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by geerlingguy10 hours ago |
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upvoteby NoLinkToMe8 hours ago|
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They already have! It's essentially what you wished for.

Below respectively 11 inch MBA vs NEO in cm

  - Height: 1.7 vs 1.27 (thickest point)
  - Width: 30 vs 29.75
  - Depth: 19.2 vs 20.65
  - Weight: 1.08 vs 1.23
11 inch was thicker and wider, neo is longer and heavier. But more or less the same form factor.

But you get 1.4 inches extra in screen size due to slimmer bezels, double storage, double pixel density, double ram, almost double battery life and a LOT more CPU, for half the price (even before adjusting for inflation, leading to a further discount).

Only thing they didn't do was keep the taper model, but I think that's a smart move even if it made for a fantastic picture at the time.

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upvoteby andrewcastmate6 hours ago|
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I'm a bit too lazy to look it up, but this is surprising to me. I still have an 11-inch, and it has a huge bezel around it, but it still feels way, way smaller than a 13-inch MacBook Air.

If the Neo has the same size screen as the MacBook Air, it's just a little confusing to me where it could be smaller.

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upvoteby drakythe3 hours ago|
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You answered your own question, its the bezel. They've gotten _much_ thinner since the 11 inch MBAs were a thing. Remember screen size is measured in diagonals, so even a 5mm reduction of bezel size both horizontally and vertically gains you a little over 7mm in screen size without a physical size increase. to gain 2 inches in screen size (50.8 mm) you'd only need to eliminate 0.74 inches (roughly) from all 4 sides. I don't know the exact measurements of the bezels on those older devices but I can tell you my M4 Air is less than half an inch on all sides.

EDIT: My math was bad. Its still not precise but its much more accurate now.

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upvoteby badc0ffee7 hours ago|
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What are the weight measurements? kg?
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upvoteby manacit7 hours ago|
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Yes, that's in kg
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upvoteby apparent9 hours ago|
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The 13" MBA has the same approximate external dimensions as the 11" MBA. I know because it easily fits in the snug case that I've had ever since I got my 11" MBA.

They basically shrank the bezels down. If they made it smaller it would impact the keyboard size, which many people probably would not like.

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upvoteby bxparks7 hours ago|
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Yup. The MBA11 is probably my favorite laptop of all time. It's my daily driver. I have 4 of those now, running MacOS and Linux Mint.

I was really hoping for the Neo to be more like the MBA11.

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upvoteby wpm9 hours ago|
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That or the 12" Retina MacBook, which weighed 0.67 lbs less than the neo and Air do. And it does make a difference!

It's disappointing they finally got the silicon for the "thin and light at all costs" form factor but gave up on the form factor. I just want my clipboard laptop back!

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upvoteby gyomu9 hours ago|
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A revival of the 12” MacBook would be amazing, but give it to me as a premium device - not an educational market positioning.

I want a real M-series chip with RAM upgrades, an OLED display, etc.

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upvoteby jkestner9 hours ago|
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Like the little buff 12” PowerBook https://www.macworld.com/article/225194/ode-to-the-12-inch-p...
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upvoteby wpm8 hours ago|
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Somewhere on my list of projects is "Gut a 12" Powerbook and put the guts of a modern M series Macbook in it". The chassis is so spacious and the Macbook Air logic boards are so small, physics is not going to be a problem. Just hooking up screens, the keyboard and trackpad (using the original, natch), and ports. There's already a high-res display swap you can do in that chassis to get to 1400x1050.
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upvoteby jkestner1 hours ago|
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Hmm now I want to see this done in a PowerBook 100 chassis with a Sharp Memory LCD screen.
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upvoteby retired9 hours ago|
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I still remember when the Air lineup was all about being small and light.
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upvoteby NetMageSCW5 hours ago|
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The MacBook Neo and the MacBook Air (at about the same weight) are 10% lighter than the original Air.
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upvoteby ulfw9 hours ago|
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Exactly. This with an M5, OLED, today's keyboard/trackpad combo, 16GB/24GB RAM, 2-4TB of SSD and it would be an instant buy
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upvoteby NetMageSCW5 hours ago|
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They make something like that, but it costs a bit more.
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upvoteby cduzz2 hours ago|
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I'm very sad this neo macbook thing isn't a replacement for my macbook retina in any way. I'm not really sure what I'll do to replace it; I'd been hoping this "phone chip based macbook" would be of the old retina form factor. But instead it's just a nerfed air. My kids have the macbook airs and my little 2017 retina is substantially dramatically smaller and more portable. At least until the battery dies.
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upvoteby NetMageSCW5 hours ago|
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How much did that 12” Retina MacBook cost? Small and light isn’t cheap.
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upvoteby beAbU9 hours ago|
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That would cannibalize their ipad lineup
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upvoteby functionmouse9 hours ago|
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That's basically what this is, no?
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upvoteby post_break9 hours ago|
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13" is not 11" As someone who used their 11" for years, it was a workhorse. A slow workhorse, but I still yearn for that size.
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upvoteby adastra226 hours ago|
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Those measurements are screen area. The old 11” had bezels that were almost an inch wide on each side. The actual laptop dimensions are almost exactly the same.
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upvoteby stefanfisk9 hours ago|
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I had the 11” dual core i7 and I wouldn’t even call it slow (for its time). Loved that little machine and I keep longing for that form factor but with modern specs.
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upvoteby kube-system5 hours ago|
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The 11" MacBook Air was also not 11". It was 11.6".

The footprint of the Air was 11.8" x 7.56". The Neo is 11.71" x 8.12". If you liked the size of that one, you'll like this.

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upvoteby Schiendelman6 hours ago|
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I think the bezels are so much smaller that this may be almost exactly the size of the old 11" MBA.
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upvoteby jen209 hours ago|
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I was thinking yesterday while reading the Thinkpad repairability story that I would pay an unreasonable amount for basically this laptop in the chassis of an X220, with a 7 row keyboard and Mac touchpad.
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upvoteby stetrain9 hours ago|
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This is a 13" 16:9 screen. A little smaller than the current 13.6" 16:10 MacBook Air in display size but not really any more portable. Weight is the same as the 13.6" MacBook Air.
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upvoteby gbjw9 hours ago|
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Don't think it's 16:9, just lower PPI than the air -- Neo: 2408x1506, Air: 2560x1664.
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upvoteby stetrain9 hours ago|
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Yep, you're right.
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upvoteby kasperset9 hours ago|
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Yes. I think Air is a better buy if you are going to have a "laptop". I wish it was lot lighter if I am losing features against MacBook Air.
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upvoteby stetrain8 hours ago|
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Yes, this is spiritually more of a successor to the old plastic MacBook or iBook lines. Not a successor to the premium ultra-portable 12" MacBook.

That seems like a product they could also potentially revive with Apple Silicon.

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upvoteby throwaway274489 hours ago|
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It's a 13" and is ~2.5x as heavy.
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upvoteby NoLinkToMe8 hours ago|
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No it isn't. It's 1.08kg vs 1.23kg, or 13% heavier.

And indeed it's 13 inch but the dimensions are quite similar, there is a 0.8% difference in width (with the 11 inch being wider surprisingly, due to the bezels) and a 7% difference in height (11 inch being shorter). At its thickest point the 11 inch is. 33% thicker. In terms of volume the 13 inch isn't any bigger.

Just look up the specs.

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