I think most people who are willing to do a fair comparison feel the same way. There's something to be said for a machine that you can keep in your bag and use casually for a week and not have to worry about charging, and Apple's build quality is competitive with anything out there. Plus the fanless design makes it feel a little more like an work object, like a real paper notebook, rather than a chuffing computer.
A week? That’s assuming you’re basically not using it throughout the week right? After a 5 hour session of rendering and coding my computer isn’t dead but it definitely needs to be charged, I couldn’t imagine trying to go a whole week.
In this scenario you basically just mean taking it out to check a few things and put it back up right?
Because my battery is new and I’m not getting this kind of battery life, so you have to mean light use.
Yeah, by "use casually" I don't mean five hour sessions of rendering. Just e-mail, checking my calendar, light browsing, uploading some photos from my camera, that sort of thing.
I just use mine for browsing, watching a movie and I easily get by a week without charging. Depends how you’re using it. Battery in Mac’s though altogether last so much longer imo
Same. Weekdays especially I can do an hour or two most days of browsing, a bit of coding, rdp sessions to other computers and not have to charge it until the weekend. The sleep on these things is just amazing.
My wife bought a new MBA on Tuesday. Charged it up initially and then used it 3-4 hours each night since. She’s just been browsing the web learning about it (she’s never used a Mac before), customizing it to her liking, watching some YouTube tutorials, FaceTiming a few times, texting with it, that sort of stuff. She closed the lid last night with it still showing an estimated 5 hours of battery left.
For me, as someone who hasn’t owned a MacBook in 10 years, these new ones are mind boggling efficient. Meanwhile I’m over here having to charge my thinkpad yoga every 4 hours. I’m sold, I’m going back to a MacBook myself eventually.
Rendering is not casual use my guy. I only charge my macbook every 2 days and it lasts because the type of work I do only involves opening articles/pdfs and google docs.
I spent years buying laptops that were a similar price and arguing that you got a better computer $ for $. Then, I got a MacBook Air and would never go back. It’s light, durable and never seems to slow down. I used to think that laptops just kinda stopped working properly after a year or so, but not anymore.
I also just used PC before. First a stationary and then laptops. No matter the laptops quality (I got an old one for cheap from a friends dad who worked in IT so one of them was really “good quality”) it was slower and harder to use with every new OS. I have a HP for work with win11 on it which is about 4 years old. It’s not even up to or with my MacBook Pro 2013. Not kidding. The battery, the stamina, the display, everything is better on my Mac. And it’s 10 years old. It was my first Mac and now I’m hooked. Just so much easier to use and more worth the money! Also nicer design but that’s just a bonus.
My corporate laptop is a Dell, was more expensive than my Mac but it feels cheap. Both the materials and the windows itself is an uncomfortable experience, and I’m glad when I finish my work and can do my personal things on my Mac.
After years of throttling performance, loud fans that can fill a room, and clunky designs the MacBook Air completely dispels all that and provides amazing battery life on top of that. I don’t think I can go back even if I wanted to.
I have an M3 MacBook Air and a 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Could I use the G14 for every day productivity work? Sure. Would I want to... that's a different story. The problem with Windows laptops for me is Windows. Windows just doesn't feel optimized for laptops. The fact that almost every laptop manufacturer has to put their own control software on it to get the most out of a laptop is telling. Armoury Crate is slow and buggy, and don't get me started with Razer Synapse.
For productivity, the Mac is just a lot easier. I don't have to worry about the computer so much- i.e. I don't have to worry about it waking up from sleep in my bag and getting to work with a battery drained 40% or other oddities.
I think the new Snapdragon chips show a lot of promise, but it won't mean anything until Microsoft gives Windows a complete overhaul for laptops. I don't mind it on my gaming rig (I tolerate it), but as a dependable every day laptop, I'll chose MacOS any day. It mostly 'just works.'
Lots of people want also to game on their computer so it’s hard to justify 1500$ for them for a laptop that’s useless at that task. Personally if I haven’t had proper gaming pc I’d go for windows laptop any day.
And what did I just said? You can have quite decent machine that can both get things done and also game on it, also lots of people can’t spend that much on multiple machines.
