New Laptops, same as the old laptops.

So Apple has announced some new laptops and I've seen a couple of reviews about the MacBook Neo that's coming out and I have some thoughts about it.

Some folks seem to be really critical about the device having a CPU that was previously used in the iPhone or about the amount of memory and storage space on the device. Some seem to be thinking that this device is going to be the ChromeBook killer given the relatively low (for Apple) price. 

Honestly for me the device isn't something that is that interesting, not because it's not a good device. More because it's simply not targeted at me. 

This type of device is the laptop that someone who just wants a "laptop for school" but doesn't care about the specification will pick up. They will wind up grabbing it from the Apple store withe AppleCare and will probably walk out the door just around 1000$ out of pocket with a device that should last them through the next couple of years of school or basic email and social media. 

As far as it killing Chromebooks, I don't know about that. Chrome OS devices have a whole ecosystem that they live within and the macOS devices are not going to live in that same ecosystem in the same way I can't see them completely displacing Chrome OS in an organization that has already heavily invested in them. If the organization is one that's currently sitting on a bunch of late model Intel MacBook Air's or first generation M1 devices this device gives those customers a price point to move over to newer hardware that's hopefully going to be faster. 

The storage options and memory options do irk me a bit, but again I'm not the target for this thing. What is interesting is that Apple has a pretty good track record of providing reasonably long support windows for their devices. If they are still releasing a device in 2026 with only 8gb of system memory that kind of indicates that they intend to support that as a viable configuration for some time to come. For the rest of us out there that bodes well since they will probably have to avoid adding in bloat and garbage into the OS while these devices are still in production. 

The lack of a backlight on the keyboard, the difference in the speaker setup, the difference in the camera setup, are all things that a lot of people who just need a laptop to work on probably won't care about. And frankly those limitations make sense since it's going to prevent Apple from driving the people who would have normally bought a MacBook Air into the MacBook Neo. The people picking this up would be the people who are price sensitive rather than the people that care about the specification of the device. 

I honestly can't recall the last time that Apple had a laptop at this price point. From what I can recall the entry point for any Apple laptop has always been around the 1000$ mark. Seeing them getting into the mix at a 600$ entry point is interesting and I would love to see what happens to the higher end iPads during this time period. I know more than a few people who picked up iPad Pro's and keyboards for them instead of doing a laptop to save a few dollars.

Unfortunately for Microsoft I think this is going to eat more of their lunch than anybody else. Unless you wanted or had to use a ChromeOS device Windows was the option at this price. Given all the crap they are bundling now with Copilot, and that Recall feature in Windows 11 some folks may just elect to move over now that there is a cheaper option to get into the ecosystem with. 

Would I buy one? 

Nope. 

But I'm not the person this device is aimed at. You could be, and if that's the case it's definitely worth a look.