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Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

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Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#241

Post by LtWorf »

kdtsh wrote: post #173
nicbou wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice old MacBooks tend to have a much longer useful life in my experience. I'm working on a 12" Macbook and I love it. It's still decently fast for.the lowest specced Macbook from 6 years ago. It supplements a 2017 Macbook Pro that's still overkill in 2022. Both have excellent battery life. If it wasn't for the nearly free upgrade I got in 2017, I'd probably still rock a 2012 model.

I've got a 2012 MacBook Air which I bought second hand (maybe third or fourth hand, or more?) for $300 a couple years ago. The hinge is floppy probably due to being dropped several times, the FaceTime is busted, I replaced the battery but it still runs out in less than 2 hours, and I don't think macOS even gets security patches for the version it's running - but install Linux and it's _fine_, plus it's tiny. I could…

Basically it's unusable but it still turns on? Is this what apple users consider as "durability"?

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#242

Post by LtWorf »

nicbou wrote: post #128
sschueller wrote: post #74

The biggest contrast here and what we should be concerned about is the fact that this old Thinkpad can be upgraded and still be used vs an old macbook that if speced too low is now useless and ends up on a landfill. Not even considering that new macbooks if locked are unusable on the secondary market and get tossed even if the hardware is perfectly fine. It's as if we have given up on "solving" climate change in favo…

In practice old MacBooks tend to have a much longer useful life in my experience. I'm working on a 12" Macbook and I love it. It's still decently fast for.the lowest specced Macbook from 6 years ago. It supplements a 2017 Macbook Pro that's still overkill in 2022. Both have excellent battery life. If it wasn't for the nearly free upgrade I got in 2017, I'd probably still rock a 2012 model.

In practice my old macbook fell apart after 4 years and I've since stopped buying them.

Now I also don't need dongles, nor a dedicated charger.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#243

Post by quijoteuniv »

dools wrote: post #59

I got an M2 MacBook and the battery life is insane. As for any maintenance issues, get AppleCare and live a happy life. I run my macs for 6+ years and only retire them when apple stops releasing OS updates for them.

I then get those macs put linux on them and use them another 6+ years :)

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#244

Post by [deleted] »

petepete wrote: post #78
junipertea wrote: post #8

I love thinkpads but the T480 is basically objectively worse in every single aspect except price and repairability. I don’t think I can go back from all day battery and quiet CPU during high loads. I could definitely use my T450 for however long I need and know I can replace parts, but I’d rather have macs for 5 years and upgrade for another performance bump. Some things are just nicer

> ...except price and repairability. And keyboard.

[deleted]

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#245

Post by ihateolives »

kuschku wrote: post #175
ostenning wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a battery that has 20h+ capacity and can be swapped with a second one to double the capacity in seconds Any computer that can be charged with a usb-c connection doesn't need additional proprietary external batteries, you can just use a generic battery pack, which is why the T480 was the last TP with an external battery.

If you want to a) have a huge external device connected all the time, b) destroy your battery with constant charge cycles so badly that you need to replace it every few months, and c) want to be unable to charge other devices from your laptop.

> c) want to be unable to charge other devices from your laptop.

You just charge them with battery pack.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#246

Post by LtWorf »

jeroenhd wrote: post #221
nicolas_t wrote: post #56

The main reason I love my M1 is that it's cool to the touch after switching from an intel based mbp to an m1, I went from an average of 90 degrees Celsius (there was definitely an issue in the factory with thermal paste I think) to an average of 40-50 degrees Celsius. I can't imagine ever going back to an intel based laptop because of this (and in my experience, thinkpads don't run that cool for my uses with arch lin…

Apple intentionally used terrible cooling, letting the CPU passively heat up rather than spinning up the fans because they didn't want or couldn't figure out how to deal with fan noise. The chassis got hot because Apple decided that was the better alternative. Intel's approach of "just send more power through the chip to make it faster" is definitely worse than Apple's own chips, but Apple has neutered their laptop C…

My macbook was basically unusable as a laptop in hot summer days because it would be too hot to put on your lap.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#247

Post by danielbln »

celsoazevedo wrote: post #199
danielbln wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main advantage is the CPU. The M1/M2 are blazingly fast, and basically never get even warm. I have to _really_ crunch the machine to even hear the faintest hum of the fan. Battery lasts for ever, it's like a phone, charge once a day if that.

Before getting my 2021 16" MBP with a M1 Max, I'd read comments like yours and get the idea that I'd be able to encode video without it getting warm :-P This is not the case, at least not with the M1 Max. It does get warm if we push it hard for a few minutes. This could be easily avoided if Apple started the fans at low speeds earlier, but instead they let the SoC run at 80-90ºC for 2 or 3 minutes before the fans kic…

I would consider video encoding as "really crunching the machine" though.

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#248

Post by LtWorf »

kylec wrote: post #55
me551ah wrote: post #18

The thing that annoys me the most about M1 Macbooks is the lack of gaming ability. Even a basic windows laptop can play games like DOTA, Age of empires etc and so did the older macbooks. With M1, almost none of my games work.

While this is true, it's not really Apple's fault, most game makers just don't care about making their games Mac compatible. They don't even have to be Apple Silicon compatible, Rosetta does a surprisingly good job making Mac games for Intel playable on M1.

No? Whose fault it was when apple removed the ability to run i386 binaries on CPUs that could run them just fine?

Re: Replacing my MacBook Air M1 with a ThinkPad T480

#249

Post by catchnear4321 »

ChrisRR wrote: post #201
niclo wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will not find the same on an M1/2. In fact I'm not sure it even warms up? My M2 does quite regularly with only Chrome, Slack, VS Code and a few docker containers running.

I hate that sub downvotes facts that they don't like

You’re confusing facts with anecdotal evidence.
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