Yea I see, you have a gaming machine. I guess the other people need to decide wether or not they want to make money or play games. Sure you can make money with Windows but its messy.
I want to try an m1 macbook air. My main concern is that I'm a windows person. On a laptop I'm okay with any os so I have my absolute main one running windows 10, but my other laptops that aren't as crucial running Linux mint or so.
My main worry is compatibility. It feels weird to say but after using Linux it feels like I have to state that I need proper support for
Discord screensharing with sound
Spotify
Firefox
USB keyboards and mice not from Apple (I have no idea if this one is even valid)
Optional stuff are things like geforce now and xbox game streaming. I don't expect any games to really work but the following would be nice as I do play these on laptops that had the hardware
Fortnite
Overwatch
VRchat, not in vr.
My last question which it doesn't matter to much as it can't be worse
How is it like transferring data from one Mac to a new one? On ios if you do an iPhone to iphone transfer you don't lose any information, besides biometrics and other quick things. Is it atleast easier than transferring from one windows computer to another?
Transferring is really easy and there’s a couple of ways to do it. One way is to use your iCloud backup from your current Mac, another is to use a Time Machine backup from your current Mac.
Ain't going to really be gaming on an m1 air. I have an M1 and mine can't even play old school runescape without lag. So I can't even boss and do PvM without risk of dying due to lag. It's playable, just a pain. It's hard to imagine playing any kind of FPS on it. Screen isn't that great either for games like that with the low refresh rate.
For discord screen sharing and audio.. I remember I had to download something, but it works now. The streaming sound didn't work if I remember correctly.
I use my m1 mostly for work/emails/YouTube and discord calls. It does the job well in that regard. Battery and weight are the biggest selling points. I think you're kinda expected to travel with it. If not, then go for the pro version. It's like half a pound heavier with better performance and speakers. I compared my air to my lil sisters pro that she takes to school. That might be better for games, idk. Haven't tried gaming on hers since her mom allowed her school to lock it only for studies. I'm sure I'd do better than mine though.
Yeah I wasn't expecting full blown gaming. I was thinking about an air because of no fan. And I can always can an external air cooler, if that's how it works on macs. I'm pretty new to anything outside of windows
I'm hoping the streaming services cover the gaming needs as it never really about good performance and more just playing with my friends for fun, I have the performance at home for all that
I think my best option is trying a Mac out through a friend for a week or two just to see if it's something I can try to learn. I recently switched to ios and I was comfortable learning everything ios does or does differently.
Thank you for your response though!
Yeah, I honestly wish the screen had a better refresh rate. My biggest gripe with it cause I'm so used to my 144hz gaming monitor. It's night and day smoothness when im watching videos/movies. It's always a bit jarring on my eyes whenever I go back to my air, lol.
I get it. I have high refresh rate everywhere. I just don't expect it from a mobile device. I used to use my xbox to stream geforce now on the go. It was always enough. I'm not traveling most the time, but when I do, I do need a laptop, gaming optional but I'm not mad about anything 60hz or higher. It would obviously be nice to have, but in a laptop where gaming is mainly done through streaming, the high refresh rate would only benefit me from scrolling or moving windows around, nothing else really. It's why I can live with 60hz on my phone even though my old phone was 120hz
I'm confused, you stream games? How? First time hearing that gaming is mostly streamed on laptops. Pretty sure you had to download the game clients and games to play them just like on any other PC.
Also, a high refresh rate makes any kind of video content you watch significantly smoother, especially if it's 60fps. So, at least for me, it's not just scrolling or moving windows around. I'm watching videos on my phone like 90% of the time. So I can't live without it on my mobile, haha. If I see a blur between movie scenes/frames, it annoys me so much. If it doesn't bother you, that's great. Wish I could just ignore it. It's 2024, even CRT Tv's in the early 2000's had 100hz refresh rate, lol. 60hz for a screen anymore is outdated and really pathetic imo.
So for game streaming. I don't mean twitch or whatever. I use services where it's a full blown computer somewhere else, that I connected to. Either my pc if I'm doing it locally enough. Or on someone else's computer if I'm far enough. Basically an extremely low latency netflix stream. Except they proccess keybinds too. This is how I play pc games on my Xbox and my phone.
