You’d still want to grind fine for better extraction, and grinding fine with the hario will take an annoyingly long time. But you’ve got a much larger margin for error, so you’ll be able to do it. The timemore grinder would still be a huge upgrade in time, effort, and convenience.

But if I were doing it again I’d skip the $80 steel burr hand grinder phase and save up for the espresso grinder instead. Then you can upgrade to an open portafilter and have full control over your brew. And until then, using the Neo with the Hario will let you know how much it's worth to you.

I was pretty bewildered when the jump from my Helor 101 knockoff (HEIHOX) to my JX-PRO was just as big as the jump from my Hario slim to the HEIHOX. I really didn't expect the difference in speed, build quality, fine adjustment, etc. to be as big as it was, but they all make good aeropress coffee.