Windows PC makers typically haven't had to compete with Apple on the low end, but that changes with the Neo, says S.Y. Hsu. The memory shortage might complicate things, though.

The Apple MacBook Neo’s $599 starting price is a “shock” to the Windows PC industry, according to an Asus executive.

Hsu said he believes all the PC players—including Microsoft, Intel, and AMD—take the MacBook Neo threat seriously. “In fact, in the entire PC ecosystem, there have been a lot of discussions about how to compete with this product,” he added, given that rumors about the MacBook Neo have been making the rounds for at least a year.

Despite the competitive threat, Hsu argued that the MacBook Neo could have limited appeal. He pointed to the laptop’s 8GB of “unified memory,” or what amounts to its RAM, and how customers can’t upgrade it.

  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    3·
    24 hours ago

    Swap isn’t terrible though, a lot of current gen mac hardware has very fast SSDs and very low latency controllers so it’s pretty transparent in normal use.

    They do typically have good hardware that works well together. It’s a ton of work replicating that level of hardware compatibility. Apple catches a lot of negative feedback and some of it deserved but they won’t be caught dead shipping a wifi chip as shitty as the one in my Surface.

    I think if you are on a website like this, this computer isn’t for you

    Probably. I’m in the minority on an iPhone.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      I’m a die hard Apple apologist in anti-Apple tech spaces because I love playing devil’s advocate.

      I’ve more or less never had WiFi issues on Macs. Bluetooth range was a bit shit on a 2011 Air I once had though. In an environment with dozens of other bluetooth devices in the same room. WiFi still worked fine, despite having probably 50-60 laptops using WiFi in the same room at any given time.

      I’ve also had one of these famous 8 gig M1 Airs. I managed to hit 20 gigs of swap usage at some point when running several different applications and a lot of docker containers and it still ran just fine.

      People often say their devices are shitty, but they’re actually excellent. Their business practices are shitty, but when the M1 came out, it performed better with 8 gigs than any equivalently priced PC laptop with 16, even if it had to swap more often.