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MacBook Air M4

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Re: MacBook Air M4

#371

Post by electrograv »

whynotminot wrote: post #276
overstay8930 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know Apple wants to differentiate ProMotion as a Pro feature, but even non-tech people I know are wondering why Android phones run smoother than iPhones. Stuff that would be completely unheard of purely because of how noticeable 60hz vs 120hz is. Actual reputational damage is going on because of these poor decisions, I’m not surprised iPhones are struggling to obtain new market share. They just look like old and sl…

Have never heard anyone in my life that isn’t an engineer comment on Pro Motion. Not even in an accidental sort of “hmmm why does my phone just feel faster” kind of way. This is a feature that really only matters to the Hacker News crowd, and Apple is very aware of that. They invest their BOM into things the majority of people care about. And they do have the Pro Motion screens for the few that do. Even I — an engine…

You have to understand that your own perceptual experience is not identical to that of all other humans. Without recognizing that, we will inevitably end up talking past each other endlessly and writing each other off as { hallucinating, lying, exaggerating, etc } for one of us claiming to perceive something important that the other does not.

It would be no different than arguing about whether we need all three primary colors (red, green, blue) with someone who is colorblind (and unaware of this). Or like arguing whether speakers benefit from being able to reproduce a certain frequency, with someone who is partially or fully deaf at that frequency. And I truly mean no disrespect to anyone with different perception abilities in these or any other domains.

Recognizing that large differences exist here is essential to make sense of the reality - that something that seems completely unimportant or barely noticeable to you, could actually be a hugely obvious and important difference to many others (whether it’s a certain screen refresh rate, the presence of a primary color you cannot perceive but others can, an audio frequency you cannot hear but others can, or otherwise).

Re: MacBook Air M4

#372

Post by mrexroad »

throw0101d wrote: post #63
dijit wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear: 1) Apple releases incremental upgrades! Why won't they make huge strides every year so I can upgrade! 2) People who upgrade every year are sheeps! 3) Apple support devices for longer than Android, that's nice! (yes, not Windows though). 4) God, why do their benchmarks compare devices that are 3-5y old?! Apple is marketing to people who have devices that are old, because they are old. "Hey, you noticed th…

> 2) People who upgrade every year are sheeps! > 3) Apple support devices for longer than Android, that's nice! > 4) God, why do their benchmarks compare devices that are 3-5y old?! 2 and 4 kind of contradict each other. I wouldn't be surprised that the average upgrade cycle for a lot of folks is in that 3-5 year range, for both personal and corporate buyers.

TBH, for non-tech folks that upgrade cycle has likely stretched a good bit beyond 3-5 years. 3-5 was the norm 10 years ago, but I’d wager needs-driven upgrades, opposed to marketing driven, are closer to 7-10 years outside of obvious niches.

Sample size one: My spouse is using either a 2013 MBA and wants to upgrade, mostly b/c the enshitification of web sites. Basic productivity was okay-ish for her work (document creation, pdfs, spreadsheets, etc), but even Gmail now suffers with more than a tab.

Edit: thinking more, I don’t know if I agree with myself here.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#373

Post by dayvid »

gavinray wrote: post #273
ruuda wrote: post #247

My 4-year old Dell XPS 15 is up for replacement, but somehow no manufacturer aside from Apple is making laptop with decent specs nowadays? I want 2TB storage, a 4k (or close) HiDPI display, good build quality, and not a bulky gaming laptop. The XPS 15 was perfect, it had those specs, except it only had 1TB storage which is now full. I was expecting that to not be an issue 4 years later ... But now Dell discontinued X…

Gen question: why do people care how bulky a laptop is? I buy gaming laptops because they're the only powerful laptops and their size has never bothered me when traveling

It's really nice to be able to take a laptop out and start working on an idea wherever you are. Macbook Air makes me more productive and home or anywhere because it's less of a hassle to boot up the laptop.

I have a gaming laptop, even 14", and I can't stand the boot up time and needing a thick power brick cable to get things going. I barely use it as a result and use my Steam Deck more.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#374

Post by bitwize »

latexr wrote: post #147
permanent wrote: post #3

This is amazing, yet silly to state "Up to 23x faster performance [4]" [4] against, 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based MacBook Air

You’re making it seem like they’re hiding that information under a footnote. The real text on the page, which is quite visible, is: > Up to 23x faster than fastest Intel‑based MacBook Air And right next to it: > Up to 2x faster than MacBook Air (M1) The footnotes are there to expand on the conditions of the measurements. So not exactly misleading. On the contrary, it seems to me they’re quite clearly saying “if you h…

"Up to" is still doing a lot of work there. What kinds of workloads are we talking that get the big numbers, and what can we realistically expect on real workloads?

