If you’ve thought the MacBook Neo could be for you, but the 512GB maximum storage size wasn’t enough, a YouTuber may have good news for you.
They carried out a DIY upgrade to swap out the SSD for a 1TB one, which is also faster than the stock one supplied in the device …
Apple offers the MacBook Neo in two versions:
- 256GB SSD at $599
- 512GB SSD, with Touch ID also included, at $699
Unlike the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, no further configuration is available.
However, since the processor is the same one used in the iPhone 16, YouTuber Dosdude1 figured that you could use the same 1TB NAND storage chip as the top tier of that phone.
In this video, I perform a soldered storage upgrade on an Apple MacBook Neo, upgrading it from its base spec of 256GB all the way to 1TB, which is an option not even offered by Apple for this machine. My idea was to use the same 1TB NAND that the 1TB configuration of the iPhone 16 Pro uses, as they share the same A18 Pro SoC. The K8A5 model NAND is what I ended up using, and that actually ended up working flawlessly, giving me one of the very few 1TB MacBook Neos in existence!
That chip retails at around $210, so your all-in cost for the machine would be a little over $800 without Touch ID and just over $900 with it.
As Macworld notes, the upgrade isn’t a trivial undertaking.
It involves disassembling the MacBook Neo, preparing the new SSD for soldering, removing the Neo’s existing drive, preparing the new SSD for soldering, soldering it in, and testing for integrity.
There’s also nothing you can do about the 8GB RAM as that is part of the A18 Pro System On a Chip.
But if a 1TB model appeals to you, and you feel your soldering skills are up to the task, check out the video tutorial below.
- MacBook Neo at Apple’s official Amazon store
- Official Apple Store on Amazon
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Image: Dosdude1
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