Why I Returned the MacBook Neo

[ronno]

I guess these people scolding the OP have never returned anything.
Geez.

 

[Zwhaler]

I didn’t buy into any ‘hype’. I knew the specs. But having never seen and used the device in person, it’s not possible to know whether something will be good enough or not. I posted days ago that I expected that I might return it.

They call it Shiny Object Syndrome.

 

[conmee]

Folks, apologies for hijacking this thread, but I have an announcement to make. With this post, I have reached the rank of 6502a on MacRumors. I’d like to thank the admins, moderators, God, family, friends, the #mini4life crew, #MacProMafia, #32bitNinjas, #spacegraycadets, #bezelhaters, #notchfanatics, #headphonejacksters, and finally #thisisnotanairportstans. Look for my next announcement in a few years when I reach 65816 status. 😉

 

[torana355]

Folks, apologies for hijacking this thread, but I have an announcement to make. With this post, I have reached the rank of 6502a on MacRumors. I’d like to thank the admins, moderators, God, family, friends, the #mini4life crew, #MacProMafia, #32bitNinjas, #spacegraycadets, #bezelhaters, #notchfanatics, #headphonejacksters, and finally #thisisnotanairportstans. Look for my next announcement in a few years when I reach 65816 status. 😉

What does 6502a even mean?

 

[Happy_John]

Confused as hell what he was buying. Why not read specs before buying or looking at the store?

Personally, I wouldn't rely on specs alone when buying something. Specs really don't tell you everything.

But I wouldn't buy a laptop without having tried it out first. I type a lot, and "specs" don't tell you if a keyboard will be good or not over a sustained work session. Hands-on experience is a better way to judge.

I wouldn't buy a car without test-driving it either.

I don't like returning things; it's hassle and if returning things is commonplace, it pushes up the overall cost of the item for everyone, as cost of returns is factored into the initial selling price. Part of the "hated Apple tax" does come from people being overly casual about the returns policy ( as distinct from the warranty).

I'd be far happier with a slightly lower sticker price and a less generous returns policy.

 

[boswald]

Personally, I wouldn't rely on specs alone when buying something. Specs really don't tell you everything.

But I wouldn't buy a laptop without having tried it out first. I type a lot, and "specs" don't tell you if a keyboard will be good or not over a sustained work session. Hands-on experience is a better way to judge.

I wouldn't buy a car without test-driving it either.

I don't like returning things; it's hassle and if returning things is commonplace, it pushes up the overall cost of the item for everyone, as cost of returns is factored into the initial selling price. Part of the "hated Apple tax" does come from people being overly casual about the returns policy ( as distinct from the warranty).

I'd be far happier with a slightly lower sticker price and a less generous returns policy.

I agree with you: I don't like the hassle of returning things either, so I try to test them as much as possible before settling. A lot of times there's fine print so you don't get everything back anyway.

 

[Dominican]

Return but you can never find something with the price and performance of it 😀

 

[maflynn]

Got my Neo today. Put it through some paces, and just got back from the Apple Store to return it.

I think for a lot of MacRumors members, this will be more common then folks will care to admit. For consumers, the opposite. I think the Neo will be a huge success.

For what ever reasons, maybe its group think, maybe its RDF, or just product lusting but the Neo isn't meant for enthusiasts (we all are enthusiasts) yet MR members seemingly lined up to buy this as soon as it was available. Not knocking anyone for their buying decisions, but as a wise man once said

 

[Sami13496]

I can understand returning a product where you aren't an experienced user and didn't know the specs ahead of time, not to mention didn't already have computers whereby you could cogently see where the Neo would fall. In my opinion. you don't fall into that category. You got caught up in the hype which can happen to some. And instead of taking a step back and getting some clarity, you dove head first into the hype.

I have also never really understood why so many here feel compelled to constantly tell strangers they returned an item to the store. People don't normally do that kind of thing but, it seems on MR it always has to be a a bigger fanfare than needed.

I think people want to prove to others that a product is “bad,” when in reality they simply aren’t the target audience. The same thing happened with iPhone Air. None of them ever seriously considered it as their only phone. They bought it as if they were “trying it out,” but the real reason was that they could return it and then come here to say how bad it was.

 

[maflynn]

I think people want to prove to others that a product is “bad,” when in reality they simply aren’t the target audience

Are you suggesting people are spending 500 dollars simply to prove a point on the internet?

