> Yes, 8GB of RAM is a real limitation. But give it a year and the next version will almost certainly ship with 12GB and a modest CPU bump.
We'll be able to have six browser tabs open instead of four?
MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
31–40 of 433 posts
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#32This might win big in emerging markets where there is a desire for a high-quality laptop for non-programmers.
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#33The question thus, is how does the Neo perform if I put it on top of an ice pack?
Or mod it so it burns your junk but makes you the heatsink :D
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#34for vibe coding stuff, especially when you're outside touching grass, I believe MacBook Neo is perfect. it fills the gap between the phone remote control (which is too painful for chatting with ai cli) and, well, not having any dev device.
I'm pretty disappointed in the Neo's battery life though, it limits a lot how much you can do on the go.
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's one of the nicest things to do if you love computers, and great for your health compared with staying indoors. > Could one actually work like this, typing and everything? After my “heart-rate discovery” I decided I had to try it. I thought I’d have to build something myself, but actually one can just buy “walking desks”, and so I did. And after minor modifications, I discovered that I could walk and type perfect…
How do you deal with screen glare?
You get an Apple product. At least, for me it was that simple. The ThinkPad I had was pretty high end, and I was using polarized glasses and even a sun shade to work at the park while the girls played. Bought a MacBook and the screen seems to crisply outshine even the sunniest days -- I haven't had to worry about outdoor use since, to my recollection.
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#36What if you cool the chassis really really well??? Does throttling go away?
https://youtu.be/lswbpVtAhrc?si=N_z_g0aZmoOUz_Cs
> tl;dw Copper shim mod (using laptop bottom as heatsink) leads to 2x performance over stock.
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#37> The I/O is also a genuine limitation: one USB 2.0 port is functionally useless for data transfer, no Thunderbolt means no fast external storage, and charging occupies your only USB 3 port.
You're supposed to use the USB-2 port for charging and save the USB-3 port for external accessories, not the other way around
It only supports 10Gb/s compared to 40 that USB-4 is theoretically capable of, but that's more than enough for anyone in the $600 laptop market.
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#38I bought an 8gb M1 Air in 2020 (for what now feels like an absurdly small sum of money) as an experiment in how-cheap-is-too-cheap / chuckable travel laptop. I ended up using it as my main laptop for 2 years without regret, then handed it to my son for school.
It remains in perfect condition and as delightful to use as the day I bought it (Apple software snafus notwithstanding). I fully expect to get at least 10 years use out of it. Honestly, I feel like it could probably carry him all the way through school - but I’d be embarrassed to say that out loud since that’s another 9 years.
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#39Why is the author considering Claude Code a "real developer workflow"? Unless you're doing complex tool calling, is CC really resource-heavy?
Why does a "real developer workflow" need to be resource-heavy?
IDE written in Java indexing 10K files, compiling + running spring boot apps that take 30 seconds to start on the M4, or C++ compilation, or rust compilation.. Or maybe you were sarcastic?
Re: MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble
#40The Neo is pretty great, and the compromises are totally reasonable at the price point. But if they do a second generation with A19 Pro (and thus 12GB RAM) and a slightly better cooling system then it would really be fantastic.
> if they do a second generation with A19 Pro I'm pretty sure it's a "when", not "if".
Probably true. I hope they do it next year, but I suspect it might the following one.