Apple introduces Macbook Neo - cheaper Macbooks starting at $599

Comments

• Harvey656@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Apple has been violating people’s wallets for how long and they finally decide now is the time to make affordable macs?

  Complaining aside, this is a darn good move. The timing is great, so they are likely to be very popular too, which is good for the future of the market. I hope.

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• kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Honestly this seems absolutely incredible for the vast majority of people, a good MacBook at a decent price point. Benchmarks haven’t come out yet but I heard its as good if not better than the M1. For the vast majority of people that’s good enough, and even with the worse battery the real world battery life is gonna be amazing.

  Also for those complaining about Linux support the main competition is Windows laptops running Snapdragon X Elite which should have somewhat similar performance and also doesn’t support Linux. Hell the snapdragon x2 probably won’t support Linux either. These laptops cost two times as much as this and usually with significantly worse build quality.

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• popcar2@piefed.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Honestly I’m expecting this to take up most of the mid-range laptop market. 8gb RAM and only 256GB storage is lame, but the rest of it probably makes it really good value (especially with components getting more expensive recently).

  Unless you’re buying used or refurbished, most laptops I found at ~$600 or less kinda suck. Either it has terrible specs, or uses cheap plastic, or has a terrible screen, etc.

  I don’t like Apple, but hopefully this is a wake-up call for other vendors. Lower end laptops should stop being cheap garbage.

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  • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    makes it really good value

    An iPad Air costs the same but comes with a much better M4 processor. The main difference is a less crap operating system in macOS.

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    • popcar2@piefed.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      An iPad Air costs the same but comes with a much better M4 processor.

      Sure, but a tablet isn’t a laptop.

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    • irate944@piefed.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Better specs in theory, but I would sooner cut my wrists than to try to work on an iOS device

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    • XLE@piefed.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      In addition to being more locked down, you’d also have to figure out/purchase peripherals like the keyboard and mouse yourself, right?

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    • MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Except for them to be directly comparable you’d also have to get a keyboard cover for the iPad, making it more expensive than the MacBook, and it’d still have one fewer USB port and no audio jack.

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  • homes@piefed.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s important to note, and is often overlooked, that macOS is especially good at memory management. That 8 GB will go much farther than it would on it another PC. Not to mention that the vast majority of people using these will be using it to browse the web and other very minor tasks. For the price, it’s pretty great.

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    • djdarren@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I have an 8GB M1 mini in service as my Home Assistant server. 4GB to UTM to run HAOS, the rest for macOS and Ollama running a small LLM for speech to text. I’m genuinely amazed that it hasn’t fallen over. Tried the same thing in Asahi but without macOS’ memory management and access to GPU acceleration, it just wasn’t feasible.

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    • kingofras@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Eh. 8GB is unified memory, meaning it also needs to carry the graphics load. You’re making it sound like it is just working memory. MacOS is also more graphics heavy than PC, especially Linux based OS, so whatever efficiency you’ll get from the OS in terms of memory compression and management, you’ll also have to offer for the smooth expose, missing control and all the frosted glass translucent garbage they force on the users.

      8GB is shit low. Email and browsing, ok. But as soon as you have 40 tabs open in chrome, it will be email or browsing. Garageband sure, again dont run anything else in the background. But I doubt you’ll even be able to edit a 1080p project in iMovie without stutter on battery power. The biggest issue is that you can’t upgrade it, so whatever software upgrades happen, 8GB is all you’ll ever get.

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    • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Additionally Apple has a bunch of cloud storage deals. I think most people store all of their photos and videos in iCloud which for most people is the majority of their storage space. I bet this is right in the sweet spot for usability, which doesn’t surprise me given Apple’s laptop history

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  • BladeFederation@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That is so true, and can’t be underestimated. The budget laptop market absolutely blows these days. I got a 1300x768 screen, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB storage (albeit HDD), and ~2 GHz CPU in 2016. That was at Best Buy, who tried to sell $100 HDMI cables at the time, and wasn’t even a great deal, though I was fine with it.

    Now the budget market is…pretty much the same. Slightly better 1080p screen, same RAM, less storage (but usually an SSD), slightly better CPU. It’s GRIM out there.

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  • ComputerAbuser@piefed.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    8GB RAM and 256GB SSD isn’t great, but it’s not surprising at this price point with the price of memory and storage right now. Anyone who has built a system recently can attest. If RAM/SSD pricing wasn’t so god awful I could imagine double the capacity at this price point.

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  • zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Agree. Probably best notebook for students and also for smaller companies, if you’re not relying on high end hardware.

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  • in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Always buy refurbished laptops, including MacBooks.

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  • deltaspawn0040@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I got a laptop from 2017 off eBay for $50 with those same specs. Installed Linux on it and it was good to go. 600 is absolutely outrageous in a world where used hardware exists.

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    • MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      You got a 2017 laptop with an A18 Pro chip? Wow that’s incredible!

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• FrChazzz@lemmus.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  It’s pretty. But I recently bought a Lenovo IdeaPad at Costco for less, with 16GB ram and 1TB SDD and am running Linux Mint on it, which I’m getting way more out of than any other Mac I’ve owned.

