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MacBook Air M4

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Re: MacBook Air M4

#431

Post by barake »

ruuda wrote: post #384
tredre3 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like you haven't actually looked into it if that's the impression you got, because both Thinkpad (X1) and Framework (13) make a laptop that fit your requirements. The X1 carbon even offers a 4k OLED option if you want it.

I’ve been browsing the Lenovo (and others’) website for weeks, and the only two laptops it shows with 2TB storage and 4k display are the ThinkPad P1 and P16s. The ThinkPad X1 and Framework 13 have a much lower resolution display. Also, I appreciate Framework’s mission, but it’s not the build quality that I’m looking for.

If you use the product filter it only shows laptops that come pre-configured with 2TB of storage. If you choose a custom build you can configure the latest X1 Carbon with 32 GB RAM, 2 TB storage, and a 2.8k display.

If you choose the custom build route some even can ship with Fedora or Ubuntu, so presumably Linux support is reasonable.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#432

Post by cosmic_cheese »

intrasight wrote: post #415
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with the Framework 13 at this point is underwhelming battery life. I have one of the newly announced models reserved in hopes that the new CPU improves that to a reasonable degree, but if reviews come out and that turns out to not be the case there’s a substantial chance I’ll cancel.

I honestly don't understand battery complaints. Cafes have plugs. Airplanes have plugs. Were are people working for hours without power?

There’s a number of benefits to long battery life besides being able to work for long stretches unplugged.

- Longer cycles means cycle count accruement and thus degradation is slower (sometimes dramatically so)

- For longer trips, charging can be done overnight with a tiny trickle-charging phone brick, which is also better for battery health

- No need to bring a brick, cable, or power bank for shorter trips

- Impact of phantom drain during standby is greatly mitigated

- Laptop will more often than not have enough charge to be used whenever you pick it up, without having to leave it plugged in all the time

- Bluetooth and wifi can be used liberally without fear of chewing through battery too quickly

- You as a user spend a lot less time thinking about your laptop’s battery

There’s also secondary effects, like a machine being efficient enough to have long battery life generally also reducing its heat output and making it more practical to keep cool with a slow fan or passive heatsink.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#433

Post by rafram »

usefulcat wrote: post #410
Keyframe wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in another, bizarre camp. I'd pay double whatever they're charging for if I could run linux on it utilizing all of the hardware. Also, if notch went away, but that's another story. Unless someone knows of laptop hardware that comes close to both performance, comfort, and battery which can run linux.

The notch has gone away, at least as of Sonoma on a 15" M3 Air, but at the cost of some real estate at the top of the screen. Basically they just don't draw anything at or above the lower edge of the notch, so it looks like the screen ends there even when it doesn't. I actually wanted to get the notch back so I could have as much vertical screen real estate as possible and was disappointed to find that there doesn't…

It sounds like you've changed your screen resolution to a 16:10 aspect ratio: https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/17j5zo5/i_think_ive_fo...

The notch is definitely still there by default.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#434

Post by buildfocus »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #334
m01 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you upgrade the storage of your XPS laptop? Maybe check out the Framework laptops? For example the Framework 13's new screen is 2.8k @ 256PPI apparently [1], which has slightly more pixels than the Macbook Air M4[2] (obviously pixels isn't everything), but you can get up to 8TB NVMe storage + an extra storage expansion cards if you're happy to sacrifice ports and up to 96GB RAM. [3] [1] https://community.frame.wo…

The main problem with the Framework 13 at this point is underwhelming battery life. I have one of the newly announced models reserved in hopes that the new CPU improves that to a reasonable degree, but if reviews come out and that turns out to not be the case there’s a substantial chance I’ll cancel.

I upgraded to the AMD board and the larger batteries and this improved significantly - 7/8 hours of real usage now, which for me is fine. On linux with minor tweaking. Depends what you need, but surely for most people a full workday without power is manageable!

Re: MacBook Air M4

#435

Post by kllrnohj »

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…

> But now Dell discontinued XPS

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/scc/scr/laptops/appref=xps-p... ?

Sure doesn't seem to be discontinued at all?

And just checking the XPS 14 it has both 2tb and 4tb storage options, and the 3.2k OLED screen is higher resolution than what Apple's 14" offering contains and it's 120hz.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#436

Post by hu3 »

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.

These are great. They run stock linux too and it just works.

My coworker has one. It will probably be my next portable workstation.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#437

Post by buildfocus »

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.

Is the performance gap so huge? Power efficiency yes, absolutely, but for peak performance last I saw the last AMD vs M3 benchmarks were a slightly slower single core, and a little faster in multicore. Doesn't seem as world changing as described.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#438

Post by abdullahkhalids »

maleldil wrote: post #344
gavinray wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Try walking a few kilometres with a 3kg gaming laptop on your back or standing up inside public transport.

I weekly carry about 10kg of groceries in my backpack about 2.5 km. Doesn't even register as anything exceptional.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#439

Post by ninetyninenine »

homefree wrote: post #426
ninetyninenine wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No vertical integration is what did intel in because they both do fab and design. TSMC won because they aren't vertically integrated into anything. Apple is better because of actual superior technology. The chips are custom made and no one can match the technology yet.

They have superior technology because they control the full stack and have taken more and more ownership of it over the years (most recently building their own modem in the iPhone 16e). They could design chips for an exact set of constraints (originally iPhones) and then expand that to the mac. Intel with x86 had to support legacy and tons of different devices (and bad leadership caused them to ignore efficiency and…

No they don't all their technology is equivalent to what's in the industry save their chips. Which btw is manufactured by TSMC so the chip itself is not vertically integrated.
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