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Third Apple Event, "One More Thing," announced for November 10th - ARM Macs

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
I have a 2014 Air. Still very reliable, but screen and battery life are a bit crap now and I’m on the fence for a new laptop.

I was eyeing a HP (Spectre / Envy) or a Dell on the Windows side of things, and tbh I prefer Windows and I wouldn’t mind a machine with a touch screen... but these new Macs are tempting.

I’m not a heavy user, so I’m wondering: is there any reason for me to get a Pro over the new Air? Honestly doesn’t look like I’d get that much more for €300 (talking about the base model here, of course).

These would be totally incompatible with anything Windows, right? Would these still need Paragon or another software for NTSF compatibility? All my external HDDs are NTSF formatted.

Not happy about the lack of ports, but I guess there’s no going back to fully-featured ultraportables.
 
I have a 2014 Air. Still very reliable, but screen and battery life are a bit crap now and I’m on the fence for a new laptop.

I was eyeing a HP (Spectre / Envy) or a Dell on the Windows side of things, and tbh I prefer Windows and I wouldn’t mind a machine with a touch screen... but these new Macs are tempting.

I’m not a heavy user, so I’m wondering: is there any reason for me to get a Pro over the new Air? Honestly doesn’t look like I’d get that much more for €300 (talking about the base model here, of course).

These would be totally incompatible with anything Windows, right? Would these still need Paragon or another software for NTSF compatibility? All my external HDDs are NTSF formatted.

Not happy about the lack of ports, but I guess there’s no going back to fully-featured ultraportables.
Having looked into this myself:

The Pro has the following upgrades over the Air:

Better battery life (additional 3 hours of use a day).

A better mic

A touchbar

Active cooling, apparently enabling better sustained performance.

If you want to do a lot of video calls, use it for long periods between charge, and will be doing stuff that requires a lot of intensive work like 4K video editing, the Pro will be the far better choice.

If you just want it for light use, and nothing more taxing than photo or music editing, the Air will likely be better.

It's only a week until we start getting actual benchmarks though.

And yeah, these things are going to be even less compatible with Windows going forward than they are currently.
 

Xyphie

Member
AMD's Renoir (4800U) is like 1.5-18TF in mobile versions. Intel's top-spec Tiger Lake-U 1185G7 is just over 2TF.
 
Would be a reason to get the AIR.
I hate that shit.

Looking forward checking out if the keyboards are okay.
For a while they were shockingly bad on Macbooks.
Supposedly the keyboards have been fixed, with the Pro's having genuinely good ones now and the Air not having real flaws, but also not standing out as anything to write home about.

I just realised I forgot the Air and Pro screens are different in brightness too. The Air is 400 nits while the Pro is 500. Neither have HDR though.

Also the cheaper of the two Air model ls has only 7 GPU cores, not 8 like the rest, weirdly.
 
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Karmic Raze

Member
Would be a reason to get the AIR.
I hate that shit.

Looking forward checking out if the keyboards are okay.
For a while they were shockingly bad on Macbooks.

They got rid of the butterfly keyboards that were fucking up so much and now have “magic” keyboards which are supposed to be much better. I’ve never personally tried them, but I have heard nothing but good things. The iPad Magic Keyboard is based off of them and I have used that and it’s quite nice.
 

dcll

Banned
Is this m chip going to be in all there devices? Intel and amd must be shitting themselves. I like my ipad but prefer and android phone, I wonder if Google will make their own chips.


My girlfriend is looking to buy a new laptop, she uses an iPhone. Her work gives her an iPad to use but for her I'm guessing the Air is the way to go.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
Is this m chip going to be in all there devices? Intel and amd must be shitting themselves. I like my ipad but prefer and android phone, I wonder if Google will make their own chips.


My girlfriend is looking to buy a new laptop, she uses an iPhone. Her work gives her an iPad to use but for her I'm guessing the Air is the way to go.


Yes, eventually, all Apple computers will have their own chips in them. I do think Intel is shitting themselves. As is HP, Lenovo, etc.

Google doesn't make the chips in Android, Qualcomm does. Microsoft has a version of Windows that runs on ARM but supposedly it just completely sucks balls and the chips are way behind.
 
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supernova8

Banned
I've had my Macbook Air since 2015 as a travel buddy and it's still great. I remember they put SSDs into their products long before the majority of laptop manufacturers were doing it. Obviously we need to wait for reviews but I'm cautiously optimistic and this is a great moment for ARM-based processors!
 

