MacBook Neo is So Popular That Apple Reportedly Doubled Production (macrumors.com) 56
According to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has reportedly doubled 2026 MacBook Neo production from 5 million to 10 million units after stronger-than-expected demand for its $599 budget laptop. MacRumors reports: On an earnings call in late April, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said that customer response to the MacBook Neo was "off the charts," and the popularity of the laptop has reportedly led the company to significantly boost production. [...] Apple was very optimistic about the MacBook Neo before announcing it, but the company still "undercalled" the level of enthusiasm that the laptop would generate, according to Cook. He said that MacBook Neo demand exceeded Apple's expectations and helped to drive a record number of first-time Mac buyers last quarter.
New figures from market research firm IDC support Apple's claim that the MacBook Neo is selling well, and the Windows PC industry has taken notice. For example, Dell recently introduced a redesigned XPS 13 laptop from $699 and said it has features "you won't find on a MacBook Neo," such as a touch screen and a backlit keyboard. "Apple's MacBook Neo is a capable machine, and its arrival confirms that there's real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices," admitted Dell.
New figures from market research firm IDC support Apple's claim that the MacBook Neo is selling well, and the Windows PC industry has taken notice. For example, Dell recently introduced a redesigned XPS 13 laptop from $699 and said it has features "you won't find on a MacBook Neo," such as a touch screen and a backlit keyboard. "Apple's MacBook Neo is a capable machine, and its arrival confirms that there's real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices," admitted Dell.
Re:Is the battery (Score:4, Interesting)
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This. macOS's memory management is impressive. The efficiencies of the M chips mean you don't need gobs of RAM to handle most use cases. It's similar to still thinking the Mac only has a 1 button mouse.
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Neo is intentionally designed for K-12 buyers (Score:3)
I suspected that when I heard of the macbook neo, but it turns out that the macbook neo is one of the most user-serviceable laptops apple has made in a long time. I heard you can open it up with just a phillips screwdriver set and the battery is not glued in.
Of course, the Neo is intentionally designed for K-12 buyers. they are trying to recapture the K-12 market which is less than impressed with iPad and Chromebooks. Local repair is a greater consideration as a result.
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It still seems kind of pricey for public schools. That's usually where the lowest bidder prevails and I don't see Chromebooks losing their budget crown anytime soon. I suspect making the Neo more reparable was mostly about complying with EU regulations.
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Purchased one for non-tech family (Score:5, Informative)
2020 MacBook Air M1 8GB surprisingly good ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:2020 MacBook Air M1 8GB surprisingly good ... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah earlier this year I brough my girlfriend a pretty base model Macbook M1 Air w/ 8gb, and about a week later my cat managed to damange the keyboard on my usual machine leaping onto it from a height, so I ended up using the M1 air for a couple of weeks as my work laptop while I waited for repairs and... it worked flawlessly? Keeping Jetbrains IntelliJ, microsoft word, and various terminals for logging into servers open, it ran it smoothly and even felt quite snappy. For sure the 8gb posed a few problems with large workloads, but for its intended use, my GF being able to read the net and use office suite for work. its great.
I'll probably buy her daughter one of the Neos for university, since she's been bugging me for a computer.
Re:Purchased one for old-technician (Score:2)
Bought a Neo, been using it for a couple of weeks. Solid little laptop. I plan on taking this on the road, and whenever I need a portable computer.
Neo is using a merged iOS and MacOS. Desktop looks like a MAC but lower menu's look more like an iPad. Neo uses a A series CPU chip same as an iPad. MacBook's use an M series.
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Nah, its all MacOS. Apple have been pushing the UIX for MacOS and IPad roughly in the same direction. I cant say I'm a fan of that (I'd rather the IPad be more Maclike than the other way around) but people seem to like it, so what do I know?
Oh, MacOS has been able to run IOS apps for a while now. Essentially IOS and MacOS have always shared the same XNU kernel (basically mashes together mach and FreeBSD kernel components with a custom API. And it was the userland libraries that differed. After porting the I
Re:Weird. But good for stockholders. (Score:4, Informative)
The MacBook Neo at $599 is $200 cheaper than the entry-level Mac Mini at $799. They discontinued the cheaper Mini.
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Re:Weird. But good for stockholders. (Score:4, Interesting)
Ahhh. And the sales of the Neo suddenly make sense! It is the cheapest way to get legal access to the full Mac OS.
Technically, a used M1 Air 8GB is about the same performance but cheaper. A used M3 Air 8GB is also probably a better deal. Both offering larger screens, backlit keyboards, better USB/Thunderbolt connectors, etc.