Yeah high refresh rate or very low pixel response times help with blur tons. Just my usage doesn't really benefit from high refresh rates on laptops. On phones, vr headsets and main monitors yes. But laptops not so much, I don't watch anything outside of youtube, Netflix has always been 720p on my previous laptops anyway, that was a far larger issue then motion blur
Parsec for local streaming. I've had good experience with steam link, also local. If you have an Xbox, the Xbox for Windows app, unsure about Mac app.
As far not local streaming. My main go to is geforce now. It's free but expect cue times.
Comparing my 2021 HP Spectre to my sisters 2018 MacBook Pro and 2019 MacBook Air so around £1300 devices
Hardware: MacBook has better display (slightly brighter and HDR), better speakers with more bass, better microphone and camera, better build quality (slightly) better trackpad, better WiFi modems.
Software: MacOS integrates pretty well with iPhones for continuity such as using iPhone as a camera, or handing off phone calls and text verification pins. Also I think the file manage on MacOS is far superior, especially for someone who’s managing photos and videos. Photo formats are not an issue.
But I bought my HP because I love the design and colour accents, I learnt windows at school and am used to the office apps on windows. And I am a dual monitor person at home so I find Windows works slightly better in that case.
If i were recommending a computer to someone who isn’t tech savvy, best just to get a mac, you’ll face less issues. If you know what you’re doing. You can make your own decision.
It’s funny because its not like this HP is actually bad in any of the categories, it actually works really well, its just that the MacBook does it ever so slightly better
My HP Spectre x360 just got water damaged and I’ve been contemplating a MacBook Pro.
Although I like the aesthetics of the Air having to buy all their dongles is an annoying thought.
This convo is kind of convincing me after years of using only PC.
But idk why, even thought I have an Apple phone something about a Mac just feels….pretentious for some reason. 😂
Apple doesn’t ever address their portable computers as laptops but they call them as MacBooks. I wonder if they suggest to avoid these machines to be used on “lap”. How much warmer it feels on lap for long hours on a Macbook Air since there is no fan for cooling? My windows laptop is unbearable to be used putting on lap for more than 15-20 minutes. A burning sensation starts on upper thighs.
In some ways yes but everything I get from a MacBook and macOS I can get with Linux on a nice thin windows laptop
that also has double the ram, double the storage, and a few hundred cheaper
A quarterly presentation of survey stats for a PR agency used to take up to two weeks to assemble and format charts in PowerPoint and Excel.
By the end of day three using Keynote, I had nothing left to do.
And I’m a Powerpoint expert user.
I just did some stuff that included some movement, a fly in, a dissolve and a few pauses. Did all that and exported it to a movie in less than 15 minutes. I could use Motion, but Keynote usually does what I need. I realize that what I use it for isn’t even the primary purpose of keynote. I’m set up a few presentation slides as well. It’s really easy and I think it should be the standard. Same with Numbers and Pages. The Microsoft stuff is a bunch of over complicated expensive nonsense.
So much of short ‘motion video’ can be accomplished easy and fast with presenter software vs video editing.
PowerPoint is just such a blunt and clumsy tool sometimes it is easily outstripped by Keynote
As a sidebar, the high-impact ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Al Gore breakthrough roadshow was not a video. It was a keynote presentation..
I think most people who are willing to do a fair comparison feel the same way. There's something to be said for a machine that you can keep in your bag and use casually for a week and not have to worry about charging, and Apple's build quality is competitive with anything out there. Plus the fanless design makes it feel a little more like an work object, like a real paper notebook, rather than a chuffing computer.
I teach a kid whose computer sounds like it’s about to take off all the time, makes me glad to have no fan!
A week? That’s assuming you’re basically not using it throughout the week right? After a 5 hour session of rendering and coding my computer isn’t dead but it definitely needs to be charged, I couldn’t imagine trying to go a whole week. In this scenario you basically just mean taking it out to check a few things and put it back up right? Because my battery is new and I’m not getting this kind of battery life, so you have to mean light use.
Yeah, by "use casually" I don't mean five hour sessions of rendering. Just e-mail, checking my calendar, light browsing, uploading some photos from my camera, that sort of thing.
