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When the cheap one is the cool one

arun.is

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Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#91

Post by voidUpdate »

martheen wrote: post #79
voidUpdate wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia suggests chromebooks generally use normal x86 hardware, they just run chromeOS

Most of the major vendors are already assembling x86 laptops for the far larger Windows market, it's cheaper to just reuse those models for ChromeOS instead of designing a special ARM design, which in turn due to lack of scale are priced similarly to their x86 counterpart. Price sensitive customers thus don't see that much saving. Battery life is nice, but I doubt there's that much market yearning for a cheap laptop…

I'm shocked there isn't a market yearning for a cheap laptop with long battery life. That is like the two things I'd like most from a laptop

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#92

Post by Gigachad »

philistine wrote: post #85
Gigachad wrote: post #10

Apple has been doing this for ages. The base tier one always gets the fun colors while the pro models get silver, grey, and maybe some muted blue. Not sure why they make the cheaper models cooler than the top tier ones. Maybe it's just too expensive to stock multiple colors of every product. The Neo has minimal customization options for specs so making it colorful is cheaper.

With their phones and other stuff, sure. But colours in laptops haven't been seen since the toilet seat iBooks.

The MacBook Air has had colors for a while. Not particularly bold ones but they did blue and rose gold.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#93

Post by msh »

71bw wrote: post #38
mjamesaustin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my personal perspective, every Apple laptop I've ever owned has lasted 10+ years. Their phones may have some planned obsolescence, but I don't find that to be the case at all with their computers.

My 2015 MacBook Air, purchased new in 2017, was already practically dead by 2021.

How

I still use my 2015 macbook air (purchased in 2015) as a secondary computer. I installed linux on it last year as it was not getting software updates anymore.

Other than one of the USB ports being a bit flaky it works perfectly fine.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#94

Post by benoau »

eeixlk wrote: post #74
mjamesaustin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my personal perspective, every Apple laptop I've ever owned has lasted 10+ years. Their phones may have some planned obsolescence, but I don't find that to be the case at all with their computers.

As someone who keeps apple laptops for 7 or so years but also has encountered numerous macbook pro meltdowns both applecare covered and not, 10+ is a crazy number and you'll probably need to provide some proof for that to be reasonable.

Why is 10+ unreasonable?

The M1 was sold right up until last year in new devices so it presumably has another decade of support left - that'll be a 15 year span! It certainly wouldn't make sense to declare M1 devices trash while supporting the Neo with almost directly equivalent performance.

The M5 is so much more powerful it may still be useful throughout the 2040s.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#95

Post by chillfox »

TomWhitwell wrote: post #44
chillfox wrote: post #8

I am so tired of everything electronic only coming in black and maybe gray. I like colors! So it's nice to see apple finally bringing a bit of color back.

https://www.alexandercowan.com/yellow-walkman-data-art-of-cu...

ok, so focus groups suck...

I have actually picked the colored version almost every time I have bought electronics. I have got red and blue usb drives. I have got a purple phone. I have a blue mouse, the previous one was pink, and my keyboard is green.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#96

Post by alamortsubite »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #90
spaqin wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a 2012 Samsung ultrabook with Arch for light coding, web and limited image editing sometimes while traveling; while fairly beat up, recently I replaced the battery in it for 10 bucks in 20 minutes; it was also probably like a fifth of the price. And with Linux you don't have to worry about a specific kit lasting a long time - it just runs anyway.

Cool. I wasn’t trying to posture. I was just mentioning my own experience. My experience, for the last 40 years, has been people automatically attacking me, for using Apple kit. I think that Linux folks had the same, for a while, but these days, it’s a lot more accepted. People just blindly hate Apple, and drop all semblance of reason, when considering the platform (and people who program for it).

I don't think many people blindly hate Apple, but it's fair to point out your Catalina install is obsolete.

If I could install Linux on the Neo, I'd probably buy one. My daily-driver is also from 2012 (XPS L321X). It's not hobbled by the OS like your Air or the Neo, however, and happily runs the latest release from Debian.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#97

Post by alamortsubite »

red_admiral wrote: post #48
FerretFred wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got the citrus version because it made such a change from the usual. However, I'd love it if Apple could make some truly vibrant non-pastel colours like tangerine and lime devices they did in the early days.

Ah, fond memories of the original CRT iMacs. I think you could take off the color covering and replace it with a different one? More color choices that there are Pokemon games.

The G3s were cool when they came out but they didn't have swappable case covers, nor were there as many colors as you remember.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#98

Post by alamortsubite »

philistine wrote: post #85
Gigachad wrote: post #10

Apple has been doing this for ages. The base tier one always gets the fun colors while the pro models get silver, grey, and maybe some muted blue. Not sure why they make the cheaper models cooler than the top tier ones. Maybe it's just too expensive to stock multiple colors of every product. The Neo has minimal customization options for specs so making it colorful is cheaper.

With their phones and other stuff, sure. But colours in laptops haven't been seen since the toilet seat iBooks.

Dell took a stab at colors with the Mini netbooks circa 2008.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#99

Post by alamortsubite »

serf wrote: post #5

in my car circles the 968 was seen as a total pos that was really just sort of trying to compete with the RX-7 and Fairlady, do a worse job at being a good sports car than them, and push the brand into further cheapened territory towards the every-person for the sake of financial incentive while inflating the cost of their premium offering, the 911. 1:1 example, but i'm not sure those were the points being made here.

Porsche killed the 944S Turbo because it was accidentally faster than the Carrera and 930, and that was taboo. Its successor, the 968, was the awkward compromise.

Re: When the cheap one is the cool one

#100

Post by carlosjobim »

nottorp wrote: post #43
mjamesaustin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my personal perspective, every Apple laptop I've ever owned has lasted 10+ years. Their phones may have some planned obsolescence, but I don't find that to be the case at all with their computers.

> every Apple laptop I've ever owned has lasted 10+ years .. as long as you avoided the emoji keyboard era, or never used an emoji keyboard laptop outdoors or even with your windo open :) I have laptops much older than the ~2018 that work perfectly. But not only the 2018's keyboard broke, but to add insult to the injury they used a display cable that was too short in that generation and that broke too. That is Cook's…

Exactly my experience as well. Macs were great until 2016 and great after 2020. Between that the hardware was worst in class.
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