Short answer: Jordan Metzner says the lower cost MacBook uses the iPhone's A series chips instead of M series, with less storage and RAM. He would prefer a low powered Mac to a Chromebook and calls $600 a good entry price.
Watch this answer from Episode 34 (starts at 21:33) · Episode 34 notes and transcript
From Episode 34: AI Is Rebuilding Clinical Trials, starting at 21:33.
Sam Nadler [21:32]: Yep. Totally. Well, speaking of retail, one of our, arguably one of the biggest retailers in the world, if not the biggest, like Apple just released a low cost or lower cost MacBook, a May version. I think it's, like, a competitor to the Chromebook. I'm personally having two children. Really excited about this. But, yeah, I think it was a long time coming to get an Apple computer at this price point.
Dr. Chadi Nabhan [22:03]: But what's the I could I mean, I think the power and the memory, like, I didn't get a chance to finish the whole thing. Like, I wasn't sure what the it's probably I mean, obviously, it doesn't have the same capabilities as the larger ones. No?
Jordan Metzner [22:14]: Yeah. I mean, they have smaller hard drives and memory for RAM, but I think the key is that they're using the A series of chips that's available in the iPhone versus using the M series of chips that are historically in the iPad and in the Mac the rest of the Mac series. So I think that's like the biggest step down. Whether that has like a significant performance impact is to be seen as this is like a new series of computers on untested yet. But to Sam's point, it competes with a Chromebook, and I probably have a prefer a low powered Mac than a Chromebook just because you get kind of the access to the entire operating system. But, yeah, I don't know. I haven't tried them yet, but, $600 is a pretty good entry price point to get someone to use a Mac computer.
