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Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

macrumors.com

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Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#251

Post by wolvoleo »

kstrauser wrote: post #159
dragonwriter wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people run Windows just fine on cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM. And if they can do that, they can get them (at full MSRP) for about half the price of a MacBook Neo. Heck, you can get 8GB Windows laptops with twice the SSD size of the MacBook Neo's for a little over half of the Neo’s price (again, at full MSRP.)

> Heck, you can get 8GB Windows laptops with twice the SSD size of the MacBook Neo's for a little over half of the Neo’s price (again, at full MSRP.) Let's see one of these $300 Windows laptops with 512GB of SSD (in a reasonable format, e.g. not an SD card), a body that isn't disposable, a screen that isn't a dim potato, a CPU that's within 20% of the Neo's performance, and a GPU that isn't embarrassed to be called a…

They existed on AliExpress. Chuwis and the likes (though the latest ones are lying about the CPU model). You usually get nvme storage, not the very best of course but it does the job. And IPS display. It's overall ok stuff, but the memory crisis has pushed them above 300 now.. They usually run N150s.

I also got two N100 NUC like boxes with 16GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe for €115 each. Bought them as the memory crisis was starting. One is now my home assistant, the other one runs matrix.

I still use an ancient chuwi for going to the makerspace. It's still got hours of battery.

It's all ok stuff if you know what you're doing.

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#252

Post by materielle »

thelastgallon wrote: post #249

Apple is moving into Google's territory, cheap Chromebooks. The right move for Google is to aggressively move forward with their desktop OS and launch their line of laptops. The first pixel laptops had the best keyboards and trackpads ever. Google can nail this if they have the right product person. Apple needs some competition and the legacy PC makers won't cut it. Once again, it has to be Apple vs Google, same as A…

What’s actually going to happen is the second they start to lose market share or struggle at all, they will cancel everything Chromebook related and give up.

With that said, I think Chromebook’s still hold a competitive advantage for public school contracts. It doesn’t matter that the Neo is pretty cheap and the best value. Contracts are signed based on what’s cheapest, period.

Also, a big blind spot for a lot of HN: this is going to be big in developing Markets. This is within budget for middle class Latin Americans in a way that even the Air isn’t.

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#253

Post by the_real_cher »

MattTheRealOne wrote: post #190
the_real_cher wrote: post #4

does that mean since this is the iPhone 16 cpu, by proxy the iPhone 16 can also run Windows in a virtual machine?

Yes. See UTM: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/utm-se-retro-pc-emulator/id156... Unfortunately, the performance is very poor due to Apple restrictions on iOS.

What do you mean by Apple restrictions?

Are they arbitrary restrictions Apple puts on them to prevent this kind of thong?

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#254

Post by the_real_cher »

hard_times wrote: post #14
the_real_cher wrote: post #4

does that mean since this is the iPhone 16 cpu, by proxy the iPhone 16 can also run Windows in a virtual machine?

Is this a trick question? Of course. However Apple imposed artificial limitations, like disabling JIT.

So they're purposefully crippling it?

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#255

Post by alwillis »

amelius wrote: post #193
roody15 wrote: post #131

MacBook Neo is going to sell like crazy. In the education market, educators, students, aides... nothing close at this price point. With memory and SSD prices so high I don't see how Dell, Asus and others are going to be able to compete. Unless the build quality is significantly worse than a M1 macbook air not sure budget PC makers will be able to compete.

Apple is going to cannibalize their own laptop market.

> Apple is going to cannibalize their own laptop market.

As long as you buy a Mac laptop, Apple is fine with that, regardless of which one. That’s because they know who their customers are.

The Neo is in its own category; the $599/$699 Neo doesn’t compete with a 14-inch MacBook Pro with a M5 Pro, 24GB of RAM, and 1 TB SSD at $1899. If you know you need more RAM and storage than Neo, the M5 Mac Air is $1099. But if you need to stay under $1000, the decision is clear.

If anything, the Neo is more competitive with the entry-level iPad with 128 GB of storage at $349; with Apple's keyboard at $249, the total is $598, $1 less than the entry-level Neo.

For someone who wants a "real" laptop with more flexibility than an iPad, getting the $599 Neo is a no-brainer.

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#256

Post by the_real_cher »

MBCook wrote: post #132
bombcar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe/maybe not (we don't know how identical the A18 chip is to what shipped in the iPhone) - but it does determine that the virtualization stuff that was added to the M1 (in the era of the A14) has now moved over to the A series, at least enough to support macOS.

