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https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/02/g ... n-march-4/
Expected: iPhone 17e, new iPads, new MacBooks
I took their event invitation logo and edited it:
And I don't like having to say this these days, but it's not done with AI. If it was, I would want everybody to know.
I need this even to happen so we can move on to the event later in the year with the M5 Max/Ultra Mac Studios later in the year - will be the time I finally make the jump from my late 2020 Intel iMac.
If I could've waited to replace my recently obsolete macbook air I would've but the one I got a deal on around black friday has done the job.
That MacBook Neo sounds like big news. Depending on how cheap it winds up being, it could truly be a boon to people who want the benefits of MacOS without having to pay high-end boutique prices for more hardwar than they'll ever need.
I showed you my gas-powered Stihl string trimmer; please respond
Bren wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:37 amThat MacBook Neo sounds like big news. Depending on how cheap it winds up being, it could truly be a boon to people who want the benefits of MacOS without having to pay high-end boutique prices for more hardwar than they'll ever need.
Provided it's not more expensive than the "Walmart MacBook" (the M1 is still sold via them); sure.
https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/
Turns out, it's not! Looks great, love the colors.
It looks like a useful product for the right market, but I have 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD in my M1 Max MacBook Pro, and I’m not going lower than 16GB, no matter how much newer a device might be.
Not to point out the @obvs; but I think we can safely say this machine is not for you. 
My plan this summer is to pick up an M5 Ultra Studio with ~ 96 GB of Memory and at least 2 TB of hard drive space to replace my aging Intel iMac (2020).
The Neo isn't the Mac for me, but I really like it. I also think it might be the ultimate discount GeForceNow/cloud gaming laptop.
—
Ernest
(Formerly MacAddict4Life)
ConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 4:36 pmNot to point out the @obvs; but I think we can safely say this machine is not for you.
My plan this summer is to pick up an M5 Ultra Studio with ~ 96 GB of Memory and at least 2 TB of hard drive space to replace my aging Intel iMac (2020).
Would you believe that I’ve actually given consideration to getting a MacBook Air within the past year?
My system is five years old, so I’m not entirely against getting something that isn’t quite as beefy in comparison.
Probably 90+% of what I do for work is just using a web browser to access things that aren't even in the same building as me. The more that's the case, the less CPU grunt I need for day to day tasks.
I do like having a reasonably capable CPU or three around the house, however. Not that I do anything heavy that often, but when I do it's nice to have it work fairly quickly.
Even though I don't do hugely tasking work on my computer, I wouldn't want something like that Macbook Neo. It's cheap upfront but how long will it be supported and useful? I always get the most expensive computer I can afford and keep it for 10+ years. I'm using a 2021 MBP M1 with 32 GB RAM. It's nowhere close to being pushed to its limits. It replaced a 2012 MBP that by 2021 was getting weird and buggy.
Today I was shocked to learn the Neo comes with just 8GB of RAM with no option to order one with more.
That is insane. Super disappointing.
I showed you my gas-powered Stihl string trimmer; please respond
Apple ALWAYS screws over their low-end customers. Especially on new products.
Their goal is NOT for it to be usable. Their goal is that you buy it, spend a while with it, realize it’s too slow, and then buy another better one.
8 GB of RAM is fine for what it is. This is a machine for someone who doesn't know what RAM is.
8GB of RAM is fine if you’re buying a computer and using it in the past.
The way I see it, it's fine for the middle and high school students who will only use it for word processors, slide presentations, web surfing, and whatever else gets them through school, as well as anyone else with a similar use case. If they try to play video games with it or do anything more intensive, they will find its limitations fast.
It would've been fine for me before residency, but now that I'm doing lots of photo editing and 3D model manipulation of DICOM and STL files with implant planning software, I'm happy with my M4 Pro MacBook Pro, and it's 24 GB of RAM.
Bren wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2026 4:05 amToday I was shocked to learn the Neo comes with just 8GB of RAM with no option to order one with more.
That is insane. Super disappointing.
