Yes, even the MacBook Neo
Apple introduced the MacBook Neo a few months ago. It was compact, light, colorful, and, most importantly, Apple’s least expensive MacBook ever, coming in at less than a fully kitted iPad, just $599, and $499 for those buying it for education! I snatched one up to be my laptop on the go for writing and perhaps some very light programming, which it struggles with. I’ve been working on a full review of the laptop, but, before I could come close to finishing it, Apple had to raise prices.
And if you’re one of the morons using AI, it’s your fault.
Due to the demands of AI on memory and storage, virtually all electronic devices are getting more expensive. Apple’s products managed to stay their existing price for some time thanks to the padding their profit margins provide. The MacBook Neo was even the least expensive MacBook ever. But not even Apple could resist the rising costs of hardware anymore.
You just couldn’t write an email like a normal literate person, could you?
Apple Price Increases
The MacBook Neo is now $699 to start, and $799 for the version you should actually get, if you’re getting a MacBook Neo. I’d argue that, at $800. you might not want to get one. I type this from a MacBook Neo, and I had to close a bunch of browser windows and apps because it was thrashing, running poorly because I was out of memory and using just too much of the flash storage to keep active apps running. The MacBook Neo has just 8GB of memory, less than most flagship smartphones do now. The base model MacBook Air would have been the option to go with, but it’s also now more expensive, going up $200, making it $1,299. A previously $400 difference between the two is now a $500 difference, and it’s hard to recommend that as well. The MacBook Neo is something you should get only if you can’t save for the Air, because the MacBook Air gives you a much more powerful processor and double the memory for that price. Now it’s harder to get either.
While the MacBook Neo was once easy for me to recommend, it became a bit harder at $800. But it’s not like it’ll ever get cheaper again. RAM doesn’t just make itself, and the resource hog that is AI will continue to sap every resource humanity has, in search of a reason to exist.
The MacBook Pro, the device you should get if you do more intensive work on your machine, like software development, video editing, light gaming, or music production, is now $2,000, up $300 from its pre-AI RAMpocalypse (RAMageddon?) price. If I were to buy a MacBook Pro right now that fits my needs as a “do everything” blogger, software engineer, and burgeoning musician, I’d be dumping $5,349. That’s insane. I could spec out two amazing guitars for that price!
Nearly everything is more expensive from Apple. The Apple TV costs $70 more. The iPad Pro is up $200. The already ridiculously overpriced and useless Vision Pro is up $200. The Mac Mini? Up $200. The M3 Ultra, two major versions behind on processor architecture, still Apple’s most powerful computer, is up a whopping $1,300. Fully spec’d out, it goes for $14,299.
Apple’s prices were always a bit high. But now? Now they’re astronomical.
Thanks, AI!
Are you happy now, AI users? Ah, let’s be honest, they’re not. They’d be socializing with real people instead of making friends with ChatGPT if they were.
At least the iPhone isn’t more expensive.
Yet.