I think hours of video call with five other people need to be a metric for devices now.
Possibly, but it would have to be way better specified. You have dimensions like the OS, conference service, camera quality, browser, etc. that all affect it.
Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
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Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#62> As for battery life, Copilot+ PCs support up to 15 hours of web browsing or 22 hours of local video playback. The MacBook Air models offer the same 15 hours of wireless web browsing, but only 18 hours of local video playback. This is so underrated. I got a new macbook air as a temp while my m1 max gets repaired and it blows my mind how I had it unplugged for 2 days over the weekend and the battery is still going. I…
I don't understand why battery life in gaming laptops is so incredibly shit even when doing non-gaming tasks. I thought a while back Intel and AMD worked on hardware/software to automatically switch to integrated graphics when you don't need the discrete GPU? Did nothing come of that? I don't expect the battery life to be as good as non-gaming laptops, of course, but I feel like it should probably last longer than li…
Been like that forever.
Usually gaming laptops prioritize their cooling systems over battery size. And don’t underestimate the high refresh rate panel likely optimized for at least 500 nits.
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#63Very interesting developments. I wonder how good X Elite's performance per watt is compared to the M3. Then again, Apple will soon restock all Macs with M4-level processors (reported, take it with a grain of salt). M4 beats the X Elite, but its not really a fair comparison since the X Elite is meant to compete with the M3. It seems like the X Elite is close to M3, but uses much more power [0]. [0]: https://nanoreview…
Do they say that when they developed it or after when they find out they cannot beat the M4 that they are not competing with something they cannot beat?
Those chips are in the pipeline for years. There's a chance M3 wasn't even out by the time they had the mostly finalised design for this processor. They definitely couldn't aim for any comparison with M4 at any point of that process.
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#64Very interesting developments. I wonder how good X Elite's performance per watt is compared to the M3. Then again, Apple will soon restock all Macs with M4-level processors (reported, take it with a grain of salt). M4 beats the X Elite, but its not really a fair comparison since the X Elite is meant to compete with the M3. It seems like the X Elite is close to M3, but uses much more power [0]. [0]: https://nanoreview…
If these numbers are representative, they seem to show apple silicon's efficiency advantage is now pretty minor.
The power efficiency numbers in that link do not appear to be derived from anything; definitely not actual measurements. The score out of 100 is almost certainly complete bullshit, and the site as a whole probably is worthless.
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#65So the new pro-level laptop from MS+QCOM (they are bragging of the specs of the one with Snapdragon X Elite chip which starts at $1,500) and ships in a month beats last year's entry-level mac, which starts at $999 and has been shipping for a year?
If they ship on time they might get four months before Apple has a faster machine. And the last six weeks to two months of that, people will likely wait and see (if they consider anything from MS at all that is).
Apple already has much faster machines - the pro line...
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I assume they meant unplugged and in regular use, not unplugged and hibernating the whole time.
The system wasn't hibernating, it was just sleeping.
That doesn't change much, I guess. Still very little power usage compared to an actual turned on machine.
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#67> As for battery life, Copilot+ PCs support up to 15 hours of web browsing or 22 hours of local video playback. The MacBook Air models offer the same 15 hours of wireless web browsing, but only 18 hours of local video playback. This is so underrated. I got a new macbook air as a temp while my m1 max gets repaired and it blows my mind how I had it unplugged for 2 days over the weekend and the battery is still going. I…
Macs have always had great battery life and the Apple Silicon chips took it to another level. It remains to be seen if any Windows laptop can actually consistently achieve their marketed battery life given Windows’ terrible track record for power management and proper sleeping.
Macs were long hindered by Intel processors to have long battery lifes AND/OR good performance. Two examples of MacBooks I had:
The 12" MacBook. Great form factor, bad software (graphics driver code was especially poor), poor keyboard, lousy battery life, slow CPU & graphics. Similar size now with the 13" MacBook Air, but much better.
The i9 MacBook Pro. Too heavy, not enough cooling, extra GPU chip (in the laptop) with lots of power demand, Thunderbolt chips with lots of power demand, CPU with lots of power demand, fans were often on (for example with anything which uses the extra GPU). Now a 16" MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon is virtually silent AND fast.
I currently have a Mac mini with M2 Pro, a MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and the new iPad Pro M4. All are very snappy and virtually silent. They use very little idle power and don't get warm in normal use. The i9 MacBook Pro would produce a lot of heat when attached to an external screen and doing a "simple" video call, due to the power hungry additional GPU needed to drive the external screen.
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#68[deleted]
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#69People that want gaming choose Windows, people that want productivity choose Mac. I don't see where this new product fits.
You can't game with the paltry "arm companion" GPU and you can't be productive with tons of ads (product placement, "notifications" and tips, as well as the literal "hot singles near you" variety included).
Maybe this is some kind of corporate devices for the old-school enterprises that rock Teams and Office and all that jazz.
It's a shame because if the hardware is as good as they make it sound, it might've been a great productivity device, but they need serious slimming down work in Windows, or an unlocked bootloader for Linux.
Re: Microsoft says new Surface Pro is faster than 15" M3 MacBook Air
#70[dupe] More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40417828
That story is not about speed, it's about Copilot. To be fair, everything is called Copilot now, so maybe fast Surface Pros will be called Copilots too.
The discussion about the speed and surface specs are all in the announcement and that's where the threads were merged to. That's where the discussion is.