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Initial NEO thoughts

capamac said:
Who wants to pay for an additional cell bill for their laptop. I wouldn't. If my MacBook had cell ability i'd not use it; just tether it to my cell phone instead for internet.
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Having cellular on all of the iPad models and Apple Watches is an option for those that want it. And for those that do not want cellular, they can buy those devices without it and save around $100.

It would be nice to at least have the option on MacBooks for those that want it.
 
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jouster said:
Ok, follow up for what it’s worth to prospective buyers. I got the 512GB model, having walked in planning to get the 256. I went back and forth on the color for a long time, before going with…silver. Had been planning to get indigo, but the keyboard is quite dark; more so than I remembered from my visit on release day. My eyes are getting kinda creaky so the white keyboard makes sense.

I work in education, giving me $100 off. I traded my ancient core i3 in for another $145 off. And they offered twelve months of interest free credit, so why not? That comes to about $39—about ten trips to Starbucks—per month.

The store was jammed. I had to wait in line to purchase. I think they are going to sell a boatload of these.
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Based on my initial usage, I am starting to see these as devices that could potentially compete with Chromebooks in schools(6th-12th grade). The caveat will be the one thing everyone is saying which is the long term viability. Could these last 4-5 years? Possibly. None of us know that for sure.
 
neo as a new product line probably pushes the new 'best value' proposition for super price conscious buyers

previous gen MBA

to

specifically m4 refurbished base MBA ($760)




apple's margins are going to explode up because no one is going to ever see refurbished as the best value proposition, and the $100 price increase in the MBA means that once m4 refurbs are out of print, users will have to decide between


$1099 MBA that they upgrade infrequently
or
$599 neo which may require frequent upgrades
 
cuestakid said:
Based on my initial usage, I am starting to see these as devices that could potentially compete with Chromebooks in schools(6th-12th grade). The caveat will be the one thing everyone is saying which is the long term viability. Could these last 4-5 years? Possibly. None of us know that for sure.
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The present Chromebooks in my district run intel Celeron 4500s, 4gb ram, and 32gb flash storage. A neo would blow the socks off most chromebooks, and they regularly run these pices of junk 4 years. The worst part is the district's Chromebooks are 300 each and still suck so bad. The lack of ports on the Neo is meaningless because nobody plugs anything besides a charger into the Chromebooks 99% of the time.
 
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Lobwedgephil said:
Just wanted to make sure I had them. A pink one now is about 3 weeks out to order.
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The pink is well worth the wait, in my opinion. If you need sooner, Amazon has the pink.
 

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eltoslightfoot said:
Is this response real? Do you know where the guts of the Neo come from? I hope not LOL.
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The 'guts' come from a smart-phone system which is combination of a small personal computer and a 'phone'.
A system that consists only of Arm-cores, GPU, RAM, and storage NAND is not a 'phone'. The 'smart' half is common between all shapes and sizes of personal computers. For example, E-cores are in A and M series chips. Same stuff.

'Phone' part is the critical necessary cellular network subsystem. That is what provides connectivity when in random places (i.e., not hooked to a local area network. ). In the specific case of the iphone it is a completely different and discrete set of chips. ( the smart+phone is far more blurred on Qualcomm phone SoC than it is on iPhone. )

Why not a Neo has to do primarily with price. Apple charges $140-150 to add a celluar model to the iPad. Note that the M-series powered iPad Air and iPad Pro have cellular options in this range also and no A-series processor in sight. So the A-series really has nothing concretely necessary about connecting to a celluar network about it.... it is just a "personal computer" chip. The modem would at to the base price of a Neo and to the monthly operating costs to it if actually used it. Not many folks on a tight budget that want to pay both more upfront and more monthly for a system. If they had gobs of disposable they likely would have bought either an iPad Pro or MBA. At $699 (the one upgrade) + $150 = $849, that has basically crept up into the MBA 'sale' pricing. Apple is not trying to make the Neo a 'direct substitute' for the MBA. Neo sales should be mostly additive to ecosystem , not mostly subtractive from MBA sales with little ecosytem growth.

If Apple was charging $39-49 for a modem then it would make much less of a different. Quite unlikely they are going to do that. That is contributing reason why the iPhone XXe model costs just as much as a Neo. The modem is a substantive cost addition.


[ iPads have all the hardware to be a phone. They are not a phone because not attaching a general phone number and the rest of the legacy phone services , celluar provides can provide the 'less featured .. just a data modem' service to the iPad. Typically to get to the iPad service have to already be paying for 'phone' service. Almost obody is excited to pay double.

The Apple watch with celluar doesn't have an A-series and yet can be extended to take phone calls (clone the phone number). Again arm-ram-NAND are a different issue than celluar networking. ]
 
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deconstruct60 said:
The 'guts' come from a smart-phone system which is combination of a small personal computer and a 'phone'.
A system that consists only of Arm-cores, GPU, RAM, and storage NAND is not a 'phone'. The 'smart' half is common between all shapes and sizes of personal computers. For example, E-cores are in A and M series chips. Same stuff.

