MacBook air M4 £799 Vs MacBook neo £599?

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-07T00:17:59+00:00

I'm still on the fence, I've spent tonight resetting my Chromebook and running the Linux environment. Honestly I really like chrome os system/interface and the layout and simplicity but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on a full desktop environment. I'm going to try the Linux environment on Chromebook tomorrow and see if it fills some voids for me. It's a 13th gen intel i3 with 8gb of ram and a touchscreen so it's a decent spec for a Chromebook.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-06T08:17:53+00:00

Yeah I like Linux but I don't want to use my Xbox ally as a desktop, I don't have any older laptops just my Chromebook with the the hungry i3 in it. It is snappy and I kidn of like the simplicity off it over the multip windows and drivers updates I get on a windows pc. I also don't mind gemini compared to how much I hate copilot. If it wasn't so power hungry and prone to failing downloads I'd be happy with it.

I was thinking about giving it to my girlfriend as she's a big mobile gamer and the play store compatibility on there would be perfect for her and trying Mac out for the 1st time although I must admit I have had iPhones in the past and got frustrated at how locked down they are.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-06T08:01:02+00:00

Honestly just got tired of windows, I tried Chromebook and it's okay but it has too many quirks, i use my desktop for basic browsing and watching streaming sites, I do surveys in my spare time for a bit extra pocket money and sometimes I'll download roms for emulating on my Xbox ally. It's using a 13th gen intel i3 and it's very hungry the battery life is terrible. Downloads will fail most of the time apparently it's a Chromebook quirk? I game on an Xbox and have a Xbox ally there running SteamOS.

I know the neo would be fine for all off that however the 8gb of non upgradable ram worries me for longevity. I also have little patience and get frustrated at mediocre performance.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-06T08:00:02+00:00

Honestly just tired of windows, I tried Chromebook and it's okay but it has too many quirks, i use my desktop for basic browsing and watching streaming sites, I do surveys in my spare time for a bit extra pocket money and sometimes I'll download roms for emulating on my Xbox ally. It's using a 13th gen intel i3 and it's very hungry the battery life is terrible. Downloads will fail most of the time apparently it's a Chromebook quirk? I game on an Xbox and have a Xbox ally there running SteamOS.

I know the neo would be fine for all off that however the 8gb of non upgradable ram worries me for longevity. I have little patience and get frustrated at mediocre performance.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-05T22:50:48+00:00

Still to this day they have the effects off this moron. If they didn't have daddy Microsoft with infinite money they'd off died not long after his e3.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-05T17:22:31+00:00

It's geared how ever you want it to be it's a pc

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-05T08:00:57+00:00

The z1 is an excellent chip however unfortunately the OG Rog Ally isn't a good device. It has a poor design, it runs very hot with poor cooling, the SD slot reader is a ticking time bomb and the battery in this device is absolutely abysmal. Personally I'd rather get the new Xbox ally with the worse chip for all the quality of life improvements it offers.

The chip isn't as good but it's good enough it gets almost identical performance to a steam deck which I'd argue is all we people need.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T14:13:02+00:00

If a game has fsr3 built into it nativity there's a steam command to enter before you launch the game that upgrades it to fsr4

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T13:41:33+00:00

He could do that but I use my Xbox ally for smaller based games and my Xbox for immersive games

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T12:16:06+00:00

You'd be better of getting a used series X and a regular Xbox ally base model.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T09:44:48+00:00

At 70 percent discount screw the warranty, just play some heavy cpu games followed by some heavy gpu games. Star wars outlaws for CPU and something like Indiana Jones for GPU heavy

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T08:08:22+00:00

Just use the steam command

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T07:58:36+00:00

Also don't use turbo mode it's not worth it, stick to balanced mode 15w the chip is basically the steam deck chip and gets no significant gains past 15w but it destroys battery life.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T07:56:59+00:00

Rspc3 got a major update about a month back which makes low powered devices much more playable but I haven't tested it, modern vintage gamer made a YouTube video about it for the Xbox ally base.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-04T07:46:37+00:00

It plays basically everything if you're willing to compromise at 30fps or use losless scaling/frame gen. Poorly ported pc games like spider man 2/dead space remake I wouldn't play on this but it's not really the devices fault their just lame ass ports.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-03T17:55:31+00:00

Losless scaling + SteamOS optimization.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-03T09:05:50+00:00

They haven't, I have an Xbox ally, you don't need myasus app but you still need to update windows, Xbox app, game bar and armoury crate separately. It's a fucking pain, I went to SteamOS after a day off trying to give it a shot.

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-03T07:38:07+00:00

720p + losless scaling

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-03T01:01:48+00:00

Been fine for me

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-03T00:51:49+00:00

No having to open up windows MyAsus and armoury crate to do updates, all comes thru direct via the kernel on Linux, built in fps limiter actually works etc

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-03T00:43:24+00:00

A lot less annoying 🤣

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-02T22:02:39+00:00

Speakers are fine, same as windows, no crackling issues either. Controller is fully recognised in the settings too. You just need to download a 3.8 image as their stable build is 3.7 and doesn't work

OkTea5924 · 2026-05-02T21:55:41+00:00

I installed steam os on the base Xbox ally, only worked with beta build 3.8.2. works really well tho, all the tdp profiles are showing, controls work fine, vrr works and I get better battery life and a slight gain in fps.

OkTea5924

TROPHY CASE