I’ve at all times been a technology or two behind on the final shopper electronics curve. My household didn’t get a house PC till late into the ’90s. I had a desktop in school as an alternative of a laptop computer as a result of it was cheaper. My first cellphone was pay-as-you go and my first smartphone wasn’t till 2012. Slicing-edge electronics, particularly of the high-end selection, simply have by no means been part of my life. I spend day-after-day of my life writing on-line and my laptop computer is a 10-year-old Asus Zenbook that’s lacking three keyboard keys. All of which is to say that the brand new Apple Macbook Neo is the finances Apple laptop computer I’ve been ready for.
Revealed earlier right this moment, it’s a 13-inch show gadget (liquid retina) that runs on outdated iPhone chips (2024 A18 Professional cellular) and begins at $600. It solely has 8GB of un-upgradable RAM nevertheless it is available in numerous muted metallic pastel colours, together with a piss yellow that seems like it could have been proper at residence on an early 2000s gaming handheld. All of which is to say that I sort of like it. I’ve by no means owned an Apple gadget earlier than and I’ve no need to grow to be trapped in that walled backyard, however a glossy, enjoyable, purposeful low-end laptop computer could be price deprograming my Home windows-pilled mind for. I’ve been purchasing for a brand new laptop computer lately (see the half above concerning the Frankenstein Zenbook). I have already got an affordable Chromebook, however whereas that might be the good choice for my wants I need one thing that may operate independently of the online. As a stingy dad whose concept of luxurious is pumping the thermostat to 67 in the course of a winter polar vortex, I’m dedicated to staying within the low finish of the laptop computer vary. And let me inform you, the choices largely suck! Nice battery life and 16GB of RAM comes on the expense of shoddy display shows and construct high quality. Copilot bullshit is being clumsily shoehorned into every little thing. Even the nice worth laptops, like a Dell Plus, look someplace between boring and ugly. Plus I’m obsessive about small laptops. I used to steal my good friend’s Toshiba Mini in school and liked it. I need one thing mild and compact, however something beneath 14 inches as of late comes at a premium.
Plus, Home windows is a godawful mess. I’m dropping my will to navigate ever-increasing layers of OS enshittification as Microsoft chases AI hyperscaler income. It breaks. It doesn’t do cool stuff. It’s a useful resource hog. It’s strangling what’s left of Xbox forward of the subsequent console {hardware} launch. I ought to in all probability construct an air-gapped Linux machine and reside out the remainder of my days on a farm, however within the meantime I’ll accept the primary MacBook that’s cheaper than a PS5 Professional, particularly since the remainder of the MacBook Airs and Professionals simply acquired memory-crunch-fueled worth hikes.
