Dell's laptop beats the MacBook Neo in several areas, costs $549
Posted by Quantum-Coconut@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 73 comments
Truth be told, there are a lot of Windows PCs that offer more value than the MacBook Neo. RAM, Display, Storage, Ports, upgradability. The only issue is Windows. That has to be fixed first.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit
I fear this strategy has two problems: 1) ordinary folks don't know (and can't know) the usability of most budget laptops and 2) sales are temporary, tricky, and not easy.
Normal people don't have this skill. And the PC industry doesn't make it easy: hundreds (thousands?) of laptops with complex names with tons of variations, different panels, different keyboards, different battery life, etc.
For us, it's easy: under 10 seconds on a spec sheet, we know what's. But even I don't know the usability and I need a full review to actually know that.
A review ought to help, but guess what? Cheap laptops, sadly, do not get reviewed: that needs to change.
These sales, while absolutely smart and beneficial for people in the know, are not scalable. You can buy a $600 MacBook Neo across every big retailer in America. I maybe can get this for $549 for the next week or two?
This product, for Dell to make its expected margins, cannot indefinitely be sold at $549. Can some more technical folks put up price alerts and repeatedly check retailers, triple-check "this isn't the shitty SKU with a TN panel; this SKU is the IPS!" before you buy it, find a retailer with a decent return policy, etc.?
Yes. But not normal people. They have better things to do in life, like their families, hobbies, jobs, etc.
I don't mean to call normal people at all "ignorant": the PC market does not make this easy. Go read r/buildapcsales and 1/10th of the posts have comments explaining, "Wait, this product is not as good as that price looks. This is not a good deal. It had a recall, it failed this test, it has a software problem, etc."
alabasterskim@reddit
And if you go to Apple and you're a student (and very likely with this purchase, you are), you can get it for $500 which STILL beats this Dell.
thefly4@reddit
I have yet to see a bad review, but I still think a lot of the reviews are hype. A great option for some people, but with only 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, it sound very limiting... so a lot of Neo's will be for-sale in the next year.
alabasterskim@reddit
From what I hear from actual people not just reviewers, it's a great device and the strengths of Mac OS allow it to shine even with 8GB RAM. Don't knock it till you've tried it. I sincerely believe what people are doing with it seeing what my partner can do with their M1 MBP.
thefly4@reddit
I'm not knocking it. I've played with the Pro, Air and NEO in the Apple store, and all seem decent. But even with optimizations in MacOS, the 8GB and 256GB storage still seems very limiting. Sure, you may not need more today if you just browse the internet, watch videos and send emails, but then you install a few big apps and start running other programs routinely and...
manek101@reddit
This is literally an ad lol
InevitableSherbert36@reddit
And it's a $750 laptop that's on sale.
Quantum-Coconut@reddit (OP)
Windows PCs are frequently on sale. Buying during sale is better if you're getting a better hardware for the same money.
SOSpammy@reddit
You can buy a MacBook Neo from Apple's education store for $500, and in many countries (the US included) they don't even verify if you are a student. Also Macs go on sale plenty. The M4 Air was $750 on Black Friday.
thefly4@reddit
Apple devices rarely go on-sale. Windows PC's always go on-sale. Not sure if you can count on taking advantage of the educational discount either, if you're actually not student.
SOSpammy@reddit
I'd count the student discount exploit as a sale considering in several countries, including the US, they don't enforce the student requirement. Clearly Apple is aware of this considering it's been possible for well over a decade, but they don't care.
And Macs go on sale plenty. The base model M5 is $950 on Amazon right now actually.
thefirelink@reddit
Everything is "on sale". Just wait until like best buy gets the Neo, they'll say it's 800 but only 599 for them
Quantum-Coconut@reddit (OP)
Not an ad. Just facts. If people push the Neo on Reddit and X saying that it's something magical, what's wrong in countering with an actually valuable product?
VulpineComplex@reddit
Okay now this really sounds like an ad.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit
Exactly. We genuinely need more content, more reviews, more discussions about lower-end laptops. Not everyone wants to (or should need to) spend $1000 on a laptop.
