I’ve had a busy few months, so I haven’t had the time to get a few thoughts off my chest regarding Apple’s event in April announcing the MacBook Neo.
1) The name “Neo” is bad. They should have just called this “MacBook”. Lets hope this doesn’t propagate to other product lines.
2) This laptop really highlights how badly Intel missed mobile. Here we are, almost 20 years after the iPhone was released, and the technology in that device has now enveloped the Mac. Its a great time to be a Mac user, but Intel missing mobile was just catastrophic.
3) I can’t believe they didn’t include Force Touch. I suppose the iPad track pads haven’t been Force Touch, but its been a long time since they sold a Mac with a physically moving touch pad.
4) Apple embracing the modular nature of modern SoC packaging in the 2.5D architecture in the M5 Pro and Max is great. Hopefully we’ll start to see some new innovation in how the company designs their next generation of Apple Silicon.
5) I am sad that there wasn’t a new Apple TV. Come on Apple, please.
6) iPhone 17e is genuinely pretty good.
MKBHD did offer some suggestions for who this device is for in his video reviewing the product. I mostly agree with him, but I have to say a refurbished or on-sale MacBook Air continue to be a great deal too. He mentioned the Neo may be good for Grandparents, but the 15” Air is great for seniors with vision troubles, and the Force Touch pad isn’t just a nice-to-have – it also removes another physical moving part.
At Ken 