The MacBook Neo is a $500 Wake-Up Call for the Entire PC Industry

[ActualViking]

This underspeccd computer isn't worthy of the all the positive press.

Not sure why, but I think most of the press is collectively underestimating the average consumers as they will see the lack of memory of storage and buy something else. Of course there may be some which are in the Apple cult already, that will come close to buying but even cultists needs storage.

 

[LordVile95]

This underspeccd computer isn't worthy of the all the positive press.

Not sure why, but I think most of the press is collectively underestimating the average consumers as they will see the lack of memory of storage and buy something else. Of course there may be some which are in the Apple cult already, that will come close to buying but even cultists needs storage.

What are you going to fill the storage up with bud?

 

[schmittcp]

I disagree with many of the people discrediting the Neo. I have a windows high end computer for gaming because windows is required for games, a mac air for developing software because Windows absolutely sucks for development (and will until they adopt unix as a core), and a windows surface pro for casual use like reading internet, reading books, etc. I love the windows pro, one of my favorite computers I've every owned due to the form factor, except the power cord which I have to replace every year because the wires break. I will seriously consider the Neo as an alternative to the surface, and again I love the pro. But, mac products focus on what people want and with a lightweight computer I just want to do simple things in a very easy way, and that's not where windows excels.

 

[Watzupken]

For me personally it's just the RAM limit. Everything else is acceptable.
Apple has always been stingy with RAM. But 8GB is just not right in 2026.
The article hits the nail on the head. It's a laptop for everyone else.

I was hoping that Apple release this with 12GB for better multi-tasking. But I think given the cost of RAM, I think this is a necessary cutback to hit the target price. For light usage, this should work well given I have used a M1 MacBook Air with the same RAM and SSD config. Having said that, my concern is that the SSD will die prematurely since the lack of memory will mean that the SSD will be used for page file/ file swapping. I suspect that Apple may also be using QLC NAND to further reduce cost that makes the longevity concern worst.

 

[matthisd]

Schools don’t really care about “value”. They upgrade hardware on a time basis not a hardware one so typically the cheapest product is the one they get. Also volume pricing is much stronger with chromebooks.

Hm... I know some tight-on-budget schools in Germany that still picked the iPad over cheaper alternatives. For that they usually get one-time budgets from the state. I can't tell you how the final decision is made, but it doesn't just seem to be price.

 

[deemon]

It’s $500 on the education store. I can get it for £499 in the UK. It’s available in France and Germany for €599

Yeah well. If your country has official apple store. not all do. not going to travel for 100€ discout. also good luck buying in another country apple store as "student" .... .
Still. You need to be student and get student discout. For everyone else (which is basically everyone) it's ~700€. For an iPhone with physical keyboard. I don't know exactly what the real wake-up call is supposed to be.... that you need to attach a keyboard now to your phone? Blackberry comeback...

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

If it had an option for 16Gb of RAM I would have understood all the hype and interest behind this product. But as it is now, it is only a budget option for a very limited use scenario.

 

[LordVile95]

Hm... I know some tight-on-budget schools in Germany that still picked the iPad over cheaper alternatives. For that they usually get one-time budgets from the state. I can't tell you how the final decision is made, but it doesn't just seem to be price.

Depends on the management. iPads are like £310 on the education store so for a fleet rollout would be well under 300 per unit plus free hardware support

 

[LordVile95]

Yeah well. If your country has official apple store. not all do. not going to travel for 100€ discout. also good luck buying in another country apple store as "student" .... .
Still. You need to be student and get student discout. For everyone else (which is basically everyone) it's ~700€. For an iPhone with physical keyboard. I don't know exactly what the real wake-up call is supposed to be.... that you need to attach a keyboard now to your phone? :-D

Considering this is targeted at students doesn’t that make sense? Also European countries do have Apple stores

Also it really isn’t an iPhone with keyboard

 

[ActualViking]

What are you going to fill the storage up with bud?

Many phones records video in 4K these days, those GB fill up quickly.

Of course people should not rely upon having the children's first steps and what not stored only on their computer, but that is what people do and then 512 GB is not much.

 

[Hecate91]

The base version for $599 only has a 256GB SSD, which isn't much space anymore.

 

[LordVile95]

Many phones records video in 4K these days, those GB fill up quickly.

Of course people should not rely upon having the children's first steps and what not stored only on their computer, but that is what people do and then 512 GB is not much.

You’re storing everything on a laptop? Even then cloud storage is a thing and 4K video doesn’t take up a ton of storage if you’re not using things like ProRes.

 

[Rudyduu]

I venture to say 99% of users have used all their "free" local and cloud storage within months of starting and are paying Apple monthly for more...This cycle repeats eternally for 99% of Apple users.

How do you know enough Apple users to make statements about what 99% of them do? How do people form such opinions with so little data?