 

[Happy_John]

I think for a lot of MacRumors members, this will be more common then folks will care to admit. For consumers, the opposite. I think the Neo will be a huge success.

For what ever reasons, maybe its group think, maybe its RDF, or just product lusting but the Neo isn't meant for enthusiasts (we all are enthusiasts) yet MR members seemingly lined up to buy this as soon as it was available. Not knocking anyone for their buying decisions, but as a wise man once said

That is generally true about anything you buy that you don't actually need.

I don't buy into this "It's from them, but it not for us" line. The Neo isn't "for" students or grandparents etc. It's for anyone, including professionals. It for people with mission-critical roles in tech. IT isn't making YouTube videos, IT is mostly writing code, writing documentation and sysadmin / network administration. You don't need a $2000+ MacBook Pro to code and document code in a text editor or to run Terminal, which is going to be the backbone task of many professional IT roles.

Buy what you need for your use case, or buy something far more expensive that's above you need because you want to. But be honest about it.

The reality is that, with any updated tech, it will be shiny and new for a few weeks, and after that it's just a phone or computer. The novelty wears off very quickly, but those few weeks of novelty can be expensive to your wallet.

 

[maflynn]

That is generally true about anything you buy that you don't actually need.

No argument there.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

What does 6502a even mean?

It’s a CPU from the 70s. It was used in the Apple ][.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Personally, I wouldn't rely on specs alone when buying something. Specs really don't tell you everything.

But I wouldn't buy a laptop without having tried it out first. I type a lot, and "specs" don't tell you if a keyboard will be good or not over a sustained work session. Hands-on experience is a better way to judge.

I wouldn't buy a car without test-driving it either.

I don't like returning things; it's hassle and if returning things is commonplace, it pushes up the overall cost of the item for everyone, as cost of returns is factored into the initial selling price. Part of the "hated Apple tax" does come from people being overly casual about the returns policy ( as distinct from the warranty).

I'd be far happier with a slightly lower sticker price and a less generous returns policy.

I agree with everything you say here, with one caveat.

Apple Stores are not present day McDonalds or Radio Shack in its heyday when something like 90% of the US population lived within 10 miles of a store (don’t recall the exact numbers, something like that). Aside from the experience of trying a laptop tied to a desk in a brightly lit store not matching your use at home, there is no practical way to “give it a try” without ordering one for a lot of people.

 

[the future]

the clarity and crispness of the text and graphics is noticeably not as good as a MBA

This makes no sense as the Neo display has the same PPI as the Air display.

 

[Happy_John]

I agree with everything you say here, with one caveat.

Apple Stores are not present day McDonalds or Radio Shack in its heyday when something like 90% of the US population lived within 10 miles of a store (don’t recall the exact numbers, something like that). Aside from the experience of trying a laptop tied to a desk in a brightly lit store not matching your use at home, there is no practical way to “give it a try” without ordering one for a lot of people.

That's true enough. I'm just not a fan at all of the "buy everything and return what I didn't want in the first place" shopping model. I'm very much a "think before you make decisions, not after" kind of a person, but, honestly, I've no idea if that's really better or worse than the opposite.

As an aside, I really miss my equivalent of "Radio Shack" and the "Radio Shack" days, it seems impossible or ridiculously overpriced to buy even basic items like cables and drives in a bricks-and-morter shop in my city.

 

[4sallypat]

Returning my Citrus Neo - wife and I hate it.

Looks like antifreeze spilled onto it.

Getting a Blush Neo to replace for her.

 

[the future]

the viewing angles are crap, it’s dim and pixelated poor quality

Even OP didn‘t claim it was „dim“ and it has the same PPI as the Air so how could it possibly be „pixelated“? As for viewing angles, I haven‘t heard anyone else complain about them, so i doubt they’re bad.

All this is basically OP rationalizing buying and returning a device he didn‘t need in the first place. Why we need a thread for this, I don‘t know.

 

[Howard2k]

I will say it's a little brickish. Heavy for the size. But this may be a positive as it's very solid, and a quality feel to it. No vents or fans. It's got the same vibe this way as the MacBook Pros, which are bricks.

MacBook Air Jr.

Isn't it the same weight as the Air?

 

[jakey rolling]

Even OP didn‘t claim it was „dim“ and it has the same PPI as the Air so how could it possibly be „pixelated“?

The most likely reason (given earlier in this thread) is that the scaling is set to a non-integer resolution by default. It's not so much that the display is pixellated, but rather that it is fuzzy due to macOS's limited support for non-integer scaling.

