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I think the 2 laptops you mentioned are targeting different markets. The Surface Laptop you linked to is - 16GB of RAM and 512GB of Storage (no 8GB of RAM opti
by NearAP 7mo ago
I think the 2 laptops you mentioned are targeting different markets.
The Surface Laptop you linked to is - 16GB of RAM and 512GB of Storage (no 8GB of RAM option)
The $599 Mac Neo is 8GB of RAM and 256GB of Storage. It doesn't have a 16GB RAM option but a 512GB storage option is $699.
8GB RAM seems to me to be targeting folks who don't run a lot of local apps or multiple big apps
- spiderfarmer 7mo agoIs it hard for you to imagine that people who'll buy the Neo don't care about specs at all? I mean, look at the colors!
- carlosjobim 7mo agoNobody except people on HN cares about RAM. People care about what you can actually do with the machine. The spec numbers are nothing more than numbers when a computer never works as it is supposed to. It's like having a 500HP car, but it can actually not drive.
- benterix 7mo ago> Nobody except people on HN cares about RAM. They might not care but they do call us saying "Oh you are good with computers, why is my computer so slow?"
- carlosjobim 7mo agoTell them to buy a Mac and they'll never have to call for tech support again.
- abrouwers 7mo agoMy spouse bought a mac and asks me (mostly a linux user, and I'm happy to help) for support somewhat regularly (mostly recently, for a tahoe upgrade). It's not the golden unicorn people paint it to be. 8gb is insane in 2026.
- swiftcoder 7mo agoIt may not be a golden unicorn, but I find it is quite a lot better than providing support for the Windows laptops they used to buy from random department stores on rock-bottom sales... Nothing quite like a $200 PC laptop stocked with OEM bloatware
- deepthaw 7mo agoUntil 1/3 of your hard drive space is taken up by weird cache stuff that MacOS doesn’t explain nor offer a straightforward way to clean up.
- astrange 7mo agoIf it's cache it gets automatically deleted. If it doesn't get automatically deleted it's not a cache and is a bug.
- olnluis 7mo agoI like my MB Pro but it has serious audio and external display issues. I've had to remove spotlight indexing to prevent obscure OOM issues. One time I woke up to open my laptop and find it's screen cracked for no apparent reason. Since I couldn't prove it wasn't my fault I was charged for the repair anyway and I'm grateful to myself that I had AC+ because I might have as well just bought another laptop if not. At the end of the day, it's still just a computer.
- Bluecobra 7mo agoI literally just ran into this myself with my spouse. She is ready to upgrade her M1 MacBook Air and thinks she doesn’t need more RAM because everything is “in the cloud”. Hopefully 8GB is enough RAM for the next 5 years or so...
- the_overseer 7mo agoOr, she can keep the macbook air as it basically has the same specs as the neo. What is the point of buying the same laptop twice?
- prmph 7mo agoIndeed, 8gb is plenty, even for serious work and coding, if you use the machine well. If you think getting more and more RAM solves every performance problem, I've got news for you: People are having beachballs on machines with 32GB and more.
- garbageman 7mo agoI agree generally that on Mac you can 'get by' with 8gb and for the target audience on this, and how they'll likely use it - it's totally acceptable. But if it's for serious work, this is not the device. 'Managing' the software to 'use the machine well' to get serious work done is unacceptable in 2026. It needs to just work and disappear into the background. I have enough to think about and micro managing the software running is out of the question.
- prmph 7mo ago> 'Managing' the software to 'use the machine well' to get serious work done is unacceptable in 2026 I agree, I just don't think the rush to get more and more RAM and storage is the root of the problem. Why on earth does a browser need more than 10 GB to display web pages?? Why does macOS keep piling/hiding trash that should be deleted in "System Data"? And, if you need to keep device backups, put them on an external drive; that's what those things are for.
- astrange 7mo agoWeb pages are very complicated and there's no pressure on people to make less complicated ones, nor is there any way there could be pressure on them. Images, complicated CSS, JavaScript ads, they can all use lots of memory!
- carlosjobim 7mo agoIt depends on how you define "serious work". Is it to get the best results possible, or is it to tax a computer as much as possible? Programmers would usually answer the latter, while users would answer the former. That's why programmers put their stuff into Kubernetes which go into virtual machines, which go into eleven layers of javascript abstraction which go into twelve thousand node packages, which go into something else to end up with something with very basic functionality, which usually doesn't work very well. Other pro computer users are focused on the results, so they use professional office software, calendars, communications, photo and video editing and effects, photo-realistic 3D editors, studio level audio and music editing software. All which lives perfectly fine on 8GB of RAM.
- akdev1l 7mo agoMacOS is crazy efficient and can overcommit quite a lot. I used an M1 Pro for a couple years to work. 8GB of ram but routinely using 12GB including swap. Now, I couldn’t keep slack and outlook open so there were limitations but I was able to work. People are underestimating the usefulness of 8GB of RAM. I guess it is also worth saying that I do my work by connecting to a remote server where I do the actual development and everything else. The Mac itself being a web browser and ssh machine
- MrDrMcCoy 7mo agoNot being able to keep Slack and Outlook open at the same time seems like a pretty significant productivity hindrance to me. 8GB RAM is truly pathetic in 2022.
- Schiendelman 7mo agoDo you actually have a problem with Slack and Outlook open at the same time on an Apple Silicon Mac with 8GB of memory? Or are you assuming?
- MrDrMcCoy 7mo agoI was replying to someone that made that claim from apparent experience.
- Kirby64 7mo agoChildren don't have Slack and Outlook open. Gmail in a web browser and Discord, maybe. My old M1 Air works just fine for productivity workloads, and has for years.
- vunderba 7mo agoIs Slack that much worse of a memory hog than Discord? Aren’t they both built on electron?
- 7mo ago
- kettlecorn 7mo agoAt this point I think few people really will care about that spec difference. The accumulated brand trust of Apple, and the negative brand trust of Microsoft outweighs the numbers. Even many technically savvy people believe Apple can deliver a higher quality computing experience with 8GB of RAM than Microsoft can with 16GB, and they're often correct.
- thewebguyd 7mo ago> The accumulated brand trust of Apple This is an important thing to Apple, and Apple users know it. They would not have put out this macbook if it was going to be a subpar experience. Microsoft has no such qualms about OEMs shipping an underspecced disaster of a beater laptop (see Vista). You can (generally) but any Apple product and know you are going to get something quality and a good experience, even from the base/budget models. They don't really have any "bad" products.
- 1attice 7mo agoThe Vision Pro and butterfly keyboard would like a word
- thewebguyd 7mo agoFair enough, although I wouldn't call the vision pro a bad product necessarily, it's just too expensive for what it is.
- 1attice 7mo agoYes, you see them on the subway all the time
- spacedcowboy 7mo agoI bought mine for air travel, when I can strap it to my head for 12 hours and be in a completely different place. I can lie back in my lay-flat seat, so there’s no weight pulling my head down, and it’s an absolutely fantastic experience. I fly sufficiently that this is well worth it. The fact that it doubles as a mobile computer in the hotel room is just icing on the cake. So subway ? Maybe not, but don’t pretend they don’t have their own niche…