Apple's Cheapest Ecosystem Broke Me

Turns out, not everything Apple makes on the low-end is like the MacBook Neo... Thanks to @FitnexaAI for sponsoring this video. Check out Fitnexa SomniPods 3 here and get $10 off with coupon SNAZZY10: https://go.fitnexa.com/XMBmhF Get your Window Cap at Copland Supply! - https://copland.supply/products/hat-2 *Buy FANTASTIC merch at Copland Supply* - https://copland.supply Follow Snazzy Labs on Twitter - https://twitter.com/snazzylabs Follow me on Bluesky - https://snazzy.fm/UW Follow me on Threads - https://snazzy.fm/XV Follow me on Mastodon - https://snazzy.fm/NN Follow me on Instagram - https://instagram.com/snazzyq A complete current-generation Apple ecosystem for $1,925 — MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, base iPad, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods 4 — and after 30 days living on Apple's cheapest hardware, only two of the five are worth your money. The MacBook Neo genuinely surprised: 8GB of RAM handled Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve without a hiccup, its last-gen A-series chip runs circles around the M1 Air, and the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta made it faster, while the Apple Watch SE 3 delivers 95% of the Ultra 2 experience — always-on display, Double Tap, apnea detection without a blood oxygen sensor post-Masimo — for $219. The iPhone 17e is the disaster nobody expected: dropped frames at 60Hz, constant app relaunches, thermals so bad the display dims into unreadability outdoors, and no Apple Intelligence or new Siri in iOS 27 — a used iPhone 15 Pro at the same price is the better buy every single time. The base iPad is worse still, with decade-old silicon, a dim non-laminated display, and performance that makes the 17e look like a speed queen, while the AirPods 4 lose the seal, the bass, and Ultra Wideband Precision Finding for $30 less than AirPods Pro 3. With RAM crisis price hikes hitting Macs and iPads and Apple's new Apple Upgrade Program lease-to-own scheme designed to keep you renting forever, the real answer is buy to own — or buy used, because the magic was in the hardware all along. 0:00 Under $2K for a whole ecosystem?! 0:40 The troll toll comes for Cupertino 1:53 Apple wants you leasing forever 3:26 MacBook Neo: shame on me 6:44 iPhone 17e: I cracked at week three 9:52 The iPad I never finished setting up 12:18 Apple Watch SE 3 stole the show 16:08 AirPods 4 kept exactly one thing 17:43 The magic was in the hardware all along 18:27 Buy the used Lexus, not the new Corolla Apple RAM budgettech Fitnexa SomniPods3 SleepEarbuds SleepTechAlso