The MacBook Is Getting Too Good.

[Music] okay so as a laptop reviewer i try my best to stay impartial i don't have brand loyalties i don't have preferences for one company over another it really is you know what is the best option available right now for someone looking to buy a new device and i've been called an apple fanboy in some of my videos i've been called an apple hater in some of my videos sometimes both in the same video but i want to have a conversation today about the apple lineup the the m1 apple silicon based stuff and this is good hardware it's so good to the point where it's actually made it more difficult more complex to purchase a new device for a lot of people so i want to draw your attention to the base model macbook the 999 macbook air so this is a device that has an amazing battery life like 11 to 12 hours of real world use this is 40 maybe 50 longer than a competing windows laptop of the same kind of battery size and when it comes to performance the m1 chips are weirdly capable even the fanless macbook air can keep up with some of the best stuff out there it's a very energy efficient platform and also the screen like the macbook air screen on a 999 device you're getting high resolution 400 nits good color accuracy that kind of spec does not appear on a thousand dollar windows laptop you just don't get good screens like that at that price point there are some hardware deficiencies though like the macbooks they have a limited selection of ports right now the screens have uh no touch capabilities and the bezel is thick on it it's not a particularly nice looking or new looking device anymore and there's very little user repair repairability on this device but in terms of the fundamentals the stuff that really matters when it comes to a laptop user the macbook just does it really really well now if you're an apple user or like a long-term mac user then this is great news right even if you don't have apple silicon right now in the future if you pick up a device it's gonna have apple silicon but for windows users this stuff is just too good to ignore like if you are deeply entrenched in windows then you have no choice right but if you're someone that can you could use a windows device we have a preference for windows or your workflows just optimize around windows or your apps are just you know you just prefer windows for whatever reason this is where things get complicated so there are some windows devices out there that can match what the m1 macbook can do in certain categories but none of them can do it as an overall package certainly not at 999 and as a reviewer i can't ignore this i can't pretend like these windows devices exist in a vacuum and like the macbooks don't exist it's irresponsible it's like a windows fanboy thing to do the other day i did a review on the lg gram this is a great device for someone looking for a super thin super portable ultra lightweight device and i reviewed it from the perspective of a windows user right if you are someone who wants to buy a windows laptop this is a great option but then in the comments someone mentioned that i didn't compare it to an m1 macbook and he's right i should have like when i made the video i put my mind into the mindset of someone who's looking for a windows device and usually if you're looking for a windows device you want a windows device right so i didn't really mix the two but then when i look at this objectively take a step back and kind of look at the bigger picture of this this lg grant as great of a device as it is i would say that for most people who are actually interested in picking up a gram they're probably better off with a macbook which is a painful thing for me to say to someone who's trying to buy a windows device especially on this channel but that's just the reality of the situation because the m1 macbooks are so good right now they have great battery life good performance great screens excellent keyboards the list goes on they're just really good devices and then the rumors point to 14 or 16 inch macbooks with upgraded silicon new design language mini led screens return of magsafe more ports an sd card slot i'm sure they'll be super expensive but they'll be good and when i think about it it seems like there's no immediate or easy way for microsoft to combat this certainly not with x86 like you see what intel and amd have come out with recently those chips are really good but they just can't compete with the energy efficiency of what m1 macbooks have to offer like and it's not just hardware right it's also software if you look at like the surface pro x and this is a product i wanted to do a video on but you'll understand a second why it didn't this is a product from acer it's the spin 7 but this has the qualcomm chip in it like the arm based windows laptop that is very energy efficient and this was a great product i mean still it's brand new i don't think this is on the market yet but this doesn't have the software to make an ecosystem like this work and the reality is i don't think any other company could have pulled this off like apple can make this happen apple made this happen because their rules are so strict to their consumers their user base and their developers it's like you have these really strict rules that if you follow them you can make cool stuff like this because apple's developers were almost forced to make apps for apple silicon like apple said hey we're moving platforms and now there's real financial incentive to do this money is a very powerful motivator but you can't do that on windows there's no way that windows would ever have this thing microsoft could never be like hey we're switching over to arm and that's it you know there's no other option that's that's never going to be a thing at least not in the near future so this could have only happened on apple's platform so here's the thing apple's end game like their at least immediate goal is to create this platform where their hardware and the software have this unified ecosystem where everything just works in this apple way right and they're going to get there this is a really big step towards it if you're someone who actually considers moving over to apple's ecosystem and you're like a regular windows user my suggestion is this if you want to make the swap over to apple's hardware stick with apps that are multi-platform like universal so that you know if for whatever reason down the line if apple's hardware goes sideways right and they're making laser keyboards and weird stuff that you don't you don't particularly like you have the option of leaving the ecosystem just going back to future windows laptops it could be four or five years whatever it is but you at least have that option you're not contained and locked into like apple's particular software so that yeah i just it's weird right as a reviewer it's becoming harder and harder to recommend windows devices over what m1 macbooks offer and this is only for this type of like an ultrabook right stuff for work or school or just like productivity-based stuff when it comes to gaming laptops that's a whole different story like apple gaming no but okay you get the point all right hope you guys enjoyed this video thumbs if you liked it subs if you loved it see you guys next time [Music]

