With no Touch ID, lowest price MacBook Neo will have a compromised user experience

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Lack of Touch ID on the lowest end MacBook Neo is a major hassle. Apple’s password system counts on Touch ID to be friction-free. By forcing the user to key in his system password repeatedly (after time-outs), password validation is definitely not friction-free. Passkeys will still work, but you will have to keep re-entering your system password to the Passwords App. I urge anyone getting this computer to seriously consider the upgrade that includes Touch ID.

The $100 price increase for theTouch ID version sounds like a better value. That version also upgrades storage from 256GB to 512GB. New users to the MacBook would probably understand the tradeoffs of less storage; they might not understand the tradeoffs of no biometric ID.

This is a FYI to anyone advising prospective Neo-users in their circles. Tell them to take the red pill and buy the $!## upgrade. They may even thank you.

Users encounter the same bad choice when selecting the lowest-price iMac, but there are far fewer users who will buy a desktop unit. iMac buyers can optionally select a keyboard with Touch ID and a numeric keypad for an added $80 US. For some bizarre reason, Apple does not offer a regular Touch ID keyboard option for that low end iMac. They call the non-Touch-ID keyboard a “Magic Keyboard”. I call that deceptive. Why Apple once called it magic is a long story. It would be great if some mid-level manager would give that marketing-name a downgrade, but that’s not the kind of thing Apple ever does. Oh, well.

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Never thought I’d see the day where Apple jumps headfirst into the race to the bottom.

Aside from Touch ID and storage, how about that 8GB of memory? I know it’s been discussed that MacOS is pretty handy at memory management but 8GB seems quite paltry for a full-on desktop OS in 2026. As I type this, I have one Zen browser instance with 6 tabs, my email client, and a terminal application running and I’m consuming just shy of 9GB of memory. And that’s BluefinOS; pretty well-optimized Linux.

Has Apple built a netbook in 2026?

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The interesting background question to ask is what memory Chromebooks have. I asked Gemini: from smallest to largest, how much memory do chromebooks have ? Here’s the summary of the response:

Tier RAM Size Best Use Case
Budget 4GB Simple browsing, schoolwork, single-tasking
Mid-Range 8GB Heavy multitasking, Android/Linux apps, Chromebook Plus standards
Premium 16GB Professional development, virtualization, or Steam gaming

Heavy multitasking at 8GB sounds like a bit of a stretch. We could probably debate that, but neither of us are Chromebook users. I’m certain that Apple spent many thousands of hours sweating out the feasibility of 8GB. Gruber’s DF commentary on the topic was interesting:

8 GB of RAM is not a lot, but with Apple Silicon it really is enough for typical consumer productivity apps. (If they update the Neo annually and next year’s model gets the A19 Pro, it will move not to 16 GB of RAM but 12 GB.)

Kudos for Gruber’s about that in the NYC presentation!

@knewman, If 8GB simply didn’t work, then customers will bring back the machine during the return window. My point is that users won’t return the unit for lacking of Touch ID, but users using this as a Personal Computer will hate that decision every single day they own it. Maybe Apple is anticipating many school users will use the Neo without any passwords at all. Apple clearly was hell-bent at hitting that $599 price point – $499 with the educational discount.

Buying a PC in 2025 without biometrics reminds me of an ancient computer quote:

TECO Madness:
A moment of convenience; a lifetime of regret.

TECO stood for “Text Editor AND Corrector”. It did BOTH of things in one package! Those were the days. TECO came around in an age when most people keyed a stack of punch cards to enter computer programs. I used TECO on DEC PDP-11 computers professionally in the 1980s; it was functionally compatible with the TECO that ran on PDP-10s at MIT.

Lack of Touch ID in the Neo is annoying but not a show-stopper. Lack of sufficient memory to run essential programs would be a show stopper. Insufficient storage is somewhere in-between. I guess 128GB is sufficient for the product, but not for us. We’re not the target audience.

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Lots of desktop PC users use their computer just fine without biometrics.

I rock climb almost daily so there used to be times in the past (I cannot think of it happening ever on my M3 WORK Mac though) where finger prints just straight up don’t work for me because my hands are rundown. So I would frequently use a password anyway. (This is why I love Face ID on my iOS devices; escaped from my shitty fingerprints).

I don’t think it’s the end of the world to have a machine in 2025 (or 2026 :P) without biometics. specially if you’re coming from a windows desktop PC world where this is your first laptop. Maybe you’re used using the family desktop computer. Or maybe you’re a high school student that has a gaming PC (desktop, obviously) and you’re getting your first laptop for college, as a secondary machine I think it’s fine not to have biometics (and 8GB of RAM is fine on a secondary machine)

I think 8GBs for a baby macbook is fine. Obviously 12 or 16 would be better…. But for the things I (not as my main machine, mind you) use my M1 macbook air with 8GBs of RAM for: it’s fine.

8GBs is enough for someone like my parents. Probably enough for a student K-12. Maybe even college as big_D pointed out. Just 2-3 apps

The Macbook Neo compares mostly to the base M1 macbook air from 2021. It’s CPU might exceed it a tiiiny bit. But it’s basically a version of that machine with more flair (colours)

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It wasn’t really a problem on my Air, until I started using Teams heavily and needed Parallels running with a couple of Windows applications.

