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The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

pcworld.com

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Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#21

Post by earthboundkid »

analog31 wrote: post #8
djsumdog wrote: post #3

The Acer Swift is limited to only 8GB of (non-upgrade) ram, which is a deal breaker for most developers. I also wonder about that Wi-Fi 6 chip and its Linux support. If it wasn't for those factors, I'd probably get one.

This is totally an aside, and probably shows how out of touch I am, but there must be developers who need 8+ GB, and others who don't. I was always under the impression that things like editors and compilers didn't need a lot of computing performance. So I'm curious what kinds of development demand more performance. Is it a hard wall that you hit, or more of just a progressive degradation of performance?

I was using 8GB until recently. It was hell because I was always swapping. Even with an SSD, the lag changing apps was painful.

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#22

Post by shockinglytrue »

JoeCianflone wrote: post #7

I love these articles because the writers are so earnest and seem to be oblivious to the fact that buyers do not care.

I wouldn't presume to speak for everyone, but in my case particularly e.g. when making the leap back to PC away from macs, I poured over maybe 100 of this kind of review before settling on a final choice

If people weren't reading those articles the writers would not be incentivized to write them in the first place.

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#23

Post by bArray »

It's not just a case of dividing performance numbers by price - obviously the Apple machine is better built. The real question is: Is it built a $1000 dollars better and built well enough to overcome the fact it's slower (in these tests)?

There are some pretty legitimate reasons to come away from Apple products now in my opinion, including some very competitive hardware at lower prices. I've been quite a happy Linux user for a long time now.

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#24

Post by mlacks »

mdgrech23 wrote: post #5

These posts are obnoxious. People don't buy Macs b/c of their impressive tech specs - they buy them b/c of macOS.

I don't know why you're being downvoted; this is true for a number of reasons.

1. Used to mac only software or workflow 2. ercieved supramacy in security 3. Ios compatibility 4. etc

The price/ hardware spec ratio by and large always goes to Windows boxes, but for many people the change in OS disrupts too many other areas in life to justify the discount

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#25

Post by Ididntdothis »

analog31 wrote: post #8
djsumdog wrote: post #3

The Acer Swift is limited to only 8GB of (non-upgrade) ram, which is a deal breaker for most developers. I also wonder about that Wi-Fi 6 chip and its Linux support. If it wasn't for those factors, I'd probably get one.

This is totally an aside, and probably shows how out of touch I am, but there must be developers who need 8+ GB, and others who don't. I was always under the impression that things like editors and compilers didn't need a lot of computing performance. So I'm curious what kinds of development demand more performance. Is it a hard wall that you hit, or more of just a progressive degradation of performance?

I routinely run several VMs and my next laptop soon will be 32 or 64GB. On Windows my dev machine already uses 8GB with just a few browser tabs open.

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#27

Post by godzillabrennus »

This kind of bad PR will push Apple to using their own chips in future laptop form factor models.

Sadly because unless there is a miracle to secure licensing IP from Intel in the process this will remove virtualization options for Windows from the platform.

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#28

Post by thethethethe »

“X laptop which is cheaper than a MacBook benches higher”

This is not news, this has always been true. People keep buying MacBooks, it’s been one of the best selling laptops for a decade. There must be some other reason why people like them.... Maybe benchmarks don’t matter to most people? Really makes you think

Re: The $1,799 MacBook Pro 13 vs. the $650 Acer Swift 3

#29

Post by philplckthun »

I think instead of drawing any unnecessary conclusions about MacBooks or this particular Acer laptop, it simply shows just how much ground AMD has gained in comparison to Intel. This performance is just impressive, not just at this price point, and as far as I’m aware AMD chips are now beating Intel chips across the entire CPU lineup
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