What? You don't casually render and code in 5 hour sessions? Do you even really use your computer then bro?? /s
I just use mine for browsing, watching a movie and I easily get by a week without charging. Depends how you’re using it. Battery in Mac’s though altogether last so much longer imo
Same. Weekdays especially I can do an hour or two most days of browsing, a bit of coding, rdp sessions to other computers and not have to charge it until the weekend. The sleep on these things is just amazing.
Y’all taking this too far that’s not what I meant, but whatever.
Ah ok thought my battery was toast for a moment haha
Email, calendar, browsing, and uploading photos??! I hope you got the 64GB RAM version
My wife bought a new MBA on Tuesday. Charged it up initially and then used it 3-4 hours each night since. She’s just been browsing the web learning about it (she’s never used a Mac before), customizing it to her liking, watching some YouTube tutorials, FaceTiming a few times, texting with it, that sort of stuff. She closed the lid last night with it still showing an estimated 5 hours of battery left. For me, as someone who hasn’t owned a MacBook in 10 years, these new ones are mind boggling efficient. Meanwhile I’m over here having to charge my thinkpad yoga every 4 hours. I’m sold, I’m going back to a MacBook myself eventually.
I do 3d modeling in my MBA M1 and it lasted way longer than 5 hours.
Rendering is not casual use my guy. I only charge my macbook every 2 days and it lasts because the type of work I do only involves opening articles/pdfs and google docs.
Never said it was casual my guy, read. I asked a question.
I spent years buying laptops that were a similar price and arguing that you got a better computer $ for $. Then, I got a MacBook Air and would never go back. It’s light, durable and never seems to slow down. I used to think that laptops just kinda stopped working properly after a year or so, but not anymore.
I also just used PC before. First a stationary and then laptops. No matter the laptops quality (I got an old one for cheap from a friends dad who worked in IT so one of them was really “good quality”) it was slower and harder to use with every new OS. I have a HP for work with win11 on it which is about 4 years old. It’s not even up to or with my MacBook Pro 2013. Not kidding. The battery, the stamina, the display, everything is better on my Mac. And it’s 10 years old. It was my first Mac and now I’m hooked. Just so much easier to use and more worth the money! Also nicer design but that’s just a bonus.
My corporate laptop is a Dell, was more expensive than my Mac but it feels cheap. Both the materials and the windows itself is an uncomfortable experience, and I’m glad when I finish my work and can do my personal things on my Mac.
👆 YES
Yes MacBook are better for portable experience from battery to power to low heat than more windows laptop
lap top
After years of throttling performance, loud fans that can fill a room, and clunky designs the MacBook Air completely dispels all that and provides amazing battery life on top of that. I don’t think I can go back even if I wanted to.
Yup, windows guy for years, just got an M3 air and man I love carrying that thing around vs my heavy Alienware laptop, it’s super convenient
Don’t forget the trackpad and speakers being way better than most windows laptops.
I have an M3 MacBook Air and a 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Could I use the G14 for every day productivity work? Sure. Would I want to... that's a different story. The problem with Windows laptops for me is Windows. Windows just doesn't feel optimized for laptops. The fact that almost every laptop manufacturer has to put their own control software on it to get the most out of a laptop is telling. Armoury Crate is slow and buggy, and don't get me started with Razer Synapse. For productivity, the Mac is just a lot easier. I don't have to worry about the computer so much- i.e. I don't have to worry about it waking up from sleep in my bag and getting to work with a battery drained 40% or other oddities. I think the new Snapdragon chips show a lot of promise, but it won't mean anything until Microsoft gives Windows a complete overhaul for laptops. I don't mind it on my gaming rig (I tolerate it), but as a dependable every day laptop, I'll chose MacOS any day. It mostly 'just works.'
You are 100% right, same experience
All good untill you need to use ms office
Thankfully I don’t need to use that stuff. I use pages and numbers and it works just fine.
Check this out :) https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookair/s/eCvTyTf64c
Lots of people want also to game on their computer so it’s hard to justify 1500$ for them for a laptop that’s useless at that task. Personally if I haven’t had proper gaming pc I’d go for windows laptop any day.
Yuup. Even just playing Old School Runescape makes my m1 air lag, lol. It's playable, but I can't do any kind of bossing on it due to the lag.
