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The MacBook Neo

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161–170 of 1001 posts

Re: The MacBook Neo

#161

Maybe other manufacturers will actually stop making crappy hardware that feels like its taped together?

Hardware is hard, and Apple's scale lets them make things that are nice while still maintaining their margins.

A decade ago, but still relevant: https://beneinstein.com/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-like-ap...

Re: The MacBook Neo

#162
post #111

I’m a bit confused about who this article is really for. The MacBook Neo starts at $600 so when I read: “MacBook Neo is built on an iPhone chip—the A18 Pro. It’s far less capable of running intensive tasks than any of Apple’s M‑series chips or any moderately powered Intel or AMD processor.” and that: “It’s merely the right kind of performance for anybody who wants to browse the internet or stream video.” ...at this p…

> It’s far less capable of running intensive tasks than any of Apple’s M‑series chips or any moderately powered Intel or AMD processor.” This is false. The A18 Pro has much better single core performance than the M1 and slightly better multi core performance. Most people would see no noticeable benefit to a faster CPU. Especially with a fanless design, the additional cores of a comparable M-series chip would give you…

> The A18 Pro has much better single core performance than the M1 and slightly better multi core performance.

For the first few minutes of sustained use. Then it drops like a rock: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/apple-macbook-neo-re...

> In extended single-core benchmarks, performance drops to the 3.7-to-3.5 GHz range within a minute or so, and they drop to the 2.9-to-3.2 GHz range after about five minutes. Both the M1 Air and the new M5 Air (4.46 GHz) are able to sustain their peak clock speeds indefinitely in single-core mode.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#163
post #77
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 600 might seem budget, but it's out of budget for most people. Out of budget for my parents but I'll pay the difference myself. It's just painful to see them use their pile of shit $300 laptop that can barely open a text editor, sounds like a jet engine and has about 45 minutes of battery life. The only haptic feedback they get if the entire fucking thing creaking as soon as you lightly touch it. They've been throu…

That's an important point - the been through 5 of them. The cost or running a $600 mac is probably similar to running $300 pc laptops that pack up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

Re: The MacBook Neo

#164
Calling this a "content consumption" device seems wrong to me. Sure, it's not a professional laptop. You're going to have a bad time trying to run more than one Adobe creative suite app at once, or running the iOS emulator, but the chip in it is very powerful, and you can do real work on this laptop. I was even thinking of snagging one to use as a kind of thin client for dev accessing my big linux box via tailscale. It might be worthwhile to ensure that a web app you're developing will work on a less powerful machine without killing the browser, for example.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#165

> The Neo charges faster if you plug it into a more powerful power adapter, in either USB-C port. The fact that the "usb 2" port works for (fast) charging is a big win. That means you can charge and use the fast usb port at the same time.

> That means you can charge and use the fast usb port at the same time.

For some use cases, you can do that with a single USB port, too. For example, a single USB cable connected to a monitor can both send video and charge the laptop.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#166

> The Neo charges faster if you plug it into a more powerful power adapter, in either USB-C port. The fact that the "usb 2" port works for (fast) charging is a big win. That means you can charge and use the fast usb port at the same time.

I think that makes it a non-standard implementation though (I agree it's certainly more practical for the user), sounds like it's usb-c pd but with nerfed data, an odd choice that feels like it would actually have cost more to develop than just adding two identical usb-c 3.x ports...

Re: The MacBook Neo

#167

IMO the consumer PC industry is near an existential crisis. The big players are just awful at marketing; too many SKUs and models - it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. The exact same specs will be in two different chassis designs. Additionally, you can’t count on the basic being correct. It takes a hour of research to know if the trackpad is not-awful, keyboard doe…

This... so much this. > too many SKUs and models - it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. And yet, I just watched a YouTube video where a "PC guy" was like, "adding the Neo just completely confuses the Apple product line. Are we heading towards having too many Apple options that confuse the buyer here?" I get it, other than price, the Neo and Air are a bit confusing p…

> "hahaha, wut, with 8 GB of RAM? lmao, lol, you Apple bot?!"

And it would seem they never learn either. I saw the same comments when the M1 Air came out, then they quickly shut up when people were pushing those little base model airs well beyond what anyone thought they were capable of.

The same thing is happening with the Neo now. It feels like an M1 moment all over again for the PC OEM industry.

If you aren't a gamer, there is zero reason at this point to consider any other laptop besides a macbook. Apple now has one for every price point. This neo is going to destroy the consumer PC space. Dell, HP, Acer are probably sweating right now.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#168

Calling this a "content consumption" device seems wrong to me. Sure, it's not a professional laptop. You're going to have a bad time trying to run more than one Adobe creative suite app at once, or running the iOS emulator, but the chip in it is very powerful, and you can do real work on this laptop. I was even thinking of snagging one to use as a kind of thin client for dev accessing my big linux box via tailscale.…

I can definitely see why the Asus CEO would want to put it in that box, though.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#169

But you’re stuck with MacOS. I can’t stand it and every update makes it worse. Been running popos abs everything I can and it’s petty nice. Installed it on a new LG Gram and everything works including fingerprint reader. Is my favorite laptop and my old Mac sits gathering dust,

Yeah I got one from work. I was quite excited to get one as macos is supposed to be a paragon of design but after using it I'm so glad I didn't spend my own money on it as it's been a total disappointment. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't want to launch it off the roof.

MacOS was the paragon of design 5-10 years ago. Sadly, Apple is subject to enshittification just like MS and others.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#170

When did $600 become budget?

When it lasts 5 to 10 years. I’m still using my 2020 MacBook Pro, and figure I’ll get another half decade out of it. That’s <$200/year. The Neo could be a <$100/year laptop, which puts it in the same class as $200 shitbooks that crap out after two or three years.
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