When the first M1 Apple Silicon systems sprouted at the end of 2020, we loved the tech but not the walled garden it grew in. Apple had complete control over all its platforms and could set its own rules, but only to become more Apple-y. There was a whole world outside that area where Apple Silicon would never tread, even if Cupertino could iterate fast enough to keep up. Plus, Apple’s appliance sensibility limited its expansion options, especially with performance dependent on its own silicon.
More than five years on, that remains true. Yes, the architecture can iterate at least as fast as anything else in its class. It turns out that gigabit Wi-Fi, 10 Gb Ethernet, and high speed expansion is not such a problem anymore. Otherwise, if you ignore embedded niche cases that nobody cares about, Apple is still where it started, in desktops and laptops. It has even lost one form factor. And ironically, the most exciting new machine for years, the Macbook Neo, doesn’t even have an M-type SoC in it.
And yet, that Macbook Neo has given the Windows world the fear, precisely because of the Apple Silicon walled garden strategy. A simple equation has reached a critical point, and it may be irreversible. Every year of Apple Silicon, the experience of using a Mac has gotten better. Every year of Windows 11, the experience of using a PC has gotten worse.
For roughly the price of a single 9800x3d*, you can buy a complete laptop with a long lasting battery and decent enough specs for web browsing, video playback, and basic office work. It’s unfortunately one of the better devices on the market at that price, especially accounting for the battery life.
*Edit: okay the processors came down in price. Fine, the cost of a kit of decent DDR5 memory, then.
One of the few, I take it?
The 9800X3D is a desktop chip, so I don’t think it’s relevant here. We are talking about a complete mobile device after all, not parts.
In my country, for around 800$ equivalent, you can buy a used business laptop with long battery life and enoguh performance for web browsing, video playback, and office work. The cheapest macbook neo I found in my country is also around that price (820$), and the better configuration is about 900$.
For the lower price, I could get:
All of them have more ports the the neo, use standard SSDs, and don’t come from a company that is one of the most hostile to consumer rights and right to repair .
One of many. What I meant (and should have said, instead of being vague) is that I don’t expect this to be a real shift in policy, but rather a way to maintain profits when people have less disposable income, and I fully expect Apple to keep lobbing against right to repair, even when releasing ‘repairable’ devices.