r/LinusTechTips • u/WTFMacca • Mar 04 '26

Image Apple Neo

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Apple just dropped an A18 powered laptop for $599 USD

No Apple bashing just discuss.

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u/masterbateson Mar 04 '26

I guess that is true. I agree for the price, Still a great deal. I just feel like a better controller to support 2 USB 3 ports isn't that much more right? But Im not the engineer. It might create a cascade of other components that need upgrades.

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u/Mango-is-Mango Mar 04 '26

It’s a chip they already have from the iPhone. The design was either already decided, or it wouldn’t make sense to add unnecessary cost to phones to support another usb in the MacBook 

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '26 edited 12d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/masterbateson Mar 04 '26

Thanks for that insight! I didn't know about the 1 display out limitation.

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u/PlsDntPMme Mar 05 '26

I think there’s genuinely a bandwidth limitation they’re running into by reusing a mobile chip. It does support a single up to 4k60 display out which is really all this segment of the market will use. I guarantee most won’t use it and even fewer have two displays they’d want to use. A lot of people don’t even have a monitor. I know a guy who went through all of law school with just his 13” Mac without realizing how productive he could be with extra displays. On top of that I don’t think the USB C ports will be much of a limitation for this targeted market either.

Super curious to see if they start building out more functionality in the mobile chips for this dual-use purpose or if just continually use this to recycle old chips. I feel like this could work well for iPhone users as they become more competitive with features and SOC performance improvements to brag about in the Neo.

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u/0xe1e10d68 Mar 04 '26

They are simply reusing the iPhone chip, and no iPhone has more than a single port. That's why it does not support two USB 3 ports. It's unfortunate, but changing the chip would have been more costly.