MacBook Neo

The newest entry-level Air is $1100, this is $600, or $500 difference. It's significant.

Apple released the M1 MBA for $999 and it was considered insane value, and it had 8GB of RAM as well.

I don't think it's criminal, sufficient for plenty of casual users. Of course not for everyone.

yesterday I wrote in a group slack that today I would get to decide whether:

* i'm not buying any machine at all, or waiting for omarchy to support the new dell xps (32GB & 1TB = $1899)

* i'm buying the macbook neo at the top specs

* i'm buying the macbook air at the bottom specs

* i'm buying the macbook air with 32GB RAM & 1TB SSD (also $1899)

EDIT:

* adding an M5 Macbook (not Pro) with 24GB RAM & 1TB SSD also $1899

as someone who lives in claude code / opencode these days, the 8gb hurts but.. maybe, i dunno. they made this decision very painful. for me it could basically be a coffee shop opencode terminal that lets me access my apple iphone reminders, notes, etc.

but 8gb?

Do you think the RAM is too weak while the CPU is too strong for the use case? Like, with just 8GB RAM it can't do much that needs that kind of CPU. And with the same price point I can easily get a refurbished 16/32GB Dell mobile workstation -- which I admit won't last as long as a Macbook, but 8GB is only enough for light usage, which could just use a much older and maybe cheaper CPU.

*Edit*: just read about education discount, so yeah, $499 or lower is more competitive.

I have an M4 Air and I just pre-ordered 3 Neos. One for myself, one for my niece as a present and one for my parents to replace their Windows laptop.

I honestly don't understand people who complain about the lack of M5 Pro specs and features on a £599 Macbook. "Oh no, it's 1/3rd of the price of a Pro but I want the Pro specs on it." People seriously need to do think twice before pressing the submit button. And nobody in the right mind would buy a used Macbook for the same price, just because it's more powerful.

I have an 8G M2 at work and it's more than enough and I have two browsers running with 20+ tabs, Teams, Outlook, Figma, VScode... If you are a power user buy a Macbook Pro, you can't reasonable expect Pro performance out of a device that costs a third.

This Neo is going to sell like crazy because it's an amazing product for the price. That's how much Chromebooks cost but you actually get a full desktop OS rather than a web browser. And for students to buy a new Macbook for £499 come on, some of these comments are just ridiculous.

> the trackpad will be excellent

Nope. It is mechanical.