I'm reminded of 90s advertisements in which the new G3 processor was supposed to be so many times faster than the Pentium or even Pentium II. Their chosen benchmark: how long it takes to run a Photoshop plugin. On Mac OS pre-X, a Photoshop plugin got 100% of the CPU because there was no preemptive multitasking. Windows 9x versions of Photoshop had to share the CPU with whatever else was running.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#375

Post by zactato »

ljm wrote: post #41

They don't always hit the mark but I sort of miss the times when Apple would innovate more boldly with their devices. Apple Intelligence isn't it - it's just playing catch-up with a market that tries to slap AI onto everything it can think of. The hardware upgrades are always nice but there's nothing 'out there' like a touch bar or even a 'dynamic island'. Just more safe iterations.

I think the M1 was a pretty huge innovation. It's the first time a laptop felt portable and without compromise. I can get a full day of work out of my laptop without plugging it in. It's pretty wild.

Before this laptops were simply things that were small enough that you could carry one from point A to point B, but they were still effectively tethered to a wall and desk for any non-trivial usecases.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#376

Post by DwnVoteHoneyPot »

indymike wrote: post #369
ruuda wrote: post #247

My 4-year old Dell XPS 15 is up for replacement, but somehow no manufacturer aside from Apple is making laptop with decent specs nowadays? I want 2TB storage, a 4k (or close) HiDPI display, good build quality, and not a bulky gaming laptop. The XPS 15 was perfect, it had those specs, except it only had 1TB storage which is now full. I was expecting that to not be an issue 4 years later ... But now Dell discontinued X…

I've been using LG Gram laptops running linux. They are fantastic. My current daily drive is 3lbs, 17" display, 32GB RAM i7 CPU, and I bumped the SSD to 2TB. It is lighter than my 13" Macbook air and cost $1200 at Costco. Oh, and battery life is 14-16 hours of use.

Yes, LG Gram laptops are amazing. Surprised they're not more popular.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#377

Post by jpalomaki »

_mlbt wrote: post #66
kotaKat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that migrated to the M1 Macbook Air from a Mid-2014 Macbook Pro... the Intel customers are still the ones they're trying to target, amusingly. If they'd just give me onboard mobile connectivity, I'd upgrade to the next Air sooner, otherwise this thing will run until it dies... and maybe some day they'll start comparing performance against their original M1.

I see a lot of people requesting cellular modems in MacBooks, but the integration with iPhone hotspot connectivity is so good that I don’t really see the point of it for most people.

One benefit is that computer stays connected even if you go somewhere else with your phone.

It's one of those small things that makes like a bit easier. On Lenovo/HP these have been around for years and they don't cost that much.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#379

Post by whynotminot »

electrograv wrote: post #371
whynotminot wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have never heard anyone in my life that isn’t an engineer comment on Pro Motion. Not even in an accidental sort of “hmmm why does my phone just feel faster” kind of way. This is a feature that really only matters to the Hacker News crowd, and Apple is very aware of that. They invest their BOM into things the majority of people care about. And they do have the Pro Motion screens for the few that do. Even I — an engine…

You have to understand that your own perceptual experience is not identical to that of all other humans. Without recognizing that, we will inevitably end up talking past each other endlessly and writing each other off as { hallucinating, lying, exaggerating, etc } for one of us claiming to perceive something important that the other does not. It would be no different than arguing about whether we need all three prima…

This is why I led with this part, unrelated to my own perception:

> Have never heard anyone in my life that isn’t an engineer comment on Pro Motion. Not even in an accidental sort of “hmmm why does my phone just feel faster” kind of way.

I would also argue the crowd that insists everyone needs Pro Motion is doing exactly what you accuse me of -- assuming their needs and perception must also be everyone else's. When clearly the market has said otherwise, given Apple's success for many, many years with 60Hz screens.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#380

Post by sleepybrett »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #330
sleepybrett wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that the ram is basically in the Mseries die and therefore can't really be upgraded. The storage is pure malice or marketing pushing for 'thinnest laptop'

> The storage is pure malice or marketing pushing for 'thinnest laptop’ Kinda, the SSD controller is integrated into the M-series SoC so even if the storage were slotted (as it is in the Macs mini, Studio, and Pro) you wouldn’t be able to use an off-the-shelf M.2 SSD since the storage is little more than raw flash on a card for those models.

Sure they could make their own new standard slot or whatever. Tossing out a perfectly good motherboard and cpu to replace some flash is god damned ridiculous.
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