No Thunderbolt either. Literally every Mac has Thunderbolt these days. And one of the “USB-C” ports is actually USB 2.0. Reminds me of the clamshell iBooks with the single USB port, or the PowerBook 150 with no ADB port (in an era where an absolute crap ton of Mac peripherals used ADB)
“Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like all Hell” - Peter Brock
I don't think the A series processors currently can handle thunderbolt.
—
Ernest
(Formerly MacAddict4Life)
Ernest wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2026 11:21 pmI don't think the A series processors currently can handle thunderbolt.
I've also heard it said that they can't handle more than the 8GB RAM. But I don't actually know. Any of you know?
That would be a fair point if true.
As a laptop it's a nifty piece of hardware. If the new macbook didn't come with macos or windows, it'd be perfect.
I say this because 8GB of memory is more than enough to run all my things if my environment isn't taking up 7GB just to load a desktop. My last Mac left is a MacBook A1278. It works fine! Running xfce on top of mint/ubuntu, skinned like MacOS9, and it works great since I did it (no updates since, don't git glone without some forethought). The wifi is old, but that's alright, it still connects to WPA2 networks fine. I don't take it out in public a lot, I'd probably want a more current os release if I did.
https://timnetworks.com/misc/documents/ ... _image.jpg
https://timnetworks.com/misc/documents/ ... _image.jpg
I am looking forward for these new ones to be available on second-hand market from fleets out of offices schools and libraries.
I wish that it was easier to have a Linux distro that had menus along the top edge of the screen.
And I don’t mean this "faking it" stuff by having certain apps with menus there and certain ones with menus in the windows themselves.
I want consistency in at least the basic UI concepts.
obvs wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 5:39 amI wish that it was easier to have a Linux distro that had menus along the top edge of the screen.
vala-panel-appmenu is/was the solution. it wasn't always working right at that time and not at all later on. I kinda want to return to this project with ai assistance and see if I can make it look and act 'complete' again, maybe with wayland already. (in my screenshots, firefox doesn't have the full app menu and only shows inside app window when holding alt, but other apps do.)
I would hope that the scarcity problems manifesting in 2026 would put pressure on software to maybe stem the bloat a touch...
But no, instead we get to wonder how 8GB (about 6x more RAM than I had storage in the first machine I built) is inadequate.
Your powers are useless! I'm wearing my tinfoil underwear!
640k ought to be enough for anyone
Two or three years ago I bought a Lenovo gaming laptop at Costco for $499. Came with 16GB and is expandable to 32GB.
As long as Windows laptops like that exist, I really, truly can't see spending $599 for a MacBook Neo. It's just a very bad deal.
I showed you my gas-powered Stihl string trimmer; please respond
You can browse the web on 8 GB of RAM easily.
Yeah, and productivity apps (sans the stupid LLM "features") will exist fine there too.
Your powers are useless! I'm wearing my tinfoil underwear!
RAM and storage capacity would be an issue for me
But I WOULD NEVER complain that I can't replace a top of the line MacBook Pro, with the lowest end entry level.
I have the newest computer in my family and it's a macbook pro from 2019
the new macbooks are more than fine for a lot of people, if not for us computer geeks
Ah, Apple. STILL screwing people over on RAM and storage after all these years.
No, 8GB is not nearly enough. 16GB is the absolute floor for anything that isn't an embedded machine, and even that is starting to cause problems. That said, it does look like a decent machine overall.
Maurvir wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 3:40 pmAh, Apple. STILL screwing people over on RAM and storage after all these years.
No, 8GB is not nearly enough. 16GB is the absolute floor for anything that isn't an embedded machine, and even that is starting to cause problems. That said, it does look like a decent machine overall.
There are tens of millions of iPhones running 8 GB of RAM without issue. The majority of these devices are their owner's primary computers.
I do NOT hate the Neo MacBooks, but they seem to be getting mostly positive reviews everywhere, and it feels weird. I did not expect that.
ConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 1:08 amMaurvir wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 3:40 pmAh, Apple. STILL screwing people over on RAM and storage after all these years.
No, 8GB is not nearly enough. 16GB is the absolute floor for anything that isn't an embedded machine, and even that is starting to cause problems. That said, it does look like a decent machine overall.
