GoKawiilApple has a chip problem. MacBook Neo is selling far better than the company had expected, and now it seems like there aren’t enough binned A18 Pro chips to keep the production run going for another 6-12 months before a new version is released.
Some have floated the idea of Apple axing the 256GB trim, and just using an unbinned A18 Pro chip in the 512GB trim. That’s certainly plausible. I do wonder though, how can Apple prevent this from happening with every forthcoming MacBook Neo?
The MacBook Neo boom
We already know Apple is making another version of the MacBook Neo with the A19 Pro chip and 12GB RAM in about a year.
What if, though, there was more diversity to it? Clearly, relying on one trim of binned chip isn’t necessarily going to cut it for the amount of demand there is for MacBook Neo.
You could argue a lot of this could be launch hype, but I also think the MacBook Neo is an absurdly good deal compared to the rest of the PC industry, and people will continue to want to buy it. Especially if they already have an iPhone.
Right now, there’s two trims to MacBook Neo, with no chip difference:
$599 ($499 edu): 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, A18 Pro chip with 5 core CPU and 6 core GPU
$699 ($599 edu): 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Touch ID, same A18 Pro chip
Apple only deploys one chip in the MacBook Neo, at least for now. With the A19 version, I think there’s room for them to move both higher and lower.
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