JimmyJuly@reddit
The hype machine is still running full blast. It's going to take a week or two before the counter-hype starts getting upvotes on social media. That's just the way this type of thing works.
vk6_@reddit
Plenty of people forget that there's always something on sale in the Windows laptop market. Go to Best Buy or Microcenter's website and search for Windows laptops under $700. Almost all of these choices are good options. As long as you find one with a metal chassis, you'll be fine for build quality.
Here's my pick for a good budget Windows laptop: https://www.microcenter.com/product/696087/hp-omnibook-5-next-gen-ai-14-he0014nr-copilot-pc-oled-14-laptop-computer-glacier-silver-aluminum
It has an 8 Core Snapdragon X1P CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, a 2K OLED display, and a metal chassis, all for $570 brand new. It's in stock at every Microcenter store right now.
alabasterskim@reddit
How's everyone's experience with HP? For as bad as Dell is software is, my experience with consumer HPs (except for my first one over a decade ago) is 3 units (including 2 Spectres) with hardware defects (critical ones; we're talking fans blowing out and overheating to the point of shutoff + a motherboard that would sometimes just prevent the device from powering on).
Quantum-Coconut@reddit (OP)
This is literally the best laptop for the price.
trololololo2137@reddit
dell is the worst laptop maker on the market, maybe even worse than acer
alabasterskim@reddit
Absolute garbage chip. 16GB RAM is a must for Windows just because of how bad it is. And I would never ever recommend a Dell Inspiron to anyone. These things have wild software issues that I've never seen on any other Windows PC. My work Dell, my personal Dell (which I got just because of a discount like this + it's Snapdragon X1 Plus, so it gave me a chance to try ARM firsthand), and every Dell I used to see working in retail all have the same problems in common.
Slava_Tr@reddit
With a headline like this, you could also write the opposite:
This is the Dell XPS 14 (2026) with the Core Ultra 7 355, which is 10–20% faster in multi-threaded workloads but 25–35% weaker in single-core performance
thefirelink@reddit
Can't even drive more than one display on your Neo. How you gonna do creative work?
You really gonna buy a $600 laptop to browse the web 5% faster? So much value!
Proud_Tie@reddit
you can use the built in display and one external display, what more do you need?
ClickClick_Boom@reddit
What kind of "creative work" are you under the impression your average $600 laptop buyer does?
thefirelink@reddit
The only selling point of this laptop is the CPU.
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit
what about the build quality ?
thefirelink@reddit
Laptops aren't breaking nearly as often as people make it seem.
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
you live in a different world from reality.
laptops are full complex computers. they fail a lot,
but not apples no no.
apples fail VASTLY VASTLY more than the competition and are vasltly harder/impossible to repair, because appple will tell supplers, that they are forbidden to sell a charging chip to repair companies for example.
Strazdas1@reddit
they advertise video editing for this.
Hour_Firefighter_707@reddit
Yeah, it doesn't. It has a couple of specs that are better. 16/512GB is definitely more welcome than 8/256GB. But it is literally worse in every other way.
It is 37% heavier, not built anywhere near as well, the screen is way lower resolution and way dimmer. Oh. And it has a Raptor Lake CPU. They aren't exactly renowned for running cool and having good battery life.
It is also dull Dell grey and not yellow or pink. That matters more than any other spec
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
this is wrong.
we can very strongly assume this by knowing apple engineering in general vs dell.
this is apple engineering:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8
apple engineering is having already a class action lawsuit going on about engineering flaws and STILL releasing new products with THE EXACT SAME FLAWS! none the less.
apple "build quality" is putting 12 volt power line right next to the data lane for the apu, so that it can fry itself from a little moisture in the air.
now hey dell certainly isn't perfectly lol, but it is near impossible to have as bad quality as apple has on average and we can assume will also apply to this latest apple laptop.
also you mentioned chips running hot.
as the video points out apple had tons of parts dying by running them too hot with lots of evidence about this.
again apple CHOSE to cook parts in the past. again the great apple build quality at play. /s
SOSpammy@reddit
The video is from 7 years ago when Macs were still being made with shitty Intel processors.
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
apple screwed up in cooking a lot of chips. now some chips had manufacturing defects like the nvidia gpus with flip chip designs, but for the rest, it was apple cooking them to death.
intel isn't controlling fan curves and temps of those chips APPLE IS.