Don't misunderstand, the Neo is amazing, but it's designed to appeal to K-12 educational market buyers. Not so much end users. Its kind of nerfed a little bit relative to the Air, so many traditional users may still go Air rather than Neo.
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The MacBook Neo at $599 is $200 cheaper than the entry-level Mac Mini at $799. They discontinued the cheaper Mini.
That $200 delta assumes you happen to have an unused keyboard, mouse, and display laying around. :-)
That said, I got a travel case for the current mini design. It holds the mini, the smaller Apple keyboard, mouse, and cables and it is quite transportable. When visiting a collaborator I often work with, he just provides a larger display when I visit and it all works great. Sure I can't work in an airport terminal, but in a hotel I can probably plug into the TV in the room.
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And what exactly is your point?
You want to abuse a Neo for a Mini?
For the readers: a Mac mini is a mini desktop PC, with the footprint of a CD/DVD and two thumb width height.
And that is it: no keyboard, mouse or screen.
They are often used in software development as AI agent hosts, build CI/CD servers etc. Or as ordinary cheap reliable desktop PCs.
And the Neo is a complete notebook ... no idea why one compares them for no graspable reason.
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Are you replying to the right person? The grandparent said you shouldn't buy a neo because a mac mini costs the same. And I pointed out that it doesn't cost the same, they discontinued the cheaper model. I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with.
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Well, not sure if I answered to the wrong person.
My point is that a Neo has nothing to do with a Mac Mini.
So? Why would anyone compare the prices? Does not make any sense.
A motorbike has nothing to do with an electric car ... regardless if the bike is electric or uses gasoline.
Of course, if it was "cheap enough" one might buy a Neo, and abuse it as a Mac Mini in a corner - why not.
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If your goal is the cheapest Mac, the cheapest way to get a new computer in that ecosystem, then they're comparable in that they are both Macintosh computers, and the Neo is significantly cheaper. If your goal is the cheapest Mac laptop, then the Mini isn't relevant regardless of the price.
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I mean...isn't that what people use computers for? browsing the web, simple games, and maybe a word processor? What else would they do with one?
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Doctor Jesus, anyway...
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Reading mails?
Or god forbid: programming?
Or even remotely logging into an old Cyber 205?
Re:Weird. But good for stockholders. (Score:4, Informative)
Underpowered is relative. For most people the specs of the entry level model are just fine. If you're building Firefox from source every day then no this model isn't for you. I dumped my old 6 core Xeon box for a M4 mini and it's great for all my tasks.
Re:Weird. But good for stockholders. (Score:5, Informative)
With the Neo you are not going to be able to do much more than browse the web, use web application, play simple games, and use it as fancy typewriter.
I think you're overlooking something seriously important: most people who buy computers these days don't need serious hardware. They need something to browse the internet with, maybe play some online games and to run something equivalent to Word and Excel. In other words, exactly what you just said.
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It's rough carrying your monitor around with you.
Heavens, what ever did we do before the 2020s? Play simple games and use fancy typewriters I guess. Although I do wonder where the first web app came from, the one that let us make all the other web apps.
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It came from Unix! All Hail Unix! All Hail Unix! (I'm not worthy!)
Re: Weird. But good for stockholders. (Score:2)
⦠which form the basis of MacOS. A Neo with intern and bash is a very useful machine
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Running on a computer provided by friendly aliens, no doubt. Just like the pyramids.
Spoken like someone without kids + support (Score:2)
I’m still surprised people will pay that for a good looking but underpowered machine at that price point. For the same price you can get a much more capable machine in the Mac mini if you want in on the Apple OS ecosystem. Though it isn’t nearly as portable. With the Neo you are not going to be able to do much more than browse the web, use web application, play simple games, and use it as fancy typewriter. And if that is all you want to do, it can be had for hundreds less if you are not married to the Apple ecosystem. But as a stockholder I say, “Buy, buy, BUY my little lemmings!”
If you ever convince a woman to reproduce with you, you will see why this is so huge. I used to have patience for science experiments and computing projects, but now I just don't have time...I need shit to work. Apple supports their devices better than all the PC vendors and the Apple ecosystem is both amazing and popular. I converted a few years ago and love how seamless apps are between tablet, computer, and phone. Moving from Lightroom to Photomator was a godsend. If you embrace it, the ecosystem si
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Underpowered for what? The Neo works just fine for 95% of use cases.
Eh, is the Dell comparable? (Score:3)
Build quality on the Dell is good, but from hands-ons, not *as* good. Touchscreen is not something most people want on a laptop, I think (I know a niche loves them, but most people don't), but it's 120 Hz, which is a major advantage over the Neo (and Air for that matter). The touchpad is not as good. The CPU is much slower (at least in bursty tasks). I'll speculate that speakers and battery life are much worse. Connectivity is a wash (faster second USB port, but no headphone jack). The backlit keyboard is nice. The entry price point is $100 higher. Worst of all, it comes with Windows 11.
