this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Reasonably priced Mac. What a crazy timeline.
Phone CPU. Similar priced iPads come with a much better CPU.
Counterpoint: Phone CPUs can rival yesterday’s desktops.
Yes, but it's still worth pointing out that the compromises run deeper than alternatives, including Apple's own iPad Air.
Absolutely agree than phone socs can drive a viable experience, but it's just still pricier even using iPad Air as a comparison.
I’ve been running an M1 for years now. So tired of the argument that Mac is underpowered. No, it’s not a video editing/compiling/gaming powerhouse, but it more than makes up for it with an 8+ hour battery life, best-in-class display, and silent running, going on 5 years now.
It still handles everything I throw at it just fine. If I need to bust out the compute power, Mac just isn’t the right rig for it. But that doesn’t make them useless.
It has comparable performance to laptop CPUs in its price bracket while being significantly more power efficient.
A18 Pro? Intel? Neither CPU is used in the MacBook Neo nor the 599 iPad.
Did you read the post?
They seem to just really hate Apple.
You replied to my post and I compared Apple hardware to Apple hardware.
But only run iPadOS, so they're a glorified paperweight.
Regardless, I'm never buying another mac unless I can run asahi linux on it. Apple has progressively destroyed MacOS for the last 15 years, and will continue to do so. Most of Apples software design decisions are anti-consumer and monopolistic, and should be straight up illegal. Apple owns your device; not you.
Similar iPads also come with a lot less ports, no physical keyboard, no aluminum clamshell protection, and a shittier OS.
If you honestly think these justify the crap CPU, you're absolutely out of touch with reality.
Please enlighten me then, if you don't mind. Are there some good benchmarks out there that show the Inadequacies of the A18 chip?
I found several after only 30 seconds of googling, including Apple fans' favorite benchmark: Geekbench multicore where the A18 is about 40% slower.
Isn't it about 40% cheaper than the M4 CPU macbook ?
It's 100% the same price as another portable M4 computer sold by Apple
How much does each USB port cost per device?
A 5-pack of USB C ports costs about one dollar on Aliexpress.
How about a keyboard that is similar to the Neo keyboard?
10 dollars and that's retail, not manufacturing cost.
How much for a 13" display to match the real estate of the Neo display? (Same specs too, dont cheap out)
Look up the costs of 11" and 13" HiDPI displays and subtract the costs yourself. I'm sure you can do it. I bought an excellent 14" external HiDPI USB C monitor for 40 Euro recently.
How about a travel bag to hold all this extra equipment?
Completely irrelevant to the topic that Apple the cost of the Neo is not reasonable.
Relevant because Neo has it built in.
How about the price of an iPad case?
The difference in manufacturing cost compared to the iPad Air is pocket change, way less than a M4 CPU would cost. It's just Apple ripping off its customers as usual.
Enjoy lugging around all that equipment 🙂
Probably means their normal go-to market has plateaued. In this price range they can still sell and profit.