Hour_Firefighter_707@reddit
Yes, and their new laptops are amazing. Millions of people are still using their 5.5 year old M1 MacBook Airs and Pros and are very happy with them still. The MiniLED MacBook Pros have all been bullet proof now through 5 processor upgrades.
But let's focus on some failures from 7+ years ago because that fits the agenda. As if every other laptop manufacturer hasn't had massive reliability issues since
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
the person above just decided to pick a random example, that they felt is sth, that they could try to ignore. it wasn't me and the 7 year old video happened to be 7 years old and NOTHING changed since then.
nope none do. no other laptop manufacturer produces as unreliable and as unservicable shit as apple does. razer tries alright, but can't reach the utter garbage, that apple produces.
and nothing changed with apple the new shit still breaks massively and is as unservicable and repairable as legislation can allow.
you are trying to ignore reality here, because you are heavily invested in it.
apple engineering is unreliable and as unservicable/repairable as possible.
those are the facts. nothing changed.
may i recommend to look at the video again, that shows endless years of the same behavior.
SOSpammy@reddit
My question is whether or not this is affecting current MacBooks. It doesn't matter that laptops they don't manufacture anymore had overheating problems when the ones they have been releasing for the past 5+ years have been the industry leaders in efficiency.
jocnews@reddit
That's literaly gamechanging, but also the fat that the SSD is M.2 and you won't have to throw your laptorp into trash due to SSD failure like with the Apple.
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
AND you won't lose all your data, if the laptop dies, because that is how apple laptop works since the life saver port got removed from the motherboards.
your data is gone without a working motherboard in apple land now.
the other side of the dystopia, that for some will hit even worse.
jocnews@reddit
Yeah, that is what bothers me a lot about the scheme, too.
ClickClick_Boom@reddit
You're not factoring in consumer grade Dell craptop build quality vs Apple build quality and actual real world battery life.
vk6_@reddit
It's a Dell Inspiron with a metal chassis. I would assume that the build quality isn't terrible. It also has the advantage of having a 50% larger battery than the Macbook Neo (54Wh vs 36Wh).
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
metal chassis vs plastic =/= build quality.
build quality means not reusing parts, that have ongoing class action lawsuits, because they are known to massively fail (apple)
that is build quality. and apple has NO build quality.
CalmSpinach2140@reddit
Also the dell comes with a much lower resolution display and is dimmer
jsodfskavi@reddit
Inspiron might have a bigger battery, but will it have the same battery life? What about performance and efficiency?
vk6_@reddit
I didn't see any thorough reviews of this particular model. But simply having a much larger battery allows Dell to get away with an inefficient Intel chip. CPU performance is slightly ahead of the M1 from what I can tell, so it's pretty similar to the Macbook Neo in that regard.
jsodfskavi@reddit
It very hard to find a review for this specific model, but I managed to find this. It's the same laptop, but you have to choose the cpu, ram, battery size. It's not a full review, but more of a specs lists.
But, from what I've been able to find, the dell inspiron has a battery life of upto 10 hours (no idea if it's browsing or video playback), while the macbook neo has upto 11 hours of battery life while browsing and 16 hours of video playback.
So, they are "similar", but I'm gonna assume that due to the nature of x86 cpu, it will be hot and fans will be loud. And with windows in general, it might not live upto to the estimated battery life.
vk6_@reddit
Without seeing a detailed review, it's hard to actually judge what the battery life exactly is. Manufacturer battery life claims are mostly meaningless anyways. Same thing with the fans. You can't really tell without actually using the device. That depends mostly on how the OEM configured the fan curves, as well as the cooling abilities of the fan and heatsink.
jsodfskavi@reddit
I mean, at that point, you also can't go based off of raw specs alone. As I've alluded before, that bigger battery capacity in inspiron doesn't mean much if the system is inefficient.
And this is A18 pro we are talking about, it only takes in about 6 watts of power and maximum of 10 watts, while the Intel core 5 120u takes in about 15 watts of power and maximum of about 55 watts.
