7 ms·

I don't understand the comparison to the iphone and android situation. As far as I can see, android phones are highly competitive with iphone on everything. The

I don't understand the comparison to the iphone and android situation. As far as I can see, android phones are highly competitive with iphone on everything. The longest battery isn't on an iphone, the best camera isn't on an iphone, the latest screen tech isn't on an iphone, etc. etc. Coming to the M1 laptops, they beat comparable Windows laptops in every single metric. It's literally just a matter of looking at the numbers and realizing how M1 has every Intel chip beat (in this category). In fact this makes me wonder: if Apple chips are so far ahead, why are iphones not the fastest, best smartphones by a wide margin?

orestis 6y ago
Camera and screen have nothing to do with CPUs, right? And battery is also compared to size, so difficult to compare. AFAIK, iPhones do have the fastest benchmarks (and the smoothest experience) across all phones.
genghizkhan 6y ago
I don't know about the other metrics you talk about, but iPhones _are_ the fastest. In general, I find iPhones better than Android for general use - but that's a subjective opinion. Apple provides the best overall package, even as the only thing they beat everyone else on is speed (to the best of my knowledge).
- bschne 6y ago
  I think this is often about the experience of using it as opposed to raw compute performance benchmarks (even if M1 does excel in those). In many cases, be it because of integration, more care about design, or whatever, the apple experience feels more... snappy? Smooth? It's hard to put a finger on what exactly leads to this, and it may also be about the combination of many small details.
  - user-the-name 6y ago
    Apple phones are faster both in subjective experience and objective benchmarks.
    - perryizgr8 6y ago
      In my experience that's not true. A Note20 ultra feels much faster and smoother to use than Iphone 12 pro.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - jeswin 6y ago
      Snapdragon 8x5 CPUs have been fast enough for a while now, and you wouldn't notice a difference as long as you run a decent flavor of Android. However you can notice a faster screen refresh rate, and high end Android wins there. I wouldn't trade 90 (or 120hz) screens for a faster CPU.
      - user-the-name 6y ago
        But crucially, nowhere near as fast as iPhones: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-destroys-every-android-phone https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-des...
    - haunter 6y ago
      .
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - tracker1 6y ago
    I think it's a bit of both... I don't doubt for a second that Apple creating both the CPU and Software together are why the X86 emulation is as good as it is. I'm actually thinking about getting one of these as I've been without a personal laptop for a while now. That said, I'm waiting for Docker support to get flushed out a bit more as I wouldn't mind getting work done. I am interested on how the really high performance ram effects my workflows, as I've often gone over 16gb as a sticking point, got my work laptop upgraded to 32gb earlier in the year and my personal desktop is at 64gb. I'm not sure it will replace my r9-3950X desktop for getting things done, but it's absolutely compelling for its' space. I swore off macs for a while now, and this might pull me back in.
- perryizgr8 6y ago
  I have used the latest iphone and the latest galaxy note and honestly the note feels faster. Maybe because of the screen refresh? But then the same question: what use is a faster chip when the end result feels slower?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- mojzu 6y ago
  Plus they seem to last a lot longer than your average android smartphone in terms of longer term performance/updates. I'm holding out a (faint) hope that they'll make at least one generation with USBC before going port-less as that's the main thing stopping me from switching
- damnencryption 6y ago
  I don't know that's true anymore. Overall experience feels better on android. Few things that make difference for me. 1. Notifications are leagues ahead of anything on iOS. 2. Little accessibility features like sound search, automatic caption, text selection from any screen/pictures, better integration with google assistant adds up. 3. Customizability. Yes, even now iPhone is super limited in the layout you can have on home screen or the new app launcher. You can't group things or put them wherever you want on the screen. This is ridiculous. 4. Android phones have higher refresh rates. Almost any flagship in 2020. The punch hole camera feels better than the notch. Face ID = problematic in the pandemic with masks. Though, I like it generally but apple could have given touch ID on the same device as well. 5. For tinkerers, it has better support again. Youtube vanced, tachiyomi, advanced adblockers, "real" firefox with extensions, etc are only available on android. The best part is you can get the pixel 4a for $300 with some carriers. 3 years of updates which is what typical upgrade cycle looks like for iPhone users even if they get "updates" for longer. Source: Own both.