'Phone' part is the critical necessary cellular network subsystem. That is what provides connectivity when in random places (i.e., not hooked to a local area network. ). In the specific case of the iphone it is a completely different and discrete set of chips. ( the smart+phone is far more blurred on Qualcomm phone SoC than it is on iPhone. )

Why not a Neo has to do primarily with price. Apple charges $140-150 to add a celluar model to the iPad. Note that the M-series powered iPad Air and iPad Pro have cellular options in this range also and no A-series processor in sight. So the A-series really has nothing concretely necessary about connecting to a celluar network about it.... it is just a "personal computer" chip. The modem would at to the base price of a Neo and to the monthly operating costs to it if actually used it. Not many folks on a tight budget that want to pay both more upfront and more monthly for a system. If they had gobs of disposable they likely would have bought either an iPad Pro or MBA. At $699 (the one upgrade) + $150 = $849, that has basically crept up into the MBA 'sale' pricing. Apple is not trying to make the Neo a 'direct substitute' for the MBA. Neo sales should be mostly additive to ecosystem , not mostly subtractive from MBA sales with little ecosytem growth.

If Apple was charging $39-49 for a modem then it would make much less of a different. Quite unlikely they are going to do that. That is contributing reason why the iPhone XXe model costs just as much as a Neo. The modem is a substantive cost addition.


[ iPads have all the hardware to be a phone. They are not a phone because not attaching a general phone number and the rest of the legacy phone services , celluar provides can provide the 'less featured .. just a data modem' service to the iPad. Typically to get to the iPad service have to already be paying for 'phone' service. Almost obody is excited to pay double.

The Apple watch with celluar doesn't have an A-series and yet can be extended to take phone calls (clone the phone number). Again arm-ram-NAND are a different issue than celluar networking. ]
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Yes I know. It was the person to which I was responding who was confused.
 
eltoslightfoot said:
Yes I know. It was the person to which I was responding who was confused.
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More like the person that user was responding to was more deeply confused. That person said the Neo was just a 'big phone'. That is deeply detached from reality in terms of getting actual phone functionality out in the wild. Your respondent say it is a 'laptop not a phone' . Which basically is true although a bit too focused on 'form over function at most affordable price'. But the keyboard, larger screen (which drives larger battery) , and larger enclosure aspects of the form are driving larger costs which means paying for the cellular issue gets harder. So the form is having an impact of driving up costs , which does pragmatically drive out the cellular subsystem.

It is the 'phone' subsystem component 'price' not the 'guts' is likely Apple's core issue. And Apple has had some not so great RF placements for Wi-Fi. Add more antennas and it is likely 'drama' they don't want to bother with. iPhone or Android phone has a slider to make it a hotspot. USB dongle modem. Vendor hotspot boxes with physical SIM card. All of those turn it back into a Wi-FI/USB 'problem' which Apple has already covered.
 
Well. My Neo is going back. It’s a great little machine but my work is just ever so intensive that it grinds to a halt with 8GB RAM.
Really disappointed because it’s a great machine. Screen, keyboard, case etc are all very similar to the air.
But Xcode is way too low for the size of the projects I’m on.
 
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Looking at people's real world pictures and experiences I think my M2 air has another year or two but when that time comes a Neo might be a very valid option at that point since gen 1 is already as good as it is!
 
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clarencek said:
Well. My Neo is going back. It’s a great little machine but my work is just ever so intensive that it grinds to a halt with 8GB RAM.
Really disappointed because it’s a great machine. Screen, keyboard, case etc are all very similar to the air.
But Xcode is way too low for the size of the projects I’m on.
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That's weird. Somebody else said it works well for Xcode. To each its own.
 
I can verify the Neo is too small for my big hands, the raised thickness relative to the air, plus shorted palm resting area is a no go for comfort.
 
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erkanasu said:
I can verify the Neo is too small for my big hands, the raised thickness relative to the air, plus shorted palm resting area is a no go for comfort.
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This is my biggest concern.

My silver Neo comes today after I deliberated about it for a few days, but it won’t be my main machine. I have an M4 Pro 16” MBP and an M4 iMac. Here’s my use case for the Neo:

I work on the administration side of education, so I use a work laptop (not a Mac) plugged into a display 85% of the time, the other 15% I’m taking it into meetings, etc. I had an M4 iPad Pro with keyboard case but recently sold them because I didn’t get as much use out of it as I did when I bought it when it first came out.

I moonlight as an adjunct University professor and am starting a Doctoral program this fall, the iMac and MBP handle most of that work and my hobbyist photo work.

