Neo vs. Chromebook: The Ultimate Classroom Bake-Off

Technology moves at such a rapid pace, it’s hard to keep up with the changes as a school leader. Since publishing my first article ("Did Apple Finally Find Its Chromebook Killer?") (just a month ago), Apple quietly increased the education price of the Neo by $100. That changes part of this conversation as at $499, the Neo was an intriguing disruption. At $599, districts will rightly ask much harder questions about return on investment. However, like I said in the previous article, this isn’t just about the price. It’s about value over time.

Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, allow me to lay out the ground rules of this article. I’m not trying to get too overly geeky about this bake-off. I’m evaluating these through the eyes of a technology director trying to make a major purchasing decision that affects learning.

Which leads me to my second disclaimer: These decisions need to involve more than the person who is deploying and distributing the machines.

With that said, most of what follows are several different categories all school leaders should be considering when making a purchase of this magnitude. In the wake of the “tech lash,” leaders need justifiable reasons for introducing devices and screens into the learning environment.

Neo vs. Chromebook: Overview

My original thought for this bake-off was to compare Apple’s Neo with the Dell Chromebook 14 Laptop. These are both similar in size and price, but the truth is, most schools don’t purchase that model for their students. They tend to purchase smaller sizes (typically 11.6-inch HD models) and lower RAM and storage. As Chromebooks make up 93% of the K-12 market, I wanted to make this a comparison against the most commonly purchased device. Currently, Lenovo has a slight edge (25% vs. 21%) over HP when it comes to units shipped in the U.S.

Furthermore, the most common type of Chromebook is the “Clamshell” laptop. More than 62% of Chromebooks purchased are this type but there is a significant growth rate in the second type (Convertible 2-in-1 which is bought at nearly 15%).

Taking all that into account, the following series of tests and benchmarks will be run between a Lenovo Chromebook 100e Gen 5. The Gen 4 was the most purchased of its fleet last year, so we’ll go with the newest model when doing comparisons for the rest of this article. I fully recognize that many of you reading this will likely be purchasing HP, Acer, or Dell versions, so with that in mind, consider this a framework when doing your own comparisons.

The Hardware Story

I’m not going to do a “spec dump” here as you could do that by looking up the device you are considering and comparing its specs to that of the Neo. I will however, highlight some important technical features you’d want to consider and compare when making your ultimate decision.

Here’s a chart of a few things you should ponder when comparing devices:

Overall, it’s a pretty close comparison when you look solely at hardware components. In some ways it’s like the difference between buying a sports car vs. a pickup truck. The Neo is engineered for performance and premium experiences; you can go far and fast with it. The Lenovo is engineered to survive the day-to-day rigors of a middle school hallway; it can take some hits and still perform on bumpy roads. Both will need some maintenance to perform over the long haul and we don’t really know the longevity of the Neo yet.

Based on design alone, the Neo feels like something you’d proudly hand to a college freshman. The Lenovo feels like something you’d reluctantly hand to thirty 7th graders going on a rainy day field trip.

But there’s much more to each of these devices than design and internal components. Let’s see how they hold up in the classroom.

A Student’s Perspective

Given the fact that Neos just came out this summer, we have zero legitimate benchmarks to compare to existing Chromebooks. We can look at previous iterations of Macbooks in schools and iPads (which I have extensive knowledge of) to help guide us.

So, for the purposes of this article, I purchased a Neo for my incoming 9th grade daughter to try. She’s a heavy technology user (gamer, video, AI, etc.) and has a school-issued Chromebook that she can borrow from her older sister (soon-to-be senior) to run some tests. She’s also taking some online courses this summer, so I asked her to tell me some things she noticed and to write it all down.

This next section is written by her:

Five Things I Noticed in the First 10 Minutes

By a 9th Grade Student

1. The Apple screen made everything look way better.

This was the first thing I noticed. The colors looked brighter and the words looked sharper. When I watched a video, it looked more like my TV at home than a school laptop.

2. The Chromebook felt more like…a school Chromebook.

It wasn’t bad, but it felt like every Chromebook I’ve ever used. It worked fine for Google Docs and Google Classroom, but nothing about it really stood out.

3. The Apple trackpad was awesome.

I didn’t think I’d care about the trackpad, but it was way smoother. It was easier to scroll and click, and it just felt nicer to use.

4. The bigger screen actually mattered.

I thought a couple of inches wouldn’t make a difference, but it did. It was easier to have two windows open, like writing in one and looking at a website in the other.

5. The keyboards are almost the same except for one thing.

My friends are always popping off the keys to their Chromebook. It is harder to do this with the Neo keyboard.

Her final quote to me when I pressed her about a comparison was this:

"Honestly, if my teacher handed me either one, I wouldn’t complain. But if you lined them up and said I could keep one, I’d pick the Apple without even thinking about it. It just feels more like a real laptop than a school laptop if that makes sense.”