 

[LordVile95]

How do you know enough Apple users to make statements about what 99% of them do? How do people form such opinions with so little data?

I mean I’m still using the 2TB I get for free… actually technically I get 2TB of storage because I pay less than the individual price for the services I was already around for

 

[ActualViking]

You’re storing everything on a laptop? Even then cloud storage is a thing and 4K video doesn’t take up a ton of storage if you’re not using things like ProRes.

Of course I don't. I have a home server and a system for keeping a off-site backup.

But non tech people do keep all their stuff on one system, those that are a little more knowledgeable have an external drive for backup.

 

[LordVile95]

Of course I don't. I have a home server and a system for keeping a off-site backup.

But non tech people do keep all their stuff on one system, those that are a little more knowledgeable have an external drive for backup.

Non tech people aren’t moving photos and videos to a laptop from a phone. They’ll use the cloud storage they get from other services without realising it

 

[poohbear]

This is NOT for the mainstream market @Julio Franco.

This is a Mac Chromebook for the primary education market (elementary to high school).

Yes this is fine for some consumers - the same ones that Chromebooks are fine for.

It doesn't even have enough RAM to run some iPhone apps. It's designed for middle schools to have a cheap laptop to hand out - NOT to disrupt the laptop space. That's why Apple limits it RAM and SSD - to not disrupt it's own laptop space. They tried and largely failed to convince schools to use iPads instead of Chromebooks so they had to try something else because that education market are your future customers.

I'm a teacher and can attest to this (in Ontario, Canada). One school board I worked for had ipads for students, and I was like wtf were they thinking? Chromebooks are so much better for doing school work, and the ipads were basically just assistive devices because you couldn't do any real school work on them. If this is a chromebook competitor from Apple, then that's gonna change things because in Elementary/High school is where most of their future customers are coming from.

 

[nismo91]

I'd love to get the laptop if it supports x64 linux os which it sadly does not. why linux? because after around 6 years it's not gonna run the latest OS anymore but then I can use linux on it. I may be biased because for the past 10 years I always got a work laptop anyway.

obviously as the others said, it's for education industry because once you teach em young, they're gonna use it forever. it's the same trick gates said when he saw windows couldn't sell in china in the early 90s. he knows once you get em hooked they'll be your customer later on anyway.

 

[LordVile95]

I'd love to get the laptop if it supports x64 linux os which it sadly does not. why linux? because after around 6 years it's not gonna run the latest OS anymore but then I can use linux on it. I may be biased because for the past 10 years I always got a work laptop anyway.

obviously as the others said, it's for education industry because once you teach em young, they're gonna use it forever. it's the same trick gates said when he saw windows couldn't sell in china in the early 90s. he knows once you get em hooked they'll be your customer later on anyway.

Issue is you can’t use anything on Linux. People are also still using MBPs from 2012. They’re still getting security updates too on Catalina

 

[Q Wales]

$599 in my book makes it $600 and not $500 if you are rounding

 

[bbutle01]

Games have always been PC first, MacOS if it's a hit or if the devs just love macs. I'm hoping this balances out the market enough so there's finally a better financial reason for devs to make that Mac version.
So thanks to the devs already doing that (Factorio is what I'm playing at the moment)
Dyson Sphere Program is what I want next, PC only. Satisfactory played just fine in GPTK.

 

[Hecate91]

Issue is you can’t use anything on Linux. People are also still using MBPs from 2012. They’re still getting security updates too on Catalina

Not sure what that is supposed to mean, Linux can extend the usability of any old X86-64 laptop, and there are plenty of alternatives for software that a majority of average users will run, not including companies who refuse to support Linux like Adobe or MS Office, however most people do things in a browser anyway.
Security updates aren't the same as getting full OS support to keep software compatibility, Apple is going to ditch support for all Intel based Macs after Tahoe.

 

[LordVile95]

Not sure what that is supposed to mean, Linux can extend the usability of any old X86-64 laptop, and there are plenty of alternatives for software that a majority of average users will run, not including companies who refuse to support Linux like Adobe or MS Office, however most people do things in a browser anyway.

However browser functionality is limited and most order the desktop application. There’s also the factor that you either have to learn to install apps individually through command line or use something like flatpak which among other issues has the tendency to brick applications if an external library changes. Well it’s either bricked or you’re running an outdated application.

Security updates aren't the same as getting full OS support to keep software compatibility, Apple is going to ditch support for all Intel based Macs after Tahoe.

What software have Macs that are still receiving security updates lost access to?

 

[trparky]

This is too expensive for schools to consider vs chromebooks at half the cost.

You're forgetting the cost of having all of your data in Google's cloud. For a lot of people, that's a hard pass.

 

[Iamsiege7817]

8GB of RAM lol... this thing is a chromebook and should cost $250 at most.