I’m hoping the Neo can kind of live on my desk and I can use it to add small pieces to my writing during bits of down time during the day, and well as it being comfortable to sit on the couch and type on at night. For the price it seems like the perfect device for that.

It comes today so we’ll see!
 
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BrightQuest22 said:
This is my biggest concern.

My silver Neo comes today after I deliberated about it for a few days, but it won’t be my main machine. I have an M4 Pro 16” MBP and an M4 iMac. Here’s my use case for the Neo:

I work on the administration side of education, so I use a work laptop (not a Mac) plugged into a display 85% of the time, the other 15% I’m taking it into meetings, etc. I had an M4 iPad Pro with keyboard case but recently sold them because I didn’t get as much use out of it as I did when I bought it when it first came out.

I moonlight as an adjunct University professor and am starting a Doctoral program this fall, the iMac and MBP handle most of that work and my hobbyist photo work.

I’m hoping the Neo can kind of live on my desk and I can use it to add small pieces to my writing during bits of down time during the day, and well as it being comfortable to sit on the couch and type on at night. For the price it seems like the perfect device for that.

It comes today so we’ll see!
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Let us know how it feels ?

I also work in education (IT) and I use a M2 15" MBA (base 8GB) w/ 32" display every day and it handles over 60 tabs on 3 different browsers just fine.

Just to test it out, I transferred everything over to the Neo using Migration Assistant and side by side, I found the Neo works just a snappy and fast as my M2 - maybe a bit faster based on my web apps.

Very happy with the Neo's peformance against my M2 MBA.
IMG_4701.JPG
 
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4sallypat said:
Let us know how it feels ?

I also work in education (IT) and I use a M2 15" MBA (base 8GB) w/ 32" display every day and it handles over 60 tabs on 3 different browsers just fine.

Just to test it out, I transferred everything over to the Neo using Migration Assistant and side by side, I found the Neo works just a snappy and fast as my M2 - maybe a bit faster based on my web apps.

Very happy with the Neo's peformance against my M2 MBA.
View attachment 2614325
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I’ll definitely let everyone know how it feels, I’m definitely excited to try it.

Hearing that it’s as snappy as an M2 MBA is wild, especially at this price point.
 
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Nismo73 said:
Picked up an Indigo. So far I like it. Saw the Citrus...I liked it but I'm a blueish liking kinda guy. I'd say the keys could be a lighter shade of the color. The indigo color itself...maybe it's a more dark slate blue is how I might describe it.
Here's a side by side with my 15 Sky "Blue" Air. (In person the keys look a touch darker)
View attachment 2612377
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Love that Indigo color! If I didn't have my Air I probably would've picked one up.
 
boswald said:
Love that Indigo color! If I didn't have my Air I probably would've picked one up.
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The only negative for me about the Indigo is the keyboard colors. The black letters do not stand out very well on the blue keys. But I am getting use to that the more I use it. It's not a deal breaker for me.
 
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bapegg said:
The only negative for me about the Indigo is the keyboard colors. The black letters do not stand out very well on the blue keys. But I am getting use to that the more I use it. It's not a deal breaker for me.
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I'd only be able to use it in lit environments because I'm spoiled by backlit keyboards.
 
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Some initial thoughts after a few days of ownership. I'm specifically looking at areas that some identified as potential issues. Most have been non-issues for me. So far, I love this computer!

The good:
  • As has been my experience with most Apple hardware in recent years, setup was a breeze.
  • In general usage so far the Neo has been fast and fluid. I have not had any issues with multiple browser tabs and other productivity apps running concurrently. I have had no warnings about memory pressure.
  • The screen is sharp, colorful and bright. I do not do anything that requires specific color spaces, so all I know is that it looks great.
  • The keyboard is firm and responsive. Some have said that it feels "mushy", but that is not my experience. Admittedly, I do not have a recent Air or Pro as a comparison.
  • To restate what I said in my previous post: the mechanical trackpad is excellent. I prefer it to Taptic trackpads.
  • Battery life has been great. After heavy, mixed usage on the second day--around ten hours--the Neo was at about 30%. I can't speak to charging time as I left it plugged in overnight.
  • I have...average-sized, I guess, hands. No discomfort while typing. My watch band hits the left side of the Neo's front edge, but it does that on my company-issued 15" Surface Studio Laptop (which the Neo crushes in benchmarks 😉).
  • I am very glad I had a last-minute change of mind and bought the 512GB. Not for the storage: most of my stuff is on external HDs, but for TouchID. I'd say that on its own was worth $100.
The unexpected:
  • I wish the maximum screen angle was a little greater. At full extension, it is a little more upright than I'd like.
Overall, I see nothing that changes my mind about the Neo. It's a home run. They are going to sell like hot cakes. I don't think they need to be long-term computers for most. I'm not suggesting that people can or should replace them annually, but I think that as long as their performance remains acceptable for four years--in other words through high school or college--they will be a fine computer for most purchasers.
 
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