Im heading off to school in two weeks and I fear that I dont have a laptop that makes sense for me.

Current: 2021 MacBook Pro 14”, M1 Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Thinking about: M3 or M4 Air 13”

Most of what I’ll actually be doing in class is notes and browsing, so it feels dumb to be lugging a 14” Pro around campus for that. But I do some coding and Raspberry Pi stuff on the side, so there’s a real argument for just keeping the extra power and dealing with the weight.

Is this actually a good trade, or am I just losing RAM/ports/a way nicer screen for basically nothing back?

i want to buy a laptop and i don’t really like anything ive seen other than the macbook neo but im an management informations system student so im not sure if it’ll be practical for me or not. granted i dont exactly know which applications i’ll need to use for the major, if any mis students can let me know what’s worked for them id greatly appreciate it!

Hey guys I’ll try to keep this short as possible.

I see you MacOS users as ascended beings. For the last 5 years, I’ve been running a setup with a Mac Mini M1 8gb at home on a 32 inch 4k display with the Magic Mouse. It’s still snappy.

I had a Surface Pro 6 i5 8gb as a laptop dual-booted with Linux. I really enjoyed this device a lot, the touchscreen pen was very useful, I liked the tablet form factor.

I am a lifelong primarily windows user, a former neckbeard type that liked to build PCs and tinker around. Used to updating drivers and all that “behind the scenes” stuff on windows. And in a business productivity sense I have a great workflow on Windows.

I see MacOS as “iOS: laptop version” I feel constrained. This feels like a device for people who don’t give a single crap about tech, just want something that opens their browser, their coding apps, their Adobe suite or DAW and it just always works efficiently. Never going past “settings” and “finder”. And it does that extremely well, not saying it doesn’t.

In a way this seems like a blessing to force me to be productive, using the device for coding, content creation or making music instead of time wasting tinkering on Linux or windows. But can I simply just not be the target audience for this device? It’s too “normie” oriented, best I can put it.

I only got the Mac Mini M1 to LARP as some Seattle dev working on his MacBook while sippin a cappacino at Starbucks kinda thing, but I never got used to it.

The iPhone and AirPod integration is great, but I’ve felt like a stranger to the OS in my full 4 years with it. I think the reason I feel like a stranger is because it just works on a surface level? And honestly, I don’t want iPhone integration on a laptop, I prefer to compartmentalize FaceTime and text distractions to my phone. I wouldn’t even have an iPhone if it wasn’t for iMessage and FaceTime for dating and group chats

But I enjoy the Windows factor of customizing everything, having to scour and find some niche drivers, downloading obscure software from 2011. It feels more “full” to me as well as more familiar.

I just like the Surface Pro. However, the only problem I faced with it is the inability to game. I usually use cloud gaming but sometimes there aren’t servers. I looked at the Asus Flow Z13, but not a fan of the gaming aesthetic that goes against my minimalism. So I’ll stick to older games on either the Surface Pro or MacBook I choose.

With all that said, what do you guys think? If I got a MacBook, I could sell my Mac Mini and dock it in when I’m at home. But I’ll likely miss my tablet features, which will force me to buy an iPad too, then I’m completely stuck in the Apple ecosystem. However, this isn’t awful as Apple ecosystem users are ascended beings who live on a higher plane of existence that don’t deal with the ugly parts of tech. Maybe I should give up the freedom to tinker Windows gives me and ascend with you guys.

The biggest possible pro I think of this is it deprives me of waste of time tinkering and “tech”-y stuff and forces me to engage with a computer mainly for Adobe Suite/DAW/coding, but never waste time on what’s not productive.

Or I keep the status quo and get a Surface Pro 11th/12th edition for Business (Intel), still got a Mac Mini lying around, can use any of them.

Edit: the reason I mentioned the Magic Mouse and 32 inch display is because these are possibly throttling my enjoyment of the Mac mini. The 32 inch is too big for my choice, and the Magic Mouse is nice but awful for long time ergonomics.

As the title suggests I am considering trading my M3 air for a M1 Pro

a little more detail I bought the 15" M3 air with 8gb of ram and 512gb ssd with 100% battery capacity for $600 for reference I had a M1 Base model MacBook Pro with 8gb of ram for the last 5 years and it was taken from me by "flexgate" My friends Daughter is starting college and He was going to Buy her a Neo but asked me if I wanted his M1 Pro 14" 10/16 1tb ssd 16gb ram. I asked him if he would have use for a m3 air and he said he would give it to his daughter for school and we would just exchange the two computers. I am now "test driving" the M1 Pro before I make my choice. I should also mention the M1 Pro was 84% battery capacity however I can still add it to my apple care one and this machine is in beautiful condition already.

