Apple Neo - welcome to the Dark Side

[JeffKeryk]

I've always been a Windows guy, primarily due to my programming career. FYI I am a lousy computer user; I can code in numerous languages, but that's about it.
Years back I bought an early iPad, just to learn. I got a Mini a year ago and it is a great traveling companion.
Chromes rule for general use, speed, low cost, etc. I love Chromebooks.

I bought an Air at Costco years ago, but took it back. Didn't even open the box. Ha!
So I decided to check out a Neo. $599; I can tell this is one high quality piece of hardware; more so for the relative cost.

Guess I hasta give this thing a fair shot. I will miss the interaction between my Pixel Phone and Lenovo Chromebook.
I will say this; the Neo is a winner. Apple hit a homer with this one.
Wish me luck. I hate computers. You have no idea how many computers we have in this house. Neither do I.

 

[ctechbob]

Apple has always had gorgeous hardware. I use an older Cinemasomething monitor of theirs with my Windows desktop and it is fantastic. But that's just about all of theirs I will use. I got the monitor in trade for some work I did for someone. No way I'd pony up what they're asking for it.

 

[alarmguy]

I've always been a Windows guy, primarily due to my programming career. FYI I am a lousy computer user; I can code in numerous languages, but that's about it.
Years back I bought an early iPad, just to learn. I got a Mini a year ago and it is a great traveling companion.
Chromes rule for general use, speed, low cost, etc. I love Chromebooks.

I bought an Air at Costco years ago, but took it back. Didn't even open the box. Ha!
So I decided to check out a Neo. $599; I can tell this is one high quality piece of hardware; more so for the relative cost.

Guess I hasta give this thing a fair shot. I will miss the interaction between my Pixel Phone and Lenovo Chromebook.
I will say this; the Neo is a winner. Apple hit a homer with this one.
Wish me luck. I hate computers. You have no idea how many computers we have in this house. Neither do I.

I have had a MacBook Air M1 since the first year/month they came out, which was around gosh I don’t know five years ago?

To this day when I use it, I’m still so impressed the precision of opening up the laptop display, and the flawless operation. The majority of my computing at home is on a Mac mini though.
Which I just upgraded to a new Mac mini M4

I know you’re not an apple guy so welcome to the Darkside since the operating system is so different from what you’re used to you will certainly have your frustrating challenges. May be enough that you want to give up!

As you know, I’m solidly in their world and for the foreseeable future, I can’t see a time I won’t be

 

[skyactiv]

I put the Doc or what Windows calls the taskbar on the side.

 

[redhat]

I have been using macOS as a daily driver OS for the better part of 10 years after just needing a change from being on Windows all day being a engineer-level working IT Manager for many medium organizations.

Had a i7 4th Gen Intel MacBook Pro, then a 2019 16" i7 MBP, and now an M4 Max MBP. Also added a cheap M1 MBA to my shed docked with a 24" monitor to replace an ancient mid-2010 iMac.

Nice buy with the Neo, it is a very attractive machine. I have read that the A18 in it performs equally to a M1. That is impressive as this M1 in my MBA has been excellent for a beater machine.

 

[PandaBear]

The price doesn't look too bad now that AI has taken all the ram and nand in the market.

 

[Elkins45]

I bought my first Mac with the education discount in 1993 and have been using them ever since. My experience is that the higher initial cost is offset by the longer usable service life. I can go 8-10 years before buying a new Mac but my Windows laptop is hopelessly outdated in 4-5. I have no experience with Chrome OS.

 

[BobsArmory]

With the Neo, Apple has put windows and chromebooks on notice. They will have to start getting their act together or start losing market share.

 

[goblin]

Things we have today as a standard thanks to Apple:

- Non-replaceable batteries that suck you in a whole ecosystem of battery banks and throw the phone when the battery dies: Check
Hey Apple and everybone else - you know what is better than the best battery bank? A %@#$@# SPARE BATTERY !!!

