MacBook Neo Has Just 8GB RAM With No Upgrade Option

[turbineseaplane]

This! Makes me think MacOS 27 will a more refined/optimsed OS. Fingers crossed for the next 5 years (potential support of Neo)!

The team that shipped hot garbage Tahoe is going to refine and optimize it, eh?

Sure hope you're right!

🤞

 

[Sundaypapers123]

People joke, but this laptop will be just fine for high school (and even some college) students.

More than that. For anyone looking for a lightweight admin machine. I work with MS Word docs and Final Draft files and my 8GB M1 iMac and M2 Air are perfectly happy!

 

[joeblow7777]

With little ram the SSD will wear out pretty quickly but just in time for a newer disposable laptop.

"Quickly" is relative, and only if you're doing enough to make it swap frequently, which the people who this is targeted at probably aren't.

 

[Compote]

Well, I have an 8GB M3 Air and it's... not great.
At least this Neo didn't cost 1200 euros...

 

[The Man]

Too bad it’s one USB 2 and one USB 3 port.

 

[TPALTony]

They didn’t “cut back” on RAM. They cut back on the SoC, using the A18Pro, which only comes in 1 version: 8GB.

Had they used the A19Pro they could have had 12GB.

Absolutely agree. The reason you can only get one specification is that is literally the only specification they ever made an A18Pro chip in and their focus was on the cost.

Their argument will be simple. If you want more than that then the Neo is not the Mac for you.

And it's not unreasonable. It's just not what some people were hoping for, which was, probably unrealistically, a really cheap Mac with no compromises at all... If only, but reality has to bite eventually. 🙂

 

[Farquar]

8gb of apple
Unified Ram is much more powerful and efficient than people want to admit. More like a 16gb of ram

For the workload that a MacBook Neo buyer would put through it...yes, that is absolutely true.

 

[robgreene]

Wonder if Apple Creative Studio will run on 8GB RAM. Adobe Creative Cloud sure won't.

 

[Sundaypapers123]

Huge numbers of people are not power users and really only need a computer to surf the internet, stream movies, check email, and write term papers. And they want to do this on a simple and well designed OS. This fills that niche at a great price point.

Agree... although I've just spotted the lack of backlit keyboard, which would be a deal-breaker for me.

 

[JPack]

Wonder if Apple Creative Studio will run on 8GB RAM. Adobe Creative Cloud sure won't.

CC even runs on Windows PCs with 8GB. What are you talking about?

 

[Farquar]

Wonder if Apple Creative Studio will run on 8GB RAM. Adobe Creative Cloud sure won't.

Do you actually believe a Neo customer is also a CC customer? Because that is implied in your comment.
I can promise you they absolutely are not.

 

[falkon-engine]

8 GB is a mistake especially if AI takes off. But for $499, not bad at all. My child will still love this.

 

[DigitalAR]

Can't wait for comparisons on Youtube for the Neo vs. M1, M2, M3 MacBook Airs/Pros.

 

[Steve Job's Cousin]

CC even runs on Windows PCs with 8GB. What are you talking about?

Yes it does, and terribly so.

 

[cocoua]

so a second hand MBA M1 or M2 are cheaper and better options

 

[Adora]

I'm happily rocking an M1 iMac and M2 Air - both with 8GB. I'm just browsing and writing documents... and never think twice about memory. It's perfectly adequate for those who aren't editing movies or crunching massive audio files.

With Tahoe?

 

[Padaung]

I'm writing this on my M1 Mac Mini that has 8Gb memory. Currently I have Mail, Edge, To-Do, Calculator, Excel, Text Edit, Preview and WhatsApp running.

Other days I'll have Mail, Edge, Quickbooks, Photo Mechanic and DxO Photolab 8 running (editing 24mp raw files).

My next Mac Mini will certainly have 16Gb or more memory in it, but as things stand today 8Gb really does go a long way with MacOS.

It would have been lovely to have the option to spec up the Neo to 16Gb though.

But to have made a device like the Neo available for the current price is impressive. I hope it sells well. The colours are awesome, I particularly like the yellow.

 

[tomtad]

Wonder if Apple Creative Studio will run on 8GB RAM. Adobe Creative Cloud sure won't.

Really? I had it running on a Mac with 4GB RAM a couple of years back.

 

[Gusts]

It is truly interesting to see how a Mac run on a iPhone chip for the first time.

This isn't the first time. The first was the Mac mini Developer Transition Kit (DTK) in 2020, with the A12Z Bionic, 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD.

 

[UliBaer]

Could be used as a light weight admin toy with remote desktop onto a real machine...

[edit] I used to do exactly that with the famous NetBooks - some 20 years ago... 🤣

 

[chrisf60647]

Funny how everyone is mad about the RAM. It's a super budget laptop. I would have been more surprised IF it was anything other than 8GB.

 

[Adora]

I'm writing this on my M1 Mac Mini that has 8Gb memory. Currently I have Mail, Edge, To-Do, Calculator, Excel, Text Edit, Preview and WhatsApp running.

Other days I'll have Mail, Edge, Quickbooks, Photo Mechanic and DxO Photolab 8 running (editing 24mp raw files).

My next Mac Mini will certainly have 16Gb or more memory in it, but as things stand today 8Gb really does go a long way with MacOS.

It would have been lovely to have the option to spec up the Neo to 16Gb though.

But to have made a device like the Neo available for the current price is impressive. I hope it sells well. The colours are awesome, I particularly like the yellow.

What macOS version?

 

[turbineseaplane]

8 GB is a mistake especially if AI takes off. But for $499, not bad at all. My child will still love this.

I keep thinking of all the kids who will wonder why you can't touch the screen to do stuff.

 

[Blackstick]

The average customer for a Neo was likely considering a Chromebook or a base iPad, or a $600 piece of garbage 15.4" "Best Buy special" Windows notebook with two hour battery life. 8GB is gonna be fine for them.

Anyone miffed about lack of 16GB already knows to buy a refurb Air in a boring color. Not the same market segment of customer.

 

[Chet-NYC]

People joke, but this laptop will be just fine for high school (and even some college) students.

Absolutely. If you saw the Chromebooks the school I work at uses, it's scary. They are slow, small, yet heavy, and plastic. Not sure of the exact price, but the $499 Edu price is definitely competitive. The NYC School System of course has massive buying power, so they would either get a bit more discounted price, or get something like AppleCare+ built into their price.

The major use for them is Google Classroom, the various Google office programs, and Bluebook: the College Board's testing application. That's probably 90% of their use.

The music, theater, and arts programs already uses M1 (and maybe some M2) MacBook Airs because of some other programs they use.