I’ve been a pretty big fanboy of the MacBook Neo so far, and honestly, I’m fine saying that out loud.
I’ve already made several posts saying great things about this laptop, because for me, it’s been a genuinely fun machine to use. It’s affordable, light, fast enough for what I want, and it feels like one of those products that makes you wonder why Apple didn’t do this sooner. That’s why writing about a problem like this feels a little weird. I’m not looking to pile on, and I’m definitely not trying to turn one issue into a full takedown.
But this is the first real issue I’ve run into with the MacBook Neo, and it’s one worth talking about.
The good news is I’m 100 percent confident Apple can fix it. The bad news is they may not know about it yet, and if people don’t report it, some buyers are going to keep doing what one forum poster already did: return the laptop over it.
The issue: popping and clicking over USB audio
The problem I’ve been having is with audio, but not in the way I expected.
I haven’t heard the issue through the MacBook Neo’s built-in speakers. Instead, it shows up when I’m using some kind of USB audio device, like USB speakers or an external audio setup. Every so often, I’ll hear popping or clicking noises. And the part that really stands out is that it seems to get worse when I’m doing something more CPU intensive.
That detail matters, because it’s a big reason why I don’t believe this is a hardware issue.
This feels a lot more like software behavior, or at least something in the system stack, than a physical defect. It reminds me a lot of an issue I had years ago on my 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro. Back then, I’d occasionally hear popping or clicking too, but it was on the built-in speakers. On the Neo, I haven’t heard that at all from the laptop speakers themselves. This time it seems tied specifically to USB audio.
Different machine, different output, same kind of annoying gremlin.
Why I think this is a software problem
The biggest reason is how the issue behaves.
It’s not constant. It’s not tied to one obvious broken port. And it seems to get worse when the system is working harder. That doesn’t really scream “blown hardware” to me. It sounds more like something timing-related, buffer-related, or just a weird bug in how the MacBook Neo is handling USB audio under load.
That’s also why I’m not panicking about it.
I’m not sitting here thinking the laptop is fundamentally bad. Quite the opposite, actually. I like this machine a lot, which is probably why this stood out so much. When you’re loving a laptop, the first real flaw feels louder than it otherwise would.
I’m not the only one seeing it
I also haven’t seen a ton of people talking about this yet, which is part of why I wanted to mention it. But I did find one forum thread that sounds very similar to what I’m experiencing.
In that post, a MacBook Neo owner said they plugged in a JDS Element 4 and got “lots of popping noises,” with one USB-C port behaving a little better than the other. The thread also included a reply from JDS Labs saying the symptoms sounded consistent with a USB buffer underrun, basically the sort of thing that can cause audible pops when the audio stream doesn’t stay perfectly fed.
That doesn’t prove every case is the same, but it does make me feel a lot less crazy.
And more importantly, it shows why this matters. Some people won’t wait around for a fix. They’ll just assume the laptop is bad and return it.
That would be a shame, because I really do think this is fixable.
What it’s like in actual use
In day-to-day use, this is the kind of bug that doesn’t totally ruin the experience, but it absolutely breaks the vibe.
Sometimes everything sounds fine. Then I’ll be doing something a little heavier, and suddenly I’ll catch a pop or click through a USB-connected speaker setup. It’s just enough to be distracting. Not catastrophic, not constant, but definitely not something you want from a new Mac.
It also makes troubleshooting feel more annoying than it should. You start wondering whether it’s the speaker, the cable, the port, the app, the workload, or just one of those weird macOS hiccups that only appears when you’re not in the mood for it.
The frustrating part is that the rest of my experience with the Neo has been so positive. That’s what makes this feel important to call out. Not because I think the laptop is a failure, but because I think it’s good enough that this issue deserves to be taken seriously and fixed quickly.
Trevor Score
Trevor Score: 8/10. Still one of my favorite Apple releases in a while, but this audio bug needs a patch.
This isn’t a formal review, it’s just how I felt using this thing. A gut-check from someone who actually used it.
I’m still very high on the MacBook Neo overall. This is the first real issue I’ve had with it, and I don’t think it changes the bigger picture for me. But it is annoying, and it’s the kind of issue that could scare off buyers if Apple doesn’t squash it fast.
Final verdict
I still really like the MacBook Neo. A lot, actually.
That’s why this post exists. Not because I’ve turned on it, and not because I think it has some fatal flaw, but because this is the first real problem I’ve run into on a laptop I’ve otherwise been praising a lot. I’m confident Apple can fix it, but they need to know it’s happening first.
And that’s the bigger point: this kind of thing should be reported. Because even if only a small number of people are running into it, that’s still enough for returns, frustration, and a bunch of people deciding the laptop is worse than it really is.
I don’t think the MacBook Neo is broken. I think it has a USB audio bug that needs attention.
And hopefully, sooner rather than later, Apple gives this thing the update it deserves, because I’d really like to get back to talking about how much I enjoy this laptop instead of listening for the next pop.
