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MacBook Air M4

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Re: MacBook Air M4

#551

Post by fenced_load »

Keyframe wrote: post #182
mcgrath_sh wrote: post #42

I have considered going back to Mac after about 5-7 years on Windows/WSL, but the storage premium is just too much to swallow. If the $999 was a base 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, I'd consider it. I just added another 32GB of RAM to my 2020 built desktop for $50. You can get a 1TB crucial M.2 drive for $70. I know I'm comparing apples and oranges, but the storage cost is too much, and 256GB is much too little. Edit: to…

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.

xps 13? Comes with linux and has comparable battery to m3 (at least on windows).

This review says it beats M3 by 2 hours: https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/dell-xps-13-9350-review

Re: MacBook Air M4

#552

Post by rs186 »

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…

True, but the vast, vast majority of people can't tell and don't care about color accuracy. I am not even talking about 100% sRGB vs P3. I am talking about 45% NTSC vs 72% NTSC. Most people can't tell the difference unless you show two screens side by side and point out the difference to them.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#553

Post by fenced_load »

SG- wrote: post #538
mcculley wrote: post #529

Still no cellular modem.

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.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#554

Post by jofzar »

mort96 wrote: post #514
pishpash wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's baffling to me that some people claim to not see the difference. It's literally light and day to me. It's like someone looking at a low DPI screen and a high DPI screen and not being able to tell the difference.

Yeah I move a window and it's immediately noticable. I'm jealous of people who can't tell.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#555

Post by nbzso »

Air is my favorite laptop of all time. Portable, durable, and now powerful enough to be a semi-workstation.

But why on earth Apple, your logos are filled with masonic and Babylonian symbology? Apple intelligence? Reversed Babalon? Mother of abominations? Really? Enough of this Thelema Crowley bullshit already. You are insulting my intelligence. We are reasonably educated people in Eastern Europe.

You don't have enough intellectual capital to generate more adequate geometry? And what is the message here? You are summoning the demons? :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon

Re: MacBook Air M4

#556

Post by panick21_ »

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 can decently build a 14'' ThinkPad that meets these requirements.

Here is what I am using right now from my fastfetch:

Display (SDC4193): 2880x1800 @ 90Hz [Built-in]

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U w/ Radeon 780M Graphics (16) @ 5.13 GHz'

GPU: AMD Device 15BF (VGA compatible) @ 0.80 GHz [Integrated]

Memory: ---- GiB / 58.51 GiB

Disk (/): ---- TiB / 1.82 TiB

You can even go cheaper and get a slower CPU as far as I know. And for that price apple doesn't give out that much RAM.

What requirement you have is not meet here?

Re: MacBook Air M4

#557

Post by alwillis »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #482
homefree wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My argument is they were able to develop the chip because of their control. The constraints allowed them that freedom and the constraints come from the top down integration and control. I'll bow out here because I can just tell this won't be a worthwhile thread.

But what other advantage did this give them? Like name specific examples. Feel free to leave, but I honestly don't see where you're coming from.

> But what other advantage did this give them? Like name specific examples. Feel free to leave, but I honestly don't see where you're coming from.

Back when Apple used Intel processors, they were at the mercy of Intel's roadmap; if Intel missed a deadline for a new chip, Apple had to change plans. Obviously, that's no longer the case.

Back in the Motorola/IBM days, their G5 processor ran so hot that Apple had to create a special case with 7 fans to cool it. It was an amazing engineering feat, but something Apple would never do unless they had no choice. I've used a Power Mac G5—it sounded like a jet taking off, and the fans stayed on. [2]

They get to integrate new technologies quicker than being constrained by the industry.

Apple launched the first 64-bit smartphone, the iPhone 5s, in 2013—at least a year before any Android manufacturer could. And when Qualcomm finally shipped a 64-bit processor, no version of Android supported it. [1]

There are dozens of examples where Apple's vertical integration has allowed them to stay a step ahead of competitors.

The latest is the C1 modem that shipped in the iPhone 16e. Because the C1 is much more efficient than Qualcomm's modem, the 16e gets better battery life than the more expensive iPhone 16 with Qualcomm's modem. [3]

And because Qualcomm's licensing fees are a percentage of the cost of the device it's in, shipping the C1 enables them to put modems in laptops. The Qualcomm fee is significant: an iPad Air starts at $599; the same iPad Air model with one of Qualcomm's modems costs $749.

Customers have wanted MacBooks with cellular modems forever; now they'll be able to do that, since the modem will become part of Apple's SoC in the near future.

That's what you can do when you're not constrained by off-the-shelf components.

[1]: "First 64-bit Android phone has no 64-bit software"—https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/first-64-bit-android...

[2]: https://thehouseofmoth.com/a-little-known-fact-about-the-pow...

[3]: https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/02/27/apples-c1-modem-b...

Re: MacBook Air M4

#558

Post by alwillis »

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 was surprised to see the Framework 13 didn't support wide gamut (Display P3) color, compared to the less expensive entry level MacBook Air.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#559

Post by goosedragons »

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…

Surface Laptop 7? While they don't technically sell a 2TB config, they do use a 2230 M.2 SSD and there are 2TB versions of those. As a bonus it's WAY cheaper to do it that way than from the factory. The Surface Pro tablets are another option if you can live with the form factor. Even easier to swap the SSD in those too.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#560

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

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…

My HP Elitebook is six years old and has a 4K display.

Happy with the build quality.

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