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MacBook Air M4

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Re: MacBook Air M4

#651

Post by noisy_boy »

znpy wrote: post #441
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…

> bulky 16" ThinkPad. I'm surprised nobody mentioned the thinkpad x1 extreme laptop. It was basically the lenovo/thinkpad response to the xps 15. It's way thinner than the ThinkPad T16/P15 lines. they claim it's a 16" laptop but only because they made the bezel smaller enough to fit a larger display in the same space. it's usually mostly on par with the dell xps but i'm not sure about the specs though... my personal…

I have an X1 extreme gen 2 - great expandability (two SSD slots), good port selection, not too heavy but runs hot, the GPU is crap and the battery life isn't great. Running pop os with KDE on it; normal usage.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#652

Post by Foobar8568 »

ericmcer wrote: post #448
homefree wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing close, Apple has better talent and the vertical integration gives them an edge (especially on performance per watt on their chip designs). Since the M series chips, there's been no other option if you care about quality. There are crappy alternatives with serious tradeoffs if for some reason you are forced to not use Apple or choose for non-quality reasons.

The leap from intel to the M series chips really left everyone else behind. I can't even use my 2019 Macbook anymore it feels so sluggish. I have an M3 Pro and it blows all my old computers out of the water. Can handle pretty insane dev workflows (massive Docker composed environments) without issue and the battery life feels unfair. I can put in an 8 hour workday without my charging cable, I don't think I have turned…

I have a M3 Max as well, 16" iteration, it's the best laptop I had, and it's clearly a desktop replacement for my usage and until I want to generate meme vids with LLM...

Nowadays I am looking forward to the Nvidia digits+ MacBook Pro duo.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#653

Post by ako »

znpy wrote: post #441
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…

> bulky 16" ThinkPad. I'm surprised nobody mentioned the thinkpad x1 extreme laptop. It was basically the lenovo/thinkpad response to the xps 15. It's way thinner than the ThinkPad T16/P15 lines. they claim it's a 16" laptop but only because they made the bezel smaller enough to fit a larger display in the same space. it's usually mostly on par with the dell xps but i'm not sure about the specs though... my personal…

Has 32gb of memory max. My current 5 year old thinkpad P1 has 64GB, not going back to 32.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#654

Post by paulddraper »

homefree wrote: post #411
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…

There's nothing close, Apple has better talent and the vertical integration gives them an edge (especially on performance per watt on their chip designs). Since the M series chips, there's been no other option if you care about quality. There are crappy alternatives with serious tradeoffs if for some reason you are forced to not use Apple or choose for non-quality reasons.

M series really is amazing.

But if you don’t want Apple, or you want to be able to upgrade, check out Frameworks. [1]

Really satisfying combination of quality and value for high performance laptops.

[1] https://frame.work/

Re: MacBook Air M4

#655

Post by aurareturn »

fenced_load wrote: post #553
SG- wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it turns out you can simply tether this thing called an iPhone that almost everyone over wifi.

Not sure if this was a serious response. But tethering kills battery life on your phone, which especially sucks if you are travelling.

Plug the phone into the laptop.

5G on a laptop also hurts battery life.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#656

Post by klausa »

crazygringo wrote: post #398
toxik wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not imagined though, I use my partner’s phone sometimes and every time I used it I thought it was broken because the UI jitter was so jarring at 60Hz. Actually I’m still not convinced her phone isn’t broken. Also her flashlight resets to the lowest brightness EVERY time it’s cycled.

> because the UI jitter was so jarring at 60Hz See this is what confuses me. If the UI jitter on their phone was "so jarring", it's not because it's 60 Hz. It's because the phone's CPU isn't keeping up. Like, nobody watches a video filmed at 60 fps and then watches their favorite TV show or a motion picture at 24 fps and says "the jitter was so jarring". And that's at less than half the rate we're even talking about!…

> If the UI jitter on their phone was "so jarring", it's not because it's 60 Hz. It's because the phone's CPU isn't keeping up.

No, it's not. This isn't about dropped frames or micro-stutters caused by the CPU. It's about _motion clarity_.

You can follow the objects moving around on the screen much better, and the perceived motion is much smoother because there is literally twice the information hitting your eyes.

You can make a simple experiment — just change your current monitor to 30hz and move the mouse around.

Does it _feel_ different? Is the motion less smooth?

It's not because your computer is suddenly struggling to hit half of the frames it was hitting before; it's because you have less _motion information_ hitting your eyes (and the increased input lag; but that's a separate conversation).

60->120fps is less noticeable than 30->60fps; but for many, many people it is absolutely very clearly noticable.

> Like, nobody watches a video filmed at 60 fps and then watches their favorite TV show or a motion picture at 24 fps and says "the jitter was so jarring".

People absolutely complain about jitter in 24fps content on high-end displays with fast response times; it is especially noticeable in slow panning shots.

Google "oled 24fps stutter" to see people complaining about this.

It's literally why motion smoothing exists on TVs.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#657

Post by Toutouxc »

pishpash wrote: post #318
Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think when they say non-tech people they mean a subset of people who know a bit about refresh rates (example being avid PC gamers for instance), but I'd still say the vast majority of people cannot tell 60 to 120. That or its not something they think about. Certainly if they had both side by side they may be able to notice a difference, but in everyday use it makes no real difference to the vast majority of pe…

Just tried ProMotion vs. 60Hz on MBP, no/very little difference I can see. Sure it's just me but for me all the claims here are way exaggerated/psychological, almost like audiophiles being able to "hear" stuff that doesn't exist in a blind test.

In this case it really is just you. I can tell a high-refresh-rate display from across the room. I can tell if someone’s iPhone is a Pro even if the person is sitting five meters away from me on a moving bus.

On the other hand, my MacBook has a 120 Hz display and both my iPad Mini and iPhone Mini are 60 Hz, and even though the difference is night and day, I don’t really MIND using them. It’s just not that cool.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#658

Post by gargan »

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…

There's a lot of misinformation in your post!

Dell XPS 13 isn't discontinued, its rebranding will be fully rolled out later this year

In the meantime Dell XPS 13s are currently available with 2TB and 64GB RAM (with a better screen than this Air I might add) and with a Snapdragon X Elite chip (which there are very few compatibility issues with in March 2025 even with gaming)

If its a 14 inch laptop you want XPS 14s are currently available with upto 4TB. They will also be rebranded later this year. They're on Intel chips and I'm hoping they will switch to Snapdragon on the rebrand to get the Apple like battery life

Re: MacBook Air M4

#659

Post by jkestner »

rozenmd wrote: post #466
bartvk wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mid-2014 MBP, that's amazing. Did you buy it new? And actually used it since 2014?

MacBooks last a ridiculously long time. I used my 2011 MBP daily until upgrading to a 2020 M1 air. I kinda miss the ridiculous heat output on winter mornings.

Same, except my 2009 Mac Pro made for a better space heater, until I replaced it with an MBP M1 that doesn't have the decency to make noise to let me know it's working. Only downside of upgrading is that I had to get off of Mojave.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#660

Post by motorest »

yard2010 wrote: post #648
motorest wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not a Veblen good. What do you think it is then?

It's mostly overpriced shit wrapped in a nice cellophane. I love it though and I believe there is no better alternative. Everything else is just the shit without the nice package.

> It's mostly overpriced shit wrapped in a nice cellophane.

That's orthogonal to the concept of a Veblen good. A Veblen good can very much be shit wrapped in cellophane.

The core trait of a Veblen good is that customers buy it as a status symbol. Also, being overpriced contributes to reduce the number of those who can afford to buy one.

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