$600 versus $1,100. That is a lot of

money, and if you need a new laptop, you

might just be deciding between these two

and wondering if the Air is worth almost

double the price compared to the Neo,

especially in this economy. So, I used

both of them side by side, and it turns

out the answer was really not what I was

expecting. Let me explain. So, starting

with the physical differences, they have

roughly the same 13-in footprint,

design, and also incredible build

quality. But, I think the Air just feels

a little bit better to me personally.

It's just slightly thinner, you know,

the edges and curves are a bit sharper,

uh including those screen bezels.

They're a lot slimmer versus the Neo. Uh

a lot of people also hate the notch on

the Air, but it didn't really bother me

personally. I also ended up very

slightly preferring the keyboard on the

Air. It has a backlight versus the Neo,

which does not, and the keys just seem a

little bit more, I guess, crispy and

more clicky than the Neo. Same with the

trackpad. Um swiping with my finger felt

pretty much the exact same, but the Air

has Force Touch technology versus

Multi-Touch on the Neo. And Force Touch

just, I guess, feels and sounds more

premium when I was clicking the

trackpad. The speakers are also

noticeably better on the Air. They're a

little less tinny. Vocals in particular

sound a little clearer, and listening to

music or watching movies was overall

much more enjoyable. Also, the Neo does

not have Touch ID. I guess Apple just

cut it out to save on costs, which is a

shame, because I personally like Touch

ID. It just makes it so much easier to

log into my macOS user account, and of

course, use my password manager. Uh I

think most password managers these days

have some kind of Touch ID

functionality. Um so, it's just super

easy to just log straight into a

website. Don't need to enter your

password. Touch ID button, boom, it's

all done. Now, you can technically get

Touch ID capability on the Neo, uh but

only when you choose the upgraded 512 GB

SSD version, which is of course more

expensive. Now, in terms of ports, fun

fact, the Neo is the first ever Apple

silicon MacBook to come without

Thunderbolt ports. The M5 Air, of

course, has Thunderbolt 4, and they are

significantly faster than the USB 3 and

USB 2 ports on the Neo. Now, how much

this actually mattered though really

depended on what I was using the ports

for. Like, I just use a cheap standard

external SSD most of the time, and I

don't really use a Thunderbolt hub,

either. So, I found that the Neo was

perfectly fine. But, I did run into a

lot of issues when using an external

monitor. The Neo supports one external

display at up to 4K at 60 Hz, but

anything above that is kind of where the

Neo's limitations start to show. For 5K

monitors like the Apple Studio Display,

the Neo still technically worked, but it

was capped at a lower 4K resolution. 4K

ultrawide monitors, well, the image was

fuzzy and stretched out because the

resolution on some ultrawide monitors is

just slightly more than 4K, and the Neo

cannot support it. For those who use

dual monitor setups, they are just

completely unsupported on the Neo. It

just cannot do it. The M5 Air, on the

other hand, supported every single one

of these scenarios. Now, speaking of

monitors, if you don't already have a

monitor arm,

you should definitely get one like this

one here because I love being able to

easily adjust my monitor, either making

it higher or closer, especially because

I'm taller than average. So, the stands

that some monitors come with just don't

go high enough. The other problem is

that most monitor arms either sag over

time or wobble every time I bump my

desk. And that is where Whoa and Nuo's

Flow Lift Pro monitor arm comes in. And

big thanks to Whoa and Nuo for

supporting my channel and sponsoring

this section of the video. Now, the

Flowlift Pro uses something called Mecha

Spring, a mechanical spring system built

for long-term stability. So, unlike most

monitor arms that use those gas springs,

uh there's no sag or readjusting it

every few weeks, either. Now, the other

thing I really like is the yellow

indicator ring on the arm. Now, they

call it Precision View. Um instead of

guessing how much tension to dial in for

your monitor's weight, you can actually

just turn the screw until the yellow

ring lines up. It supports 13 to 32-in

monitors up to 19.8 lb. It also tilts,

swivels, and rotates in pretty much

every direction. And the click-and-lock

VESA mount means you can attach your

monitor in seconds. So, if you want to

clean up and make your desk set up more

ergonomic, check out the Flowlift Pro

using the link in the description, and

use code HN Creator to get it for around

20 bucks. But, apart from that, let's

get back to the video. Okay, moving on

to the screen, it was noticeably larger

on the M5 MacBook Air. And this was

probably the only difference I actually

noticed. Now, it doesn't translate into

that much like practical everyday use,

uh but I could squeeze in an extra line

or two of text or Excel rows. I just

think the Neo's screen is just a little

too cramped, even though they

technically have a very similar physical

footprint. Everything else was so

similar that I wouldn't be able to tell

them apart in a blind test. You know,

they both have the same brightness

levels, colors look very similar,

although the M5 does have a slightly

better color gamut. But again, it's only

something I noticed when they were