All this is basically OP rationalizing buying and returning a device he didn‘t need in the first place. Why we need a thread for this, I don‘t know.

To hurt your feelings, obviously.

 

[Pbwallstreet]

This makes no sense as the Neo display has the same PPI as the Air display.

It makes perfect sense. It has a reduced colour spectrum and its viewing angles are inferior for starters.

It also may have slightly different scaling. Finally, the Neo does not appear to have a fully laminated display unlike the MBA and MBP. That means there is an air gap between the LCD panel and the glass, which lets light in and produces slightly less clear content.

 

[hans1972]

What does 6502a even mean?

MOS 6502 was the CPU which was in computers like Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 2600 and NES (Nintendo) in the 1980ties.

 

[Mr_Ed]

That's true enough. I'm just not a fan at all of the "buy everything and return what I didn't want in the first place" shopping model. I'm very much a "think before you make decisions, not after" kind of a person, but, honestly, I've no idea if that's really better or worse than the opposite.

As an aside, I really miss my equivalent of "Radio Shack" and the "Radio Shack" days, it seems impossible or ridiculously overpriced to buy even basic items like cables and drives in a bricks-and-morter shop in my city.

Yeah, making “just buy it because I can return it” the default way we buy lots of things is not good. Hell, I look at it as a “my time is valuable” issue, so packing up and returning something is a last resort for that reason. Like you, I tend to research a lot in advance, especially if it’s a sizable$ purchase. As an example, I guarantee you when I’m buying a new car, I know more about the vehicle than the salesman at the dealership, but that only covers what’s “on paper”, so I’m still going to test drive it.

I probably miss Radio Shack more than most. It was a decent part time job while in college, but I was into electronics since I was a teenager. There was no “Amazon” or anything of consequence online so if I was looking for a transistor, resistor, IC, cables/wires, boards, project cases of anything of the sort, “Dad, can you give me a ride to Radio Shack?”😁 There were other places you could get that stuff, but it was usually mail order from a printed catalog. Getting parts from Radio Shack cost more but, you know, “instant gratification.”

 

[Pbwallstreet]

Yeah, making “just buy it because I can return it” the default way we buy lots of things is not good. Hell, I look at it as a “my time is valuable” issue, so packing up and returning something is a last resort for that reason. Like you, I tend to research a lot in advance, especially if it’s a sizable$ purchase. As an example, I guarantee you when I’m buying a new car, I know more about the vehicle than the salesman at the dealership, but that only covers what’s “on paper”, so I’m still going to test drive it.

I probably miss Radio Shack more than most. It was a decent part time job while in college, but I was into electronics since I was a teenager. There was no “Amazon” or anything of consequence online so if I was looking for a transistor, resistor, IC, cables/wires, boards, project cases of anything of the sort, “Dad, can you give me a ride to Radio Shack?”😁 There were other places you could get that stuff, but it was usually mail order from a printed catalog. Getting parts from Radio Shack cost more but, you know, “instant gratification.”

The jumping to conclusions with no evidence is pretty widespread here.

I did not buy this thinking I would return it. I didn’t know if I would keep it though because I had to test it but I did buy it with the intention of wanting to keep it and having it work out. Knowing it was inferior spec wise kept me on the fence as to whether I would keep it.

This is the first time I have ever returned an Apple product in 20 years of using their devices, with the exception of the first gen MacBook Air that had defects out of the box.

I like a lot about the Neo. The build quality, the trackpad, the keyboard… ultimately it was the screen that killed it. If the screen was laminated and on par with the MBA, I would have kept it.

 

[Mr_Ed]

The jumping to conclusions with no evidence is pretty widespread here.

I did not buy this thinking I would return it. I didn’t know if I would keep it though because I had to test it but I did buy it with the intention of wanting to keep it and having it work out. Knowing it was inferior spec wise kept me on the fence as to whether I would keep it.

This is the first time I have ever returned an Apple product in 20 years of using their devices, with the exception of the first gen MacBook Air that had defects out of the box.

I like a lot about the Neo. The build quality, the trackpad, the keyboard… ultimately it was the screen that killed it. If the screen was laminated and on par with the MBA, I would have kept it.

I never said that. Did you read my post that started my exchange with @Happy_John for context? I was actually making a point that I think those asking “why didn’t you try it at the store first?” are off-base.