abowlby
macrumors 6502a
So is macOS 26. Loonix is a time sink. Personal computers are kind of in a dark ages right now.
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Hands-On With the New MacBook Neo
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Definitely agree. I’m curious to see how their supply chain adapts to RAM costs. Looks like they already have solid contracts for a while.
I thought the same. Non-moving parts seem like the direction they’ve taken across devices. Maybe they’re hoping it breaks so it guides the buyer to upgrade. I can see someone getting this in high school and holding on to it until their first internship in college
LeeW
macrumors 601
In some respects, it is, for others, not so much. But our opinions don't matter if the people who buy it are happy; that's all there is to it. There are plenty of people on here showing off their MacBook Pros with all the top specs, yet a NEO will handle everything they do on their MacBook Pro.
I know someone who pulled in $500k+ last year, all from a laptop, a 6-year-old Dell that he refuses to give up until it dies.
It will sell well.
klasma
macrumors G4
EugW
macrumors P6
My kid is entering high school and my wife has now declared I must replace the kid’s existing 2015 13” i5 8 GB MacBook Pro this year instead of next year, so I can’t wait for the 12 GB Neo. Given that this laptop will need to last at least until 2030 (or perhaps later), there is just no way I am going to buy an 8 GB model in 2026, esp. given the cost of the 512 GB tier. Thus, I will likely get a 16/512 GB M5 MacBook Air this summer with the BTS sale starts.
klasma
macrumors G4
An important reason is to maximize use of available fab capacities, I suspect. If everything has the same chip, they can make fewer devices overall, because fab capacity is limited per specific process. Process lines would also become more expensive if you only use them for a year or two.
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EugW
macrumors P6
Apple has a long history of intentionally crippling version 1 in some way, and fixing it in version 2.
It makes me think they chose A18 Pro partially just because it is the last 8 GB model before the transition to 12 GB.
JPack
macrumors P6
klasma
macrumors G4
The difference is also the PPI and the screen aspect ratio (both in favor of the iPad, for productivity):
As an owner of a 2010 11" MacBook Air, I was really hoping this would be another venture into that niche market of ultra portable, yet very capable laptops, and could finally replace this marvel from yesteryear.
2.7 pounds is quite heavy, I believe the MBA was 2.1.
The MBA came with up to 4GB of RAM, 16 years ago! 8GB in this one seems like planned obsolescence. Remember, this runs on MacOS, not iPad OS. And it’s also shared memory, and not just 256MB either.
The benchmarks and reviews will have to come in first. Value seems great, but revision 2 might be worth waiting for, if you can.
Backlit keyboard, 2x USB 3.2, 12-16GB of RAM, that would already make this a killer product. Add a 12" version at 2lbs and I‘d buy one in a heartbeat.
2.7 pounds is quite heavy, I believe the MBA was 2.1.
The MBA came with up to 4GB of RAM, 16 years ago! 8GB in this one seems like planned obsolescence. Remember, this runs on MacOS, not iPad OS. And it’s also shared memory, and not just 256MB either.
The benchmarks and reviews will have to come in first. Value seems great, but revision 2 might be worth waiting for, if you can.
Backlit keyboard, 2x USB 3.2, 12-16GB of RAM, that would already make this a killer product. Add a 12" version at 2lbs and I‘d buy one in a heartbeat.
In fact all the iMac colours were available, so much better than these 4 afterthought ones (not to mention the subtle future upsell by association)
abowlby
macrumors 6502a
You are creating strawmen left and right. I said I'd rather have a Core i5 laptop than an A18 Netbook.
Your response was "yes but is it made out of aluminum" ...like a beer can?
You're trying to hit me with a "gotcha" uaing features that have nothing to do with the fact the Core i5 is more versatile than this Netbook chip. It objectively is.
Now if I wanted to be a smarm lord like some people I'd say:
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus
-Snapdragon X Plus (GeekBench even higher than Core i5)
-Support for 3 4K monitors
-From what I can find, 1440 external at 120Hz
-16GB of RAM
-Touchscreen (you'll be creaming over these later this year - clock it)
-512GB Storage
-2500X1600
-23 hours of battery life
-$599
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EugW
macrumors P6
Well put. Apple's ultra-thin/-light products are meant to show off Apple's current engineering + design capabilities, not be fettered by tight cost constraints, so the rumors that the two might overlap were worrying. Continuing to wait in uncertainty is better than meeting guaranteed disappointment.
It’s the same situation as with the iPhone 17e and other low-spec products. They aren’t designed with you in mind. You have to understand that Apple recently started expanding its product segmentation in order to grow in markets where it previously had little presence. In the end, for Apple to keep growing, it needs to bring more people into its ecosystem.
It’s normal that it might feel a bit strange, but not every Apple user has to have an opinion about products that aren’t meant to meet his own needs.
Beyond that, I’m sure it’s a quality computer that will work, look, and sound great—even with its 8 GB of RAM.
What’s really surprising for Apple here is its price. Quite Ageessive for apple.
Oh, by the way, multi-thread performance isn’t that relevant for the typical use of these laptops. Or do you want a MacBook Neo to run Final Cut Pro?
I have a macbook air m4 and an an Intel Imac i5 2019 for my everyday desktop use for professional design. I use it with indesign, illustrator, photoshop, lightroom.. with all the apps open and lots of documents opened. It runs perfectly well.
This macbook neo is 2x faster than my imac intel core i5
Specifications nowadays are overrated. There are users who are completely lobotomized into believing that without an M4 Pro their work is impossible (seriously, I’ve seen plenty of reviews claiming that a MacBook Air M4 is only for office tasks).
Any modern computer runs 100% of software with sufficient smoothness. That’s a barrier we crossed about 10 years ago, especially since the widespread adoption of SSDs.
with one only exception: Games.
Tagbert
macrumors 604
I've heard that one before
Tagbert
macrumors 604
I getting tired of Apple's major announcement being "cool new colors". This is essentially an iPad with an attached keyboard, one that they are specifically noting is included, which is strange for a laptop to note.
Hard pass.
Hard pass.
I wish they had made this a little smaller. A proper 12" MacBook size, instead of nearly identical to the MacBook Air. That way, it would have added a more portable option to the lineup that anybody (even existing MAcBook owners) might appreciate, also meaning it wouldn't risk cannibalising MacBook Air sales for people who want a basic 13" laptop. A smaller size would have also been ok for children, presumably one of their main target markets.
I feel like a gen 2 or 3 of one of these could be a good buy, but the specs are too limited on gen 1.
I feel like a gen 2 or 3 of one of these could be a good buy, but the specs are too limited on gen 1.
I'm guessing you mean Core Ultra 5 (no such thing as a Core i5 Ultra), but where did you pull $1400 from? You can get Core 5 Ultra laptops around the $600 price like the Neo.
"The iPad is way overpowered and nobody needs that much for tasks like browsing, email or office productivity."
" The MacBook Neo is too underpowered and it can't run memory-intensive tasks like Photoshop."
The hypocrisy on MR forums over these two products is genuinely next level.
" The MacBook Neo is too underpowered and it can't run memory-intensive tasks like Photoshop."
The hypocrisy on MR forums over these two products is genuinely next level.
I agree. I still use my 2011 11" MBA daily. It's completely offline and only used for writing in TextEdit without any distractions. I changed the pmset value to have it hibernate instead of sleep when I close the lid. The battery still lasts me about a week this way. Nothing comes close to its form factor. I use the M1 MBP for everything else.