True, it’s not a new form factor. It doesn’t have that shiny “new thing” feeling. My Air looks like every other 2018+ air. What’s different is what you don’t see. Being able to code all day on battery and only using 18%. The CPU-core power to watt ratio is just unbelievable. I get it though, without the new form factor it lacks that defining moment.
The moment came for me when I realized I wasn’t plugged in all day and was doing some pretty heavy compilation and code (aarm64 so gotta build from source).
It’s a smashing breakthrough in pretty much all areas other than form factor. The changes are subtle but you then shake your head and remember your on a MacBook air...
If the battery life is the main point, why were thinkpads with slice batteries and powerbridge ("up to 30 hours" in 2018) not more successful?
I think it is more about the fact that apple successfully makes things "mainstream". For instance, the air form factor had been done before by Sony (and those even had hires screens), but only got popular after the air.
Extreme battery life + extreme performance is the main point!
The Thinkpads with extra battery weren't in the same "small and light" class as the Air and MBP 13. These "small and light" laptops with 20 hour video playback are faster than current workstation class laptops!
Yeah, I push mine hard and it barely uses battery. I never hear the fan (I'm on the M1 MBP 13) and it remains cool to the touch. I was skeptical about it until I noticed that it stayed this way for...basically 13 hours when pushing it really hard and nearly the 20 hours they advertise when using it for browsing/email/videos.
Yup, I've never experienced that before on any machine, Apple or otherwise. It's either you're tethered and burning your crotch or you're mobile and throttled. I haven't felt that yet with the M1 and my crotch stays cool.
It isn't just the "new thing" feeling, the smartphone form factor opened up new computing tasks that weren't really possible previously.
The M1 is a quantitative, not qualitative improvement. That's why it won't be as memorable.
The battery life is impressive, but it should be noted that you could have essentially the same experience with an older device by keeping the heavy computations on another machine -- remote desktop has always been a pain of course, but everybody loves SSH, right?
> The M1 is a quantitative, not qualitative improvement. That's why it won't be as memorable.
You're missing the forest for the trees. The quantitative improvements allow for advances in the qualitative experience. GP pointed out feeling impressed by coding all day and spending just 18% battery life. That's a qualitative experience. M1 (and chips like it that we'll see come up) will allow for a qualitative transformation like that. I remember when, if I had to get a powerful computer in the $1000 range, I'd either have to give up some power to get portability and battery life, or get a bulky powerful laptop with ~2-3 hours of battery life. With the M1 macs, you can get both, and that will set expectations that the rest of the market will have to follow if they want to survive. It's not as "revolutionary" as a new form factor, but it's a step towards a broader change in portable computing.
> It's not as "revolutionary" as a new form factor, but it's a step towards a broader change in portable computing.
Sure, the claim's been walked back from "as memorable as the iPhone" to "a step towards a broader change in portable computing." At this point I guess I agree with that level of importance.
So, as some context, I use Apple, Windows, and Linux systems all in good measure for work, but mostly Apple and Linux. I'm excited to see the M1 Air for all sorts of reasons. I'm excited to see ARM providing hard competition in this space, and excited to see the Air/ultrabook form factor get attention again. I'm also frustrated because I'm tired of seeing these sorts of developments be leveraged to push all sorts of problems with DRM and privacy. Ideally I'd like to see this same thing be offered but with linux or BSD, or at least under owner control.
Having said all that, anything pertaining to battery life I'm skeptical of. In the products I've used, the battery life always declines over time, and in my experience Apple products have been the worst. I love my Macbook Air, but similar dramatic improvements in battery life were touted at the time I bought mine, and I've not been impressed over the years. Sure, at first, the battery life was amazing, but then not too long after I obtained it (a few months or so) the battery life dramatically declined. My Dells, in contrast, started out with less impressive battery use, but declined much less, so after about a year, the battery life was about the same: the Apples just started out great and declined dramatically, and the Dells started out less great and declined less.
There's reasons to think this might be different, but so far the devices haven't been around enough to really speak to me about the long-term battery life patterns. I'm hopeful and open-minded but also skeptical.
The moment came for me when I realized I wasn’t plugged in all day and was doing some pretty heavy compilation and code (aarm64 so gotta build from source).
It’s a smashing breakthrough in pretty much all areas other than form factor. The changes are subtle but you then shake your head and remember your on a MacBook air...