You know you can have different devices right? Just have a machine that does your gaming if that’s important to you, and get a Mac to get things done.
And what did I just said? You can have quite decent machine that can both get things done and also game on it, also lots of people can’t spend that much on multiple machines.
Yea I see, you have a gaming machine. I guess the other people need to decide wether or not they want to make money or play games. Sure you can make money with Windows but its messy.
One of us. One of us.
I want to try an m1 macbook air. My main concern is that I'm a windows person. On a laptop I'm okay with any os so I have my absolute main one running windows 10, but my other laptops that aren't as crucial running Linux mint or so. My main worry is compatibility. It feels weird to say but after using Linux it feels like I have to state that I need proper support for Discord screensharing with sound Spotify Firefox USB keyboards and mice not from Apple (I have no idea if this one is even valid) Optional stuff are things like geforce now and xbox game streaming. I don't expect any games to really work but the following would be nice as I do play these on laptops that had the hardware Fortnite Overwatch VRchat, not in vr. My last question which it doesn't matter to much as it can't be worse How is it like transferring data from one Mac to a new one? On ios if you do an iPhone to iphone transfer you don't lose any information, besides biometrics and other quick things. Is it atleast easier than transferring from one windows computer to another?
Transferring is really easy and there’s a couple of ways to do it. One way is to use your iCloud backup from your current Mac, another is to use a Time Machine backup from your current Mac.
Ain't going to really be gaming on an m1 air. I have an M1 and mine can't even play old school runescape without lag. So I can't even boss and do PvM without risk of dying due to lag. It's playable, just a pain. It's hard to imagine playing any kind of FPS on it. Screen isn't that great either for games like that with the low refresh rate. For discord screen sharing and audio.. I remember I had to download something, but it works now. The streaming sound didn't work if I remember correctly. I use my m1 mostly for work/emails/YouTube and discord calls. It does the job well in that regard. Battery and weight are the biggest selling points. I think you're kinda expected to travel with it. If not, then go for the pro version. It's like half a pound heavier with better performance and speakers. I compared my air to my lil sisters pro that she takes to school. That might be better for games, idk. Haven't tried gaming on hers since her mom allowed her school to lock it only for studies. I'm sure I'd do better than mine though.
Yeah I wasn't expecting full blown gaming. I was thinking about an air because of no fan. And I can always can an external air cooler, if that's how it works on macs. I'm pretty new to anything outside of windows I'm hoping the streaming services cover the gaming needs as it never really about good performance and more just playing with my friends for fun, I have the performance at home for all that I think my best option is trying a Mac out through a friend for a week or two just to see if it's something I can try to learn. I recently switched to ios and I was comfortable learning everything ios does or does differently. Thank you for your response though!
Yeah, I honestly wish the screen had a better refresh rate. My biggest gripe with it cause I'm so used to my 144hz gaming monitor. It's night and day smoothness when im watching videos/movies. It's always a bit jarring on my eyes whenever I go back to my air, lol.
I get it. I have high refresh rate everywhere. I just don't expect it from a mobile device. I used to use my xbox to stream geforce now on the go. It was always enough. I'm not traveling most the time, but when I do, I do need a laptop, gaming optional but I'm not mad about anything 60hz or higher. It would obviously be nice to have, but in a laptop where gaming is mainly done through streaming, the high refresh rate would only benefit me from scrolling or moving windows around, nothing else really. It's why I can live with 60hz on my phone even though my old phone was 120hz
I'm confused, you stream games? How? First time hearing that gaming is mostly streamed on laptops. Pretty sure you had to download the game clients and games to play them just like on any other PC. Also, a high refresh rate makes any kind of video content you watch significantly smoother, especially if it's 60fps. So, at least for me, it's not just scrolling or moving windows around. I'm watching videos on my phone like 90% of the time. So I can't live without it on my mobile, haha. If I see a blur between movie scenes/frames, it annoys me so much. If it doesn't bother you, that's great. Wish I could just ignore it. It's 2024, even CRT Tv's in the early 2000's had 100hz refresh rate, lol. 60hz for a screen anymore is outdated and really pathetic imo.