  Without a doubt the Mac’s screen is better than mine. But I feel like, all things considered, what I have can do more (and probably for longer). I’m happy to see something like this come along and take the wind out of Microslop’s sails (and sales). At the same time, I feel like one is able to get far more value out of a less-costly machine. If one were going to switch OSes anyway, why not Linux? I guess they’re banking on people already owning iPhones and therefore making this a more seamless transition or whatever…

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• FireWire400@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I would be kinda impressed that Apple is finally offering something that’s good value, but 8GB on RAM? ehhhhhh. It’s probably still a decent-ish deal, I don’t really know how good a phone SoC would handle anything more than light tasks, though.

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• BladeFederation@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  You known what, good job Apple. You’ve been winning me over lately. I’m not sure I’d exactly recommend this route to people, the 8 GB RAM is rough even with macOS being more efficient with it. But in the RAM-pocalypse we’ll take what we can get, and the rest is fire for budget range.

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• btsax@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  How soon until Asahi will run on it

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  • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    How soon until Asahi will run on it

    Years. Asahi fully relies on reverse engineering by the community and those community members tend to get hired by the competition. Get a device where the platform designer supports Linux development upstream if your priority is Linux.

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• thoralf@discuss.familie-will.at ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  If it wouldn’t carry just 8 GB of RAM, it would be a great deal. Sadly, it’s not even upgradable, so its usefulness is rather limited.

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  • foxfell@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It would be. Even my pixel have 16gigs of ram, lol.

    Testing was conducted by Apple in January and February 2026 using preproduction MacBook Neo systems with Apple A18 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB SSD.

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  • ClydapusGotwald@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah 8gb of ram is unusable for most things.

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    • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah 8gb of ram is unusable for most things.

      Most notably web browsing which one would think this thing is mostly for.

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• random_character_a@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Reasonably priced Mac. What a crazy timeline.

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  • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Reasonably priced Mac.

    Phone CPU. Similar priced iPads come with a much better CPU.

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    • henfredemars@infosec.pub ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Counterpoint: Phone CPUs can rival yesterday’s desktops.

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    • otacon239@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’ve been running an M1 for years now. So tired of the argument that Mac is underpowered. No, it’s not a video editing/compiling/gaming powerhouse, but it more than makes up for it with an 8+ hour battery life going on 5 years now.

      It still handles everything I throw at it just fine. If I need to bust out the compute power, Mac just isn’t the right rig for it. But that doesn’t make them useless.

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    • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It has comparable performance to laptop CPUs in its price bracket while being significantly more power efficient.

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    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But only run iPadOS, so they’re a paperweight.

      Regardless, I’m never buying another mac unless I can run asahi linux on it. Apple has progressively destroyed MacOS for the last 15 years, and will continue to do so.

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    • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Similar iPads also come with a lot less ports, no physical keyboard, no aluminum clamshell protection, and a shittier OS.

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• fuzzywombat@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Considering Windows has become a complete dumpster fire recently, this $600 laptop could be a really appealing option for some if they’re mostly browsing the web.

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  • FireWire400@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’d make for a great student laptop, reminds me of the old polycarbonate MacBooks actually. They did cut corners a lot, but retained all the niceties you’d expect from a MacBook.

    And they finally added some colour; could’ve have gone with more vibrant colours IMO but it’s better than nothing.

    I gotta say, I do like fuzzy wombats as well^^

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• hperrin@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  So at this price point, there’s basically no reason to ever buy a Windows PC at all.

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  • BladeFederation@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Sure there is, so you can put Linux on it!

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    • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      There’s no reason for the average person to ever buy another windows device

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    • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Thanks go the amazing people over at Asahi Linux, you can on macbooks too!

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• veeesix@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  ICYMI, the Neo is an even better deal at $499 with education pricing.

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  • mehrshad@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    This right here. Everyone in this thread is looking for MBP use cases from a device that is CLEARLY designed to take foothold in the classroom. The $499 price point goes even lower for volume EDU sales. The company is not going to explicitly position this as a classroom device - it’s inherent through its spec limitations and even its packaging.

    Now it’s a matter of how delicately they promote it with third party learning management tools, Google Classroom, Canvas, etc.

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• adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is the “let’s get the budget computer crowd using iCloud services” solution.

  They can afford to sell at a loss if needed, because the onboard storage is just low enough to make NOT subscribing to cloud services painful after 6-8 months.

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  • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Exactly. Most of Apples software design decisions since the iPhone are anti-consumer and monopolistic, and should be straight up illegal.

    Apple owns your device; not you.

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    • protogen420@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      a sane light in the replies

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• goatinspace@feddit.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Image

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• MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Does it run Linux?

  /s or not

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• aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The MacBook 5C.

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• brokenwing@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I think it would be good for the industry. Windows had a stronghold in this price bracket and a competition is never bad especially considering how MS is pushing AI into W11.

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• CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A renewed interest in competing with Chromebooks?

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• aReallyCrunchyLeaf@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  If it has more memory I’d be on board. 8GB is fucking rough.

  Honestly if it forces software to be leaner going down the line, I’m ok with memory crunches (it won’t, but I’m just thinking out loud).

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• veeesix@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Looks interesting. I’d love to get one for my parents that insist on having a laptop for the keyboard, but they’re so afraid of learning anything new that it isn’t worth the hassle.

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• pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  the yellow one looks like a surface to me

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