The neo is a very efficient laptop, while the inspiron has to work harder and use more power, resulting in high temperature and low battery life, just to come close to A18 pro chip.
vk6_@reddit
Peak power figures for any laptop depends a lot on how the OEM configured the power limits for the chip. You can't look at the listed TDP and then assume the worst. Hardly any thin and light laptops are able to sustain 55W which is the maximum for the chip. They're always going to throttle based on power limits before that point. For all laptop CPUs, they're going to be drawing less power than the TDP figure most of the time.
jsodfskavi@reddit
It does matter when we are talking about a match up between an ARM chip and x86 chip.
Sure, it doesn't accurately have to be the listed TDP, but the efficiency of the two architecture still has a huge difference.
vk6_@reddit
Yes, but a 50% larger battery is also a huge difference. It isn't quite raw power efficiency that decides battery life. Minimizing total system power during idle or light workloads such as web browsing is more important. We saw with Snapdragon X1 and Lunar Lake that even though the efficiency was still not as good as Apple, laptops with those chips were still able to match or sometimes exceed the Macbook Air in battery life, even with similarly sized batteries. Remember that it's not just the CPU drawing power, there's also the screen and other peripheral components.
jsodfskavi@reddit
And still, the neo as a whole is more efficient that the inspiron. The cpu/gpu will always requires more energy, the other parts of the laptop doesn't require as much. That's just the nature of it.
And besides, apple cut down the neo so much, there's isn't a lot of stuff in there that require much energy. The dell inspiron still has, for the better of course, features that draws more power, which inevitably uses cuts down battery life.
chef_imposter@reddit
So if the inspiron lacks in CPU efficiency but makes up with in battery, doesn't that put it up on par with the A18 which has efficiency but lacks a larger battery? CPU efficiency wont make a difference in this specific case if the battery makes up for the CPU inefficiency. And if we can concur that these two laptops are roughly equal here in this regard, and take the other raw specs, the Dell laptop is more affordable, has double the RAM and storage. Also one major downside of the Neo is that it has two USB-C ports, which is underwhelming for a laptop by modern standards, not to mention one is 3 and the other is capped at 2.0 speeds, which is incredibly slow by today's standards. The Inspiron has 2 USB 3.2 USB-C and 2 USB 3.2 USB-A ports.
There is more to a computer than just a CPU and battery and comparing the two just by those two metrics is not a fair way to judge them.
jsodfskavi@reddit
However the battery doesn't quite make up for less efficient system. Of course, the other things you listed are amazing, but we were talking more about efficiency and performance of the system as a whole.
reddit_equals_censor@reddit
you seem to have no idea about actual build quality between those 2 companies.
THIS is apple "build quality":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8
apple build quality is endless class action lawsuits about engineering flaws, refusals to properly fix the issues and have properly covering extended warranties even after the lawsuits AND releasing new products with won class action lawsuits about the same flaw from other PRODUCTS.
that is the apple quality, that we know and hate.
shiny metal and nice curves =/= build quality.
you somehow got completely blinded by apple marketing here, because again we KNOW, that apple has no build quality. all things are shit unreliable and as unservicable as possible devices.
we got cables, that are too short for displays in laptops, so they fail over time and you can't easily replace them, because instead of basic connectors it can't be removed by itself, so it is a torture work to fix this shit.
we got butter fly keyboards with MASSIVE FAILURE rates, that apple gladly blamed users for of course with some INSANE videos talking about how one should clean it.
and i believe 300 us dollar or so repairs for them, because 1: finding another shity keyboard was near possible and 2: apple deliberately bolted the keyboard on, which made replacing it a torture job and a hard and time intensive job for no reason WHATSOEVER, except to be anti consumer and try to force people to buy new devices.
SOSpammy@reddit
You're comparing a laptop that is significantly heavier and has a much worse screen. They're hardly even in the same category. Laptops are more than the sum of their parts on a spec sheet.
Sciby@reddit
“Windows users shouldn't be worried about the $599 MacBook Neo”
Why should they be worried at all?? It’s not a competition or an existential threat to their Windows way of life. I swear these articles are getting dumber and dumber.