literally, you know, both side by side

with me with the brightness settings

perfectly matched. For the webcam, which

is something I use every day, I didn't

have any complaints about the Neo. And

overall video quality is comparable to

the M5 Air. The microphone on the M5 is

better and it has center stage so it can

track me if I move around but I usually

just sit still anyway. Now for most

people comparing these two MacBooks, the

M5 Air having double the SSD capacity

versus the Neo is going to be a big

deal. Now I have said many times before

on this channel that 256 GB SSDs

are enough but you do have to compromise

by constantly deleting stuff and storing

a lot on the cloud or on an external

SSD, etc. Now bear in mind only 206 GB

of the 256 GB are actually available

once the macOS operating system and

other system files are taken into

consideration. I find that a 512 GB SSD

just gives me so much more breathing

room and actually allows me to ditch the

SSD in a lot of cases which is really

nice. And it does make a big difference

during my everyday use. Now the RAM is

also doubled on the M5 Air to 16 GB

versus just 8 GB on the Neo.

Did this affect performance for me?

Well, there are two very different

comparisons to be made [music] when it

comes to performance. Everything that I

do falls into one of two categories. You

know, your standard everyday stuff and

more demanding stuff. I spend most of my

time on my laptop doing relatively

mundane things like web browsing,

emails, watching YouTube videos, etc.

And when I was comparing the difference

in performance between the two in that

basic stuff, it was very, very similar.

Although I did notice very slightly

snappier performance on the Air once I

started to load up multiple apps plus

having probably 20 to 30 browser tabs

open at the same time and all of that

obviously started to put a bit of

pressure on the RAM. The faster SSD and

memory bandwidth on the M5 Air certainly

helped here.

But sometimes you just need more RAM,

right? And when I had a lot of stuff

open and was constantly, you know,

multitasking through it all, switching

between apps, all that kind of stuff, uh

it can start to add up. But, that being

said, it wasn't something that would

make me want to buy the Air over the

Neo. It was relatively minor unless I

had both of them side by side and I was

like comparing everything. For the more

demanding stuff, like editing photos or

videos, etc., uh the M5 Air was the

clear winner every time, you know,

significantly outperforming the Neo. I'm

not going to bore you with a bunch of

graphs or synthetic benchmarks. I'm sure

you've seen all of that stuff already.

But this has always been a weird kind of

gray area for the MacBook Air, right?

Like it's a very capable machine and can

do these more demanding things, but if

you're frequently doing those things,

you probably wouldn't buy an Air in the

first place, right? And you would

instead get a MacBook Pro or something.

Even then, the Neo can still do all the

stuff that the M5 Air can do. It just

does it slower and less efficiently. So,

if you're the type of person who rarely

or, you know, never does those things,

there's really no major difference. For

battery life, the M5 Air is

significantly better than the Neo. I

would consistently get probably 12 to 15

hours of normal use versus roughly 8 to

10 hours on the Neo. But battery life

for me is very dependent on how mobile I

am with the laptop, right? Like these

days, I'm almost always around some kind

of power source, so I find that battery

life is less relevant. But, when I was a

student or when I traveled a lot for

work, it was very important. Not so much

being able to get like 12 hours straight

on a full charge, but for those

situations where maybe I forgot to

charge the night before or I had to rush

out of the office or the lecture hall or

whatever and only had, you know, 40%

left for the rest of the day. So, after

using both of these MacBooks side by

side for the last few months, for me,

the M5 MacBook Air was the clear winner.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love the Neo,

the value is just unbeatable, and I

would actually choose it if my budget

was limited or the Air's improvements

weren't relevant to me. [music] The Neo

has incredible build quality, it's got a

fair amount of features, you know, it's

going to be capable enough for most

people's everyday use, and the price is

honestly just too good to be true. But,

even though the Air is almost twice as

expensive, and, you know, not

necessarily twice as good, uh I'm

thinking about all of those little

moments during the day where I

constantly appreciate the features of

the Air that the Neo just doesn't have,

like the slightly bigger screen, better

speakers, Touch ID, so I'm not, you

know, manually typing my password 30

times a day. If I do need to do

something demanding on my MacBook, it's

super fast on the Air, plus better

battery life, trackpad, port speed,

external monitor support, double the RAM

and SSD size, etc. And these are all

things that I will take advantage of

every single day, and, you know, every

day for the next 5 to 10 years. Is that

worth the extra cost? For me, yes, it

is. But, honestly, you really can't go

wrong with either one. You know, Apple

has really hit a home run with these two

this year. Now, if you are interested in

watching more videos on this topic,

YouTube thinks that you will find this

video interesting. So, give it a click

and a watch, and let me know how you go.