  - genghizkhan 6y ago
    You're not wrong, but things like a unified clipboard, continuity, the peace of mind which comes from knowing that there's a very small chance of malware coming in from the App Store, and (again my opinion) more polished indie apps like Ulysses, Things, Fantastical etc. keep the iPhone ahead in my book. I think notifications are perfectly fine on iPhones. I've not used android for 4 years now, but if their notifications are the same as they were in 2016 (or just marginally different) then I don't miss much. I confess point 2 sounds very appealing. I do use custom DNS for adblocking, so I don't think I miss it on the iPhone, and tbh I've fallen in the rabbit hole of tinkering with my phone enough that I feel more productive without a phone I can tinker with.
    - damnencryption 6y ago
      No, notifications have changed a lot in the recent years. And you can get unified clipboard by installing app for your OS (windows or linux) through playstore. You should try a new pixel device to see the improvement. Some apps are better on iOS but it's not a big difference because some apps are better on android as well. People care about different apps in the end.
jb1991 6y ago
There is quite a significant difference between iOS and android devices, there is no android device that competes with the performance of iOS right now. Heck, most laptops don’t even compete with iPads these days.
grobibi 6y ago
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-destroys-every-android-phone https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-des...
swiley 6y ago
An Android could have amazing hardware but everyone knows the OS isn't going to get updated and you're going to have to pay to replace it in 2-3 years.
chokeartist 6y ago
Lol what are you smoking? iPhone as a whole has trounced Android repeatedly over the last few years. There really is no comparison aside from Android having some [random esoteric] hardware that iPhone doesn't for a particular year. None of this is focused on battery life, performance, and efficiency. It is window dressing on top of an inferior architecture. Also I fundamentally will not buy a piece of hardware that will cease receiving security updates within 36 months of purchase. That's insane, and frankly a major fuck you to anyone considering buying your product.
- perryizgr8 6y ago
  What can you do on iphone that can't be done better on an android phone?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - chokeartist 6y ago
    You have reduced the scope of the argument. It is a question of efficiency, performance, and battery life. iPhone beats Android in all over those categories. Of course iPhone and Android can do all the same tasks. One just does it a lot better efficiency and power wise.
    - perryizgr8 6y ago
      How does iPhone beat Note20 in battery life if the Note lasts longer? How does the chip performance matter if the Note feels faster in opening apps and scrolling due to the refresh rate? How does efficiency matter if the Note holds more apps in memory for faster task switching? How does a faster chip matter if the image processing is way superior in the Note so your photos almost always come out better? The difference is subjective. I would have expected it to be objective like in the M1 laptop. The new air and pro absolutely obliterate other comparable systems in every metric.
  - dhosek 6y ago
akmarinov 6y ago
The whole isn't the fastest, the biggest comes up with big caveats. For example the iPhones don't have the longest battery, but the phone that has the longest battery has two times the amount of battery, while having a much higher consumption than iPhones. If Apple decides to stick a 5000+ mah battery in an iPhone - Android phones would have no way of catching up to its battery life. Another big thing being the latest screen tech - Apple can't afford to do an OLED screen on the iPad, since Samsung and LG can't possibly manufacture enough OLED screens to meet demand. Where Samsung is perfectly fine doing it, when they won't sell enough tablets to matter. In the end it's not that the iPhone is clearly inferior to Androids, it's mostly that Apple has some numbers in mind that they consider optimal and going beyond those won't increase their sales (certain amount of battery, certain screens, etc).
bni 6y ago
Flagship iPhone absolutely crushes any flagship Android phone in benchmarks its not even close. Has been like this for many years. It is also very common that people that like Android are not aware of this for some reason.
