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MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

macrumors.com

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Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#351

Post by elxr »

skrtskrt wrote: post #22

I would like to know how these are on XCode - would love to have the cheapest/most lightweight possible way to build iOS apps (derived from some cross-platform builder like Expo/Lynx/Dioxus) since I have no other use for MacOS. Looking at tech specs, it seems like the one with 512GB drive might be serviceable. I have a very old 256GB Air and I struggle to keep enough drive space open to have XCode installed on it.

They're fine if you just need it mainly for the build/bundle step.

I've used an 8GB M1 mac for react-native iOS dev for over a year back when the M1 first came out.

If I had to look for the cheapest way to build iOS apps, but still on a laptop form factor (aka no mac minis), and I don't use macOS for day-to-day development, I'd do exactly this.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#352

Post by michaelt »

cortesoft wrote: post #113
elorant wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s nothing baffling to it. Windows PCs are upgradable. Apple won’t even give you a PCie slot on its $10k mac studio ultra to install a better network card or whatever.

I haven't worked with TOO many different companies, but I have worked at a few of various sizes (from small startup to huge Fortune 100), and none of them ever provided upgrades for machines. It was always full replacements. Sometimes you would get a used machine, but they were from someone else who left, not an upgraded machine. Are other IT shops really doing a lot of piece by piece upgrades for employee machines?

It's not common, but it's not unusual either.

If your standard developer laptop has a 256 GB SSD, but a certain team needs more disk space due to the work they're doing, you can just add a second nvme for a fraction of the cost and inconvenience of replacing the whole laptop.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#353

Post by thenthenthen »

rationalist wrote: post #143
varispeed wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friend of mine has 32GB laptop with top spec last gen Intel 9 and it barely handles larger Word documents and Teams calls. The fan is just obnoxious on top of that.

Top-spec computers will always shit the bed when they aren't taken care of properly (bloatware, blocked airflow, etc)

Its so weird, something i noticed (or made up) is that at my workplaces, the topspec workstations are always taking ages to boot (counting the ram?). My 15 year old xeon win box boots in about 10sec. Maybe they dont have fastboot enabled idk…

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#354

Post by fundad »

osigurdson wrote: post #249
porridgeraisin wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price thing is really true. My current laptop i got at 48000 INR student discount (retailer at 65000) (the older HP Pavilion Aero 13inch). It's great 950g, 16gb ram, etc etc. still works well. this was many years ago. During this time macbooks were 90000 INR, and M1 was just coming out. Now the next era of laptops are all 1 lakh NR. Including the windows ones. Importantly, the mac is still 1 lakh. So it makes no…

It hurts, but I'll pay a premium for worse hardware that will run Linux. But for others in my family Macbooks are just far better value by a wide margin than Windows laptops. Vertical integration really wins these days.

This seems to be key. People must want Windows or Linux so badly they will pay 25-30% for a thinkpad with a track pad that is almost as good. Don't these manufacturers sell more machines than Apple and could benefit from better economies of scale. Maybe the scale is just at the low end and the iPhone subsidizes premium Mac hardware.

I have yet to read about someone who priced out something "as good" as the MacBook Air in terms of component quality and efficiency. What would the price premium be... over 50%?

Either way it costs money to avoid macOS at the higher end but not much when you’re spending thousands of US dollars.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#355

Post by bombcar »

brandon272 wrote: post #321

I have always had this notion that buying a Mac is the "premium" option, not just in quality, but maybe in price too. I am in the process of trying to find a business notebook for my spouse who is a Windows user. The goal is to have something that is as close to a Macbook Air as possible in terms of price, weight, performance and durability. What I am learning is that nothing that like that exists in the PC world. It…

I had high hopes for the Surface but between the confusion (is it arm is it x86 will your printer drivers work?) and some questionable decisions, it fell flat.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#356

Post by acomjean »

brandon272 wrote: post #321

I have always had this notion that buying a Mac is the "premium" option, not just in quality, but maybe in price too. I am in the process of trying to find a business notebook for my spouse who is a Windows user. The goal is to have something that is as close to a Macbook Air as possible in terms of price, weight, performance and durability. What I am learning is that nothing that like that exists in the PC world. It…

Intel this year seems to have something competitive with the core ultra cpus. The “wildcat” cpus are being released now in budget friendly machines. We’ll see how they do.

I’m not going back from Linux but I’m glad there is competition again.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#357

Post by stasomatic »

killingtime74 wrote: post #207
stasomatic wrote: post #204

It's too expensive. As a long time user ('91) I am fully aware how blessed we are with Macs' prices today. However, an M5 Air 16G/512 is $1,100 without any discounts and Airs are frequently discounted by $200 at least in the States. $599 is dangerously close to $1,100. Yes, it's 40ish % diff before any discounts, but the Air is like 3x the value and the Air has much more runway in it. I would not recommend a Neo to a…

It's not designed for your circles or for people where paying 40% more is a choice. Many products make no "sense" when you can hand wave the price away.

I think it's a throwaway given its specs and inherent limitations at $600. At $400 USD, I wouldn't be yapping here. Caveat emptor, yo.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#358

Post by gedy »

canpan wrote: post #349
brandon272 wrote: post #321

I have always had this notion that buying a Mac is the "premium" option, not just in quality, but maybe in price too. I am in the process of trying to find a business notebook for my spouse who is a Windows user. The goal is to have something that is as close to a Macbook Air as possible in terms of price, weight, performance and durability. What I am learning is that nothing that like that exists in the PC world. It…

I am totally a linux user. But even on the high end, the build quality of laptops more expensive than apple is often worse than apple. Or it's hit and miss and you need to hope to get the good one. I want a lightweight, non-plastic laptop with good keyboard, solid battery life, and no hinge problems. Apple is consistently delivering it. Good luck finding that outside apple.

Agreed but would recommend looking at Framework laptops, my son has one and it's great

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#359

Post by spullara »

bombcar wrote: post #355
brandon272 wrote: post #321

I have always had this notion that buying a Mac is the "premium" option, not just in quality, but maybe in price too. I am in the process of trying to find a business notebook for my spouse who is a Windows user. The goal is to have something that is as close to a Macbook Air as possible in terms of price, weight, performance and durability. What I am learning is that nothing that like that exists in the PC world. It…

I had high hopes for the Surface but between the confusion (is it arm is it x86 will your printer drivers work?) and some questionable decisions, it fell flat.

which is crazy since the Mac has no problem running all kinds of old x86 junk

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#360

Post by GeekyBear »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #296
brikym wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like they don't want paradox of choice. Think of how many windows or android products are out there. Frankly I hate thinking about buying them in case I screw up and get it wrong. Apple understands this.

They used to (Steve Jobs did) but the iPad lineup says they’ve forgotten some of it.

They have the cheap one, the little one, the premium consumer one, and the Pro.
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