The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned • Hacker News Board

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#211

Post by Hamuko » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #62

esquevin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The performance feels a lot better than my MacBook Pro 16”, which is only a year old and about 3x the price. Last sentence of the first paragraph

I was issued the 16" last gen Intel MacBook pro at last job (new job I'm back on whatever I want) and it was a seriously underwhelming experience for 3K's worth of hardware, screen was good, touchpad was sublime -everything else was crap. Battery life was mediocre (worse still if you actually use it), it got ridiculously hot under load, the fans where really loud and pitched at a frequency it was hard to ignore - I'd…

The most mind-blowing part of the 16-inch MacBook Pros are really the speakers, which are really nice for laptop speakers. However, that's also quite sad that it's the highlight.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#212

Post by bouk » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

dukeofdoom wrote: post #4

I'm reluctant to buy it because of ports, and tiny amount of drive space. Waiting for the 14 inch, hoping for more ports, larger base hard drive, and new design for similar cost of upgrading the air.

Yep I had to get a dock, but it's fine. I just plug in one cable and everything is connected.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#213

Post by Apocryphon » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

jeswin wrote: post #76

I think we really need a break from people submitting more M1 Mac unboxing articles, unless there's significant original technical content. This is turning into fanboyism.

This article was somewhat substantiative from a technical (hacker) dev setup point of view, but also a little scanty. Homebrew, Go, and Parallels use on Apple Silicon have all been brought up before.

I do agree that there's enough articles covering the same review feedback. The M1 machines seem to be universally lauded, there's plenty of buzz out there, I'm not sure what the downside is there besides certain software not being able to run on them yet. Personally I'm willing to wait a year to see what the second gen machines will look like, but that's based on my own preferences and curiosity.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#214

Post by mortenjorck » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

bouk wrote: post #155

jeswin wrote: post #76

I think we really need a break from people submitting more M1 Mac unboxing articles, unless there's significant original technical content. This is turning into fanboyism.

It's just... really good. It's an uncanny feeling that many haven't had for a while

The MacBook’s past few years in the wilderness gave a lot of Mac users some real uncertainty about the future of their preferred platform. To see not just a return to form but an epochal step forward is something of a unique moment - there’s both relief and excitement.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#215

Post by DennisAleynikov » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #178

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

raspberry pi's werent even 64bit until the latest revision and are meant to be dirt cheap the arm chromebooks like the lenovo duet absolutely murder the iPad pro or even the new iPad Air in terms of actually being a useful OS for devs

I don’t know whether that’s true, but that’s quite a change of subject from “macs are priced at roughly 3x markup compared to the market”.

the duet, the laptop I actually use is $300 which apple does not have a competing product with, its fair to claim in my head that even now its 3x more than what I am paying.

as an ex macbook pro main, I bought 3 of them over the course of last decade and a half and they have always had older intel brains than any xps or razer stealth I would try to cross shop with. after m1 apples price to performance ratio is at unreal levels

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#216

Post by Hamuko » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

chubot wrote: post #96

Prediction: The M1 will make the web slower for most people. Web devs will buy the M1 because it executes their slow dev tools faster (npm ecosystem). Then they will test their web pages on the M1 and deploy them when they are "fast enough". Result: web pages will be even slower on mobile phones and non-M1 laptops. Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container - Nathan Myhrvold

But our devs already work on top-of-the-line hardware. If anything, this will bridge the gap for users if they can expect the same performance out of a $1k MacBook that you'd previously expect out of a $3k MacBook.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#217

Post by grzm » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

thejellypen wrote: post #168

Been using MacBooks since 2014 for hobby development/work I bought a new macbook pro m1 in December. Returned 2 days later after realizing that it only supports one external monitor and even found articles stating that ultra wide monitors were not supported on initial release. "Just use display link adaptor?" No thanks I don't want a 150$ adaptor that may or may not work with my current setup. Even with display link…

> People saying the MacBook pro 16" might solve the issue but tbh I think this is apples way of pigeonholing users to either their desktop version or their laptop.

This is their first generation M1 and they haven't rolled it out across their entire line (which they have said they intend to do). Today marks the second month since they were released (10 Nov 2020). They haven't yet released something in the same class as the MacBook Pro 16", which it sounds like you'd prefer. Give it a year before assuming malicious intent.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#218

Post by harperlee » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

messe wrote: post #20

harperlee wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can make the point that those “ownership” quotes would very well apply to iphone and ipad, based on your OS installability criterium.

Other than the fact that those require a jailbreak to do so, and are far more locked down than the M1 Macs because of that.

Yes, that’s exactly my point.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#219

Post by joegahona » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

bouk wrote: post #212

dukeofdoom wrote: post #4

I'm reluctant to buy it because of ports, and tiny amount of drive space. Waiting for the 14 inch, hoping for more ports, larger base hard drive, and new design for similar cost of upgrading the air.

Yep I had to get a dock, but it's fine. I just plug in one cable and everything is connected.

Which dock? I have a dock and still have all four ports on my MBP 16 filled up too.

Re: The M1 MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned

#220

Post by Apocryphon » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

bouk wrote: post #141

croes wrote: post #21

More RAM would be nice.

Maybe, but the RAM and disk performance is so good [1] that it might not be needed so badly. Unless you want to run a whole bunch of VMs https://mobile.twitter.com/Sirupsen/status/13442670199449477...

I'd like to see how much gaming Apple Silicon can support. So I'm very curious to see what next year's M1X/M2 machines will bring. Of course, we're also at the dawn of widespread cloud gaming so perhaps this consideration will also be moot.