Windows PC Industry Reacts to Apple's Most Affordable MacBook Ever

[triumvirate]

This laptop will:

A) have a screen that wobbles for 30 seconds after you touch the keyboard
B) be able to heat your bedroom in the winter
C) Sound like a jet taking off
D) have such bad speakers that you’ll need subtitles on all your videos
E) all of the abo

I swear — my workplace uses windows machines for business and coming back to my Mac or iPad Pro at the end of the day is so refreshing. Just turning the poor windows machine on seems like I’m giving it a stroke.

 

[AppleTO]

Say what you want about Windows, and I agree partly of your point, File Explorer is simply better than Finder tbh. And this is coming from someone who uses both macOS and Windows.

I use both as well. As much as I like the “premium” feeling of MacBooks and macOS, I despise Finder and how it functions. I would take File Explorer any day.

 

[iMac The Knife]

In essence, their reaction is:

View attachment 2633584

Is that Steve Ballmer?

 

[fenderbass146]

Yes, that could very well be. But who watches that much local content? I'm old so I don't get it.

A person making these claims in the marketing department.

That said, anytime I'm going on a long flight or drive that I won't be the one driving I preload media or locally sync it with Plex. Maybe I'm weird.

 

[fenderbass146]

Speak to anyone who works in IT sales and they’ll tell you Acer are the least reliable PC manufacturer on the planet.

It's been a while since I was in retail, but I can honestly say their wasn't one brand I saw more then others if adjusting for the fact there are way more Dell's and HP's out there then other brands.

 

[fenderbass146]

Technically you're correct, but I consider them one and the same. Either way, you're watching videos. Maybe the encoders are different? I don't know. But I seriously doubt this thing's capability until I see it in person. Fool me once, shame on you...

less to do with encoders, but the network usage and wifi.

 

[subjonas]

Yes, that could very well be. But who watches that much local content? I'm old so I don't get it.

I think it's just a somewhat standard and consistent way to measure one laptop's battery life compared to other laptops because it has less variables. Streaming involves WiFi or cellar chips, signal strength, etc.--more variables which makes it harder to have consistent and comparable numbers.

 

[boswald]

I think it's just a somewhat standard and consistent way to measure one laptop's battery life compared to other laptops because it has less variables. Streaming involves WiFi or cellar chips, signal strength, etc.--more variables which makes it harder to have consistent and comparable numbers.

That's a good way to put it. Thank you.

 

[Corefile]

So did they taylor swift air 14 to be a machine for the era?

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

This proves IT IS possible to build good affordable laptops.

Not when you have to pay Microsoft for Windows. Hence all the plastic and misery.

 

[jole]

Cannot wait for Acer OS, Acer productivity apps, and overall amazing Acer privacy.

 

[jaysabol]

The Neo caught people off guard and captured their imaginations. These PC makers can't repeat that.

 

[topmounter]

I wonder how the Acer will do in the 'Set it gently on the desk' drop test and the 'use it for a few months' 'long term' durability test 😀

 

[zarmanto]

Acer today introduced a Swift Air 14 laptop, with U.S. pricing starting at $699. ... the MacBook Neo costs an equal $699 when configured with a doubled 512GB of storage and a Touch ID button.

... the Swift Air 14 features up to a 512GB SSD ...

Given that "starting at..." and "features up to..." pretty much never coincide in any given configuration... I think it's pretty clear that the Neo wins on price against this Acer.

And we don't get to unambiguously say things like that about an Apple product nearly often enough.

 

[pdaholic]

Say what you want about Windows, and I agree partly of your point, File Explorer is simply better than Finder tbh. And this is coming from someone who uses both macOS and Windows.

I'm on the latest Surface Pro 11 and the 12", and File Explorer becomes unresponsive very frequently. After doing forced indexing and a reset, it hasn't crashed in a couple of days on either device, so fingers crossed it is fixed. Never once had Finder crash on me or become unresponsive.

I also prefer Finder's column layout.

No way, IMHO, Explorer is better than Finder!

 

[Siliconguy]

No matter what, no matter how, no matter where... those "computers" (highly fragmented, irresponsible software quality control if any, 10 dad's machines) will never offer macOS premium integrated experience, why? Because it's running microslop's WINDOWS.

Yes, but Linux drivers should ship soon after release. PC technical documentation is not some deep dark secret that Apple keeps to itself. The M1 and M2 Linux drivers had to be reverse engineered with no help from Apple even though Apple no longer sells those machines. M3 and up are still unsupported because Apple won't release the docs.

Hopefully that attitude will change under the new management, but I'm not holding my breath. Frankly MacOS isn't all that great.

 

[Corefile]

It's not just cost price but also TCO, which is why school districts are dumping Windows laptops. They just are unreliable and the decades prove it.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Hopefully that attitude will change under the new management, but I'm not holding my breath. Frankly MacOS isn't all that great.

Anymore...

It was really tops in the industry for at least its first 10 years.

It feels like especially post-pandemic, they backfilled a lot of retiring system developers with ex-Microsoft.

 

[Dr McKay]

Technically you're correct, but I consider them one and the same. Either way, you're watching videos. Maybe the encoders are different? I don't know. But I seriously doubt this thing's capability until I see it in person. Fool me once, shame on you...

Watching videos is so mundane on a modern CPU that it can usually be done on a single efficiency core

 

[snipr125]

I swear — my workplace uses windows machines for business and coming back to my Mac or iPad Pro at the end of the day is so refreshing. Just turning the poor windows machine on seems like I’m giving it a stroke.

At work today, sat at a workstation to start my shift but a colleague forgot to log off. Restarted the Windows PC, and it took almost 10 minutes to get back to the login screen!

 

[Royksöpp]

The Neo is looking to be the biggest seller of the year. It's a hit with consumers and education. I'm just worried about all of the terrible windows laptops that are going to be produced to compete with Neo. Just imagine the e-waste. 😩

 

[joloriquelme]

My wife bought a MacBook Neo, 512 GB.

Totally enough for her needs, even for normal office work.

For the same amount of money, you can buy a plastic-akward made Acer with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB, but you have to open it with both hands, the trackpad is a joke, the display have less nits that my grandmother's flat screen, fans of a jet, and a keyboard that gives you pain in the fingers.

And, running Windows. I don't have problems with Windows. I use it everyday. The problem is that iCloud works like s... in Windows. And in macOS works almost like a charm. And for everyone using an iPhone... that's all.

 

[Icehawk]

Follow the white rabbit.

 

[k1121j]

Are these arm processors on windows? Don't like a ton of programs not work on windows when you have an arm processor?

 

[zarmanto]

... (macOS) was really tops in the industry for at least its first 10 years. ...

That's one heck of a hot take... considering that the entirety of that first ten years predates Mac OS X. Having used Macs since those early days myself, I absolutely never would have pegged Apple's pre-Unix period as their peak.