DrNeroCF

Member
Interesting how positive everyone is being on the news. Moving from PowerPC to Intel wasn’t as much of a nightmare as it could have been, BUT, the sudden ability to boot into Windows, or run a VM at far better speeds than before certainly made the transition less painful.

Is this only the laptops? How long will Intel be supported? This going to kill off Hackintoshes? Is not being able to run Wine / VMs / Bootcamp a good enough trade off for the performance? Did they mention dedicated GPUs in the laptops? I probably need to watch the whole video and catch up...

I’ve been using my iPad more than my laptop or desktop lately, but I’m still able to remote in to my desktop for heavier work.

Wonder if it’s going to take Adobe freaking forever again to support M1, though that’s at least one good thing about the subscription, I had to buy a whole new version to get Intel support back then.
 

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
Apple: MacBook Air is faster than 98% of laptops sold last year

PC World: No it’s not, it didn’t outperform these 2% of laptops sold last year
I'm gonna go ahead and say it's not going to be 98%, but probably close to 70% or so. We need to see those benchmarks.

giphy.gif
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Interesting how positive everyone is being on the news. Moving from PowerPC to Intel wasn’t as much of a nightmare as it could have been, BUT, the sudden ability to boot into Windows, or run a VM at far better speeds than before certainly made the transition less painful.

Is this only the laptops? How long will Intel be supported? This going to kill off Hackintoshes? Is not being able to run Wine / VMs / Bootcamp a good enough trade off for the performance? Did they mention dedicated GPUs in the laptops? I probably need to watch the whole video and catch up...

I’ve been using my iPad more than my laptop or desktop lately, but I’m still able to remote in to my desktop for heavier work.

Wonder if it’s going to take Adobe freaking forever again to support M1, though that’s at least one good thing about the subscription, I had to buy a whole new version to get Intel support back then.
Hackintosh and bootcamp are both obviously EOL’d, they will last as long as Intel support for MacOS will last (which should still be a while - at least 5 years I would say). If your workflow depends on that start planning a new one.

The other stuff, we will see. They didn’t give as much info as I hoped. I was thinking about DGPU as well - I find it hard to believe they will release a Mac Pro for example without one. But they’re also Apple and want to do it all themselves. I also think theyre starting low and moving up the product ladder so that by the time it gets to high end devices the GPUs and software are there. I read on MR that they are announcing 6K monitor support with the new M1 laptops, which tells me that they see a world they dont need them.
 

tkscz

Member
Apple: MacBook Air is faster than 98% of laptops sold last year

PC World: No it’s not, it didn’t outperform these 2% of laptops sold last year

I mean, the majority of laptops aren't running the best CPUs out there. I'd say about 70% of laptops run i3s, low end i5s or equivalent.
 
I'm not gonna lie when I say I'm excited about ARM on the desktop/laptop but I will probably wait out this first gen and buy the 2nd gen.

No touch screen on a laptop which natively supports iOS apps is a bit baffling to me...
 
I'm gonna go ahead and say it's not going to be 98%, but probably close to 70% or so. We need to see those benchmarks.

giphy.gif
I think you're seriously overestimating how good most peoples laptops are.

Most people just want them for work or school, have a budget to stick to, or are bulk buying the minimum required for professional needs. All 10,000+ people at my work have laptops, and I guarantee the Macbook Air will be faster than every single one of them.

98% sounds pretty reasonable if we're talking about a mid range i5 equivalent performance, which is what can be conservatively expected here, given how well the A12 Bionic and A14 performance

Now, will a laptop that costs the same as the Macbook Air likely be faster? Yeah probably.

However, will a laptop that costs the same as a Mcbook Air be as thin, light quiet, well built and have as long a battery life? Nah, probably not.

Apple are definitely dressing up the facts to make them sound as good as possible, but that article is just a disingenuous in portraying high end laptops as somehow super common and invalidating the relative expected performance of the M1.

It's a foundationless click bait article, meant to get people riled up, not provide actual news or insightful commentary.

We'll know in about a weeks time how well these chips perform, until then, these kind of articles are just trying to exploit people's emotions for ad revenue.
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
Of course the marketing department is going to phrase things in a way that sounds very impressive and will find the one metric that sounds most impressive, but the amount of butt hurt in that PC World article is insane. Every marketing department in every industry does that shit.
 

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
We'll know in about a weeks time how well these chips perform, until then, these kind of articles are just trying to exploit people's emotions for ad revenue.