Strazdas1@reddit
Well, it sort of is. Just look at what happened to android when iPhones got popular. Now android users are second class citizens that have to wait extra for same software releases despite being larger userbase while google is trying its best to enshittify android to encourage people to switch.
iDontSeedMyTorrents@reddit
iPhone users spend considerably more money for apps and services. They're just following the money.
vk6_@reddit
Nobody should be worried about more competition lol
Sciby@reddit
I ageee, market competition is great but the wording like a windows user should be personally concerned…
vk6_@reddit
Well that's what happens when journalists write like they're cheering on a team, just to gain more clicks. Last week it was all about Windows laptops supposedly getting destroyed, and now they're saying that it's actually alright for Windows laptops.
Stunning_Warthog_316@reddit
I hope the MacBook Neo and new Steam GabeCube tag team the market so hard that Windows 11 has to crawl back up the corporate Spyware conceiving assholes of its progenitor. Mac and Linux have lacked affordability and gaming support historically, as well as market share. Its all about to come together in the ultimate middle finger to MS. Im tired of them captively changing your default browser and trying to sell you o365 and Xbox subscriptions every update. Rest in piss windows 11.
Loose_Skill6641@reddit
intel 120U CPU... are you serious? I wouldn't touch this laptop with a 10ft pole
jocnews@reddit
Decent RAM size with slower CPU is better bet than cut-down RAM.
The only exception may be the early 2000s when movie playback on PCs was taking of and older CPUs around 500 MHz just couldn't (plus lack of YUV to RGB and scaling acceleration on the dhittier older graphics).
But the 90s and early 2000s skimping on RAM sizes was extremely bad for the long term usefulness of computers, it was always the RAM what forced you to get a new PC. For a time in the 2010s it felt like we are over that, since about 2011-2012 it was really affordable to buy 8GB RAM. But no, we're going back there... with 8GB computers in 2026.
floydhwung@reddit
I've found a more viable product. Check out this NIMO laptop (I swear this is not an ad):
https://a.co/d/07AlJH1n
It has a 15.6 inch IPS screen, 16GB upgradable DDR4 RAM, a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint sensor, with better port selections and a 65W GaN power adapter.
Before someone comments "But it is a NIMO vs a Dell" - trust me the NIMO is closer to Dell than Dell is to Apple.
vk6_@reddit
That has a quad core Zen+ chip from 2019. The seller is being misleading by not being upfront about the CPU model. Yes, there are tons of viable competitors to the Macbook Neo from Windows laptop vendors, but this isn't it.
Frankly, it's a good idea avoid Amazon entirely when shopping for laptops, because the vast majority of listings on there are from third party sellers who are constantly scamming people with this kind of stuff.
Here's my pick for a good budget Windows laptop: https://www.microcenter.com/product/696087/hp-omnibook-5-next-gen-ai-14-he0014nr-copilot-pc-oled-14-laptop-computer-glacier-silver-aluminum
It has an 8 Core Snapdragon X1P CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, a 2K OLED display, and a metal chassis, all for $570 brand new. It's in stock at every Microcenter store right now.
kyp-d@reddit
The description is complete delusion claiming a Ryzen 3500U can match an i5-1135G7
floydhwung@reddit
If it wasn't obvious, I was joking about the NIMO. I wouldn't recommend anyone actually buy one.
The broader point I was making: if raw specs were the only thing that mattered when buying a computer, Apple would have gone bankrupt. And that's exactly the problem: every PC manufacturer is laser-focused on chasing specs while completely ignoring the actual user experience. Then they scratch their heads wondering why Apple makes a laptop with no backlit keyboard, 256GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM and it is selling like hot cakes for $599, where as their Windows equivalents have long existed in the space but no one seemed to care.
vk6_@reddit
Some people really do prefer higher specs and worse build quality (or user experience). Other people prefer it the other way around. Both opinions are valid and have reasonable arguments. There isn't a consensus that either one of these approaches is better.
At the mid-range $600 price point, there almost always is a tradeoff between the two. Frankly, it's down to personal preference to choose. It is hard to objectively say that the Macbook Neo is better when it too comes with tradeoffs such as the 8GB of memory that plenty of people will think is intolerable.
LSDcapybara@reddit
Ordered my Neo and it gets here soon, can’t wait.
MoreOrLessOfMe@reddit
That’s almost as awesome as your username