I find macOS to be a superior OS for doing computer work to all the alternatives. It still sucks for a lot of reasons, but to my taste it generally sucks less. I’m a web dev, so I host a lot of crap in Linux, and I’m pretty confident in using it as a desktop. But the general day to day experience I find macOS superior.
There’s plenty of people in similar boats, and this is the most affordable machine (new, not used) that lets someone get to use macOS.
For a lot of people with budget limits I’d point them to used MacBook Air models rather than the Neo, but having this as a new model is a really nice option for some people.
Also you can call the Neo CPU slow but its benchmarks run circles around anything you find at its price range. Those machines have more RAM and storage, but the Neo will likely provide a more responsive experience than anything in its price range.
The only way I'll push back on this is the Ryzen 5 AI 340 is faster at multicore than the A18 Pro. Slower single core by a slight amount, and much slower iGPU.
However, that means to compete with the MacBook Neo more completely including integrated GPU, all you have to do is go up one CPU SKU to the Ryzen 7 AI 350 and you're further increasing your multi-core performance lead as well as completely closing the iGPU gap by doubling your GPU performance.
That same Yoga laptop is offered in this configuration including extra storage (16GB RAM/1TB SSD/Ryzen 5 AI 350) for $800
That...really is only $100 more than the 512GB configuration of the MacBook Neo if we aren't tossing in the education store pricing.
Perhaps it's more of a MacBook Air competitor at that price range. Stretching up to $800 is a lot...but you do also get a lot for that stretch.
All of the "cons" you list for the Neo apply doubly if not more for the alternatives you provided. Not to mention the cheap plastic build quality, poor OEM support, horrible screens, etc.
Ryzen 5 AI 340 has a higher multicore benchmark score than the A18 Pro. If you go up to $800 you get the Ryzen 7 AI 350 which matches or beats the A18 Pro in graphics, gets pretty much on par in single core performance, and that SKU has 16GB/1TB in its configuration. If you spend $100 less on the high end Neo with 512GB you get half the storage and lose a lot of I/O and get a worse screen and no replaceable SSD.
USB 3 5Gbps and USB 2 as your only ports are pathetic. Competing systems have more throughput and other conveniences like microSD readers, HDMI, and USB-A.
Inferior battery life, care to send me test data to back that up? Because the Neo is not a star at battery life for medium intensity tasks. It has the smallest battery of any Mac. Early reviews note that screen brightness and higher intensity workloads quickly deplete the battery. It comes with a very slow charging power brick. I guarantee you the physical size of the battery in that Yoga is much larger than what you get in the Neo.
Inferior software: highly subjective. There are over 900 million PC gamers on this planet who can’t play PC games on their MacBook Neo. Windows objectively runs more applications than Mac. Plenty of people I know prefer Windows over Mac.
Cheap build quality: again, Neo has no haptic trackpad, so it’s not that different than a typical windows PC.
Poor OEM support: Lenovo sells parts, Apple doesn’t.
Horrible screens: the Neo has the worst screen in any Mac, the Yoga laptop has a touchscreen OLED. Have you seen the Neo screen in person?