Apple releases the MacBook Mini
Apple's MacBook Mini is such an awesome computer. No, it's not the most powerful machine Apple makes, but it is very affordable, which makes it appeal to at least two separate groups. The first group is people who would like a desktop Mac, but would not like to spend typical Mac prices. Because it's so inexpensive, at least in the starting configurations, it also is very compelling as a secondary computer for a lot of people who already have a higher-end Mac or a Mac laptop.
Today, Apple announced the MacBook Neo, although I would suggest the MacBook Mini would be an even better name because I feel like this computer is doing the same exact thing as the Mac Mini. At the same $599 starting price, this laptop achieves both appeals that the Mac Mini has as well. For those who are price conscious, it gives you a brand new, high-quality MacBook at basically half the price of the MacBook Air. I really think it's worth sitting on that for a second. Apple didn't just make this a little less expensive than the MacBook Air, they made it in a completely different price category and a price category that Apple hasn't been in for decades.
But I think it will also appeal to people who own higher-end Macs already. I'm including myself in that camp. I have a 14-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro, and this thing is a beast. It tears through 4K video editing and literally any task I can give it. It's an awesome machine, but it is a little chunky, especially when I travel. I'm often traveling for work, which means I need to bring my work laptop and my personal laptop. And let me tell you, carrying two 14-inch MacBook Pros in your backpack is weight you definitely notice. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I think I am going to pick up one of these to use as my travel computer and maybe some other things that I want to do with it around the house.
And they did this in a computer that is a far cry from the lazy M1 MacBook Air component swap that some people were expecting from them. And let me reiterate, this thing is half the cost of the MacBook Air…there are compromises for sure, but it's half the price.
Before we get into the weeds, here's the highlights Apple calls out on their marketing page (aka, what they think will appeal to a wide audience):
- They come in fun colors
- Long battery life
- Great screen
- Apple Intelligence
- Pairs with your iPhone
- Works with all your apps
- Privacy built in
I'll start by saying I think the colors are a brilliant move, and I'm glad they decided to do it instead of making these boring colors only. I also think it's critical that this does not look like an old Mac. It looks very much exactly like the other current Macs, so it doesn't feel like you're buying an old computer.
Moving on to the specs. I do think people need to set their expectations appropriately. The A18 Pro chip is no slouch, but in the testing I've done, it performs worse than an M1 in some tasks. I'm sure there'll be some things where it's quicker, but I do think that people might be surprised how it performs under load. We'll see how it performs once people have these in hand, but I do worry that some folks expect this to perform like an M4 or an M3, when in fact it could very well be the slowest Apple silicon Mac ever released.
Getting a Mac down to half the price of an Air means making a lot of cuts that are painful, but the removal of Touch ID from the baseline model is the thing that surprised me the most. It's not the end of the world, and honestly, my wife has an M3 MacBook Air, and she literally never uses the Touch ID sensor. She always enters her password anyway. So there certainly are people who will not miss this, but I certainly would.
8 gigabytes RAM is going to be tight. This is definitely a device for light uses, and you're going to start to feel the pain if you try to do too much. 256 starting storage with a single upgrade to 512 gigabytes seems about right to me.
I'll be interested to see the screen in person. The resolution and brightness seem fine and are effectively the same as the Air, but they don't advertise P3 color, it's just RGB. I assume it will be fine, but the absolutely atrocious display in the baseline iPad makes me recognize how terrible a screen Apple is willing to ship in its budget devices, and I hope this is a large margin better than that. I assume it will be.
Despite the smaller footprint, it is exactly as heavy as the MacBook Air, so it's not the mythical return of the ultra-thin MacBook, unfortunately.
The keyboard is not backlit, which I guess is a bummer, but honestly, I don't think I ever use my keyboard's backlight. Honestly, I'm not totally sure why other people use it either. Does your screen not light up the keys already?
I understand that it would cost more, but I do wish that they could have put one USB-C cable on either side of the device. Going back to my wife, her biggest complaint with the MacBook Air is that it only charges from the left side when it would be so much more convenient for every single place she uses her computer to be able to charge from the right.
I'm writing this very quickly on my break at work, and when I go home, I'm going to find my Apple Watch Ultra, see what Apple will give me for a trade-in, and if it gets me close to half the cost, I'll be ordering one when I get home. At a minimum, this will be my travel computer, and at best, it will be my putzing around the house device.