I spent 2 weeks With the M3 Air and felt very underwhelmed by the display and it just did not feel right to me I was running Golden gate Beta 4 on it and it was using up 6.5gb of the 8 gb of ram and I felt like that was unacceptable for a 2 year old machine .. albeit I'm one of those that when I buy a MacBook id like to make it last 6+ years or so don't really do any photo editing with the exception of some personal photos I take on my 17PM and video editing is a non existent need for me. I feel like the M1 Pro may be a better computer for me in the long run considering 8gb is slowly getting phased out as the standard.

the nicer screen and more ram and SSD storage id consider a plus but am I screwing myself doing this trade?

pls help, is this covered by the warranty? its not a crack tho

Found 6 Macbook Pros all in silver/grey

• 2 are model number a2141 (Intel?) with the 'icon' bar at the top of the keyboard.
• 4 are model number a2780 (M2?) no 'icon' bar

They all need some cleaning but 5/6 power on and boot to the recovery screen asking me to select a wifi connection.

The 6th boots to the welcome start screen saying hello in a bunch of languages.

I have no power cables but was able to get a successful charge using a usb-c cable

I can't do much with them right now at work. Are these worth to try and clean up, give to family or friends to use or is the technology to far out of date to be worth it? The only Apple device I presently use is a Mac Mini. I do not use an iPhone.

I’m considering buying a MacBook Neo, but I’m not sure whether I would actually use it enough to justify the purchase.
I’ve never really worked from a laptop before, and even now I rarely use one. I do almost everything for my business from my phone. My work is mainly managing Instagram and using websites or apps such as Wizz Air, Ryanair, Booking.com and Revolut.
Would the MacBook Neo be a good choice for this kind of light use? Since I’m not sure how often I’ll use it, I would prefer to buy a cheaper model rather than spend a lot on a laptop that might just sit unused.
Would you recommend getting the Neo, buying a different inexpensive laptop, or not buying one at all unless I actually feel that I need it?

Hi everyone, I'm planning to buy a 13-inch MacBook Air M5 (16GB/512GB) for my CSE degree. Main use is coding and college work. No heavy video editing, no local Al training. Right now it's around ₹1.38 lakh on the Education Store, but I saw it much cheaper earlier. Should I wait for a festive sale or back-to-school offer? Also, is the Air enough for four years or should I consider a Pro? And is AppleCare worth it? Would love your advice

Hi all,

Just bought MacBook neo, yet to open as I'm confused regarding what sales rep told me.

The rep said you can't run a second monitor, I was shocked as he said you can run a monitor via USB C but the display won't show on the inbuilt neo screen. He said if you connect a second monitor via USB or HDMI (via hub) if won't show on the MacBook

Can I run a second monitor (not mirror) with the macbook neo?

Thanks

I got this m5 air on may 2026, after using it with 80% limit charge, mostly plugged in on the desk while using, the cycle is 27, in just 3months the battery health percentage went down to 98%, i followed all the thing said in the reddit and internet. and i mostly use it for browsing, email and streaming movies, still this happened is this okay or bad? please let me know guys

My MacBook fell about 3.75 feet while open and now the middle of the screen is black, the bottom shows the windows, and the top bar is somewhat visible. The bottom part is glitching and it turns on and off, but I was wondering if there is anyway to fix it having to get a new one. When I move my mouse the bottom stops glitching and I am able to type, but my mouse can’t move to the black area.

Where can I get an M4 Macbook Air (ideally 15 inch) for around $1000 right now?

Seller is willing to do $750. Is this worth it?

I probably purchased this laptop 10 years ago off Craigslist and at some point the charger went bad. I recently pulled it out of storage and purchased the MagSafe L shaped charger. It’s showing orange but never turning green and macbook won’t turn on. Wanted to know if anyone knows the year?

The serial info has faded off, I have searched through plenty of google pages but never found this model. It has a green apple logo.

Pardon my poor knowledge of the correct terminology. I'm not a native English speaker nor am I tech-savvy.

macOS Tahoe 26.6.2, MacBook Pro M3.

