MacBook Neo has just been released with $599, which is so attractive to me, but I am still fine to use my almost 7-year-old MacBook Air.
This Air has Intel CPU, the then latest design with 256GB and Touch ID. Everything works great right now (including Affinity) except Safari so I have switched to Firefox. Except the fact that Apple will end security updates on Sonoma.
There are rare cases I have no choice but to use Mac: scan my documents and layout design (due to Affinity’s current version only available on Mac although I can use the outdated Publisher); the only thing Mac works better remains the screen size for watching movies. I can switch almost all my cases to my M2 iPad Pro, including writing, even though I never buy the keyboard.
So what’s the point of buying a new laptop? Extended security updates? Liquid Glass on macOS? Enjoying latest features of stock Apple apps on mac? It’s still a waste of money even though the price is low.
When I was using my MacBook Air in the kitchen, my housemate thought I had just bought a new laptop. I remember how Apple shortened the support period of my MacBook and I don’t want to risk myself to get a cheap MacBook in case they support it much shorter like three years due to some reasons…
I can relate. I worked in I.T. for the last half of my career and never ordered anything but base models of the company MacBooks I used. When I retired I was using a 5 year old machine.
I did upgrade storage on my current iPhone 16 Pro, and M2 iPad Air to 256. But I plan to use both for as long as they remain useful. If I needed to replace my current MacBook Air I would probably buy a Neo. But I wouldn’t need it if I could install a chrome browser on my iPad.
I noticed the Neo’s price of $599 is the same as 12 months of the optional services (Applecare+, Arcade, Music, News+, TV+) that comes preinstalled on the computer
I have a 2017 Intel iMac with 32GB. It works perfectly fine. Can’t upgrade to Tahoe now but works great and doesn’t slow down at all. also have an M4 Macbook Pro but mainly use the iMac because of the big screen.
The good news is if my MacBook Air can’t work, I can buy Neo because I can live with 2018 model in 2026 or later. At this moment, as I said before, try my iPad Pro first!
I think Apple’s intention is to make users more willing to subscribe their services when the hardware is no longer expensive while more endurable (compared to Windows laptops). First-time Mac users and students will love it.
I’d think that the chances of anybody in the target audience for the MBN even knowing what P3/True Tone is – never mind caring about it enough to spend another £500 to get the Air – are rather slim.
In fact, I don’t know what P3/True Tone is, or why I should care, and I currently have a Mac Studio Max with Apple Studio Display, as well as an MBA M4. The MBN display is still apparently very good and much better than other displays at a comparable price.
As for the memory and storage, 8GB is more than enough the intended use, and if people do want TouchID and 512GB, then it’s £100 more.
Clearly they’ve made compromises to get the price as low as possible to capture an untapped ‘Macs are too expensive’ market, just as they did with the latest iteration of the Mac mini, but I think the compromises are nicely judged for that market.
I’m sorry, Apple has never done this. They make 30%-40% profit per laptop and the Neo is unlikely to be different looking at the spec. They sell a $20 ram upgrade for $200 dollars. This is not apple being generous, they’re just realising that people don’t want to spend $1500 on a standard macbook. So they’ve designed one with the iPone 16 chip, slow usb-c, smaller battery, no backlit keyboard, etc. But it will still have the same markup and as others have said they’re looking at hooking people on their services where the markup is closer to 70%.
I think you might be out of date with your RAM pricing. 8GB of laptop RAM at Crucial is now £150. The price has sky rocketed in the last few months with the demand for AI. It is incredible to say this, but currenly Apple RAM is reasonably good value.
Not sure what you’re arguing with, TBH. Of course they’ve made compromises with the design to meet a price point. Every single laptop ever produced has done that. And this price point is considerably lower than many if not most pundits were predicting (guessing).
Would you be happier if I’d added ‘… and still give them a profit margin they’re happy with, given the market they’re aiming at, the rascals’?
I am sure they are more able than other brands to provide a good value with a cheaper price, as they do since iPhone SE (1st generation).
If you use cheap Windows laptops or Android phones, you will be frustrated by their software and hardware support, and the issues cannot be solved by paying more. Apple can even support a cheap device for many years. Even when they want to phrase out something earlier, they still manage to support for around 5+2 years. My MacBook Air with Intel is the case.
Which brand can do like Apple? Maybe Garmin, but they do watches. I can’t find any.
My MacBook Air has only DUAL core processor (Intel compared nowadays at least 6-core) and 8GB RAM. GPU? I am sure if they have more than a core but I use this device to finish the layout design for my zine on Affinity. Screen with sRGB without True Tone so I simply adjust the white balance. I don’t use backlight on my keyboard too. I have 93GB left, and battery capacity 78% while Apple said it is still healthy. I care Touch ID, and I use Apple built-in apps mainly. Be honest Neo is for me.
But I have a M2 iPad Pro with iPadOS 26, which is my portable main driver now. Unless there are specific tasks which can only be done on MacBook, most of the issues can be solved by switching to iPad instead of paying for a new device which support macOS 26 or later instead of sticking to macOS 14. I won’t let lower prices impact me.
Probably my bad. It sounded like Apple are doing everything to give you the cheapest possible laptop. Which I don’t think they do. Perhaps cheapest possible retaining their profit margins.
Not where I am. It’s £60. If it’s £60 commercially, then it’s cheaper to produce. Apple also buy millions of units and quarterly contracts, so I’m not convinced they’re paying more than £40 per 8GB, if that.
This discussion does raise the issue of updating your OS. Tahoe, has for the first time made me majorly regret updating my OS. No doubt the changes in Tahoe, will also mean that many developers will require Tahoe for all the new versions of their software. I do wish I’d stuck with Sonoma (and not upgraded my iphone; that’s another regret.). But it means if hardware prices are going up due to AI, then people are going to look to hang on to their devices even longer, and perhaps not upgrade the OS as regularly as this leads to things breaking and needing to buy a new device ultimately.
I think you are being a little disingenuous there Apple doesn’t use DDR 4 in its laptops, the RAM they use is probably closer to this quite fast DDR 5 this so nearer £130 on Amazon, Whether or you can get it 10 quid cheaper or more expensive the fact still remains that Apple’s RAM is better value than it was a year ago or so.
The price of RAM is increasing rapidly, Of course Apple are still making a hefty profit, and I would think they lock in their pricing in advance, but I guess the massive price increaes in (new) RAM will eventually be translated into apple pricing.
I do see that RAM prices are increasing massively. I do apologise as my link above pointed to an older DDR4 RAM module which wasn’t comparable.
Having said that I still don’t believe Apple are paying those prices, especially not for soldered RAM. I imagine when their current contract for RAM expires, we’ll see what happens with the price. I’m basing my judgement on Apple’s historical extortionate price for RAM and SSD upgrades.
Thank you for sharing the video. It will be interesting to see if AI ramping up hardware prices will crash the hardware market. It would be ironic if AI has no users because they cannot afford a computer to use it on or can’t afford a TV to watch it on .
A couple of months ago I traded in my 2020 MacBook Pro (Intel) with 1TB SSD on a 13" M4 MacBook Air with 1TB and 16GB RAM. Other than missing 2 extra USB-C ports, I’m very happy with it, and I got a nice sum of money for the MBP on the trade-in. The Intel MBP was at the end of its upgrade cycle.
.