Since the launch of the MacBook Neo a few days ago, the hype from various tech media outlets and influencers caught my attention, so I decided to dig a little deeper into this device. Benchmarks show the SOC of the laptop being close to M1 performance which still is very capable today.
I visited my local Best Buy to demo one of these units to assess the RAM usage and while using Safari with six tabs, the MacBook Neo consumed 6.81 GB of RAM.
In terms of connectivity, I’m speculating that one of the USB Type-C ports is USB 2.0 due to the limitations of the A18 Pro SOC since it was originally purpose-built for smartphones. Moreover, I spoke with an Apple sales rep, and he stated that through the USB Type-C 10Gbps port only had enough bandwidth to drive one external display.
I’m a bit apprehensive about people online saying that 8 GB of RAM is enough and/or they’ve gone through years using that amount in the past; those people are not considering the RAM usage on macOS one to three years from now as well as the additional wear/tear on the soldered SSD once resource usage goes from RAM to swap.
If the machine had a 16 GB or more RAM configuration, I would jump on the bandwagon to purchase one of these machines immediately since it would be adequate for my multitasking needs while on the go.
In my humble opinion, it should suit K-12 students, senior citizens, and casual users. Overall, I think it was extremely strategic and clever for Apple to make a product in this price segment since a decent amount of people, especially younger people will be likely to be drawn into the Apple ecosystem.