Can the MacBook Neo run Windows 11? Yes, but there's a huge catch

MacBook Neo running Windows 11 — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The MacBook Neo is a surprisingly capable laptop for its price. Starting at $599, Apple’s most affordable MacBook has specs comparable to the best iPhones thanks to its A18 Pro chip, 8GB of unified memory (RAM), and 256GB of storage. You won’t get the same performance as the new MacBook Air M5 or MacBook Pro M5, but this laptop is good for the basics.

Our friends at TechRadar recently posted a story about using Parallels to run Windows on the MacBook Neo, which is an interesting experiment to say the least. That inspired us to perform our own benchmark tests to see if running Windows 11 as a virtual machine on a MacBook Neo is worthwhile. Without spoiling the results, I’m not at all surprised. So, can the MacBook Neo serve as a Windows laptop replacement? Read on to find out!

What is a virtual machine?

Before getting to our results, I wanted to explain virtual machines and Parallels, so you have a better understanding of what the heck our experiment is about.

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A virtual machine (VM) is basically a computer-within-a-computer. Instead of buying a separate PC that runs on a single Windows-only account, a VM uses software to make an operating system think it has its own dedicated hardware. It uses a slice of your Mac’s CPU and RAM to create a digital sandbox where Windows or Linux can live alongside macOS.

Parallels Desktop is one of the leading programs that makes this happen on a Mac. The “Coherence Mode” lets you run Windows apps as if they were native Mac apps that sit right in your Dock and share files with drag-and-drop. Parallels handles the load of splitting the Neo’s 8GB of RAM between two operating systems.

What we did

MacBook Neo on a desk — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

For our purposes, we ran our tests with 4GB of vRAM and 2 CPU cores in use, based on the automatic recommended settings Parallels applies. We could have tried to use more RAM, but that would risk macOS not working properly. We tested Windows 11 in full-screen mode in Parallels to make it feel closer to using an actual Windows laptop.

The aforementioned Coherence Mode lets you run Windows 11 apps on the Mac desktop, but we didn’t test it like that. Again, the point was to replicate the Windows experience on a MacBook.

Keeping in mind that we’re using half of the Neo’s RAM and a third of its CPU cores for this Windows on Neo experiment, here’s how it fared on the same benchmark tests we run on the best laptops and best MacBooks.

How the Neo performed

I used the MacBook Neo with Windows installed for an evening. While I was certainly able to browse the web or watch streaming videos, everything felt slow, like using a budget Windows laptop from half a decade ago.

Even moving the arrow cursor feels sluggish, something my colleagues at the office also immediately noticed when I had them try Windows on Neo. Sure, you can make do, but don’t expect a zippy experience like on a modern notebook.

So how well did the laptop do in our benchmark tests? On Geekbench 6, which tests overall CPU performance, the MacBook Neo scored 2770 in single-core and 4090 in multi-core. Those scores are much lower than when just running the native macOS on Neo.

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Row 0 - Cell 0	Geekbench 6 (single/multi-core)	Handbrake (mins:secs)
MacBook Neo (Windows)	2770 / 4090	23:24
MacBook Neo (macOS)	3535 / 8920	9:57
Dell 14 Plus	2721 / 10890	7:50
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3X	2124 / 10505	4:31
Asus Vivobook 14 AI	2617 / 8968	6:01

We benchmarked the MacBook Neo vs budget Windows laptops, and as you can see, its single-core scores were on a par when running Windows. This is why opening tabs and web browsing, while slow, wasn’t a nightmare. However, for multi-core performance, the results weren’t even close.

To prove that point, the Windows-driven Neo took nearly 23 and a half minutes to convert a 4K video to 1080p in our HandBrake test, which is around 14 minutes slower than on Neo running macOS. The Windows laptops also did better, but they’re able to utilize more RAM and CPU cores.

I should note that we used the ARM64 version of Handbrake, which is the same version we use on Windows for ARM laptops like the Surface Laptop 7. That matters because this version is optimized for ARM chips like the A18 Pro.

We also tried to run 3DMark to gauge the GPU performance. Unfortunately, when running the various 3DMark tests, they would freeze or give scores of zero. This is likely due to the app running in a VM. We eventually stopped running this test after 3DMark froze multiple times and caused the VM to crash. To be fair, 3DMark did warn us that the tests might not run and aren’t compatible.

Speaking of 3D testing, we wanted to benchmark a couple of games. However, there wasn’t enough storage to install either Borderlands 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 since, by default, Parallels splits the available storage in half for each operating system. In this case, going from 256GB to 128GB. Keep in mind that Parallels alone is 41GB.

Regarding that last point, we also installed benchmarking apps and copied a folder with those apps. So while Parallels took up 41GB for us, yours might be different. Storage is adaptive, so it starts small and grows as needed.

While we could have allocated more storage to Windows, it might have impacted macOS, which in turn would negatively affect the laptop’s overall performance. Besides, the games would run poorly since they’d be running on two cores. It would be like watching a slide show.

Lastly, we weren’t able to run our battery test since the app for it doesn’t work in the VM. Our tester doesn’t believe running a battery test in a VM makes sense, and I agree with that assessment. But, hey, at least we tried.

The costs

MacBook Neo playing the new Spider-Man trailer — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

As you can see, there are many caveats when running Windows on the MacBook Neo. All of the above might be too much to deal with, but the cost of this endeavor will likely be the main deal-breaker for most.

Parallels typically costs $119 for a one-year subscription, but there is a 14-day trial you can try for free. A Windows license costs $139 for the Home version. You can install and use Windows without a license key, though some personalization options and features might be limited — not to mention the potential legal ramifications of using the OS without a valid license.

So, doing things by the book, you’re looking at a total cost of around $857. Considering all the compromises you’re already making, it’s not worth spending so much on what’s supposed to be an affordable laptop.

Bottom line

While you can use Parallels to run Windows as a virtual machine on the MacBook Neo, you need to go through several hoops and deal with certain sacrifices to get it going.

The MacBook Neo is surprisingly powerful for its price range, but it’s not meant to be a laptop for running multiple operating systems. With all the effort and money you’re putting in, you’re better off buying a proper Windows laptop that runs Microsoft’s OS natively.

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