The MacBook Neo • Hacker News Board

Re: The MacBook Neo

#511

Post by crooked-v » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

SllX wrote: post #351

Reason077 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple isn’t this bad, of course, but they’re slowly heading in that direction. The number of overlapping iPad models and variants, for example, is getting kind of crazy these days. Now there’s the MacBook Neo and a rumoured new MacBook Ultra in the pipeline. The easy days of “pick standard or pro, select a display size, select RAM & storage” are starting to fade.

The iPad line makes a lot more sense when you’re just shopping and realize you’re just on a price ladder. Start from the bottom and climb up picking up features along the way until you reach the point where you’ve got what you want or you’re not willing to spend more money. The Neo is either easy to recommend or rather easy to not recommend. It has a fixed 8GB of RAM. I think that’s too little for a modern Mac operat…

At this point the RAM only matters if you've got something that actually needs all that RAM continuously, likes games, virtual machines, or heavyweight user workflows like 4K video editing. For everything else, swap usage on Apple machines works so well that RAM might as well not exist.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#512

Post by grumpyprole » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #456

cannolicannon wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Just hired a new colleague who prefers Windows. Dell seemed like a reasonable option for a good laptop. Here is Dell's current lineup: - Dell Laptop (with 14, 15, 16 inch variants) - Dell Plus (with 14, 15, and 16 inch variants) - Dell XPS (with 13, 14, and 1…

That Dell Pro Max Plus (that I legit thought might be a joke) is a big horkin laptop for ~$6k+. 3cm thick, nearly 3kg, and you can do wireframes on it, wow! A full HD screen with 500 nits brightness. What a piece of shit product comparatively speaking. I imagine someone would buy it for a niche specific engineering purpose that can only be practical on Intel Windows, but damn. I really don't think it would fair bette…

Yes, it will also have 5 mins of battery life when unplugged and have a power adapter the size of a shoe box. I tried a similar machine from Lenovo at work and quickly returned it.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#513

Post by skibidithink » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

retired wrote: post #198

drcongo wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they're your friend, why didn't you just tell them to get a Mac?

15 years ago this comment would have been a troll. Nowadays it’s solid advice. The current Mac line-up is a step ahead of the competition. App compatibility is hardly an issue anymore with the exception of some very niche software.

OS X / macOS has been ahead of Windows for a long time for anyone who lives in a web browser.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#514

Post by ndr42 » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:04 PM UTC

lm28469 wrote: post #62

bdbdbdb wrote: post #48

600 is a bargain for a MacBook, but I can't see the public windows users switching en masse. Most people who buy cheap windows laptops do so because 1) they need to replace a broken laptop and want to pay the lowest amount possible 2) they don't want to learn some new thing 600 might seem budget, but it's out of budget for most people. And my guess is PC manufacturers will retaliate against this by cutting prices jus…

> 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…

And it's even more painful for me to do the remote tech support for my (80+ years old) parents so paying the difference is a kind of preservation of my mental health...

Re: The MacBook Neo

#515

Post by zamadatix » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:04 PM UTC

I grabbed a Neo w/ the edu discount for my niece. Very pleased with it on day 1.

So far I think the only thing I can add to the conversation about it is the only real disappointment is that the only upgrade option is to go to 512G w/ touch ID for $100. That's not to say the 8 GB option was bad by any means, it actually works even better than I was expecting, but it still leaves a big gap on the way up to the base model Air at $1100 and the splash could have been twice as large.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#516

Post by B1FF_PSUVM » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

smackeyacky wrote: post #97

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboard issue was probably caused by the battery, which can be replaced, and the keyboard would have likely returned to normal after the battery replacement. In fact, depending on the model, the battery replacement may well have also entailed replacing the whole top cover (including the keyboard).

Interesting I will look at replacing the battery if that’s a possibility. Thanks!

The Intel MacBook Air battery was very easy to swap, just opening the bottom lid. Amazon has kits for about 40 bucks with the two necessary screwdrivers included.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#517

Post by j45 » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC

If the Neo had been the next 12" macbook (2.0 lb), it would be the first apple product I would have lined up for.

The article sums up why quite well:

"The biggest shortcoming of the decade-ago MacBook “One”, aside from the baffling decision to include just one USB-C port that was also its only means of charging, was the shitty performance of Intel’s Core M chips. Those chips were small enough and low-power enough to fit in the MacBook’s thin and fan-less enclosure, but they were slow as balls. It was a huge compromise for a laptop that carried a somewhat premium price. Today, performance, performance-per-watt, and physical chip size are all solved problems with Apple Silicon. I’d consider paying double the price of the Neo for a MacBook with similar specs (but more RAM and better I/O) that weighed 2.0 pounds or less. I’d buy such a MacBook not to replace my 14-inch MacBook Pro, but to replace my 2018 11-inch iPad Pro as my “carry around the house” secondary computer.5"

Re: The MacBook Neo

#518

Post by crooked-v » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:09 PM UTC

emseetech wrote: post #415

poulsbohemian wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you just need to do your taxes or answer a Zoom call, why would you get a Macbook Neo? Because it's a Mac. Maybe not to you, but to many people Apple signals luxury. It signals trust. You have an iPhone, an iWatch, and AirPods in your ears, why wouldn't you also buy a Mac? And at that price point, mom and dad don't think twice about buying one for the kids anymore where previously they might have gotten by withou…

Apple's support is top in the industry. And it's not even that great, it's but everyone else's support is just that bad. Easily worth the extra money alone.

Just the guarantee of being able to walk into a physical location and talk to a real person and have their full attention for a while when something goes wrong is worth all the other bullshit.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#519

Post by Aperocky » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:11 PM UTC

grumpyprole wrote: post #507

cannolicannon wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Just hired a new colleague who prefers Windows. Dell seemed like a reasonable option for a good laptop. Here is Dell's current lineup: - Dell Laptop (with 14, 15, 16 inch variants) - Dell Plus (with 14, 15, and 16 inch variants) - Dell XPS (with 13, 14, and 1…

That's absolutely insane.

The Dell part or the windows preference part?

Re: The MacBook Neo

#520

Post by prmoustache » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #249

bigyabai wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy a Magic Trackpad and pair it with your Thinkpad no problem. It's much more comfortable to use it side-by-side with your keyboard, most of the time I'm reaching for the Trackpoint if my hands are on home row.

You can buy a Magic Trackpad and pair it with your Thinkpad no problem. Yeah, that works great on the bus. It's one more thing to tote around to meetings, but hey, at least I didn't have to buy a MacBook! Or I could just buy a Mac and not have to resort to hacks to get a decent trackpad.

I don't think you need a Mac to get a decent trackpad. You need one maybe to have a great one.

That is the main difference to me. I hate crappy trackpads but the ones on my 2 thinkpads are good enough for the nomad/mobile use. That doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer the one on a Mac but I wouldn't want to suffer a hostile, OS and lack of repairability just to get a better trackpad.