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Apple Accidentally Leaks 'MacBook Neo' (www.macrumors.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Apple appears to have prematurely revealed the name of its rumored lower-cost MacBook model, which is expected to be announced this Wednesday. A regulatory document for a "MacBook Neo" (Model A3404) has appeared on Apple's website. Unfortunately, there are no further details or images available yet. While the PDF file does not contain the "MacBook Neo" name, it briefly appeared in a link on Apple's regulatory website for EU compliance purposes.

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[–] 80 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (88 children)

I suspect it'll come with 8GB RAM to ensure the price can't justify it's usefulness...

E: looking up the leaks confirms it's supposed to be 8GB RAM. Imagine selling a PC with 8GB RAM for $700+ in 2026. So insane. I can get a better PC than that for $400.

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  • [–] 89 points 8 months ago (42 children)

    I can get a better PC than that for $400.

    Are you sure? Because at this moment with $400 you only get the RAM.

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  • [–] 45 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    It's a celery with a 128GB emmc. Even with 16GB of ram it'll be so slow.

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  • [–] 44 points 8 months ago (12 children)

    Emmc is not nvme. They're not compatible or interchangeable. You'll be limited by the max emmc speeds for storage. It's probably why it comes with an external drive, because they know just how slow the drive is.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    NVME is not a port. M.2 is a port, and there’s lots of versions of it. You can’t put an NVME SSD into all of them.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I just checked out the specs, that model does not support NVMe. So yeah, there's that.

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  • [–] 30 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    Intel celeron N150?

    I mean, yeah, technically it's got more ram, but that's literally the only thing going for it. I've got a mini-pc server with that exact CPU. It's good enough for what I need it for, by my wife's 5 generation old M1 Air from 2020 trounces it several times over in terms of speed, even with 8GB.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I mean, if that fits your use-case, I'm not gonna tell you not to get it. Plenty of folks just need a machine for scrolling a social media feed, documents, and Youtube.

    But anyone who wants more than what amounts to a Chromebook can get it pretty affordably with the low-end macbooks. Effectively tripling your speed for another $200 is definitely worth it for lots of folks, and memory paging is a lot faster than it used to be.

    Benchmarks can be hit or miss, but aren't totally useless:

    N150: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+N150

    Low-end M1 from 2020: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Apple+M1+8+Core+3200+MHz

    And finally, the A19 they're talking about using: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Apple+A19+Pro

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  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    here's a whole ass laptop for $360

    You’re absolutely right, that is an ass laptop.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    That Celeron ain't got nothing on any phone processor Apple's made in at least the last half decade lol

    I'm not sure the Macbook Neo will make sense, but I know for sure that docked tablet doesn't. They're also ass to repair, performance doesn't exist and the screen belongs in 2008.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    And RAM is meaningless without a processor to use it. So I'm saying this MacBook Neo is probably kinda shit for its price, but the Stream is for sure not any good.

    For the price of the MacBook Neo, the best device to get would actually be a used laptop. Either an Apple Silicon Macbook Air if you can find one with 16 GB, or some kind of a Thinkpad if you want to have more freedom.

    Cheap laptops tend to suck, but used laptops in the same price range can be very good.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    You're not wrong about the rest, but I wouldn't be surprised if the processor benchmarks really well.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    This is already less powerful than an old iPad. My SO is looking for a cheap laptop and this one is one I would tell her to avoid like the plague.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    The bottleneck of that laptop is CPU and drive, and with 8 gigs of RAM it would still be. 16GB RAM is the only thing that laptop has going for it.

    Honestly, as a Certified Apple Hater I still have no doubts that the laptop with the A18Pro will run circles around the one you showed and will be a better bang for the buck.

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  • [–] 17 points 8 months ago

    There’s more to a computer than RAM (or even ither specs), comparing what’s shown in the article to the low-cost option you linked the two systems are leagues apart in terms of build quality.

    Wouldn’t be surprised if the battery life was miles apart too.

    That cheap plastic HP laptop is destined to have its hinge mounts snap away from the upper palmrest through normal day-to-day use.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    Apple heard you and released it for $599-699!

    I'm not planning on touching them, but in this economy + the Apple tax, I'm almost impressed

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

    The 17e or whatever new phone is supposedly available for 599 with 256GB of internal storage.
    Honestly: If the phone i know little android competition in that price range witg comparable specs and polish.

