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First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In
- signa11 8mo agolinux on this would be *soo* cool !
- LeonM 8mo agoI don't think that it would take that much. It is my understanding that the A18 CPU is pretty well understood already. AFAIK it doesn't have the new architecture that is keeping the Asahi team from supporting the M4 and M5 for example. But I guess we'll have to wait for devs to get their hands on a Neo device
- jmkni 8mo agoIf Asahi runs well on this I'd be very tempted to get one as a dedicated Linux machine
- Synaesthesia 8mo agoM4 is basically an upgraded version of the A18. M1 was A14, albeit upscaled.
- spacedcowboy 8mo agoNot a bad single-core result for a $600 laptop...
- eklavya 8mo agoI was thinking the same but then I looked at what I could get for 70000 INR on Amazon and it would be crazy to buy this over the alternatives. What is the draw for this device given the price?
- blell 8mo agoThose laptops look very good on paper, now buy one and tell us how it goes.
- eklavya 8mo agoBut I have been and so many around me have been buying those. They are ok.
- ido 8mo agoIf you've tried some of those cheap PC laptops the build quality is no where near macbooks (even for laptops twice the price). Macs tend to live a long time and retain their resale value like crazy compared to PCs too.
- eklavya 8mo agoI bought a macbook pro m1 pro. Its value is 25% in 4/5 years. I bought a second hand dell latitude 7/8 years ago, it was 3/4 years old then. Still running as a server today. A cheap acer bought in 2017 runs almalinux and is surprisingly fast and capable today, I had upgraded ram and put in nvme SSD long back.
- ido 8mo agoIve owned a lot of macs and PCs over the last 15-20 years (many of them from work so i didnt "own" them but i used them daily), the % of pc laptops that have technical/hardware issues is way higher than macs in my experience. Of course YMMV with either.
- UqWBcuFx6NV4r 8mo agoIf you are satisfied with the build quality and general longevity of an Acer computer then you are wasting your time trying to understand a huge comparative advantage of the Neo. I’d just accept that you aren’t the market and move on.
- 8mo ago
- aa-jv 8mo agoI've been holding back to find a suitable machine for a bit of XCode development, web browsing and mail, and I'm pretty close to concluding this'd be good enough, but I'm pretty sure I'd be better off with something heftier, since I mostly just want to develop JUCE stuff on MacOS .. anyone got opinions on this so far? How does the A18 versus Mx architecture factor into things, will we need to write slightly different code for each, or can we write ARM assembly that will be fine in both environments?
- bearjaws 8mo agoYou are gonna wish you had gotten at least 16gb of ram.
- TYPE_FASTER 8mo agoYes. I have a 2020 MBP M1 with 16G and similar vintage MacMini M1 with 8G. The difference in performance was kinda surprising to me. You want 16G of RAM at least.
- frizlab 8mo agoIf you want to use Xcode (lowercase c) and generally do any dev stuff, don’t take the Neo. It’s not what it has been made for. Also no, there won’t be any need for different code depending on A* vs M* chips (unless doing very specific code, but if you’re wondering whether to take the Neo, that won’t be your case).
- aa-jv 8mo agoYup, thanks for the advice, definitely leaning towards something with just a little bit more power ..
- jmkni 8mo agoYou could probably pick up a better spec used Air for the same money I imagine XCode will run on this ok but it might be a bit painful
- mfro 8mo ago
- Synaesthesia 8mo agoPeople say things like "don't expect to do hardcore content creation on these" (Ars Technica) We used to do hardcore content creation on Intel processors and spinning hard drives that were way shittier. Heck even my M1 still 100% suffices for everything I wanna do.
- UqWBcuFx6NV4r 8mo ago[flagged]
- kotaKat 8mo agoMeanwhile I guarantee sitting on a university campus I’m going to see a sea of these colours sitting on desks and tables by people putting in some serious work. In this age of price hikes on components and hardware, this is Apple’s “price heard around the world” like they were on stage at E3 in 1995.[1] Ironically they pulled it off with Sony’s worst price at an announcement… five hundred and ninety-nine US dollars. [1] https://youtu.be/ExaAYIKsDBI https://youtu.be/ExaAYIKsDBI
- xnx 8mo agoVery true, but content creation used to mean 720i. Doing high quality compression of 4K with the latest codecs is still a beast.
