When I think about antivirus suites, one of my first thoughts is always Norton. Not because it’s one of the best tools, but because I remember my Dad always renewing his subscription, and it being an expensive process that he refused to give up for years.
Norton isn’t content with just keeping nasty malware from your system. Instead, it’s taken a massive leap into the world of browsers with Norton Neo, a Chromium-based browser that comes with—wait for it—AI features.
Before your eyes roll out of your head, stick with me. Neo sounds like the last bit of software you want. There are heaps of AI browsers already out there, so what difference does another one make?
But the reality is a little more surprising than I thought, and Neo actually has some redeeming qualities that might make you consider Neo more than just for a hate-install.
What I like about Norton Neo
Let’s start with the good bits, because Neo has some useful features that I’ve enjoyed using. I will say that some of the useful features are linked to parts I haven’t enjoyed using, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
It’s all about the Magic Box
First up, I like the landing page, which Neo calls a workspace. It’s clean and instantly focused on the central control and search area, which Norton calls the Magic Box. The Magic Box is the “AI command center” that combines search, an AI chatbot, and more into a single search bar. It automatically contextualizes your requests (most of the time) and delivers the appropriate response.
For example, I can input “what are some great new sci-fi films,” and the Neo Magic Box sets to work compiling a list of films with sources. But if I input “.com new sci-fi movies,” it shows me a list of articles from on sci-fi films.
But for now, skip the image creation options. They’re dreadful.
Smart tab groupings keep it tight
Norton Neo’s smart tab grouping is also a positive point. It reminds me of Opera’s Tab Islands, which automatically group together similar tabs to keep your browser organized. It’s not how I work normally, which did mean I kept losing tabs that I thought I’d opened, but that’s a me problem. Neo handily organized me without me always noticing; smart tab grouping is easy to switch off if you don’t like it.
I wouldn’t quite call it “tabless browsing,” as Norton refers to it, but it’s good.
Peek and Summary are innovative (but have serious consequences)
Peek and Summary give you an overview of a link in two ways: as a sneak preview before opening the link, or in the Neo context chat sidebar.
As an idea, this is cool. When you’re using Neo to filter through a bunch of results, it means you can quickly process information and move on from links that you don’t need, don’t hit what you’re looking for, or otherwise. It streamlines internet search, which is something we can all agree is good.
The flip side is the consequences for websites that rely on search to bring eyes to the page. Tools like Peek further decrease the chances of someone actually clicking through, hurting websites that are already in decline. Why bother clicking a link if you can just preview the content?
In that, Peek is a fun addition to the browser, but I’m torn about its use.
Fast and secure
I also felt like Norton Neo is fast. It feels snappy and responsive when moving between tabs, the smart tab management is fast and responsive, and the browser feels good to use. It feels very different from the last time I tried to use Norton Antivirus, that’s for sure.
It scored 24.1 in Browser Bench’s Speedometer 3.0 test, which is pretty decent. My fresh installation of Firefox only scored 21, and Neo’s score is only a few notches shy of an ultra-lightweight browser I’ve been testing named Helium.
I also didn’t really notice it consuming much more memory than expected, at least not compared to any other Chromium-based browsers. We all know that Chrome is an absolute demon when it comes to memory consumption, but I didn’t experience any such problems in Neo.
Where Norton Neo falls down
These features are why you’ll probably fall out with Neo
So, even though Neo’s Magic Box is useful, it’s just a generative AI chatbot that isn’t really any different from using something like ChatGPT or Claude in your browser. It’s not as sleek or integrated as Perplexity’s Comet, and has to worry about Opera’s fully agentic AI browser, Neon.
In that, it also failed one of the more basic AI prompts I use to test AI chatbots. The first is the classic circle arrangement problem, which it incorrectly stated was Emily.
Alan, Bob, Colin, Dave, and Emily are standing in a circle. Alan is on Bob’s immediate left. Bob is on Colin’s immediate left. Colin is on Dave’s immediate left. Dave is on Emily’s immediate left. Who is on Alan’s immediate right?
But then it correctly answered the classic Russian roulette probability problem.
You’re playing Russian roulette with a six-shooter revolver. Your opponent loads five bullets, spins the cylinder, and fires at himself. Click—empty. He offers you the choice: spin again before firing at you, or don’t. What do you choose?
Hallucinating and straight-up fake information is a clear problem. I asked Norton Neo to find some specific information on , so I could highlight one of the features in the previous section (the previews and overlays). Instead, it gave me a response that included nothing from our articles and fabricated a URL as a reference.
Neo is far from alone in doing this. AI hallucination is a huge problem, though other chatbots have made great strides in making sure these more basic queries are answered without issue. But seeing Neo do this with such a basic query makes me worry about using it for anything else.
Which brings me to another issue I have with Neo: why not disclose the AI model being used so we have a better idea of its capabilities? I’m guessing it’s one of the major open source models like Llama or Mistral, but some clearer indication of the AI model would be useful. It’s also not an agentic AI browser, which, when most browser developers are pushing automation and productivity, is also a consideration. I hesitate to call this a downside because AI-agentic browsers are still a niche use compared to the general use of AI in a browser. But as you can see in the video below, Neo isn’t there yet.
I tried to book a train ticket using Neo, and while I got there in the end (in the video below, I use the Neo sidebar to select the trains), it would have been much faster to do it myself (whereas an agentic AI browser would have done it all for me, then asked for my card details).
There are some other gripes, too. For example, extra clicks. When I click what looks like the address bar to copy a URL, it takes me to the Neo navigation area in the center of the screen. Then, I have to click again. The address bar has the cookie settings, options to bookmark, and so on—but i cant select the information i want, which is the actual URL.
Another small problem I had was the lack of a warning before I accidentally closed a window with heaps of tabs open. A minor issue, I know, but frustrating.
And another ever-so-slight issue I noticed is color and saturation while watching shows. Again, this is a very niche problem, and not something most folks would notice, but Neo is notably dimmer than other browsers while watching Netflix. That it has the requisite DRM to watch Netflix and other streaming platforms is great, mind.
Norton Neo is better than I expected
It just needs a little time to brew
Norton Neo has the unfortunate timing of launching alongside Perplexity’s Comet browser, which, for most folks, is the current gold standard of AI browsers. It’s fully integrated with its own search, it has heaps of customization, and the whole process feels effortless. And at the time of writing, it has just announced that its browser is now free to everyone.
You can also tell from my title and intro that I had serious misgivings about Norton Neo. I won’t be the only one raising an AI-generated eyebrow towards Norton building a browser.
But I must admit my eyebrow is returning to its natural state, as Neo as a whole is decent enough. In time, its integrated AI will only improve, and the features that make it worth using already, such as the browser tabs and Peek, and so on, will improve alongside it.
It’s also faster than I expected. It’ll run well, and as it’s built on Chromium, it has support for extensions, easy switching from Chrome, and with the automatic tab management, it could be a productivity dream.
So, far from carrying on Norton’s “iffy” reputation, I’d say it’s time to let Neo grow and see where this AI browser goes.