Speculation I’ve heard from Ben Thompson of Stratechery is this machine is, in part, a way to get value out of iPhone Pro chips that had defects. The Neo has a 5 core GPU. The iPhone 16 Pro had a 6 core. So, if he’s correct, these are the same exact chip. Just with a fault in one GPU core or one GPU core disabled if it was good. That lets them use extra chips they already made that would have gone to waste, at least…

What a cool and smart way to utilize those chips!

It would explain why they picked such an arbitrary number of cores.

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#257

Post by todotask2 »

roody15 wrote: post #131

MacBook Neo is going to sell like crazy. In the education market, educators, students, aides... nothing close at this price point. With memory and SSD prices so high I don't see how Dell, Asus and others are going to be able to compete. Unless the build quality is significantly worse than a M1 macbook air not sure budget PC makers will be able to compete.

As someone who has been working in IT support for years, for most people a Windows laptop in the $400 range is cheaper if you add on-site IT support, parts replacement, and a longer warranty period. I wonder where Apple stands here.

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#258

Post by dangus »

thelastgallon wrote: post #249

Apple is moving into Google's territory, cheap Chromebooks. The right move for Google is to aggressively move forward with their desktop OS and launch their line of laptops. The first pixel laptops had the best keyboards and trackpads ever. Google can nail this if they have the right product person. Apple needs some competition and the legacy PC makers won't cut it. Once again, it has to be Apple vs Google, same as A…

I think this is somewhat ignorant the wide variety of legitimately very decent Windows PC laptops available in the exact same $500-700 price range as the MacBook Neo.

Apple isn’t disrupting the industry here. Don’t buy into early influencer review hype. These reviewers don’t actually look at retail store pricing.

Apple is just making a decision to go downmarket and making many of the same compromises as other cheap laptops, and some odd compromises that are unique to Apple’s machine:

No haptic trackpad, no keyboard backlight, no Touch ID on the cheap model, lower-end screen, very small battery, tiny slow charger included, minimal and performance compromised I/O, below-par RAM, worse speakers/microphones, an old nothing-special processor.

This is the exact same stuff that people have complained about for years with cheap laptops.

The fact that the computer is made of aluminum is really a distraction from these facts.

This idea that it’s Google versus Apple all over again is just not true. Windows is the dominant OS in the laptop space by far. Over 900 billion people in the world play PC games on windows, for example.

If you look at Best Buy street pricing, what Apple has pulled off here is not that impressive.

Let’s say you want the top end Neo model at $699. Spend $100 more at Best Buy and you’ll end up with a Yoga 7 machine with double the RAM, double the storage (1TB), 70Whr battery, and a very capable and efficient AMD Ryzen 7 AI 350 chip that has faster multicore and same or faster graphics performance.

You’ll gain user-replaceable SSD, backlit keyboard, convertible OLED touch screen, digital pen support, more and faster USB ports, microSD slot, HDMI port, fast charger in the box, better speakers, WiFi 7, bigger screen in a more popular 14” size…it’s a better buy that will last years longer for only a slight price increase (or, spend less on the Ryzen 5 AI 340 variant ($680) if you’re okay with compromising GPU performance, which most people in this category are, and you’ll still end up with double the RAM of the Neo and 512GB storage at $20 less than Apple’s non-education store price)

Seriously, give me a good reason to buy a Neo over a machine like this. What is actually better about the Mac objectively? https://www.bestbuy.com/product/lenovo-yoga-7-2-in-1-copilot...

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#259

Post by pastel8739 »

drdaeman wrote: post #245
auggierose wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. Both of my macs are over 7 years old, and have at least 32GB of RAM. Certainly would not buy an 8GB one now.

That was all x86_64, but even if aarch64 is more memory efficient, it can’t be too drastic, and 8GiB was borderline unusable even 10 years ago. Nowadays it must be a teeth-grinding tight fit for a browser and couple Electron apps, held together on a prayer next website doesn’t go too crazy with the bells and whistles and wasn’t vibeslopped with utter disregard to any big-Os.

> even if aarch64 is more memory efficient, it can’t be too drastic

Why not? All the other advantages of M processors (performance, battery life) have absolutely been drastic

Re: Parallels confirms MacBook Neo can run Windows in a virtual machine

#260

Post by mikkupikku »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #46

I’m excited that Apple now has a reason to keep MacOS small. Their soon to be top-selling machine has 8GB and they won’t want to make all those millions of Neos unusable by shipping a bloated OS.

Apple won't give a shit, they'll trash the UX on old/cheap hardware knowing that their fanboys will shame anybody who complains for being too poor to upgrade. They've done it many times before. Ruined font rendering on all macs with standard DPI screens for instance.
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