Of course this is just based on specsheets, very brief hands-on previews, and speculation, we'll need to see what real reviews show.
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To me, it was surprising macOS performance was perfectly fine on Neo. Windows 11 would be chugging at those specs.
I have both the Neo and a Lenovo Yoga with a Ryzen 5 (Zen 2) CPU and 8GB of RAM. Honestly, Windows 11 runs fine on it, at least for what I use it for. I'm guessing most of the complaints about Windows bogging down aren't really due to Windows itself, but due to too many 3rd party background processes running.
Yeah, Microsoft probably could address this with some sort of tool that tells you what's hogging up all your resources and automatically makes suggestions on what to disable, but then you'd have peopl
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The backlit keyboard is nice.
We recently bought our daughter a Neo. I've used it, and it seems pretty nice... but (compared to the various Mac laptops I've used/owned over the years) I found I got annoyed by the non-backlit keyboard more than I expected.
I would be curious to see whether one can easily load Linux Mint onto that Dell. It might make a really nice portable Linux laptop, if everything worked.
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Usually the comparisons boil down to the screen and the build feel. The Dell is likely made of plastic - and probably will feel plasticky when handled. The MacBook Neo is made of metal, and it feels very nice indeed. Sure plastic probably has better qualities, but it'll just feel like cheap plastic which people dislike.
And then there's the screen - many comparisons show the Neo screen to be bright, vivid and all around something nice to look at. Most cheap laptop screen s are dim and not very stunning. It's
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Touchscreen is not something most people want on a laptop, I think Everybody loves them.
But it is not a deal breaker for a buying decision.
(I know a niche loves them, but most people don't) ... the mouse still works just fine.
You do not need to use it
It is actually extremely annoying that Apple hates touch screens.
I used to have an iPad as second screen for my Mac ...
Often I moved an Application there, sometimes I snatched the iPad and "fingered around" on it. Stupid me, next minute touches the computer s
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Some of these things I suspect are old Steve Jobs dogmas. Jobs also hated two button mice. Thankfully you could always turn on the context right click, but even to this day the right-click seems to be something you have to turn on in settings (Not that I've set up a fresh mac in aeons. Jobs hated the ergonomics of touchscreens on laptops.
While I get the reverence for Jobs inside apple. Maybe its time they moved on from him. Well except for the customer service thing. Customer service from apple was *excelle
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Jobs also hated two button mice. No idea if that is true.
And not interesting enough to research - actually you would need to find a reliable source that claims s/he had heard him saying that.
Thankfully you could always turn on the context right click, but even to this day the right-click seems to be something you have to turn on in settings it never was in settings.
A mouse with more than one button always was interpreted correctly.
And: a single button mouse would use ctrl+mouse click as right click.
On the t
Seems obvious (Score:5, Funny)
"... confirms that there's real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices"
Gee, who would've thought? Did Dell really need Apple to release a laptop to figure out that little nugget of information?
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"... confirms that there's real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices"
Gee, who would've thought? Did Dell really need Apple to release a laptop to figure out that little nugget of information?
Well, really that was corporate-speak for "... confirms that, if we don't respond, Apple's Neo is going to steal a huge chunk of our current customer base."
On the other sidr (Score:2)
You got MS that said out loud they want to spy on you and remove your license anytime they want like they did today with office.
And you got linux whom is almost impossible to get on a computer without paying the MS taxes.
Clueless competitors... (Score:2)
Dell who couldn't identify the product before Apple, decides they can solve the same problem how they always have. Good luck with that Dell.
The only way the "old guard" tech are still around is by momentum and (customer) memory loss.
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The problem is that Dell has no innovators or product R&D. Most everything they have is offshored. Same with many F500 companies. This is why they can't grow or innovate. Apple, on the other hand, still has product designers looking for new markets, even though even Apple isn't really doing that much.
Dell needs to hire some engineers and start looking to sell services and ecosystems. For example, sell a GPU server for LAN activities so individual PCs don't have to have heavy duty graphic cards, but
Apple knew what they were doing (Score:2)
Apple knew exactly what they were doing by riding the tidal wave created by the hate for Windows 11. I foresee Apple continuing this trend into the future because they know Windows is only going to get worse.
Touchscreen on a laptop? Feh. (Score:2)
I don't know why anyone would want a touchscreen on a laptop. I had that on an old HP machine and the device isn't solid enough to do anything meaningful on it. Plus, the angle winds up making contact with your fingernails before your fingers. The only way it might make sense is if you can fold it back on itself to make a tablet.