- throwaway27448 8mo agoContent creation also used to mean writing novels by hand and stitching pixel art. You can do basically anything imaginable before 2010 in terms of creation (which is... basically anything worth mentioning?) before running into video as the bottleneck. Probably closer to 2020.
- whizzter 8mo agoI bought an 16e last week with the same chipset, just tested and it handles realtime recording of 4k at 60fps with HEVC (camera is "48mp" so the source is 8k camera source material). Pretty sure most of the encoding/decoding of video is handled with special circuits these days. Now, add enough layers and it'll probably falter, but with dedicated encoding/decoding circuits combined with a modern GPU it will definetly be a usable experience with some lower res quick pre-renders at worst but probably realtime for most content creator usages.
- mitchell_h 8mo agoI'm sold. My wife is a teacher(refuses to use a chromebook because they suck, or an Ipad because data input sucks). She'll be getting one of these. Kids probably will too. I'm having a really hard time finding another laptop on the market the hits the "i use gmail, and gdocs, and some other webapps all day" demographic so well.
- tosh 8mo agoIncredible when you consider that the next one or two generations of the macbook neo will probably come w/ 16gb+ ram and support 5k displays. A few more generations and we might see < 1kg, 120hz oled and multi day battery life. But I'm most excited about the near future because if the macbook neo becomes a huge success it will hopefully encourage app devs to waste less ram.
- hypeatei 8mo ago> hopefully encourage app devs to waste less ram. Plenty of devices with limited RAM existed before this and we didn't see devs cater to them. I highly doubt this temporary spike in memory prices is going to cause a long lasting change in behavior.
- timpera 8mo agoI'm excited to see how well it runs Windows 11 ARM64. This could be a great value.
- jmkni 8mo agoCan you run ARM Windows on the metal now on Apple Silicon macbooks?
- notfried 8mo agoThe Neo is incredibly executed by Apple, and one they must have been planning for for years: to be able to create a machine this good at this price. I wouldn't be surprised if it dramatically reshapes the laptop industry. Spec-wise, this is as good as an M1-M2 Air, which is already an over-powered device for most non-professionals. All the "compromises" they made, like no center stage in the camera, less ports, only one monitor support, "just WiFi 6E", and others, are all non-issues for a typical average consumers. And the price is the best it could be. At $499 for students, in a year's time when Gen2 is released, you will find a new Gen1 at possibly $399, and a refurbished Gen1 at even less. I don't see why anyone who wants an "entry-level/starter laptop" would buy anything but a Neo. We already are in a world in which average people don't need specific Windows-only apps. Most common apps are either cross-platform or web-based. Dell, HP and alike are lucky that they're being enamored with datacenter server demand. I expect them to shift-away from the consumer laptop market and focus more on the enterprise in the coming years, which could have negative consequences for their pro-lineups.
- patapong 8mo agoAgreed! For the longest time, I feel like for most "regular" people (mostly used for web browsing, communication and light gaming) the choice between windows and Mac has mostly come down to price. I feel like this is the first attempt by Apple to disrupt this segmentation and take a stab at the mass market as well.
- ricw 8mo agoHad similar thoughts until googling what the cheapest Chromebook on Amazon costs: $139. I’d still get a Neo and for students it’s probably the right choice - chromebooks are just a browsers after all. But pricing wise this laptop is a decade too late. The netbook of the day (chromebooks?) are just unbelievably cheap. Apple will still sell millions of these and keep on eating up market share.
- dannyw 8mo agoThe amount of things you can do on a Chromebook vs macOS just doesn’t compare. Chromebooks are closer to tablets with an attached keyboard.
- nerdjon 8mo agoI know it is not the target use case this, but I have been thinking more and more about how this could serve a need of a terminal or a kiosk computer in a scenario where a tablet may not be the most suitable due to the need for a full keyboard. I use an iPad mounted to an arm in the kitchen for cooking but always had issues whenever I needed to modify a recipe (or add a note for later modification), I am debating on switching it out for a Neo. Possibly some other use cases of a permanent computer in places that a tablet worked but a full computer would be far more flexible. I just first need to find an arm that would be rock solid enough to not wobble a ton while typing, if anyone has any recommendations.
