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MacBook Neo 2 With a Touch Screen Has Gone From Yes to Maybe to No

chars1ub0w said:
I don't think you understand why touchscreens are useful in schools. Some have that requirement. Why?

"These touchscreen Chromebooks are set to be a game-changer, distinguishing themselves from regular models by offering an intuitive and interactive learning experience. The decision to introduce this cutting-edge technology was driven by a keen awareness that young students often face challenges with keyboarding skills."

Not just for younger kids, but also for accessibility/special needs. And kids can use tablet-style apps for drawing and other activities. No need for the school to also buy tablets.
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iPads.
 
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chars1ub0w said:
The first gen. NEO was a trial balloon. The 2nd gen. will be wildly successful at the same price. If they hold it there. 12GB RAM vs. 16GB MacBook Air at basically double the price will probably reduce sales of the Air a lot.

Probably some trade-ins too from NEO gen. 1 owners next year.
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The first-gen will also be wildly successful (and already is by all accounts), because nobody in the target demo knows or cares about RAM.
 
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It's so funny seeing so many people so against a touch screen MacBook.
Who will in years to come happily buy a future touch screen MacBook.

Perhaps they are the same people who said how dumb and stupid those Samsung Phablet phones were and Apple should not copy this and stick to their size of phone usable with just one hand.

Who now rush out and buy the BIGGEST iPhone they can find 😀

Funny Funny people, always amazing to see these people flip their opinions.
 
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KPOM said:
Probably. They might limit the RAM, but I wouldn’t see them redesigning the A19 Pro with slower NAND.
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The NAND chip isn’t the issue.

The NAND isn’t a part of the A18 pro or A19 pro, but the memory is. You would need to redesign the chip to change the amount of memory, but you wouldn’t need to redesign the the chip to change the amount of storage.

The storage controller, however, is part of the SoC, so technically, while you could put on faster or slower NAND chips, the controller stays being the controller.
 
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The A19 Pro "should" bring a few things to the Neo. Yes it has 12GB. But it also has better IO as it supports Thunderbolt 5. So hopefully the Neo 2 will get upgraded ports and improved display support.
 
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So bring touch only to the machine people are least likely to want it?

How would a 2 monitor+built-in OLED touch interface work again when using a MBUltra? Are there a lot of touch enabled monitors out there?
 
People need to stop making touch screens a thing for Mac. It will just reduce the experience for everyone like Windows 8 did. Windows 8 was great for tablets, horrible for everything else even Server 2012. Why make that metro style? macOS is not suited for touch. And I do not know why many people are treating this like the best thing to come to computing ever. How about instead of a touch screen, they instead make it 12 or 16 GB of RAM?
 
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Ethosik said:
People need to stop making touch screens a thing for Mac. It will just reduce the experience for everyone like Windows 8 did. Windows 8 was great for tablets, horrible for everything else even Server 2012. Why make that metro style? macOS is not suited for touch. And I do not know why many people are treating this like the best thing to come to computing ever. How about instead of a touch screen, they instead make it 12 or 16 GB of RAM?
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The memory (RAM) is dictated by the chip they use - the A18 pro chip has 8 gigs baked into it - that can’t be modified. If they use the A19 pro chip in the next iteration, it will have 12 gigs baked into it.

Using chips that have already built and designed for other devices means they are stuck with that chip’s specs - it can’t be changed after the fact.
 
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Happy_John said:
The memory (RAM) is dictated by the chip they use - the A18 pro chip has 8 gigs baked into it - that can’t be modified. If the use the A19 pro chip in the next iteration lit will gave 12 gigs.

Using chips that have already built and designed for other devices means they are stuck with that chip’s specs - it can’t be changed after the fact.
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They can put the A19 in it and up the RAM.
 
I hope Apple NEVER puts a touchscreen on the Mac, it so uncomfortable, and nowadays almost every laptop has a touch input, i find it so unnecessary.
 
