zlacker

I think there are a lot of offerings out there now. Maybe not to the minute with respect to battery life but Apples chip advantage is steadily evaporating. I typically don't need more than 8 hours of battery personally.

Have heard good things about framework computers. As a more efficient chip or battery comes out you just upgrade that component if your use case requires it.

>>pclowe+(OP)
It’s never been “just the chip” for major architectural changes even within x86. It’s replacing the entire motherboard and surrounding components.

What offerings are out there for speed/no fan (quiet)/and lack of heat with battery life?

>>scarfa+j2
By the way, it's not a lack of heat in the Air. The M4 will hit 105°C and start throttling pretty soon in sustained workloads. At any rate, modern Ryzen laptop CPUs have narrowed the gap with Apple Silicon performance-wise. It's mostly battery life that's still lagging behind. It not only requires a mainboard optimized for power use (which is pretty good nowadays on modern laptops), but also very strong OS integration. I am not sure if non-Apple laptops will get that far, because Linux and Windows simply have to target much more hardware.

At any rate, non-Apple laptops have other benefits, like being able to get 64GiB/128GiB memory and large SSDs without breaking the bank.

In the end it's all a trade-off. If you are a sales representative that needs all-day battery life, MacBook is probably the only option. If you are a developer that needs something portable to hop between desks or on the train, but usually have access to a power socket (yay, Dutch/German trains), a few hours of battery is enough and you might prefer to get an insane amount of memory/storage, a built-in cellular modem, and an ethernet port instead.

>>pclowe+(OP)
Most people don't really need more than 2 hours of battery life anyway[1] as their laptops barely ever leave the house. >8H of battery is nice to have but it is really an important parameter for a specific population while for others it is just convenience. I wouldn't trade an OS/desktop I don't like over my linux setup just because it last longer when I never need more than a couple of hours on battery[3].

[1] which means you need a 4 to 6h range when new if you don't plan to replace the battery too often

[2] students, construction companies, people who are always on the road...

>>prmous+Fh
Is that where we are going? Most people don’t need a laptop that has more than 2 hours battery life?

When I was in the office full time in the bad old days, you would be in a conference room and every one would plug their laptops in.

After I started working remotely and still doing business trips, one charge could last a full day either going back and forth between conference rooms, in “war rooms” etc and no one with M series MacBooks even worried about charging.

Heck my MacBook Pro (work laptop) can last a full day on power with my portable USB C powered external monitor where the power and video come from one cord.

Not to mention on flights with layovers.

>>prmous+Fh
I spent almost 10 hours at a coworking space and didn't even worry about charging my M4 MacBook Pro. Apple Silicon is a game changer: incredible performance and long battery life, generally totally silent, no thermal throttling. 10 hours may be extreme, but it's nice to be able to go to a coffee shop and not worry about not having charged your laptop since last week.

I used to run Linux on a laptop (10+ years ago) and you couldn't even close the laptop lid without risking it not going to sleep and overheating in your bag.

>>icedch+Kv1
It is exactly what I am saying, it is nice, a convenience. But that's it.

I don't worry about closing my thinkpad lid. Well I do because I disable sleep on lid close and prefer using the dedicated button for that. But my thinkpad goes to sleep when I ask it to.

>>scarfa+6j
You are exactly one of those few that I mentionned as exceptions. Fine.