this, follow us on MSN by clicking the +Follow button at the top of this page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been years since I last invested in one of the best laptops, but now my trusted Chromebook is looking a little worse for wear. For a while, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}