Windows 11 has made the “clean Windows install” an oxymoron
Op-ed: PC makers used to need to bring their own add-on bloatware—no longer.
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The close competition? For the price of a MacBook you could get a beefy ass PC.
A MacBook is very good at what it does. If you tried to spec out a laptop/portable computer for similar tasks, the Mac would be pretty competitive and have longer battery life.
Once you try to do anything that apple didn't intend for it to do (play games, for example) or if we turn to desktops then the value proposition goes away pretty quickly
So my all-purpose PC is now limited by the intentions of the silicone manufacturer, and therefore it's better than the other options?
Your computer always has been limited by the intentions of the system designer. It’s not malice, it’s market-fit and optimization.
Look at those x3d variants that amd has been putting out. Fantastic for gamers, but relatively niche for general computing tasks. If I were an OEM, would I pick those parts for my workstation prebuilts? Fuck no, they’re overpriced for someone using office and a web browser. But for my gaming line, maybe, if I could get a deal.
All computers have many of these price/performance/size/power draw/availability decisions to make, and portables even more so. Apple knows that most of their users need xyz, and they build for that. Everyone else’s needs go into the pile of lower priority, some of which will be supported if they feel like it.
If all you need is office and a web browser there's plenty of suitable ARM systems. Handful of A72 cores, generally come with more than enough of a GPU to drive 2d, important: At least a couple of PCIe lanes for an SSD. I'm sure by now there's more suitable systems but an RK3399 is sufficient, originally a chipset for set-top boxes (hence why it has a beast of a VPU (for its price and age) which can decode 4k h265). Bought the board for about 100 bucks back in the days, what, three or four years ago. Actually I should hook it up to a monitor and check out those fancy new GPU drivers that have been coming along, the thing is vulkan-capable (back in the days I was stuck with a gles blob, and using the VPU meant using an overlay).
That’s not apples to apples. If you spec a windows laptop, good luck getting the same performance and the same battery life and portability at the same price. Also build quality, screen, speaker and trackpad quality will likely not be at apples level from the windows machine. If that’s what you’re in the market for Apple machines are not bad. For instance a photographer/videographer working on location, truly amazing for them. Should everyone buy one? No. Are there a 100 better ways to spend the money if you don’t have that specific Apple favoured use case. Sure, e.g. your mum doesn’t need a MacBook Pro for Facebook / Amazon browsing and your cousin shouldn’t buy a Mac Studio for gaming. But use cases do exist, and for those people Macs are genuinely a good proposition.
I'm willing to bet you could find a laptop with a really nice track pad, screen and camera if you really wanted to for half the price. Everything "quality" about Mac is double the price just for having an apple logo on it.
Go on then…
Awe, getting sad I'm talking bad about your apple cult lol
Hardly. Not bothering to evidence your claim then?
Which one?
The issue I have with non-Apple laptops is that comparable performance requires an active cooling system that is often distractingly loud. I am willing and able to pay extra for a platform that lets me focus, and lets me watch some Netflix without having to crank the volume to drown out the fans. Then the all-metal exterior is also quite durable, the trackpad and speakers are top-notch, the Pro comes with that XDR screen, and the battery life is hard to beat. Plus I can take it to a nearby Apple store if I'm having a problem with it, instead of having to mail it to a regional support shop and wait potentially for weeks without the device. It's more than the sum of its parts--and that is reflected in the resale value as well. Some Windows laptops will do specific things better (chiefly game support), but I didn't find anything that was as good overall as an M1 Macbook Pro, and I say that as someone who had never owned a Mac of any kind, despite using PCs since the early 1980s and building them for the last 25 years.
I would have preferred a laptop that could run Windows or Linux, but I just couldn't find anything that was a complete package like the M1 MBP.
I'm in exactly the same camp as you. I haven't bought an M1/2 Mac for personal use yet since Linux support is not there yet, but that may change once Asahi + Fedora comes out
The features you talk about seem pretty easy to put in any laptop. Battery life? Laptop speakers? Screens? Metal case? But sure you get to go pay twice the price for an Apple tech to charge you to replace the entire internals for minor problems. Seems like y'all bought the Kool aid and didn't try to find alternatives because you don't mind throwing some extra money at it. If you throw enough money at anything, generally, you can make it good lol
You cannot understand the quality of apple unless you use it as a daily driver.
Are they a shitty company? Yes.
Do they design their products to be hard to repair? Yes.
Do they provide half baked products? No.
Can you find product that matches the performance, battery life, build quality, and weight? I don’t think so.
Nothing will come close with similar build quality. The XPS 13+ is probably the closest competitor to the 13" pro/air. But it has a 12th gen Intel CPU which will get awful battery life in anything but the most ideal scenarios.
With an Apple silicon Mac you have to try to get bad battery life, with an Intel Machine I can't get it to have good battery life and do anything other than sit idle. AMD will come close, but few manufactures make a premium AMD laptop.
Who relies on the trackpad? Lol they are all annoying to use
Try macbook trackpad.
Honestly it's still pretty bad. I can't stand touch pads. Even the good ones are janky. For what is worth, the touch pad on my legion 7 is about as good as a Mac. It's also smaller which I like. The macbook touch pad is so big it reacts to my palm while typing constantly.
Why should I?
I have a mouse.
It even is ergonomic.
So you can judge whether it’s good or bad.
You don’t need to. But it’s not a good thing to have an opinion about something you didn’t even try.
You can tell it’s expensive by checking the price but you cannot describe how it feels without testing it.
That would mean using apple products, I'll pass. I won't support that kind of closed overpriced enviroment.
You don’t need to buy one to try it. Pass by any apple store and try it.
I have never owned a Mac. But I’d admit that Macs have the best trackpads.
I tried Asus, Msi, Dell, Hp, and Lenovo. Nothing come even close.
A beefy PC that you’re going to be itching to upgrade in 2 years.
I will say though, if you’re planning on gaming then Mac is still a no go. It’s best for design and audio professionals. Average joes should just be getting a Chromebook or something.
Then you'd have a laptop twice as thick, 1/5th the battery life, be built worse, and have an awful trackpad.
You really don't get any of those things. Be a Mac fan if that's your thing, but don't try to pretend they're actually any better because all the PCs you've used have been trash.
I’ve yet to find a PC laptop that can replicate a Mac TouchPad. They’ve gotten better in the last few years, but are still miles off Apple.
They’re not better for everything, but some stuff they’ve absolutely nailed over the competition and it’s not even close.
If I'm honest I hate touchpads in general, even Macs. I've got a brand new top of the line Mac issued by my company. I use a mouse.
And I prefer touchpads and find using a mouse on Mac a terrible experience. Touchpad gestures are a constant part of my workflow on a laptop due to the nature of only having one screen.
Like I said though, Mac touchpads are miles ahead of windows touchpads and it’s not even close to a competition.
Yeah that's probably true. Every laptop I've ever used that I cared about gestures on just had a touch screen. Not that I've ever really liked that either.
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