I was kinda waffling on the MBA and iPhone threads, so thought I'd just make one thread to waffle.
So it's been a week now since I switched to Mac.
For context, the last time I owned Apple hardware, it was an iPhone 5, and a Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro in around 2011. I've been a windows and Pixel man for the last 10-15 years, with a bit of a Windows Phone diversion for a while (RIP).
I am not a software idealogue and don't care about open source ethics or any of that stuff, I just care what works.
So, I've been in game development for the last 12 years, which is pretty much a closed shop Windows business, so it was never feasible to switch. I never entertained iPhone without Mac OS because iOS was always a pain in the arse with non-Apple stuff when I used it in the past. So I have ended up working not in games, and doing quite a lot of web technology stuff, cloud, AI things, so platform agnostic.
I needed a new laptop for the new job, and initially just went for my default, which is a Thinkpad, probably an X1 Carbon, but got bogged down looking at different specs, various T and X models. Then I looked at Framework laptops which were quite appealing, as you can stuff them with loads of memory and disk for peanuts.....but ultimately, there aren't any laptops out there that can match the M4 Macbook Air, for anything. Screen, battery, performance, build, trumps everything else on paper, so I decided to take the plunge and give Apple a try again.
Got a 15" Macbook Air with 24GB memory, 512GB disk. £1439 I think the final price. After using it for a weeks, my pros and cons :
Pros :
The OS is pretty good now. I wouldn't say it's better or worse than Win 11, it doesn't get in the way and lets me get on with things, so all fine with me.
The screen is amazing.
The battery life is absolutely gob-smacking. Like re-defining what a laptop is. It's just a computer that is portable, without the compromises. Amazing.
The fact it is passively cooled is insane.
The performance is ridiculous, I installed da vinci resolve studio earlier and editing a 4k video on it while sat in the garden. Didn't break a sweat.
The fact it is passively cooled and can edit 4k video and do it without monstering through the battery....did I mention it is ridiculous?
Keyboard and trackpad are very good.
Plugged a USB-c dock thing in to connect to my external monitor and my DAC, webcam, printer. Everything just worked.
Cons :
I had to install a 3rd party app to have mousewheel and trackpad scroll with different invert settings
Text rendering in Mac OS on normal DPI external monitors is absolute ass.
I've basically switched to the MBA as my main PC now, just connected to the dock. Overall the MBA is an incredible bit of technology, and I was that impressed that I ditched my plan to upgrade my Pixel 7a to a 9a, and got an iPhone 16 Pro instead.
Kinda got used to that now.
Pros:
Hardware is nice, well finished, nice to handle.
Screen is good, although I don't really care for high refresh rates, not something that bothers me.
Security, FaceID, integration with Microsoft Authenticator and passkey handling is all really good and miles better than Android. Massive plus.
Switching over all my apps and stuff has been pretty painless, no issues, just install iOS version of things and login.
Having iOS let me login to apps with passwords which I store in MS Authenticator is great. I never got that to work on android.
Camera is pretty amazing.
CarPlay and Siri are just OH MY GOD so much better than the absolute festering pile of turd that is Android Auto and it's voice controls. It just works, it hears better, it does what you ask it do. The interface is better. Apple Maps UI is better. The whole display is more responsive. I haven't found any bugs with it yet, while Android Auto is and continues to be plagued with issues. Massive plus for Apple.
The iOS versions of many apps are actually significantly better than the Android equivalents, I guess down to the smaller range of hardware/software targets.
Cons:
Battery life is just OK.
'Magic' camera bar thing is just a bit naff.
Very niche thing here, but I have got used to dozing off at night listening to audiobooks playing on my phone, very quietly. The minimum step on the volume buttons is quite loud. This could have been a deal breaker, but I realised you do have finer control of the volume if you drag the control on the screen, phew!
So overall, I'm really impressed with it, and don't see any chance that I'll sell this stuff and go back to Pixel or another laptop.
However.
I think I will probably keep my Windows desktop for now. I do a lot of heavy video editing which makes a lot of use of AI upscaling which needs a lot of GPU grunt, and I'm a bit reluctant to spill the kind of cash required to get similar performance to an nVidia GPU in the Apple ecosystem. When I was editing video the MBA earlier it was just short videos that didn't need upscaling. I frequently edit video that take 3hrs to render on a 4070, pretty sure that will be more like 12 hours on the MBA, but I need to try once Da Vinci Resolve 20 is out of beta.
I'm a bit torn with my monitor, it's a 5120x1440 ultrawide, which I really like, but the text rendering on Mac sucks. I think I'd rather spend a chunk of change on getting a couple of 27" 4k monitors (Dell U2725QE?) to get decent DPI and scaling, than splurge on a Mac Studio or something.
Anyway, that was a lot of waffle. Overall, super happy with my switch to Mac OS and iOS. So much nicer and painless compared to when I last tried it. The Macbook Air M4 is genuinely amazing bit of hardware.