With Brave, Safar, Outlook, Word, Excel, Microsoft Windows App (remote desktop), Adobe Reader, TeamViewer, OpenVPN, OneDrive, Swyx (telephone software) and Teams, it ran very smoothly in 8GB, it was only when Teams was in a video call with more than one person, or I had to start Parallels for something that it started to struggle.

My MBP is currently using around 9GB.

For the target audience, which is mainly school kids or front line workers, who live in 2-3 apps whilst on the road, this should be more than enough. If you are doing something, like multimedia editing, programming etc. this is obviously not the laptop for you. For a student making notes and writing a dissertation, is should be perfectly fine.

Likewise, if you need a docking station, multiple monitors etc. then, again, this isn’t the laptop for you.

Why doesn’t everybody buy a Ford F150? Because they only need a small town car, or a slightly bigger family car, or they need a station wagon, and, in Europe, the streets are too narrow to fit a “Yank Tank” down, especially with oncoming traffic. If you are doing a lot of off-roading or hauling a lot of lumber around a truck makes much more sense.

It is the same here, those with modest needs and a limited budget get a base spec laptop, those that need more power get a high end laptop with more power and more memory.

I think the lack of fingerprint reader, as @floatingbones says, is probably the more grievous omission on the base level model. But, I used a Mac mini for years and that doesn’t have biometrics either, unless you spend a couple of hundred Euros on an Apple keyboard.

Currently, the Mac mini, the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro all come without biometrics.

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None of these models come with a keyboard. However, if you get a Touch ID wireless keyboard, you get biometrics for the Mini, Studio, and Mac Pro. That also applies to the lowest-tier iMac: if you made the unfortunate decision for a “magic” keyboard without Touch ID, you can upgrade that at any point that you want to. I think $149 for a Touch ID keyboard is overpriced.

If I were writing a dissertation, I’d prefer to devote all my thinking to my research. Manually entering passwords is a distraction; I’d prefer to automate that task completely. Is that a first world problem? Maybe.

Interesting. I fondly wish that everyone were fanatically dedicated to their physical activities to the point you clearly are. I get pretty gonzo daily with a SkiErg. It looks ridiculous, but I don’t do anything as drastic as damaging my fingerprints. It’s cool you routinely do something so challenging. :slight_smile:

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Yes, that is exactly what I said. And you can still buy a TouchID keyboard if you really want it.

But it was also my main criticism of the Neo, that the base model doesn’t have TouchID.

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Shameless self promotion if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgFJfUKn9g

I thought about sending that as a DM, but I would love for everyone to see it.

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If the Neo performance is similar or slightly better than an M1 MacBook Air, as a few articles are now saying, then it’s a totally usable entry-level Mac IMO. Our M1 is very usable. Slower than my Snapdragon laptop, yes, but still good.

Fingerprints rarely work for me, either. Always damaged from work outside. macOS is fine with a password manager and autofill.

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I just wonder who the target audience is for this? Is it the person who absolutely has to have an Apple laptop, but can’t afford the MacBook Air? The moderate-income person who has the taste for Apple and needs a portable device, but none of the financial wherewithal to indulge a more premium Apple productit? This reminds me of the iPhone 5C and the “Unapologetically Plastic” marketing tag.

If the base price were the educational price, I think this would be a better sell. $499 would be a good amount to pay for something with these limitations but still ran Mac apps. At $599 + tax, I think the value proposition when compared to Windows devices is less obvious - especially with the limitations.

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Very nice. There’s a paradox when watching your climbing video. 5.10 climbs are hard; 5.11 climbs are really hard. OTOH, you are obviously quite relaxed and deliberate in your movements. There’s no panic at all. How could both of those things be true?

Most of us do nothing comparable; we only do things that are vaguely similar. When you first start [indoor] rowing, the stroke is a total panic. Dark Horse Rowing says that beginners Fred Flintstone their movements – like Fred does with his footmobile. I’ve thought about that imagery a lot. Over time, you learn how to deliver acceleration without the frantic contractions. Strokes per minute lowers while power increases. Rowing becomes more like mindful meditation than a desperate kinetic activity. Impedance is lowered; all the muscles behave as one. It’s quite addictive! :slight_smile: We cannot relate to the sense of danger/risk of climbing, but we do know about movement that must have high quality in order to work. Sadly, (AFAICT) many just systematically give up on movement that is challenging by design. Why do we give up – why would anyone ever just give up? Stephen King had the most brilliant commentary on that question ever.

In short: we’re able to relate a bit to what you do. At the same time, we really have no idea. Bravo.

In this week’s of ATP post-show, Siracusa had a discussion about breaking containment. He commented that the single-processor speed of the MacBook Neo (3461) is 25% faster than the 2023 Mac Pro’s single-processor speed (2778). The intent of his post was to shame Apple to send the Mac Pro to the metaphorical glue factory. His message was popular; all sorts of people who don’t know Siracusa’s intent read that message. In short, it broke containment. The angry responses of people lacking Siracusa-context were quite amusing. Some regulars made meta-commentary about the phenomena. Social media messages sometimes claw out of their context; our biology has trouble handling that.

You’re right: the benchmarks look good. Apple’s drive to have a low-cost starter machine is interesting. This may be one of Tim Apple’s last major initiatives as CEO. Good for him. If I were him, I’d want to go out with a bang.

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Glad you shared - that was neat! I started bouldering this year, made me realize I need to lose about 10 lbs :sweat_smile:

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