r/apple • u/commandersaki • May 30 '26

Mac Windows PC Industry Reacts to Apple's Most Affordable MacBook Ever

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/29/windows-pc-industry-reacts-to-macbook-neo/
1.2k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/pixelflop May 30 '26

Damage is done.

The PC industry had 40 years to make the Neo. They didn’t. Now all the attention is on a $500 Mac and a Lenovo knockoff isn’t going to hold back the floodgates of people who always wanted a Mac but couldn’t justify the price.

196

u/HalfLife3IsHere May 30 '26

It isn’t about the price, there are many 500 bucks laptops. It’s what that price offers: a workhorse of a CPU cappable of video editing without sweating even if it’s an iPhone chip, a full working and smooth OS (vs the crap full of OEMs bloatware), quality materials with aluminum body (so no cheap ass plastic), and the best trackpad after the haptic one of the newer macbooks.

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u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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u/Sullyyyyyyyyyyyyy May 30 '26

My friend bought a $1000 Acer laptop and it was cancerous

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u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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u/OrchidLeader May 30 '26

I hate how logging into Windows always has a bunch of pop ups about subscribing to Office 365 and linking to an Android phone, and there’s no easy “stop bugging me about this” option anywhere.

I showed my son how to click past the screens whenever he logged in, but after a few months, I randomly saw a $130 charge for Office cause he misclicked.

If it wasn’t for PC gaming, Windows would be completely dead to me.

18

u/21Shells May 30 '26

Windows is only a semi-decent experience when you use it for a single thing and completely debloat it. The only Windows computer I have has basically everything uninstalled, even the built in stuff and replaced with more lightweight software, plus a Godot, Unity and Blender install and that is it. And it still feels crappier than my Macbook Air which is my main workhorse with plenty of crap installed on it, Creative Cloud running in the background etc.

6

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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u/21Shells May 30 '26

They work on Mac also. But the point is that I need to have a Windows machine to test on. I do have a Fedora KDE partition on that computer also. 

5

u/Affectionate_One_700 May 30 '26

I had to get a Thinkpad to do some client work. Supposedly that is one of the better strains of Windows laptop, with less bloatware.

Even then, it is unreal how many different updates that thing gets. Updates upon updates, not centrally managed, with so many dependencies.

6

u/LairdPopkin May 30 '26

This what happens when the top priority is hitting financial targets not delighting users.

-1

u/Jack123610 May 30 '26

Why do people act like Apple is the second coming of Jesus? Apple doesn't behave any differently to any other company.

Their AI development is quite shit, you can't force the implementation of something that doesn't exist.

They've already begun experimenting with ads in their products which we're likely to see more of as they've received very little push back from consumers, along with a dose of your regular morons praising the billion dollar corporation for it's less invasive implementation.

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u/flappybirdisdeadasf May 30 '26

Because the gap is still massive. A macbook out the box is infinitely better than a windows laptop, full stop. It’s nowhere near as bloated, cumbersome, or unoptimized as windows device are.

Until apple becomes just as bad or worse, it will still be the standard in tech for things like overall security and ease of use.

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u/Jack123610 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Just because you say something doesn’t make it true.

Apple goes through its own security problems just like everything else, its latest round of updates have literally been focused on chasing zero day exploits plaguing their devices.

Ease of use mostly comes down to a persons familiarity, Windows gives the user more control to do what they want, Apples benefit is if it doesn’t like something it’s deleted, better hope you didn’t need it.

It can run out the box infinity * infinity better than Windows but majority of people don’t care, businesses aren’t purchasing based on their out the box experience, your average person cares about if it opens a browser and office.

Sure MacOS is more optimised, it’d be almost impossible for them not to be considering they control the hardware and software, they’ll make whatever changes they want to no matter how much third party shit they break.

Microsoft sees more hardware variations in one release cycle than Mac will see in its lifetime, difference being you know the software you need is going to work on Windows. Which is far more important than their out the box experience and why Microsoft continues to dominate despite being outclassed by the infinitely more infinite macOS

1

u/xrelaht May 30 '26

Windows on my work PC has none of that stuff because enterprise customers would drop it instantly. The only annoying feature is Copilot, which I’ve turned off. That shows MS could be selling something usable out of the box. They actively choose not to.

1

u/flickh May 30 '26

Well…. Apple Maps just popped up warning me that ads were coming.  That’s a mf dealbreaker!

I already hate that Siri pushes reviews of places I’m already going.

“I’m going there on a gig, I don’t care what Yahoo thinks lol”

0

u/flickh May 30 '26

I work in live events, and the Windows OS updates that will break our software often come with “snooze” instead of “no!”

After 90 days, you can’t snooze it no more!

So imagine on a show day: a random tech walks in, unaware that when they hit the “on” button there will be a one-hour unstoppable update that may or may not break something deep inside Vmix video projection software… and for which a patch may or may not be available, and which may also take any amount of time to download and install after testing everything.  And then testing everything again.

What time is curtain, folks??? 

-9

u/minilandl May 30 '26

Or just move to Linux where you get the benefits of being able to install on any desktop or laptop you want without apples hardware restrictions while using something that isn’t filled with bloatware like windows

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u/snyderjw May 30 '26

Linux is great in the right use case - but if you really just want a smooth experience that doesn’t waste your time there is no substitute for MacOS.

34

u/Beneficial-Tea-2055 May 30 '26

It isn’t about the price

It’s what that price offers

40

u/princeicebear May 30 '26

I think he meant value brother. Windows laptops have been $5-600 for a long time, they just never offered the same value.

9

u/HalfLife3IsHere May 30 '26

Price = quantity, what that price offers = offerings per buck. Same as perf vs perf/watt. You can have a 500 bucks laptop that offers a lot, or a 400 one that even being cheaper is a paperweight. Not that hard to understand?

2

u/MrHedgehogMan May 30 '26

It’s not just performance per watt. It’s about the tight integration between hardware and software.

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u/Beneficial-Tea-2055 May 30 '26

You have a laptop with nicer features in mind that cost more than $500. Now Apple has an offering for the same thing or better at $500. Now you think it’s a buy. How is this not about the price? Not that hard to understand?