- Sim card trays requiring a tool to extract, forcing you to carry one on your keychain, which eventually will pierce your pocket and your nuts because it's basically a needle: Check

- Absolute refusal to adopt swappable memory cards, as it allows them to charge $200 for the next storage memory step, for hardware that costs them (or at least used to) $7 at the manufacturing level: Check

- An extension to the above: storage plans, and the continuous push of the concept that cloud storage is better than a memory card that can be swapped in seconds: Check

- A pitched battle against USB charging and any non-proprietary universal charging standard till the European Union forced them to: Check

- No more headphone jack: Check

- Airpods that can be located on a map 1000 miles away, but don't beep or chime once you're 20ft away (not even with a gradually increasing pitch so they don't damage anyone's ears if you try to locate them while they are being worn). Effectively making them into a wear & replaceable item, at a rate of about one pair per year when you have teenagers at home: Check

Misunderstand me not: I don't blame them for doing it. I blame them for proving to others that they can get away with such crap, effectively making every single choice of theirs into a standard, because their choices are the most efficiently money-milking ones.

Also I'm not an apple-hater, I used to manage about a hundred at work and when they were needed - they were needed.

 

[Pew]

I think it's a smart idea Apple decided to release a much more affordable laptop. They're seeing the benefits of getting people into their ecosystem for the long game. Add in a top-down QAQC on their entire lineup that they can completely control.....

 

[Brons2]

It's a nice device but if I wanted a 13" screen I'd just get an iPad Air. I'd be more likely to get a MacBook Air. Saw a 15.3, 24GB model on sale for $300 off this week. Still $1299, that's a pretty big ask. I'd probably rather just get another Windows laptop and immediately wipe Windows and install Linux. For $1299 I could get 64GB and a nice i7, probably 10 plus cores.

 

[goblin]

I'd doublecheck all prices. The Surface just went up $300 because of the chip shortage, all of them are going up. I think $600 for that Neo thing is quite amazing all brands included.

 

[CDNozzle]

With the Neo, Apple has put windows and chromebooks on notice. They will have to start getting their act together or start losing market share.

Oh the chromebook died immediately once the Neo was released.

I've never met someone who liked a chromebook, and as a someone whose school system bought a bunch a year or two before I graduated, they're fkn awful to use...display, OS, everything.

I also think MSFT is losing their OS market share with the usability and privacy Windows declining. Emphasis on privacy with 11 and all the preinstalled bloat that's caused a lot to switch to linux. I, for one, won't upgrade to 11 and will put some linux distr on my Thinkpad.

 

[CDNozzle]

Went to BestBuy this past weekend to check out some cameras and stopped by the Macs. Was very impressed by all, including the Neo.

It was very well built for the price (didn't feel cheap at all aside from the lightness) and tbh I'd get one for email/browsing/youtube. But at some point I'd probably get fed up with the phone CPU and limited RAM. The air is probably for me.

 

[dogememe]

It's a nice device but if I wanted a 13" screen I'd just get an iPad Air. I'd be more likely to get a MacBook Air. Saw a 15.3, 24GB model on sale for $300 off this week. Still $1299, that's a pretty big ask. I'd probably rather just get another Windows laptop and immediately wipe Windows and install Linux. For $1299 I could get 64GB and a nice i7, probably 10 plus cores.

You should check my thread in the for sale section

But in all seriousness the Neo is a great idea. But the lack of a backlit keyboard kills it for me then again I’m not the demographic of a Neo anyway. Maybe my mom would be… but we got her a new PC laptop last year for about the same price as a Neo and it’s much larger which is what she requested.

 

[melk]

I’m about ready to retire my 2016 MacBook and will almost certainly be getting the Neo.

Buying one with the Edu discount for my son in college as well.

 

[97prizm]

I've always been a Windows guy, primarily due to my programming career. FYI I am a lousy computer user; I can code in numerous languages, but that's about it.
Years back I bought an early iPad, just to learn. I got a Mini a year ago and it is a great traveling companion.
Chromes rule for general use, speed, low cost, etc. I love Chromebooks.

I bought an Air at Costco years ago, but took it back. Didn't even open the box. Ha!
So I decided to check out a Neo. $599; I can tell this is one high quality piece of hardware; more so for the relative cost.

Guess I hasta give this thing a fair shot. I will miss the interaction between my Pixel Phone and Lenovo Chromebook.
I will say this; the Neo is a winner. Apple hit a homer with this one.
Wish me luck. I hate computers. You have no idea how many computers we have in this house. Neither do I.

Just get a think penguin or system 76. If you code alot so much is done through unix/Linux. Sure the Mac has "polish".

 

[alarmguy]

Just get a think penguin or system 76. If you code alot so much is done through unix/Linux. Sure the Mac has "polish".