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Stevenyo said:
After decades of availability on windows machines I still do not understand why I’d ever want a touch screen laptop. Like maybe some sort of convertible that could act like a pure tablet as long as the transition was seamless and the device light weight but reaching out to touch the screen when I have more ergonomic access to the keyboard and touxhpad? Why?
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Yeah this is my point. Jobs already demonstrated how bad of an idea it is ergonomically.

If they’re going to add a touchscreen, it needs to either have a keyboard that folds round the back so you can use it as a tablet, or a detachable keyboard.

Otherwise there’s no point…
 
MacRumors said:


A second-generation MacBook Neo with a touch screen has gone from a yes to a maybe to a no, according to rumors.

Neo-Hands-On-Feature-Sans-Text.jpg

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple has yet to decide whether to bring touch-screen support to any Macs beyond the next high-end MacBook Pro, which is expected to be released in late 2026 or early 2027.

A touch screen would slightly increase the cost of making the MacBook Neo, which is priced as low as $499, so the laptop will likely remain without one for years.

In September 2025, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the second-generation MacBook Neo "could" include touch support, but last week he said it "may" not happen after all, and now Gurman has completely ruled out the possibility for now.

"I'd be shocked if a touch screen comes to the Neo in the next three years," said Gurman.

Nevertheless, a second-generation MacBook Neo will likely be released next year, according to Kuo. The key upgrade should be the A19 Pro chip with an increased 12GB of RAM, up from the A18 Pro chip with 8GB of RAM in the current model.

​


Article Link: MacBook Neo 2 With a Touch Screen Has Gone From Yes to Maybe to No
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Honestly if there’s any chance of a touchscreen MacBook, it won’t be their cheapest model.

We’ll be lucky for it to hit their top spec MacBook Pro only kind of like the nano texture or anti glare glass options.

If it ever comes, it’ll be a pricey option.
 
Stevenyo said:
After decades of availability on windows machines I still do not understand why I’d ever want a touch screen laptop. Like maybe some sort of convertible that could act like a pure tablet as long as the transition was seamless and the device light weight but reaching out to touch the screen when I have more ergonomic access to the keyboard and touxhpad? Why?
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I had a Surface Pro and an HP Spectre X360. I loved the idea of a tablet or convertible, but at the end of the day, I used the touch less than 1% of the time. The last 3 laptops didn’t have touch, because it just wasn’t worth paying for.

Using a Mac, I really don’t miss it at all.
 
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I think Neo 2 will have more upgrades from M1 Air users etc. Arstechnica found that Neo is slower than M1 Air for anything taking appreciable time, but Neo 2 should narrow that gap.

"Generally, we found that the Neo is about 70 percent as fast as the M1 MacBook Air in the tests we could run. The Cinebench GPU tests won’t run on the Neo because it doesn’t have enough RAM."

More RAM at the same price is something nobody can argue with. 12GB is 50% more.
 
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azentropy said:
The A19 Pro "should" bring a few things to the Neo. Yes it has 12GB. But it also has better IO as it supports Thunderbolt 5. So hopefully the Neo 2 will get upgraded ports and improved display support.
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The Neo should have had the A19 to start. 12GB, OTOH, not so sure-- memory is in tight supply. Certainly, next time around, A19 w/ 12GB should be automatic. I'm not sure about TB5. How much would that add to the cost? And, for the target audience, how many would use it? I would expect most users to stick to WiFi which is plenty fast enough now for most casual users.
 
Big_D said:
I had a Surface Pro and an HP Spectre X360. I loved the idea of a tablet or convertible, but at the end of the day, I used the touch less than 1% of the time. The last 3 laptops didn’t have touch, because it just wasn’t worth paying for.

Using a Mac, I really don’t miss it at all.
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I am ready to upgrade an aging 64 GB iPad and am wondering if the Neo would give me enough reasons to abandon iPads.
 
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