From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.misc



MacBook Neo is Apple's new $599 entry-level notebook
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Following years of rumors, Apple has finally rolled out the
new entry-level MacBook Neo. It's $599.

The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are premium notebooks on the
market, with Apple avoiding the more budget-focused end for
quite a few years. However, with its latest introduction, it
is going to compete with Chromebooks and other low-cost
notebook options, but on its own terms.

The new MacBook Neo is an effort to tempt value-oriented
consumers to sign up to Apple's ecosystem. To do this, Apple
had to create a low-cost MacBook, stripping it down to the
bare essentials.

From the outside, it looks like a MacBook Air, complete with
a thin aluminum slab-style appearance. At 0.5 inches thick,
it's a tiny bit thicker than a MacBook Air, with its 11.71 by
8.12-inch footprint also a little bit smaller than the
13-inch Air.

At 2.7 pounds, it weighs the same.


Scaled back specs
The core of that change is the use of the A18 Pro, an A-series
chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro, instead of the usual M-series
Apple Silicon chips. This isn't too much of a stretch for
Apple to get working, considering the Apple Silicon range is
based on the same tech it created for the A-series chips in
the first place.

This technically isn't the first Mac to have an A-series chip,
as the 2020 Apple Developer Transition Kit housed an
A12Z Bionic. However, this is the first to be actually sold
directly to the public.

That's a chip with a 6-core CPU, with two performance cores and
four efficiency cores, as well as a 5-core GPU. The 16-core
Neural Engine also makes an appearance.

While not an M-series chip, consumers can expect to see
multicore performance comparable to the M1, and single-core
power about M4 speeds. While not as powerful as the latest M5
chips, it's still more than enough for everyday tasks and
workloads that don't require massive graphical processing.

Along with the chip, Apple has also scaled down other core
specifications of the MacBook. This includes the unified memory,
which now sits at 8 gigabytes versus the 16 gigabytes you'd
expect from the cheapest MacBook Air. There are no upgrades
available.

Storage is also similarly cut to the bone, with only 256GB or
512GB capacities available - with the $100 upgrade to 512GB
version also coming with Touch ID. The port selection hasn't
suffered too much, with one side having both USB 3 and
USB 2-speed USB-C ports, and the other having a 3.5mm headphone
jack.

Notably, the unit does not have Thunderbolt.

While it does have a 13-inch display, it's not the high-grade
Retina that consumers are used to. At 2,408 by 1,506, it's a
lesser 219 pixels per inch. This is a bit more DPI than a 4K
32-inch monitor.

That screen has sRGB gamut support, as well as up to 500 nits of
brightness.

External display support is curtailed compared to the other
models, with it able to work with a single 4K screen at 60Hz.
That display is connected to the USB 3 port, which has native
DisplayPort 1.4 support.

There is a 1080p FaceTime HD camera in the top of the screen.
This time, without the notch, like the iPad.


Still a serviceable notebook
While a lot has been cut from the model to make it affordable,
there's a lot of staple elements from Apple's designs that are
incorporated into this model.

You still get a full-size Magic Keyboard with 12 full-height
function keys. However, you can only get Touch ID with the
upper-tier model.

For wireless networking, Wi-Fi 6E is included along with
Bluetooth 6 support.

Though the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have four and six-speaker
sound systems, this new model instead provides two-speaker
stereo. There's still Spatial Audio support if you have
compatible earphones.

Apple includes a dual-mic array as part of its audio setup,
which also has directional beamforming and performs the same
processing tricks as an iPhone for voice clarity.

Apple even claims that it has enough battery power to last up to
16 hours for video streaming, or up to 11 hours of wireless web
surfing. The battery is a small 36.5-watt-hour lithium-ion cell,
recharged by either of the USB-C ports, not MagSafe.


Budget-friendly, soon
Apple has made the MacBook Neo available to preorder, with
availability from March 11. It will ship in four colors: Silver,
Blush, Citrus, and Indigo.

Pricing starts from $599 for the 256GB model, while the 512GB
capacity option with added Touch ID is $699.



<https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/03/04/macbook-neo-is-apples-new-entry-level-notebook>





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