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MacBook Air M4

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941–950 of 972 posts

Re: MacBook Air M4

#941

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understand why people are so fixated on battery runtime. If you actually use the device indoors, don't you have a possibility to charge anytime. For me, I alternate between my home office room and the living room. Sometimes I work when on the train. And even less often in national flights and on airports. Except when flying or on very outdated trains, there never is an issue charging.

I have a problem when the laptop doesn't survive 2 days on suspend... My previous T480 never had a problem, even on a 50% battery... but the newer T14 sometimes does.

This is my biggest issue.

If I close my lid with 100% battery at the end of the workday, I should be able to open it up the next morning and get at least a few hours of work in before the battery dies.

And this used to work.

But with the same laptop, a certain version of windows has basically eliminated any benefits of shutting the laptop hinge.

Heck the worst part is the same thing happens even if you shut down windows. The only reason it’s now become usable for me is because I learnt if you do shift + power off that does a real shutdown, unlike a regular shutdown.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#942

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My pet peeve is the trackpad How on earth are there literally ZERO non Apple laptops with a trackpad as smooth as Apple’s? This is an old technology. Surely someone must have reverse engineered this by now?

I think it’s another example of vertical integration making it better. Apple making the hardware plus OS gives them an advantage, making the trackpad experience great is hard if you don’t control both. Apple has also learned a ton about how to do this well from the iPhone.

It’s less vertical integration than MS not actually taking the steps to control this market.

For example, the Precision touchpad, which was the first actual touchpad tech MS created, with Windows previously testing touchpads as mouses, has been released for a little more than a decade.

Touchpads had been around for over 4 decades and have been standard to laptops since the mid to late 90s.

And the worst part is that MS still allows hardware vendors to ship non Precision touchpads today.

MS won’t allow you to run windows 10, but vendors can ship touchpads that only support decades old software.

It’s very hard to get Windows manufacturers to pay attention to the touchpad when MS itself isn’t interested.

Unfortunately, the Windows domination in the non Apple part of the industry means that serious change is only driven by MS.

A lot of advantages we think Apple has due to vertical integration are more because MS is pretty terrible

Re: MacBook Air M4

#943
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…

- Lenovo Yoga 9 (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Yoga-Pro-9-16IMH9-lapto...). 3200x2000 display. Thickness 18.2 (M3 Pro 16.9). - Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-G16-2024-rev...). display 2560x1600. thickness 16.4 (thinner than M3) - Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-G14-2024-rev...). 2880x1800. thickness 16.4 (again thinner)

all these are likely cheaper per GB RAM and per TB SSD

Re: MacBook Air M4

#944
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…

- Lenovo Yoga 9 ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Yoga-Pro-9-16IMH9-lapto... ). 3200x2000 display. Thickness 18.2 (M3 Pro 16.9). - Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-G16-2024-rev... ). display 2560x1600. thickness 16.4 (thinner than M3) - Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-G14-2024-rev... ). 2880x1800. thickness 16.4 (again thinn…

way too many macbook fanboys in the comments that don't know much about modern laptops

Re: MacBook Air M4

#945

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The upgrade to the M chips was shocking to me. My intel suddenly felt like it was defective.

it always was. you people just gaslit yourselves into thinking it wasn't. intel macbooks were always pretty bad

Re: MacBook Air M4

#946

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been repeatedly abused for big parts of my life, and I have a CPTSD diagnosis from it. It's not just paying too much, it's one of the world's most valuable mega-corporations asking you to pay too much. If it were a boutique shop I wouldn't call it abusive. It's a combination of the bad behavior and the exercise of raw power that makes it so.

I think I'd be in much more agreement with you if we were talking about people being forced to buy Apple products, but that's rarely if ever the case. By and large, the people who buy these products are freely choosing to do so. To claim that, for those people, the price is "too high" is equivalent to telling them "you shouldn't be willing to pay that much for that product". I think it's perfectly fine for me or any…

I don't believe in free will, so I don't believe anyone freely chooses to do anything. I think genetic and environmental luck determines everything in life.

I'm far more interested in improving our lot by altering the environment (e.g. by promoting memory-safe programming languages, or by pressuring corporations to not be abusive) than in appealing to notions like choice.

https://sunshowers.io/posts/there-is-no-free-will/

Re: MacBook Air M4

#947
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My $2000 linux desktop is still faster and snappier than the $4000 macbook, but it’s the only thing laptop sized that feels even close. What brand?

Probably diy. 2k buys you a decent thread ripper or 59xx series and as much ram as you can throw at it.

Speak for yourself. In Canada the cheapest threadripper I can find is $2k just for the CPU. No way can I build an entire desktop for that price.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#948

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…

>I’m not surprised iPhones are struggling to obtain new market share Apple has >80% of the total operating profit in the smartphone market. The new entry level phone went up in price $200. Why do you think they do/should care about market share?

Their stock price is currently suffering because of how poorly iPhones are doing in places with real competition (i.e. China), the iPhone 16 when put side by side with Chinese phones just makes the iPhone look like a cheap knock-off. Even 90hz would fix most of these problems (and the panel is more than capable of it).

They're fixing it on the iPhone 17 because of the above reasons, but it shows how badly their market research teams are doing that they even remotely thought it was acceptable on the 15, let alone the 16.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#949

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Lenovo Yoga 9 ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Yoga-Pro-9-16IMH9-lapto... ). 3200x2000 display. Thickness 18.2 (M3 Pro 16.9). - Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-G16-2024-rev... ). display 2560x1600. thickness 16.4 (thinner than M3) - Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-G14-2024-rev... ). 2880x1800. thickness 16.4 (again thinn…

way too many macbook fanboys in the comments that don't know much about modern laptops

Conversely, there are way too many Apple haters who don't know or care why someone might make the choice to use a Macbook.

Re: MacBook Air M4

#950
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…

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

Only answering for myself here, but when I already have 10+ lbs of camera gear in my backpack, a huge gaming laptop makes a big difference compared to an ultrabook. And I'm not talking about an excessive amount of gear either. One body plus one lens plus a couple extra batteries, etc, easily gets me to 10 lbs. And then I still have to get on a plane with it.
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