- evanjrowley 8mo agoI like that they sell a version that lacks touch ID so I cannot be compelled to unlock my Mac by US law enforcement without a warrant. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/compelled-biometric-access-legal-under-4th-5th-amendments https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/compelled-biometri...
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoYou actually trust law enforcement not to use rubber hose decryption or a little less severe not to just hold you in contempt?
- glhaynes 8mo agoYou can also just not choose to enroll any fingerprints in Touch ID. It’s totally optional even if you have the hardware.
- Aurornis 8mo agoTouch ID is an optional feature. You don’t have to buy a specific model without it. Just don’t use it.
- bengale 8mo agoYou can just not setup touch id, right?
- haunter 8mo agoThe Walmart outlet on eBay is selling refurb M1s for $380, I think that's still a better deal not just because it's cheaper but you get Touch ID, a better screen, and dual Thunderbolt ports. Backlit keyboard too!
- Yossarrian22 8mo agoDo you have a link?
- haunter 8mo agoThere are usually several listings with different conditions and colors https://www.ebay.com/itm/136764705675 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136764705675 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136699644252 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136699644252 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136452780686 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136452780686 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136740080456 https://www.ebay.com/itm/136740080456 https://www.ebay.com/itm/116534291714 https://www.ebay.com/itm/116534291714
- caro_kann 8mo agoIt's wild that iPhone 16 Pro has better benchmark than macBook Air. I think this Neo is gonna be a good sell, especially among students and people don't do heavy stuff and just need decent laptop.
- lostmsu 8mo agoThe multicore score is worse than a $650 HP laptop: https://www.staples.com/hp-omnibook-5-16-2k-laptop-copilot-pc-amd-ryzen-ai-7-350-16gb-ram-1tb-ssd-16-75-hours-battery-windows-11-home/product_24631793?cid=EM:ordconfrm::sku& https://www.staples.com/hp-omnibook-5-16-2k-laptop-copilot-p... This HP laptop also has 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD and is an excellent machine overall. I'm speaking from experience. There's an even cheaper $570 model with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD and still slightly better than this Mac on multicore.
- spacedcowboy 8mo agoThat $650 laptop has a real-world battery life of ~8 hours. Less, if you’re doing more than streaming you-tube or browsing the web. No thanks.
- lostmsu 8mo agoAnd the source of that claim is? The whole point is that the new Ryzen AI 3xx generation is extremely efficient. Without an apples-to-apples comparison (like how many times HP and Mac can compile Linux kernel till battery drains) this is pure religion.
- spacedcowboy 8mo agoLook it up dude. This is what users are complaining about. Apple have a history of understating their battery life claims, unlike the rest of the market…
- sys_64738 8mo agoBut if you spend $650 on an HP laptop, you now own an HP laptop. That is a problem.
- Traster 8mo agoI'm kind of surprised there has been so much talk about benchmarks. The CPU is probably the single strongest part of the product. The RAM and SSD are clearly going to be limiting factors for a lot of people, but they're not crazy, they're reasonable minimums for a budget device. If you're thinking about performance this device just really isn't for you.
- karmakaze 8mo agoI was skeptical at first, but that's because this is not for me but does have many other use cases. MKBHD video[0] covers it aptly. Great as a higher-end 'chromebook' etc. Could be an upgrade for my Surface Go 3 but not as portable. Definitely more useful than a tablet. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBX5WH9b4M4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBX5WH9b4M4
- risingsubmarine 8mo agoOn the slim chance that anyone at Apple reads this... I can't justify buying one of these as I already own multiple more powerful macbooks in similar sizes. ...but if you made a smaller one, the same physical size as an 11inch ipad, then yeh I would instantly buy one as my sling-book for light coding work in cafes! It would also quiet down many of those calling for macOS on the iPad.
- datagreed 8mo agoI wonder how it compares against top tier 12” from back in a day. I still use it occasionally when I don’t want to take my heavy 16”