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MacBook Air M4

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Re: MacBook Air M4

#541

Post by twilo »

tester756 wrote: post #528
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.

What about Lunar Lake?

Solid, but still I can't find it in a laptop with passive cooling like the macbook air line here, which is a huge plus in a laptop imo

Re: MacBook Air M4

#542

Post by walthamstow »

gloxkiqcza wrote: post #324
walthamstow wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the days before USB-C, MagSafe was great. Tripping on the cable and it snapping off safely was really cool. These days, it's an anti-feature. I have USB-C for everything, why would I give that up?

You don’t give it up. USB C charging still works just fine.

Maybe I was unclear - the MagSafe cable is still in the box. It's pointless to me, I have USB-C cables all over my house, I'm not using anything else.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#544

Post by twilo »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #508
intrasight wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As others have said, I think it is more than just "when can I plug in, it is also "what is my performance when I'm not plugged in." My Framework and my HP Spectre (that I bought last year) both perform differently if they aren't plugged in and both make more noise than a MacBook Air. Whereas my MacBook Pros are usually silent (tho they can def turn the fan on if I'm pushing them a lot) and I can definitely run the ba…

MBA is passively cooled. One of it's biggest advantages...

Re: MacBook Air M4

#545

Post by panick21_ »

tristor wrote: post #521
enragedcacti wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is the gap so large? I think it appears large for a couple of reasons. First is that Mac screens are much closer to 3K than 4K. You can find tons of really nice 14" 3K laptops so the gap is pretty much negligible there, especially if you consider how cheap you can get 3K OLEDs on Windows PCs nowadays. Second is that many companies try to limit SKUs for their off-the-shelf products and 2TB or 4TB apparently aren…

> First is that Mac screens are much closer to 3K than 4K. You can find tons of really nice 14" 3K laptops so the gap is pretty much negligible there, especially if you consider how cheap you can get 3K OLEDs on Windows PCs nowadays. You are discounting the quality of a Macbook screen without understanding how it differs from competitors. A Macbook is the only laptop on the market that accurately reproduces colors ou…

I jut don't care that much much about color accuracy.

Software availability is worse for me, as ARM still causes problems. The AMD CPU are pretty nice.

The ThinkPad still have some advantages to me. There are some design choices I much prefer. Granted, when recommending to other people, they likely wouldn't value those same things.

I bought a ThinkPad recently, just as I have done for 15+ years now. At the same price point I would say its at least competitive.

But yeah, if Linux on M-Series continues to make progress, maybe I would would consider it. I'm not using MacOS as I daily driver.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#546

Post by twilo »

sandGorgon wrote: post #292
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…

you have the choice to go with the AMD Ryzen AI Max processor which rivals the M4. And gives similar battery life and performance. Or the Intel Lunar Lake processor. Both have extremely good laptop options - the Lenovo Yoga Aura edition is pretty much macbook quality. And runs LLMs ( https://github.com/intel/ipex-llm/blob/main/docs/mddocs/Over... )

Non of these are passively cooled...

Re: MacBook Air M4

#547

Post by usefulcat »

sunshowers wrote: post #509
usefulcat wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abusive is a stretch. If you don't like it.. you're free to not buy from them?

I don't buy from them and consider it abusive at the same time. What a concept.

I think "egregious" would be a fairer, more accurate adjective.

I know people who have been victims of actual abuse; it's not remotely the same thing as paying too much for a laptop.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#548

Post by xutopia »

qwertyhu66 wrote: post #543

Now I regret buying that Air M3 last year...

The good thing about these frequent upgrades by them is that you'll soon be able to just get a new device whenever you need it, without worrying about upgrade cycles.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#549

Post by jofzar »

crazygringo wrote: post #180
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…

> 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. Are they? I'm a tech person and I can barely notice it at all. And I don't think I have a single non-tech friend who is even aware of the concept of video refresh rate. Whenever there's something that doesn't feel smooth about an int…

In seriously surprised you can't tell, it feels significantly smoother for me to see a high refresh rate display. 60hz just looks sluggish/slow and wrong to me now. I had a side by side of the same monitor (was at a lan) and was watching my friend play and couldn't understand why his game looked so laggy untill I realise he had high refresh rate off. Turned on 144hz and it was so much better

Re: MacBook Air M4

#550

Post by panick21_ »

theodric wrote: post #522
pja wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latest X1 Carbons have 14" 16:10 OLED screens: https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/t... Or pick up a Framework 13 which has a 13.5" 2880x1800 16:10 screen: https://frame.work/products/laptop-diy-13-gen-amd/configurat...

Just bought a P14s gen5 AMD with a 16:10 OLED, reconditioned, for about a grand. Two SoDIMM slots and one m.2 NVMe slot. Now rocking 96GB RAM, for which I paid the princely sum of 200 pieces of silver. Loaded openSUSE on it - everything works. It feels plasticky (magnesium chassis T/P-series belong to the ages) but it's a damn sight more computer than I could get from Apple for that money. Well, apart from the batter…

Exactly what I bought. But then I stupidly smashed the laptop against a wall. And had to wait for many months to get a new screen.

The battery live is the Macs killer feature. Not sure if it would be ass good with Asahi. I'm not using MacOS.

The Apple build quality is good, but I honestly do not like to handle to cold slippy smooth aluminum body.

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