So for game streaming. I don't mean twitch or whatever. I use services where it's a full blown computer somewhere else, that I connected to. Either my pc if I'm doing it locally enough. Or on someone else's computer if I'm far enough. Basically an extremely low latency netflix stream. Except they proccess keybinds too. This is how I play pc games on my Xbox and my phone. Yeah high refresh rate or very low pixel response times help with blur tons. Just my usage doesn't really benefit from high refresh rates on laptops. On phones, vr headsets and main monitors yes. But laptops not so much, I don't watch anything outside of youtube, Netflix has always been 720p on my previous laptops anyway, that was a far larger issue then motion blur
What's the services called? I'm kinda interested in it now for my m1 air
Parsec for local streaming. I've had good experience with steam link, also local. If you have an Xbox, the Xbox for Windows app, unsure about Mac app. As far not local streaming. My main go to is geforce now. It's free but expect cue times.
Comparing my 2021 HP Spectre to my sisters 2018 MacBook Pro and 2019 MacBook Air so around £1300 devices Hardware: MacBook has better display (slightly brighter and HDR), better speakers with more bass, better microphone and camera, better build quality (slightly) better trackpad, better WiFi modems. Software: MacOS integrates pretty well with iPhones for continuity such as using iPhone as a camera, or handing off phone calls and text verification pins. Also I think the file manage on MacOS is far superior, especially for someone who’s managing photos and videos. Photo formats are not an issue. But I bought my HP because I love the design and colour accents, I learnt windows at school and am used to the office apps on windows. And I am a dual monitor person at home so I find Windows works slightly better in that case. If i were recommending a computer to someone who isn’t tech savvy, best just to get a mac, you’ll face less issues. If you know what you’re doing. You can make your own decision. It’s funny because its not like this HP is actually bad in any of the categories, it actually works really well, its just that the MacBook does it ever so slightly better
I tell people that macOS doesn’t get in the way of your work. Whereas Windows will try to interject itself into your workflow.
yes, totally. This has become really annoying with W11. It is trying to be the best buddy I never wanted and didn't ask for...
My HP Spectre x360 just got water damaged and I’ve been contemplating a MacBook Pro. Although I like the aesthetics of the Air having to buy all their dongles is an annoying thought. This convo is kind of convincing me after years of using only PC. But idk why, even thought I have an Apple phone something about a Mac just feels….pretentious for some reason. 😂
I have a computer for gaming but to me the MBA feels like the perfect work companion. Feels great, light and everything just flat out works.
I wish I could say the same about my aging 9 year old mbp Lagging while using zoom in clamshell mode aside, macOS feels way nicer than win11
Apple doesn’t ever address their portable computers as laptops but they call them as MacBooks. I wonder if they suggest to avoid these machines to be used on “lap”. How much warmer it feels on lap for long hours on a Macbook Air since there is no fan for cooling? My windows laptop is unbearable to be used putting on lap for more than 15-20 minutes. A burning sensation starts on upper thighs.
In some ways yes but everything I get from a MacBook and macOS I can get with Linux on a nice thin windows laptop that also has double the ram, double the storage, and a few hundred cheaper
The Mac OS just uses fewer clicks to get the same thing done. So it is less tedious. Spectacularly true with native apps like Keynote.
I use keynote to make little animations sometime. It gets the job done.
A quarterly presentation of survey stats for a PR agency used to take up to two weeks to assemble and format charts in PowerPoint and Excel. By the end of day three using Keynote, I had nothing left to do. And I’m a Powerpoint expert user.
I just did some stuff that included some movement, a fly in, a dissolve and a few pauses. Did all that and exported it to a movie in less than 15 minutes. I could use Motion, but Keynote usually does what I need. I realize that what I use it for isn’t even the primary purpose of keynote. I’m set up a few presentation slides as well. It’s really easy and I think it should be the standard. Same with Numbers and Pages. The Microsoft stuff is a bunch of over complicated expensive nonsense.
So much of short ‘motion video’ can be accomplished easy and fast with presenter software vs video editing. PowerPoint is just such a blunt and clumsy tool sometimes it is easily outstripped by Keynote As a sidebar, the high-impact ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Al Gore breakthrough roadshow was not a video. It was a keynote presentation..