Quote from: ab on Today at 15:47:20I wonder to what group of users it is addressed...     

My guess on Apple's intention about buyers is:

- get part of the purchases by schools,

- first time computer buyers who do not know any better about hardware details, have some incentive to choose Apple (maybe because parents, friends or their nation's endconsumers favour it) and can afford the entry price (maybe because ancestors sponsor it),

- Apple users wishing to upgrade some old computer, wanting a new one (maybe lacking confidence in refurbished batteries) but being unable to spend more,

- consumers believing the marketing or tech hype PR,

- consumers having basic computing needs and not elaborating similarly priced alternatives (such as M1 to M4),

- consumers falling for the non-silver chassis colours,

- consumers underestimating mid- to long-term usefulness or buying new notebooks regularly,

- growing new suckers of the Apple upselling in the consumers' later purchases once hopefully trapped in the Apple ecosystem,

- showing experienced endconsumers the limitations of the basic model line so that motivation towards buying higher tier models is increased.

I wonder to what group of users it is addressed... it costs about £$600-700- it's not very cheap. No keyboard backlit, just average battery life, screen average as well, 8GB of ram... It's another facebook pc, badly overpriced. In the UK, for £650-670 pounds you can have zenbook 14 with 3k oled screen, 16 GB mem and 500GB ssd, which you can replace.
If somebody wants to spend bit more- macbook air m5 below £1000, giving you very good battery life and performance. Not sure how to justify spending £600-700 for this gadget. With 16 GB and illuminated keyboard that would be acceptable for internet browser/office purpose (still wouldn't get close to the M5 performance but that could be acceptable at this price point).

Not sure why it's so high rated...     

极客湾Geekerwan compares the Neo vs Air M1 vs M2 vs M3 vs M4 vs M5: youtube.com/watch?v=jyLXcaVAs9E ("MacBook Neo Review: Is A18 Pro Powerful Enough For Mac?").

---

In terms of memory bandwidth, the Neo is a 64-bit system (just like basically any decent smartphone). Neo's memory bandwidth is half of the Air (128-bit) (same as a typical dual-channel (2*64-bit) desktop PC).
Neo: 51.2 GB/s = 64-bit * 6400 MT/s / 1000 / 8.

The A19 Pro SoC has 12 GB VRAM and this would be much better. Well, maybe next year.

It would be helpful to do testing with Stillcolor (the free app that disables GPU temporal dithering) to determine whether this display is using TCON FRC (6-bit + FRC or 8-bit + FRC). All Apple Silicon Macs use GPU dithering. The answer people need is whether the built-in displays themselves are also applying dithering in the form of Frame Rate Control (FRC). Can you folks please update the post with slow motion footage of the display with Stillcolor running?

Because on a refurb air you're going to be running large LLM models 24/7 and hardcore gaming.

/s

RobertJasiek, indeed overpriced. I wouldn't get a MacBook Pro anytime soon, if ever, at these prices, but a refurb or even new Air looks better by the day.

Quote from: Mate on March 17, 2026, 03:17:53Yeah. Apple pricing is reasonable only for base models. When you try to upgrade their prices are over the roof.

Indeed, Apple over the years has introduced pricing levels...

Topic here is the MacBook.

Starting with the MacBook-Pro (high price)
then introduction of the MacBook-Air (medium price)
and now the MacBook-Neo (low price... or at least according to Apple)

iPad-Pro Best configuration (cpu/memory) & external foilio keyboard/pad (high price)
iPad-Air Feature reduced & external foilio keyboard/pad (medium price)
iPad cpu/memory/feature reduced (low price)

I suppose the same can be said of the iPhones but I don't really follow them.

For the most part, Apple stuff has always been overpriced however they generally offer support of their products longer than others. For example: my iPhone`10 is STILL getting fresh updates. (they are shipping iPhone 17's right now, so SEVEN generations behind they are still supporting!)

Yeah. Apple pricing is reasonable only for base models. When you try to upgrade their prices are over the roof.

Quote from: RobertJasiek on March 17, 2026, 01:55:00+€1250 MacBookPro +64 GB RAM upgrade from 64GB to 128 GB RAM.
For comparison, even at currently inflated RAM prices, 64 GB DDR5 RAM is available for €506,30. So Apple charges €743,70 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy RAM cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

+€2250 MacBookPro +4 TB SSD upgrade from 4TB to 8 TB. For comparison, even at currently inflated SSD prices, 4 TB M.2 SSD is available for €340. So Apple charges €1910 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy SSDs cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

Correction. I misunderstood the storage differences of the upgrades. They are

+€1250 for +80 GB RAM from 48GB to 128GB so €1250 - €506,30 / 64 * 80 = €1250 - €633 = €617 too much.

+€2250 for +6 TB SSD from 2 TB to 8 TB so €2250 - €340 / 4 * 6 = €2250 - €510 = €1740 too much.

"Their current price structure is quite reasonable."

"Macs are often cheaper option in long run."

Disinformation.

Examples:

+€1250 MacBookPro +64 GB RAM upgrade from 64GB to 128 GB RAM.
For comparison, even at currently inflated RAM prices, 64 GB DDR5 RAM is available for €506,30. So Apple charges €743,70 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy RAM cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

€999 Monitor stand is €990 too much.

+€2250 MacBookPro +4 TB SSD upgrade from 4TB to 8 TB. For comparison, even at currently inflated SSD prices, 4 TB M.2 SSD is available for €340. So Apple charges €1910 too much, ignoring Apple's possibility to buy SSDs cheaper by the 100,000s while the individual endconsumer only buys 1 item without discount.

Frankly "they" all do it to some extent...

MiniSquish first dropped 32bit support & then required TPM2 chips. While there are hacks and work arounds, it still haunts many.

Apple did it first with dropping 32bit support & then dropping x86 support. Nothing is forever it seems.

Even Linux has mostly dropped 32bit support. Finding a MODERN 32bit web browser in 2026 is getting harder and harder to find.

Funny though, "future proof" as it may or not be, this (using now) 8GB RAM Mac has served me well over the years. :)

QuoteAll good... Excluding these tricks with screens

If I'm not mistaken Apple is using those tricks for long time. Deal with it. Personally I'm not a fan too, but whole package is far better than x86

Quoteand planned obsolescence.

? Macs are often cheaper option in long run.

the big flaw is the price.
same price as a refurb m3 air.
total fail.
screen is like a mirror, half a battery, usb2!?? lol.

"I think a lot of people just hate Apple because... its Apple"

Their current price structure is quite reasonable. You have cheap Neo, better Air and Pro for Pro.

All good... Excluding these tricks with screens and planned obsolescence. They could give matt screens and LCD with 10 or 12 bit (or give software option in Mac  OS for 8 bit). Such important thing and it's totally ignored. And now imagine you have amazing job and only Mac, which is not good for your eyes.

Yes, people are frustrated - from one hand W11, from the other beautiful A/M chips and screen crap.

@GeorgeS

I think a lot of people just hate Apple because... its Apple
8GB... what a horrible thing! It doesnt matter that for majority of users its fine as they only need to run web browser, text processor and spotify.  Sure, its not future proof, will not run local LLMs but its ok even for light gaming. And SoC is far better than numbers says. Not because 'magic' of MacOS which is complete bullshit. Because of raw single-core performance 2-3 generations ahead of x86. It will feel simply a lot snappier for longer period of time even if it will be less useful for 'heavy' workload.  It has only two real downsides:
-no backlit keyboard
-MacOS means need to learn a new how to use computer