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No lighter, not smaller than MacBook Air

maflynn said:
There's one other aspect - Popularity.

I can't say if it will or will not, but there seems to be extremely high excitement which could translate into sales.
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Price is hard to beat!

2 Neos for the price of 1 MBA.
I ordered 2 Neos with $100 off each.

$499 EDU pricing is insane for a new device that fills the need for basic non techie folks like my wife.

I am giving her the choice between the Indigo and Citrus - wondering which one she will choose....
 
4sallypat said:
Price is hard to beat!

2 Neos for the price of 1 MBA.
I ordered 2 Neos with $100 off each.

$499 EDU pricing is insane for a new device that fills the need for basic non techie folks like my wife.

I am giving her the choice between the Indigo and Citrus - wondering which one she will choose....
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Money says she picks the Citrus.
 
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maflynn said:
If you just do office apps, youtube, facebook, and other typical apps like that - there's no beating it
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Yes, agree - but my wife LOVES her 16" MBP with the large screen so I am having doubts she will adopt the 13" Neo.

The only big advantage is the battery life being 3 times longer than the 16" MBP.
 
4sallypat said:
Price is hard to beat!

2 Neos for the price of 1 MBA.
I ordered 2 Neos with $100 off each.

$499 EDU pricing is insane for a new device that fills the need for basic non techie folks like my wife.

I am giving her the choice between the Indigo and Citrus - wondering which one she will choose....
Click to expand...
Let us know. I bet she'll go for Citrus.
 
Who cares at this price? It's a different segment (which for this is Hot Cakes). You pay a premium for ultralight (apparently), so these machines are basic, and pedestrian. No heavier than the Air at least LOL
 
4sallypat said:
The only big advantage is the battery life being 3 times longer than the 16" MBP.
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Yeah, huge difference between Intel and Mx MBP 16. Everymac listing shows 11 hours for the 2020 MBP 16 but I have seen about 7 hours. Yet the M1 MBP 16 listed as 14-21 hours.
 
LeeW said:
It will do well, and Apple will be thinking beyond the sales of the device. All those extra subscriptions will get people locked in more.
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Oh yes, the subscriptions will be the cash cow for Apple - not the device itself.
 
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applesith said:
The budget MacBook cannot surpass the Air in any aspect other than price.
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Yes, price is definitely a deciding factor - Educational $599 for 512GB SSD+TouchID or the stock Neo for $499. Trying to find a decent Apple silicon 13" MBA for a comparable price with say 512GB SSD and TouchID will cost more by at least $200 to $300+ more, plus if you can find one it's likely a 2020 model which will likely be categorized as vintage within 1 or 2 years from now.

So long as the Apps wanting to be used on a Neo are not CPU-Memory-I/O intensive there's should be no issues. The standard set of Apps that fall into this use-case are IMO - Mail, Safari, Video-streaming, Calendar, Numbers, Pages, Terminal, TextEdit, Messages, Photos, Contacts, Notes, and Preview. So.... time will tell if I'm correct here.
 
weezin said:
Is this the perfect replacement for your 12" rMB because of the price? Because as the OP pointed out, it's no smaller or lighter than the current 13" Macbook Air. The great thing about the 12" Macbook was it's size, weight, and slimness, none of which this new Neo has.

I'm also a massive 12" MB fan (I have 2) and was really hoping for something smaller and lighter than the current 13" Air, which the Neo doesn't do.
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I was also interested in a lighter device (at least below 2.5 lbs) but as others pointed out, using forged aluminum reduces cost at the expense of a thicker and heavier case. Like you, I was a big fan of the 12" MacBook but there wasn't a big enough market for it. It isn't as if there are lots of ultraportable Windows notebooks either. Sure, there are plenty of PCs that are lighter than the MacBook Air, but most of them achieve that by using plastic or carbon fiber cases.

IMO, Apple released the 12" MacBook 5.5 years too soon. Had it been the launch device for Apple Silicon (or as a premium subnotebook alongside the M1 Air) it might have had more success. The biggest knocks against the 12" MacBook were the single USB-C port, the butterfly keyboard, but most of all the slow CPU necessitated by Intel's shortcomings. By late 2020 USB-C was ubiquitous, Apple had moved on from the butterfly keyboard (which inexplicably made it to the MacBook Pro and 2018 Air), and even an A14-based MacBook would have run circles around the outgoing Intel MacBook Air.
 
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weezin said:
Is this the perfect replacement for your 12" rMB because of the price? Because as the OP pointed out, it's no smaller or lighter than the current 13" Macbook Air. The great thing about the 12" Macbook was it's size, weight, and slimness, none of which this new Neo has.

I'm also a massive 12" MB fan (I have 2) and was really hoping for something smaller and lighter than the current 13" Air, which the Neo doesn't do.
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It's a quarter inch smaller approximately width and depth. Not much but it is technically smaller.
 
Teardown gives you an idea of why Neo is thicker. The forged chassis is thicker in a few places compared to Air. The thick screw post says a lot compared to the CNC machined Air.

IMG_1258.jpg
IMG_1259.jpg
 
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