Summary
The budget-focused 100 thanks to rising component costs. Now, Lenovo, one of the biggest players in the world of budget laptops, may well be giving the Neo some formidable competition, without forcing you to sacrifice on things like choice when it comes to color or connectivity with your other devices. Enter the IdeaPad Vibe. Lenovo is here to break up Apple’s MacBook Neo party There’s a lot on offer, especially if you like fun colors The IdeaPad Vibe, according to renders leaked from Windows Latest, looks like a budget option that would compete in the same space. It’ll be available with either AMD or Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM CPU, though the renders didn’t include the exact specifications. The new IdeaPad features a minimal design, including a relatively large trackpad and rounded key caps. One area where the device looks like it’ll shine is in the variety of its color schemes. It will reportedly be available in pink, mustard yellow, navy blue, silver, burnt orange, mint blue, and sage green. This is three more than the Neo, which only comes in four: Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo. Another area where the new IdeaPad clearly has Apple beat is the number of ports. According to Windows Latest, buyers will reportedly get two USB-A ports on the right side, and another two USB-C ports on the left side, as well as an HDMI port, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. The MacBook Neo, in contrast, gives you just a single USB-C port and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, the leak didn’t indicate what the IdeaPad Vibe might retail at, so specific price comparisons with the Neo aren’t possible yet. Is it worth waiting? More firms could be eyeing launching Neo competitors The RAM crisis isn’t set to end anytime soon, so the budget laptop space will likely be constrained for some time, as basics like RAM comprise a larger part of the final price tag. With that in mind, we could be seeing more Neo competitors in the future, aside from Lenovo. In a recent earnings call, Asus co-CEO S.Y. Hsu called the MacBook Neo “a shock to the entire industry,” saying that “there have been a lot of discussions about how to compete with this product.” This means we could be seeing a lot more firms trying to muscle in on Neo’s territory — and we’re absolutely here for it.