Amazing build quality, a display, processor, keyboard and mouse unmatched in its price range. Of course seamless integration in the Apple Device world.
The System 76's you talk about are $1000 to $2000 more. Not sure why you would bring it up against a $599 computer.

 

[alarmguy]

The Processor in the NEO which was taken from the iPhone pro exceeds the performance of the first gen highly rated MacBook Air M1 laptops and single core performance matches the M4 chip.
This is no slouch of a $600 Apple Notebook and as mentioned if your one to appreciate speed, incredible build quality, keyboard, trackpad, fantastic display at this price how can a normal consumer go wrong if you want an Apple device. The 13 inch display might be too small for my eyes. I dont know. I do know a lot of people that do not want something too big.

It's stupid of me to post this, but what the heck. Where will you get a complete package like this in the Windows or Android world consisting of all the above for $600?
What is stupid is to compare the processor, more capable than the average user buying in this price class will be able to use.

Source - https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/05/macbook-neo-first-benchmarks/

Ps, I know I am a fan boy now which I cant believe as I used to hate Apple with a passion and my family reminded me years ago. That was along time ago, going back past the iPhone 10
Now 6 years later my wife and I have 2 Mac Desktops, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad, I MacBook Air and two Apple Watches

She maintains one higher end Lenovo laptop same year I got my MacBook M1 air as she isnt as "adaptable" as me, which I knew so her Lenovo gives her comfort among all her Apple Devices. HOWEVER in the last year she has been using the newer IPAD I bought her more and more, getting close to almost all the time. She also works all day long on a Windows based (Dell) company work station.

When the Lenovo goes I am sure she will have a MacBook (or maybe just continue on with the iPad and her Mac mini desktop) as she will also be retired from her job and Windows company workstation.

But I will say, she does like her Lenovo. Very upsetting at first with that, a month out of the one year warranty the hinges on the display screen cover of the notebook broke and near the hinge the display cracked. My wife is REALLY careful with her stuff. It was a known issue. Lenovo Yoga EVO ... away they wouldnt cover it HOWEVER they did offer to retro an extended warrantee for some stupid low price (around $100) They then sent someone to our house to see what parts were needed. (complete new cover, display etc) When the parts came in, the service guy came back, took the notebook apart right on our kitchen table and replaced everything. So its been years and the cover still fine but you do feel you need to be gentle opening and closing the cover. This notebook of her cost the same as the MacBook Air she got me. So it wasnt a cheap machine this wouldnt have happened with the MacBook that I have. Even now, those Lenovo hinges just seem too tight to me.

 

[Elkins45]

Things we have today as a standard thanks to Apple:

- Non-replaceable batteries that suck you in a whole ecosystem of battery banks and throw the phone when the battery dies: Check
Hey Apple and everybone else - you know what is better than the best battery bank? A %@#$@# SPARE BATTERY !!!

- Sim card trays requiring a tool to extract, forcing you to carry one on your keychain, which eventually will pierce your pocket and your nuts because it's basically a needle: Check

- Absolute refusal to adopt swappable memory cards, as it allows them to charge $200 for the next storage memory step, for hardware that costs them (or at least used to) $7 at the manufacturing level: Check

- An extension to the above: storage plans, and the continuous push of the concept that cloud storage is better than a memory card that can be swapped in seconds: Check

- A pitched battle against USB charging and any non-proprietary universal charging standard till the European Union forced them to: Check

- No more headphone jack: Check

- Airpods that can be located on a map 1000 miles away, but don't beep or chime once you're 20ft away (not even with a gradually increasing pitch so they don't damage anyone's ears if you try to locate them while they are being worn). Effectively making them into a wear & replaceable item, at a rate of about one pair per year when you have teenagers at home: Check

Misunderstand me not: I don't blame them for doing it. I blame them for proving to others that they can get away with such crap, effectively making every single choice of theirs into a standard, because their choices are the most efficiently money-milking ones.

Also I'm not an apple-hater, I used to manage about a hundred at work and when they were needed - they were needed.

Yes, they are absolutely a terrible predatory company, but I like their user interface better than any other I've tried. Besides, I'm just too old and set in my ways to learn another OS now.

I have a whole box full of lightning cables that are basically worthless once my old iPad dies. I also have some of the flat 30 pin cables that I need to access my iPod classic which is absolutely on its last legs. And now I need USB-C for my phone. I curse the ghost of Steve Jobs for changing the connector and making me buy so many dongles instead of just building a port.