    But I'd still get one at a higher price because I don't like Mr.WalledGarden

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (4 children)

    what does storage have to do with ram?

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

    Same base material

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    not even close

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    I only see a $600 option. What's the $700 option?

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I have an M1 mini with 8Gb of RAM that I use as my Home Assistant server. I've given 4Gb to HAOS running in UTM, and let Ollama use the rest to run a modest LLM for speech to text. It's flawless.

    I'm not suggesting that 8Gb is the gold standard or anything, but for some applications it's still perfectly usable.

    I have an M2 Air with 16Gb, and for what I need it to do, I couldn't have any less, but the target market for a bargain basement entry level MacBook almost certainly won't ever notice. It'll literally just be a portal to access iCloud and whatever browser they use to get on their socials. And if they do find they need more, then Apple will happily sell them a new laptop.

    Don't get me wrong, I think Apple's approach to RAM pricing has been criminal for years, and as a company they're really figuring out how to plumb the depths of scumminess, but on this I don't really see the issue.

    With that said, the cost of an extra 8Gb to them is literally pennies, so withholding it is shitty. But it won't really make that much difference to the average performance of the computer.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    Unified memory, so more efficient with that. Also MacOS has RAM compression.

    I suppose more is better, and 8GB seems like bare minimum for something useful. But one should always mind that now (unlike before 2020) Apple's hardware has caught up with their advertising in the fact that it's really specifically optimized for the job.

    It's fine for an "Apple Chromebook" I think, especially if bulk orders for institutions will get different deals.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    LMAO you actually bought into that 8GB = 16GB marketing nonsense

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    No, that's you happily laughing at the nonsense you yourself said attributing that to me.

    I said that RAM compression in MacOS is an OS feature, well-tested and always on. You can play with something similar under Linux and find out it really makes things better. Which means you can fit more there. Like 10%-20% more is notable enough.

    And I said that unified memory is a feature of their hardware, which is correct. Which is the reason Intel and AMD were playing with that X86-S idea (a new architecture with much of legacy removed, and also, yes, unified memory), until they dropped it because Intel is going to shit.

    I don't see any marketing nonsense in technical facts. Your GPU can use all the same RAM with less expense for doing that. And RAM allocated to applications does get compressed, which is more CPU-intensive obviously, but happens.

    These are obviously correct.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Not who replied to you originally but,

    You aren't wrong (you even stated that more is probably better) , just not necessarily presenting the whole picture.

    Ram compression isn't a benefit only scenario, there is a cost in processing power to make that happen.

    So it's a trade off of memory utilisation vs processing requirements.

    Whether or not it's worth it is down to circumstance, though i agree that generally i think it's worth the tradeoff.

    Unified memory is useful in specific circumstances, most notably LLM/ML scenarios where high vram utilisation is part of the process.

    It's not an apples to apples comparison by any means.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (12 children)

    Then don't buy one. Idk why people get so offended when a company releases a product they're not personally interested in.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Know how I know? Because if there was a big market for a phone with a 3.5 jack, someone would be making it, and lots of people would be buying it.

    that's not how it works, so I'd argue you don't know... as Jobs said, he'll tell you what you want.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Jobs is dead, had been dead for 5 years when apple removed the 3.5 jack, and was never in charge of the myriad other phone manufacturers who also removed their 3.5 jacks. I'm not sure he's as relevant here as you're implying.

    Anyway, as an adult, "company made a product that isn't catered to my specific preferences" is well below my threshold for outrage. I actually can't imagine living like that. It must be horrible.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    No, lots of other people also understand that they're swindlers.

    And lots of other people like their stuff and might want to buy this. I'm not one of them, but I'm happy they can get something they like. Why isn't that good enough?

    It wasn't about "the average consumer"

    It's absolutely about the average consumer. Do you honestly believe Samsung removed the 3.5 jack simply because apple did and they're conditioned to follow apple? They follow money. The money is in thinner, lighter, and better water resistance. The money is there because that's what the average consumer actually wants.

    Did you not notice that they also released another product simultaneously that now makes enough money on its own to be a Fortune 500 company?

    And how does that help the competing manufacturers who also removed their 3.5 jack?

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