So it's been a week now since I switched to Mac.
For context, the last time I owned Apple hardware, it was an iPhone 5, and a Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro in around 2011. I've been a windows and Pixel man for the last 10-15 years, with a bit of a Windows Phone diversion for a while (RIP).
I am not a software idealogue and don't care about open source ethics or any of that stuff, I just care what works.
So, I've been in game development for the last 12 years, which is pretty much a closed shop Windows business, so it was never feasible to switch. I never entertained iPhone without Mac OS because iOS was always a pain in the arse with non-Apple stuff when I used it in the past. So I have ended up working not in games, and doing quite a lot of web technology stuff, cloud, AI things, so platform agnostic.
I needed a new laptop for the new job, and initially just went for my default, which is a Thinkpad, probably an X1 Carbon, but got bogged down looking at different specs, various T and X models. Then I looked at Framework laptops which were quite appealing, as you can stuff them with loads of memory and disk for peanuts.....but ultimately, there aren't any laptops out there that can match the M4 Macbook Air, for anything. Screen, battery, performance, build, trumps everything else on paper, so I decided to take the plunge and give Apple a try again.
Got a 15" Macbook Air with 24GB memory, 512GB disk. £1439 I think the final price. After using it for a weeks, my pros and cons :
Pros :
The OS is pretty good now. I wouldn't say it's better or worse than Win 11, it doesn't get in the way and lets me get on with things, so all fine with me.
The screen is amazing.
The battery life is absolutely gob-smacking. Like re-defining what a laptop is. It's just a computer that is portable, without the compromises. Amazing.
The fact it is passively cooled is insane.
The performance is ridiculous, I installed da vinci resolve studio earlier and editing a 4k video on it while sat in the garden. Didn't break a sweat.
The fact it is passively cooled and can edit 4k video and do it without monstering through the battery....did I mention it is ridiculous?
Keyboard and trackpad are very good.
Plugged a USB-c dock thing in to connect to my external monitor and my DAC, webcam, printer. Everything just worked.
Cons :
I had to install a 3rd party app to have mousewheel and trackpad scroll with different invert settings
Text rendering in Mac OS on normal DPI external monitors is absolute ass.
I've basically switched to the MBA as my main PC now, just connected to the dock. Overall the MBA is an incredible bit of technology, and I was that impressed that I ditched my plan to upgrade my Pixel 7a to a 9a, and got an iPhone 16 Pro instead.
Kinda got used to that now.
Pros:
Hardware is nice, well finished, nice to handle.
Screen is good, although I don't really care for high refresh rates, not something that bothers me.
Security, FaceID, integration with Microsoft Authenticator and passkey handling is all really good and miles better than Android. Massive plus.
Switching over all my apps and stuff has been pretty painless, no issues, just install iOS version of things and login.
Having iOS let me login to apps with passwords which I store in MS Authenticator is great. I never got that to work on android.
Camera is pretty amazing.
CarPlay and Siri are just OH MY GOD so much better than the absolute festering pile of turd that is Android Auto and it's voice controls. It just works, it hears better, it does what you ask it do. The interface is better. Apple Maps UI is better. The whole display is more responsive. I haven't found any bugs with it yet, while Android Auto is and continues to be plagued with issues. Massive plus for Apple.
The iOS versions of many apps are actually significantly better than the Android equivalents, I guess down to the smaller range of hardware/software targets.
Cons:
Battery life is just OK.
'Magic' camera bar thing is just a bit naff.
Very niche thing here, but I have got used to dozing off at night listening to audiobooks playing on my phone, very quietly. The minimum step on the volume buttons is quite loud. This could have been a deal breaker, but I realised you do have finer control of the volume if you drag the control on the screen, phew!
So overall, I'm really impressed with it, and don't see any chance that I'll sell this stuff and go back to Pixel or another laptop.
However.
I think I will probably keep my Windows desktop for now. I do a lot of heavy video editing which makes a lot of use of AI upscaling which needs a lot of GPU grunt, and I'm a bit reluctant to spill the kind of cash required to get similar performance to an nVidia GPU in the Apple ecosystem. When I was editing video the MBA earlier it was just short videos that didn't need upscaling. I frequently edit video that take 3hrs to render on a 4070, pretty sure that will be more like 12 hours on the MBA, but I need to try once Da Vinci Resolve 20 is out of beta.
I'm a bit torn with my monitor, it's a 5120x1440 ultrawide, which I really like, but the text rendering on Mac sucks. I think I'd rather spend a chunk of change on getting a couple of 27" 4k monitors (Dell U2725QE?) to get decent DPI and scaling, than splurge on a Mac Studio or something.
Anyway, that was a lot of waffle. Overall, super happy with my switch to Mac OS and iOS. So much nicer and painless compared to when I last tried it. The Macbook Air M4 is genuinely amazing bit of hardware.
. I scale to 1080p.