I didn't even read the article, I know it's clickbait, but if the air is $999, obviously it will beat a $400 laptop. If you put it head to head with a $999 laptop, who knows. I want to see the comparisons though, and if it is the case that the Air is 98% faster than everything out there, I will be impressed, and probably buy one. Until then, I'll wait.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member

It's incredible how Apple Silicon is a perfect textbook example of the concept of "disruptive technology"

R1512B_BIG_MODEL.png


"In the beginning, disruptive innovation is inferior to the existing products and services in the market measured by traditional value metrics. When disruptive innovation first enters the market, it initially caters only to a small and typically not very profitable customer segment, while established organizations are focused on serving more demanding, high-end customers."
 

TTOOLL

Member
I'm still hyped, some PC guy really tried to downplay it but it's like the iPhones, it performs well, we don't need to keep any spec sheet around to say and see it.

Apple gonna Apple, it's not always brilliant or revolutionary as they state but in the end these machines will perform better than the vast majority of laptops with windows, it's just a fact.
 

element

Member
Picked up a MacBook Pro today. Coming from a MBP 2016 i5, this thing screams. The single core speed and faster SSD make everything feel so quick, even apps running through Rosetta 2.
Other instantly noticeable thing is the lack of heat. None. After browsing and some short encoding tests I didn't even notice a change in heat. My old MBP would heat up to uncomfortable temps just surfing the web.
 

CalmYe

Neo Member
I
I think you're seriously overestimating how good most peoples laptops are.

Most people just want them for work or school, have a budget to stick to, or are bulk buying the minimum required for professional needs. All 10,000+ people at my work have laptops, and I guarantee the Macbook Air will be faster than every single one of them.

98% sounds pretty reasonable if we're talking about a mid range i5 equivalent performance, which is what can be conservatively expected here, given how well the A12 Bionic and A14 performance

Now, will a laptop that costs the same as the Macbook Air likely be faster? Yeah probably.

However, will a laptop that costs the same as a Mcbook Air be as thin, light quiet, well built and have as long a battery life? Nah, probably not.

Apple are definitely dressing up the facts to make them sound as good as possible, but that article is just a disingenuous in portraying high end laptops as somehow super common and invalidating the relative expected performance of the M1.

It's a foundationless click bait article, meant to get people riled up, not provide actual news or insightful commentary.

We'll know in about a weeks time how well these chips perform, until then, these kind of articles are just trying to exploit people's emotions for ad revenue.
I think the 98 percent statement is smart and scummy on Apple's part. It is most likely true as due to the pandemic many companies bought cheap laptops for employees to enable Work From Home atleast that's what I have seen. Even my brother bought over 100 laptops for his business and they were cheap Dells.
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
Mac noob question but can you install things from the web on it? It's no app store only is it? Really considering a Mac mini but never owned one before. Bought the wife an air for Christmas but she isn't a power user at all.

I would like to game on it some too. Nothing recent but all my games are on steam and epic. It would replace my old 2500k 560ti system
 

Cunth

Fingerlickin' Good!
Mac noob question but can you install things from the web on it? It's no app store only is it? Really considering a Mac mini but never owned one before. Bought the wife an air for Christmas but she isn't a power user at all.

I would like to game on it some too. Nothing recent but all my games are on steam and epic. It would replace my old 2500k 560ti system
you can enable it in system preferences
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Mac noob question but can you install things from the web on it? It's no app store only is it? Really considering a Mac mini but never owned one before. Bought the wife an air for Christmas but she isn't a power user at all.

I would like to game on it some too. Nothing recent but all my games are on steam and epic. It would replace my old 2500k 560ti system

Gaming and Macs don't really go together.
 

TTOOLL

Member
Mac noob question but can you install things from the web on it? It's no app store only is it? Really considering a Mac mini but never owned one before. Bought the wife an air for Christmas but she isn't a power user at all.

I would like to game on it some too. Nothing recent but all my games are on steam and epic. It would replace my old 2500k 560ti system

If you’re serious about gaming forget about Macs. They are the best for the rest imo.
 

SaniOYOYOY

Member
not an apple guy, but big kudos to them man.

as many said we really need more arm based machine. M1 chip being good really benefit everyone imho (expect maybe intel haha). I think really Apple is the one that can "force" big devs to develop on top of an arm architecture
 

PSYGN

Member
I was looking forward to the M1 but realized it doesn't support more than 1 external monitor (yes, I know about sidecar). That's a deal breaker for me and I'm sure a lot of devs.
 
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