It's amazing. I sometimes wonder what value these people see in this stuff. I guess I just "think different" as nothing that Apple offers is compelling to me in the slightest way. Yet one can't deny the reality.
The non-M1 offerings are relatively terrible. You have to make some trade-off of battery life, thermals, display, keyboard, trackpad, ports, and reliability.
Lots of threads with people saying “well no one needs 2K screens at 120Hz, just get 1080p 60Hz”.. meanwhile those laptops cost >$2K.
The Starlabs Starfighter specs were announced, they look tempting but slow display and no TB4 on Ryzen processors.
The Dell XPS used to be a favorite of mine, but they are plagued with quality control issues.
Lenovo thermals are bad this generation, and my experience getting my work Lenovo repaired was terrible. Plus I’ve read about quality control issues.
I’ve decided to just use an x86 instance somewhere for the specific things, but no doubt Apple hit the magic sauce with the M1.
https://www.ultrabookreview.com/56563-asus-zenbook-s13-revie...
But despite reviews by spring/summer they never seemed to materialize as actual products available for purchase (note 5xx series, not previous generation 3xx) :/
Supposedly it works for him although there are some features still unsupported like 3d graphics
The m2 is a great piece of kit, I never realized how disruptive heat, vibration, and fan noise was until they were gone. I'm actively trying to put together a fanless desktop similar to the openbsd fanless desktop that is posted here from time to time. https://jcs.org/2021/07/19/desktop
Serendipitous solutions enthrall me, and broadens my thinking for when I'm faced with a condondrum.
I assume you are also playing along :) ?
For what I do with a laptop, a Chromebook is fine. And it's what I use.
Are you possibly able to understand that other people do other things with their laptops and so see value in the technology?
Like I spend my time compiling things. A fast, low-energy processor is brilliant for me, because it lets me work faster and for longer. Can you not understand how I'd see value in that?
But I don't own any Apple technology and can't think of a reason I would buy any.
Yes I do work in tech as a full-stack developer and sysadmin.
If Apple is compiling my application 1.5x as fast and lets me work 1.5x as long without recharging, that saves me genuine time in the day, either to do more work, or to work on my hobbies, or to take more time out. That's really valuable to me. That's why I buy it, and why so many other people buy it. The cost is pretty insignificant considering it's where I earn all my money and do 50% or so of my hobbies.
The M1 Max (the highest end chip available in a Mac laptop) is slower than competition from Intel and AMD, though. I'm not sure what its supposed to be 50% faster than, unless you are only comparing it to old Intel Macs.
I'm sure you can get even faster single-core by brute-force burning power, but Apple were trying to do something more intelligent by balancing with power.
I think anyone seriously trying to claim they can't see any value in this is clearly just being silly.
Yeah, that’s not true; it doesn’t even make any sense. And certainly not performance per watt.
Most people don't use a laptop much at home, preferring to consume media on a phone or smart TV. At work, most people use web applications and microsoft office and not much else.
So why do they need a fancy car? People like fancy cars. They have been buying them for years, and they aren't going to stop.
Now you are driving your jeep off road on your mountain ranch saying some people need an SUV and you are right, but you aren't rebutting what he is saying.
> I sometimes wonder what value these people see in this stuff.
And you answered it yourself with your own example:
> Now you are driving your jeep off road on your mountain ranch saying some people need an SUV and you are right, but you aren't rebutting what he is saying.
That's an example of someone seeing value in it right?
He’s a very casual user. In part, his positive impression was due to me setting up Ad blockers on his MacBook. But it’s also due to the speed, screen, build quality, and the expectation of longevity.
Also, he can resell the Apple for a pretty good price if he wants to. His Chromebook is practically worthless on the used markets.
He feels like it was money very well spent. Apple’s numbers suggest there are many like him.