There are tens of millions of iPhones running 8 GB of RAM without issue. The majority of these devices are their owner's primary computers.
We aren't still apologizing for Apple's chintzy ways, are we? iPhones are fantastic devices. I have an iPhone and Apple watch myself. However, they are not "primary computers" unless all you need is a web browser and a notepad. For anything more complex than that, they absolutely, positively suck. Even printing barely works right, and we have a laser printer that supports AirPrint.
Maurvir wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 12:47 pmConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 1:08 amMaurvir wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 3:40 pmAh, Apple. STILL screwing people over on RAM and storage after all these years.
No, 8GB is not nearly enough. 16GB is the absolute floor for anything that isn't an embedded machine, and even that is starting to cause problems. That said, it does look like a decent machine overall.
There are tens of millions of iPhones running 8 GB of RAM without issue. The majority of these devices are their owner's primary computers.
We aren't still apologizing for Apple's chintzy ways, are we? iPhones are fantastic devices. I have an iPhone and Apple watch myself. However, they are not "primary computers" unless all you need is a web browser and a notepad. For anything more complex than that, they absolutely, positively suck. Even printing barely works right, and we have a laser printer that supports AirPrint.
I think you misunderstand what most people do all day: They browse the web. The Neo will be great at that (just like how their iPhone is). I would argue that anyone on this website is automatically outside of the Neo's market. Is it a machine for me? Hell no - but it has its market.
ConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 12:56 pmMaurvir wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 12:47 pmConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 1:08 amMaurvir wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 3:40 pmAh, Apple. STILL screwing people over on RAM and storage after all these years.
No, 8GB is not nearly enough. 16GB is the absolute floor for anything that isn't an embedded machine, and even that is starting to cause problems. That said, it does look like a decent machine overall.
There are tens of millions of iPhones running 8 GB of RAM without issue. The majority of these devices are their owner's primary computers.
We aren't still apologizing for Apple's chintzy ways, are we? iPhones are fantastic devices. I have an iPhone and Apple watch myself. However, they are not "primary computers" unless all you need is a web browser and a notepad. For anything more complex than that, they absolutely, positively suck. Even printing barely works right, and we have a laser printer that supports AirPrint.
I think you misunderstand what most people do all day: They browse the web. The Neo will be great at that (just like how their iPhone is). I would argue that anyone on this website is automatically outside of the Neo's market. Is it a machine for me? Hell no - but it has its market.
While I think you're right that most of these machines are web browsing machines and not much else, my experience with iPhones has been that they get pretty chuggy by year 4 of ownership, while a traditional MacBook seems to retain a certain amount of usability quite a bit longer than that.
If you make a MacBook that's only got just a smiiiidge more CPU power than absolutely needed at the bare minimum, it's not going to be able to deal with new stuff very well.
Although, to be fair, the Neo is cheaper than some of the iPhones. But I dunno, I feel like laptops are "supposed" to last longer anyway. I don't have a rationale for it.
My five and a half year old iPhone 12 mini is still running fine. :shrug:
ConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 12:56 pmMaurvir wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 12:47 pmConnertheCat wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 1:08 amMaurvir wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 3:40 pmAh, Apple. STILL screwing people over on RAM and storage after all these years.
No, 8GB is not nearly enough. 16GB is the absolute floor for anything that isn't an embedded machine, and even that is starting to cause problems. That said, it does look like a decent machine overall.
There are tens of millions of iPhones running 8 GB of RAM without issue. The majority of these devices are their owner's primary computers.
We aren't still apologizing for Apple's chintzy ways, are we? iPhones are fantastic devices. I have an iPhone and Apple watch myself. However, they are not "primary computers" unless all you need is a web browser and a notepad. For anything more complex than that, they absolutely, positively suck. Even printing barely works right, and we have a laser printer that supports AirPrint.
I think you misunderstand what most people do all day: They browse the web. The Neo will be great at that (just like how their iPhone is). I would argue that anyone on this website is automatically outside of the Neo's market. Is it a machine for me? Hell no - but it has its market.
95% of the time on my work machines, it's a web browser, a terminal, and an ssh session.
Your powers are useless! I'm wearing my tinfoil underwear!
