Comment by yyyk

4 years ago

The selling point of Macs is the Apple ecosystem and UX. If you avoid Apple, what's the point of M1? Linux on equivalent AMDs is cheaper and more compatible.

24 comments

yyyk

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bayindirh  4 years ago

> If you avoid Apple, what's the point of M1?

   - (Potentially) programmable top notch security chip with no overhead encryption
   - Fanless (Air), cool running, fast processor with very low power consumption
   - All metal body
   - Top notch HiDPI screen with color accuracy.
   - Top notch sensors
   - Excellent, illuminated keyboard
   - Big trackpad with pressure sensitivity and taptic engine
   - Excellent battery life
   - Excellent battery endurance
   - Very high sound quality, good speakers, good mics.
   - High quality webcam
   - Light for its class
   - WiFi with plenty of antennas, MIMO support and all modern standards, incl. forward facing ones.

Need more?

  • Filligree  4 years ago

    - No jank at all. The most comfortable-to-use laptop I’ve ever had, desktop latency wise.

    - The ability to use nix-darwin for configuration management. It may be incomplete, but there’s no Windows equivalent.

    - Higher single thread performance than any other device.

  • amelius  4 years ago

    There's no doubt that Apple makes good hardware. But you can find decent hardware elsewhere, even at lower cost and with better configurability.

    Everyone betting on the same horse is usually a bad strategy.

    By the way, here's what Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) thinks about using the M1:

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-would-like-to-u...

    • bayindirh  4 years ago

      > But you can find decent hardware elsewhere, even at lower cost and with better configurability.

      The problem is, you pay the same price for a Thinkpad/Elitebook and you get ridiculous gotchas like missing wireless antennas (at most you can find 2x2, if you're lucky). Or the configuration you like doesn't come to your country, or the vendor doesn't allow custom configuration for your country unless you buy 10+, etc.

      OTOH, I pay the premium, I get what I configured, with top notch small specs (antennas, wireless chips, etc.). You can't find a spare 40mm SSD for your Elitebook after three years, but Apple will service your device happily.

      If you get the said SSD from the vendor, its quadruple the price, so it's Apple's price territory again.

      At that price range, there's no advantage in hardware prices between Apple, HP, Lenovo and Dell. They're equally cheap/expensive. So, IMHO, you pay less on the long run for an Apple laptop, which you can use for 7-8 years without problems.

      1 reply →

    • Aeolun  4 years ago

      I’m not sure this is true? The $1000 version has absolutely ridiculous performance for it’s price class. To the point it’s nearly as good as my desktop system.

      3 replies →

    • shawnz  4 years ago

      If we are talking about ARM64 devices specifically, the prices of the new M1 products are actually very competitive.

  • arpa  4 years ago

    Is the M1 keyboard significantly better than MBP (with the touchbar)? because that keyboard was crap. To be absolutely fair, good keyboards are hard to come by these days, and that's also why i'm using a logitech from 2006 via ps2 adapter.

    • bayindirh  4 years ago

      > Is the M1 keyboard significantly better than MBP (with the touchbar)?

      Yes. It's slightly deeper, much more resistant to dust and one can write with very low effort, but with crisp feedback. It allows me to write at least 10% faster with no effort. I similarly use an old Microsoft Sculpt Comfort at office and Logitech G710+ at home.

      Good keyboard is something hard to find.

  • yyyk  4 years ago

    Nearly all the HW items have equivalent or superiour replacements, and a fair amount are dependent on the Apple ecosystem. Without Apple's ecosystem it's a good system but overpriced, and that's before you run into Linux compatibility problems.

    For example, take the monitor - there are monitors with higher refresh rates or more resolution (Retina does 'only' 6K). Also, Mac OS colour processing has no good equivalent elsewhere, so you won't see as much benefit from Apple's monitor without Mac OS.

    • ajconway  4 years ago

      M1 is nearly a year old now, and the replacement (M1X, M2?) is rumored to be released in a couple of months. So far no other SoC has been able to come close to even the current-gen M1 in terms of performance + efficiency, with a remarkable x86 emulation on top.

      On the software side, Apple has the unique position to force every developer who cares about their user base to rebuild their stuff for a completely different CPU architecture.

      M1-based products are anything but overpriced. The Air’s price is comparable to modern flagship smartphones.

      2 replies →

    • bayindirh  4 years ago

      My comment was for laptops primarily. On the desktop side, I'd not buy an Apple branded system unless I need macOS specifically, but on the portable space, their systems are superior to most of the offerings.

      They're not EliteBook/Thinkpad tough, but they're more than enough unless you're going to handle it rough.

      I can calibrate a screen regardless of the OS I use with the help of a good calibration device, and having a good panel is a good start for that. On desktop, there are possibly better panels for pure color accuracy, I won't argue that.

      OTOH, on the portable space, their hardware formula is pretty robust.

      1 reply →

nisegami  4 years ago

Wouldn't the M1's power efficiency be applicable on Linux as well?

  • Filligree  4 years ago

    In theory, sure. It’ll need a lot more work than simply getting Linux working, and we’re not even there yet.