Christina WarrenMar 4
There are obvious deficits to the MacBook Neo — connectivity is a huge one, but I’m just stoked there is a $500 MacBook (assuming you use the student discount, which of course you obviously should) and in fun colors!
Show threadJason SnellMar 4
@film_girl I just wonder how much connectivity the buyers of a $599 laptop need....
Show threadD. Griffin Jones
@jsnell @film_girl If that type of customer is plugging in external storage at all, it would probably be one of those self-contained Samsung SSDs, not an OWC ThunderBay or Synology that costs 3× as much as the Neo
Mar 4 at 5:17pmWeb
Show threadChristina WarrenMar 4
@dgriffinjones @jsnell I’m not talking about that. I’m saying a single USB 3 port (not even USB 4) sucks. At least offer two. This means that even $30 Anker dongles are going to be VERY bandwidth constrained. I still think this is a winner but the user really needs to never wants to connect it to an external display or use it with multiple accessories. That trade-off that felt OK in 2020. It fees less OK now. I’m still a fan, but this sort of cheaping out is still a thing we should critique
Show threadD. Griffin JonesMar 4

@film_girl @jsnell Ah, I see. Definitely agree there.

Although speaking of displays, how far can it go with only DisplayPort? The tech specs page for the new Studio Display doesn’t list the MacBook Neo…

Show threadChristina WarrenMar 4
@dgriffinjones @jsnell it can only support a 4K display. Meaning Apple doesn’t sell a display that works with the MacBook Neo. Which OK. And look, $300 Chromebooks support HDMI 1.4 so this feels just like a choice to use the cheapest most cut down CPU they could. And that’s fine. But I’m not going to praise them for being cheap fucks, even if I largely like the product.
Show threadDaniel LyonsMar 5
@film_girl @dgriffinjones @jsnell The typical customer for this product doesn’t even realize that it’s possible to use an external monitor with a laptop.
Show threadD. Griffin JonesMar 5
@dandylyons @film_girl @jsnell I mean, you shouldn’t assume that people buying cheap computers are dumb, they may just not have the money for the $1,099 model. That’s a lot of money.
Show threadDaniel LyonsMar 5

@dgriffinjones @film_girl @jsnell This has nothing to do with intelligence. They’re plenty smart, they just don’t know about external monitors because frankly they don’t care. They just want a cheap, light portable laptop. And that’s what it is.

Not everyone is a techy and that is fine.