Some of the tests that I had her try with her Neo and Chromebook were to mimic different examples of things that she would do in various classrooms with technology. I asked her about AI, but she mentioned that’s not really encouraged and she tends to not use it as much as other students.

Here’s just a few of the tests we ran on both devices:

“The 50-tab Challenge”

I had her open up 50 tabs of various classroom applications. Her LMS, Google Docs, Slides, YouTube, Canva, an AI chat bot, email, and dozens of other websites she had visited in the prior school year. We then attempted to measure responsiveness, any type of heat or fan noise from the device and most importantly . . . lag. Both devices performed well under this pressure.

Outcome: Tie

“The Video Project”

I asked her to recreate a video project she had worked on earlier in the year using both devices. On the Chromebook, she used WeVideo. On the Neo, Apple’s iMovie software. While she was able to complete both videos within about an hour of each other, the Neo was much easier when it came to uploading, editing, recording and exporting.

Edge: Neo

“The Offline Day”

This is a big one for her. She’s claimed frustration in the past with the district’s network and at times our home network. As she does most of her work in Google workplace, we tried both devices with the internet turned off and both did well. She was able to write and edit with an option to submit later. She wasn’t able to use her AI LLM bots in either scenario, but she did reveal to me that if she had downloaded LM Studio on her Neo before the internet went down, she could use that as an offline AI agent.

Edge: Neo

Things The Spec Sheet Won’t Tell You

After the exchange with my daughter, I really started to think of this comparison on a broader level. Yes, if you go just by the spec sheet or the price, you’ll get some easy comparison numbers. However, what about all those aspects that don’t appear on a spec sheet but still affect the classroom? Things such as boot time, trackpad feel, and screen glare aren’t listed in a pros and cons section but still need to be considered.

As a former teacher, I know that classroom disruptions can take an entire lesson and tank it. When it comes to technology such as student devices, what can happen that causes unforeseen disruption? Things like fan noise, software updates, battery life, and lag can cause frustration for the student and disruption for the teacher.

There’s also some hidden costs that come into play. After years of running an iPad one-to-one environment, you don’t really realize how much your budget is bleeding charging packs, cords, and keyboards until you do a final assessment of your assets. Repairs for a touch screen are going to be more cumbersome than those of a traditional screen. How much time and energy does it take from your staff to deploy and collect the devices? What about if students pick off the keys from the keyboard, as my daughter mentioned? Also, think about the support burden of training staff and students on the interactions of a device. The more familiar they are with the device the less support is needed (in theory).

All of these “soft costs” add up in the long run and turn into the “Total Cost of Ownership,” which I mentioned in my previous post. Looking at the big picture beyond the spec sheets is something all school leaders should consider before purchasing student devices.

Many schools have models that support two different devices (elementary classroom sets and secondary student take-home devices). This adds complexity to the environment, which in turn, means more support and more training. If it’s the right device for learning, those can be absorbed in the final decision.

Questions Districts Should Ask Before Buying Either

Ultimately, this decision should come down to the factors mentioned above but with input from a wide range of people. Teachers, campus administrators, technology support staff, librarians, and students should have an opportunity to provide input for whichever device you might be considering. This accomplishes two tasks: it gives a broader range of viewpoints when considering the device, and gives those important stakeholders a voice in the decision process, which can affect the overall outcome after deployment.

Whenever we were due for another round of device purchases, our district would convene a “Digital Learning Task Force” made up of the above stakeholders as well as parents. We created surveys, held “open viewing” times for students to touch and use the devices in the current school environment, and held forums to brainstorm the issues we should be considering.

Here are just a few of the questions that we used to guide our decision making:

• What work do we expect students to create?
• How long do we realistically keep devices?
• How important is AI over the next five years of learning?
• Can our support staff manage another ecosystem if we change?
• Are our teachers comfortable with a different OS?
• Do we value the lowest purchase price or the lowest lifetime cost and resale?
• Are we buying devices for today’s classroom or the classroom of 2030?
• What periphery purchases must we make with the device?
• What does instructional support and training look like in each?
• How smoothly can we deploy and recover the devices year after year?

Conclusion

Purchasing a school-issued device for students has never been more complicated. School leaders are dealing with screen-time angst, digital distractions, increased pricing on parts, decreased supplies, and smaller budgets.

Needless to say, this is not a decision that you should make after reading a single article such as this one. However, you should be asking some of the same questions here of your community, as well as hundreds of other factors that I haven’t even listed.

After fifteen years, Apple finally built a laptop that belongs in the Chromebook conversation. I know the iPad has its place as well, and have long compared an iPad with a keyboard to a Chromebook, but this is different.

“Did Apple build the Neo to be a Chromebook killer?” is a more complicated question and one that depends less on benchmarks and more on the kind of learning your district hopes to create.