Channel: Dave2D

Views: 1,908,692

Rating: 4.9284601 out of 5

Keywords: Dave2D, Review, M1 MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Best MacBook, Best Laptop, Best Laptop for student, best windows laptop, best macbook for student, best macbook for school, best laptop for school

Id: ztTY788z9NE

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/gdarruda]

I'm not a Microsoft hater, I think Nadella is an incredible CEO, but Microsoft was simply incompetent here. Sure it's harder to Microsoft make something like that good, but they should have something after almost ten years trying (Windows RT was announced in January 2011).

"Everybody" ascribe the success of M1 and the smooth transition to the Apple integrate ecosystem and tight control of developers. Microsoft couldn't build a processor designed to deal with x86 translation, but should have more than a beta release of a slow and barely working emulator of AMD64.

Apple simply did a way better job.

It was the same story with the Apple processors: it was fast only because was in a smartphone and Apple "optimizations". Multi-platform software, compiled to x86 like any Windows application, are working flawlessly on M1.

Microsoft should have a better ARM solution and Qualcomm should have a better processor, unfortunately the competition it too far behind.

[u/vtran85]

It’s a great time to be a Mac owner. Quiet, fast, and long battery life. Apple knocked it out of the park.

[u/MATH137IsJustHSCalc]

What's up with all the Apple videos today? MKBHD, Dave2D, Lew all had Apple related videos today

[u/timmy_42]

I love his videos. It’s just BS that apple has the most horrible prices for ram+storage. 256 starting for a laptop. That’s ridiculous

[u/Moonagi]

Dave is right about the bezels... I hope the next iteration of Macbooks fixes this :/

[u/jamfromouterspace]

It really is insane. Here’s my anecdotal example:

• My work laptop is a maxed out Thinkpad X1 Extreme. The specific one I have retails for over $3000 before tax. It has the highest-end i9 for mobile, 1TB ssd, and 32GB ram.
• My personal laptop is an M1 Macbook Pro with 8GB of ram and 512GB of storage. It cost me under $1500 after tax.
• I ran some tests: the M1 was consistently double the speed in compiling very large amounts of javascript. However, it performed worse in the extreme case of compiling everything at once, when the ram became a bottleneck (I would never need to do this for work). This is the only time I’ve heard the fan turn on, but interestingly it was still more responsive to operate than the thinkpad during this stress test.
• The Thinkpad has a very dim 1080p screen that already has dead pixels after <1 year out of the box.
• The Thinkpad has a painful trackpad (seriously, why do they put the button on a slope so you have to click the bottom or else it hurts your fingers)
• The Thinkpad came with a ridiculous amount of bloatware in windows including Candy Crush Kingdom or whatever, which reinstalled itself twice before I could permanently remove it. Every day lenovo gives me some pop up warning me to restart my computer.
• The Thinkpad essentially always has its fan on, and it is very loud.
• I’d talk about battery life, but then it would just be mean

I could go on. I’m sure there are great windows laptops like the XPS, but the Thinkpad has always been considered a gold-standard set of machines, and to see its highest-end model be such a laughably bad experience at more-than-double the cost, it makes me wonder who the fuck is in charge of product design over there.

[u/smartfon]

The M1 killed the notion that "modern CPUs are good enough, we should focus on the evolution of other components".

[u/Real-Paul-Walker]

apple gotta fix the upgrade prices, way too overpriced

[u/evbomby]

I’m starting to be more and more upset I got a 13 inch pro a year before the m1 launch.