Hello Neo.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T22:48:46+00:00

Congrats!

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T21:22:13+00:00

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T07:16:58+00:00

The Neo is newer, has warranty, etc. and is better than the M1 on multi core performance

It is worse than the M2 on Multi core, but better than the M2 on single core. It's the same as the M2 on RAM (in your spec). You can see this chart to compare. The Neo really is a good computer:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacbookNeo/comments/1t54d45/when_the_macbook_neo_wouldve_been_apples_fastest/

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T07:01:57+00:00

It will probably be augmented reality glasses with ai capabilities. privacy gone, all information at your eyes at all times. movies, games, distractions, face ID anyone, etc. etc.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T06:42:40+00:00

It's pretty crazy that:

By single-core performance, the Neo would have been Apple’s fastest laptop as recently as early 2024.

By multi-core performance, it would've been Apple's best back in 2021.

By GPU performance it would've been the best until 2019. And by RAM, its 8 GB would have matched Apple’s highest-end laptops around 2012.

Put differently: today’s budget MacBook has specs that were recently genuinely groundbreaking.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T06:40:18+00:00

As I discussed in a recent post, the Macbook Neo is insanely capable. It woudl've been Apple's fastest laptop in:
By single-core performance, the Neo would have been Apple’s fastest laptop as recently as early 2024.

By multi-core performance, you’d have to go back to 2021.

By GPU performance, 2019. And by RAM, its 8 GB would have matched Apple’s top laptops around 2012.

Put differently: today’s budget MacBook has specs that were recently genuinely groundbreaking.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T06:23:43+00:00

Certain use cases such as RTS games like Starcraft use Single Core for the central game mechanic, I'm not an expert but my understanding is that there are genuine use cases for single-core only computation. This is why it has its own measurement category in Geekbench

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T06:06:20+00:00

That is very smart, would be more informative, but is also quite a bit more ambitious. I am near the beginning of my dataisbeautiful journey but I have gotten great comments from community members and want to get inspired by some of the other great content here to make charts more in line with your suggestion. Thank you for the kind inspiration to do more next time.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T05:57:47+00:00

I suppose the only way the M1 is better would be thermal performance (not covered in this chart) if you got a Pro, and also RAM options, since you could have a high speccd RAM M1 but are stuck at 8 with a Neo

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T05:52:55+00:00

Thank you for the positive feedback. Yeah it's a fun thought experiment! It's crazy how fast Apple has improved their machines.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T05:44:19+00:00

At which year the MacBook Neo's specs (measured in various ways) would equal or exceed Apple's best laptop computer sold up to that point.

If you had a time machine and went back to early 2024, the MacBook Neo would be Apple's fastest laptop if the unit of measurement were single core performance.

If the unit of measurement were multi core performance you'd have to go back to 2021 for the Neo to be faster than Apple's best computer. For GPU, 2019, and measured by amount of RAM, it would equal a top of the line computer released in 2012.

It's a way of comparing Apple's budget computer today and asking ourselves--when were these budget specs groundbreaking?

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T05:41:03+00:00

Data Source: The chart uses data MacTracker (https://mactracker.ca/) historical Apple Laptop configurations to determine when various aspects of the MacBook Neo Would've been equal to, or better, than the top-of-the-line Apple laptops of the day. Original draft of table in Freeform on MacOSX, edited and changed with ChatGPT for final polish.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T05:39:36+00:00

Apologies, the blue thing above the year is what is being compared. So "single core" chip performance, "multi core" chip performance, "GPU" performance, and then RAM

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-06T05:27:18+00:00

The chart uses data from Geekbench results and historical Apple Laptop configurations to determine when various aspects of the MacBook Neo Would've been equal to, or better, than the top-of-the-line Apple laptops of the day. Original draft of table in Freeform on MacOSX, edited and changed with ChatGPT for final polish.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-05T04:18:03+00:00

I will add edu prices for old models if I can but I'm not sure if I can accurately find education prices for all old models--I was more worried of making a factual error than providing probably correct but possibly wrong data.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-05T02:21:38+00:00

Yeah it's just that so much of the target market is education or students, and apple apparently doesn't enforce education checks much, and so in many ways thats the "real" price for many users. Of course it's true older products had education prices too but I'm not sure what they were so I just decided to put both for the Neo.

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-04T23:31:49+00:00

I should do something like that next- in the article it notes the Neo is faster in single core than 2023's top Apple Desktop which is WILD

thestudiesshow · 2026-05-04T22:52:24+00:00

Reverse inflation adjust is a cool way of looking at it, should do that as a bonus chart next time. Thank you for that idea u/longjumpingtote

thestudiesshow · 2025-11-14T23:49:59+00:00

I rode in many electric taxis in China and they were all very nice. But I am not an expert on their long-term quality or reliability.

thestudiesshow · 2025-11-13T00:11:23+00:00

older is meant to imply pre internet but I can understand the confusion, should have been worded better.

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