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The MacBook Neo

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Re: The MacBook Neo

#671

Post by grvdrm »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #548
grvdrm wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just PC industry! Feels that way in auto too. I go to Tesla, Lucid websites. Breath of fresh air. Clear choices. Porsche website: WTF. (just one example, there are many)

Porsche is about BTO and customization. If you want a Porsche, go to a dealer and have them walk you through building the one you want. Or become knowledgeable in all the options and find a used one with 85% of what you want.

Of course. I own one! But, I think they could ease the process somewhat with some obvious defined package sets.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#672

Post by zf00002 »

nessus42 wrote: post #497
dhosek wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From all the reviews, those of us who are skeptical of 8GB of RAM are very much wrong (I’m guessing it’s lingering PTSD from being stuck on underperforming systems with too little RAM that makes us buy much more RAM than we actually need). I’m inches away from buying a couple of these for my kids.

I have an M2 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM that I bought three and half years ago. For browsing the web, listening to music, watching TV and movies, using Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Docs, etc., it's still perfectly fine. OTOH, for my development Mac, I have 64GB of RAM. (Though 32GB would probably be fine.)

I have M2 Air with 8 and don't have problem either. Even runs WoW ok.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#673

Post by itomato »

snowwrestler wrote: post #658
KingMachiavelli wrote: post #31

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…

To what extent is there still a “consumer PC industry?” You mention Dell; for like a decade I think I’ve only ever seen Dells that were company-issued. My sense is that consumers spend most of their tech money on phones, tablets, headphones, watches, services. People who really want a laptop get a Mac or Chromebook. Gamers buy / build PCs, for gaming. Linux geeks buy Linux machines for Linuxing. I’m not saying no one…

Take a look at a Sam's Club or Costco. The Windows PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo outnumber the Macs 4:1 or more.

I have never seen a shopper testing out the wares.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#674

Post by wlowenfeld »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #31

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…

The SKU proliferation is truly awful. I honestly had to use Claude to understand the current landscape for daily driver Windows laptops when I finally needed to replace my old one.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#675

Post by [deleted] »

AnishLaddha wrote: post #282
giancarlostoro wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, for a while my favorite laptop was the Surface Book 2. Decent specs, does what I want it to. Then Microsoft started going through "Marketing Driven Development" for Windows and its just been downhill for my experience with that laptop. It's not just the marketing trash, the OS has gotten noticeably slow despite me keeping it pretty vanilla. It's downright insulting. As for my desktops, I just smoosh over Window…

an underrated reason for the decline in windows is that it went from a core product focus to being crowded out. I wouldn't be surprised if azure, sharepoint, office 365, devices, GH/Linkedin, bing/copilot, etc are all more important to msft leadership than windows.

[deleted]

Re: The MacBook Neo

#676

Post by teki_one »

My only problem with the Neo is that the base config has a good price, but if I want 512GB storage it reaches into the usable PC category. Usable for me: 16GB/512GB, Arc/RDNA 3.5 GPU Different tradeoffs obiously: light, good screen & touchpad versus Linux compatibility and backlit keyboard.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#678

Post by LiamPowell »

cannolicannon wrote: post #254
KingMachiavelli wrote: post #31

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…

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…

Note that this is the new simplified lineup that they "cleaned up" a year or so ago

Re: The MacBook Neo

#679

Post by ProllyInfamous »

MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #561
Fraterkes wrote: post #426

I feel corny being so positive about a megacompany, but I bought my first Macbook air half a year ago after a life of PC's, and it has been genuinly surprising to use something made by a huge company that is constantly better than I expected.

I have a macbook air from 2022 and it is easily the "best" computer I have ever owned. Its portable. It has a great keyboard, screen, and battery life. No fans or overheating. No issues with the operating system or installing software I need. I can even use it for some lighter software development directly, and for everything else I can ssh back to a beefier machine. If I weren't already so happy with this macbook ai…

Same. I got the 2024 15" Macbook Air when CostCo had it for $849.00*

Hadn't purchased a laptop new since college scholarship decades ago. This machine continues to make an immediate impression. The entire thing is thinner than just the bottom of my college CoreDuo. It also lasts 8x longer, on battery.

I just use mine as a tertiary machine (i.e. bedtime reading/podcast), but if you ever want to run the machine hard long-term, you can use 1mm thermal pads between the heatsink and bottom of external case (and then it'll never throttle).

Re: The MacBook Neo

#680

Post by kstrauser »

ezst wrote: post #631
kstrauser wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're comparing a $1254-minimum laptop[0] with a $599-minimum laptop[1] and asserting that the one that's twice as expensive is nicer. I'd expect it to be. In fact, I'd demand it. (I'm ignoring the "old model, found cheaply" bit because that's entirely irrelevant. You can find old Macs on sale around, too, but that doesn't mean you can reasonably compare them to the MSRP of a brand new device.) [0] https://www.lenov…

> You're comparing a $1254-minimum laptop[0] No, I'm not: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/th... And I still stand behind the fact that, for that price, you've got a very competent device that is better specced for light use and friendlier for mom and pop (look, it has a HDMI, you can straight up connect it to the telly! Look, it has USB A ports, so that old camera, hard drive with the family…

Again, we’re not comparing a brand new Mac price to an old PC price. Yes, old will be cheaper. Old MacBooks are cheaper than new ones, too.

But for giggles, let’s look at the old PC.

Despite being heavier, wider, taller, thicker, slower, dimmer, lower resolution, hotter, older, and having less battery life, it is, indeed, $20 cheaper.

Put another way, there’s no way on earth I’d pick that over a MacBook Neo to save $20 at the cost of having a worse laptop in almost every way.

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