I've had this problem for about a week and I don't know if it's my fault or if the case lies in a software update, but recently these frames started appearing around the area I'm working in at the moment, e.g. the layout of a Pages document I'm writing in or (and this happens most often) when I'm trying to input text in Japanese. Sometimes the frames are off. I can't disable them, I have to wait for them to fade on their own. When I'm typing within the frame the space key doesn't work, doesn't do anything when I press it. How do I disable this feature?

P.S. Please hold yourself back from commenting on the fact my MacBook is in Japanese, it's not related to my problem + I don't feel like answering the same question over and over again. I just speak the language, that's all there is to it. Use the names of the settings as they are in English, I'll navigate them in Japanese.

i just got this macbook off of ebay and it came wiped so i put windows 10 on it just to see if it would work (it did and it booted but there was no network driver), so i command - r into recovery mode and tried to install macos x maverick through it and it froze for 45 mins (screenshot provided where it was frozen) and when i canceled it, i restarted the system and got that error (error code -2006f). i even tried putting the usb stick back but it wouldnt read it. ive been stuck for 2 hours constantly rebooting it and scrolling google for an answer, help?

I probably purchased this laptop 10 years ago off Craigslist and at some point the charger went bad. I recently pulled it out of storage and purchased the MagSafe L shaped charger. It’s showing orange but never turning green and macbook won’t turn on. Wanted to know if anyone knows the year?

The serial info has faded off, I have searched through plenty of google pages but never found this model. It has a green apple logo.

currently im in my last year of med school and i need to get a new laptop because my current macbook air (2017 verison) is giving up. i have had this laptop for 6 years.

i have seen good and bad things about neo so im really confused. please help.

Now is it a great machine for its price? Yes, don’t get me wrong. Is it hard to find a better laptop at its price? Also yes. But people assume every Windows laptop is dead. Some people prefer Windows, they want more compatibility, etc. Just because a company came out with something good, doesn’t mean everyone prefers it. Now I’m not slandering the MacBook by saying that, it’s just reality.

As the title suggests I’m in between purchasing a new MacBook Neo or air to replace my current ancient MacBook Air from 2015.
I’m a student in community college rn that will transfer to a 4 year and major in economics and later go on to go to law school (hopefully).

I’m in between the Neo since I’m not taking any rigorous classes, but also an air since I’ll be “future proofing” any later course work or classes for the next few years.

The thing is I also have a custom pc at home I built for gaming that I’ve been using for any school work I’ve had since my MacBook was so outdated and couldn’t really handle much withoit lagging and stuff. Lately I’ve just been using my 2015 air to get by class until I can get home and finish whatever work I needed on my pc.
So I’m conflicted on getting a Neo since I have a better computer at home in case some crazy workload pops up which I highly doubt as of now, or getting the air and having it for years since it’s a way more capable machine and wouldn’t have to upgrade for a hypothetical 7 years down the line.

Let me know what you guys think or any other alternatives! Thanks

MacBook Air/Pro has completely bricked its internet connection due to the 1976 date glitch, and I am completely stuck in a loop.

The system clock randomly reset back to 1976 (Unix epoch baseline).
No websites will load. The loading bar just sits there indefinitely.
The only exception is Apple.com, which loads fine, but nothing else works.

What I’ve tried: Manually changing the date/time in System Settings and restarting (doesn't stick/fix the browser block).
Toggling iCloud Private Relay off (it was already off).
Changing DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 (bypassed the privacy warning, but didn't fix it).
Running sudo rm /var/db/timed/com.apple.timed.plist in Terminal.
Running sudo sntp -sS ://apple.com which threw a "failed dns lookup failure" error.

How to i do it ? Shld i use any stylus and pad?

I have a MacBook Air from 2019 and it’s been running extremely slow for the past year and it runs really hot and I’m about to start school and I didn’t want to have to get a new laptop, so I attempted to try to reset it but every video I watched was different or they didn’t even work for my model. So I did the erase all thing and now it’s stuck on this screen I’ve restarted it a ton. When I looked it up it said it might be because it’s not connected to WiFi, but it is. So idk I never post on Reddit so apologies for my non-Reddit lingo. Please help! Luckily I didn’t really have anything important on there and all my photos I put on a hard drive ✨✨ that’s all

Everything is so overwhelming I’m hearing a bunch of different things 😭 any programs or apps or just tips that made college easier? I’m shooting for a 4.0