- tracker1 6y ago
  Can't speak for anyone else, but for me, the biggest sticking point is being able to side/load software and other app stores... not that I pull in much, but I don't want my device mfg tell me what I'm allowed to run on what I buy. Sometimes this means the software is more clunky, less polished and isn't as fast... but I'm still using my now 3yo Pixel 2XL, which is still mostly acceptable (I really need a new battery).
- chungus_khan 6y ago
  It also basically doesn't matter for 99% of people. Most people just need their phone to be fast enough to run common applications responsively. Benchmarks are irrelevant to the average user, and are mostly a dick measuring contest. People tend to prefer mobile platforms on the basis of features that they offer, practical hardware traits like battery and connectivity, and familiarity.
  - spaceisballer 6y ago
    Completely agree with your sentiment. But a lot of people are used to thinking about performance like it much matters anymore. You’d be hard pressed to find much of a difference between yearly updates of the same model phone. But I think a lot in this community will look at those numbers, I mean that’s how most people grew up when thinking about PCs and seems to be how Android devices have also marketed to people. I think now the majority of people just upgrade to the latest phone of the OS they prefer. I mean personally after deleting social media and a lot of other items off my phone I wonder what I really use my phone for other than texting, taking pictures and checking email and my calendar. I could easily get by with some basic phone (honestly contemplated getting some e ink phone with basic capabilities). But there are plenty of people out there that use their phone constantly and for a host of things. All that to say I feel like phones won’t have another large advance for some time, small iterative changes. That jump from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G seemed gigantic. Sure there have been form factor changes but even on the android front there have been changes but not things that are revolutionary to the majority of users.
kelchm 6y ago
> In fact this makes me wonder: if Apple chips are so far ahead, why are iphones not the fastest, best smartphones by a wide margin? Apple has pretty consistently had the fastest SoCs for phones and tablets for a few years now, particularly in single core performance. Here are some benchmark results of the iPhone 12 versus some of it’s Android competitors [1]. Notice that last year’s iPhone 11 Pro Max still outperforms Android phones from this year as well. I think part of the reason this isn’t a major differentiator (for phones at least) is that phones have been “fast enough” for several years now. Given the very aggressive throttling that is utilized on these types of devices, I think the primary difference ends up being battery life / efficiency rather than raw performance. It’s also worth noting that while the performance / efficiency gap between x86 and ARM seems to be pretty sizable at this point, the gap between various current generation ARM CPUs isn’t nearly as drastic. 1: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-destroys-every-android-phone https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-des...
- perryizgr8 6y ago
  Yeah that's what puzzles me, why has chip superiority not translated into an objectively better phone? For laptops the M1 laptops are best in class in everything, battery and performance.
  - wrsh07 6y ago
    I honestly don't know why you're being downvoted. I think for some people (eg my oldest brother), the iPhone is "the best." He's not a tech person - and that might be perspective that you're missing. I tend to agree that there are great androids that seem competitive with iPhones (disclosure: I haven't really owned a flagship phone for a while; this is one of android's issues! The flagships aren't that much better than the $300-400 phones) But I know a lot of people who think the iPhone is the premium phone experience, and if they're going to spend over a thousand dollars on a phone, it'll be an iPhone. My point here is that for many people, the iPhone is objectively better.
    - Yetanfou 6y ago
II2II 6y ago
> I don't understand the comparison to the iphone and android situation. Because articles like that are pure nonsense. Take the initial paragraphs. We already knew that faster processors don't necessarily run hotter. People are simply conflating higher clock speeds with higher performance, while ignoring all of the ways CPU design optimizes computation. Likewise, we already knew that "emulation" doesn't imply that performance will be unbearably slow. There has been enormous amounts of research and development into the problem over the decades, to the point where much of our software is optimized at runtime. None of this is meant to diminish what Apple has accomplished. They were clearly paying attention to details that have been largely ignored or at the very least rarely highlighted by their competitors. Now that it has happened, we will likely see more from the PC industry. Apple will likely have a hard time keeping up unless they have more up their sleeve.
- alwillis 6y ago
  Likewise, we already knew that "emulation" doesn't imply that performance will be unbearably slow. Apple’s Rosetta 2 doesn't do emulation; it translates the x86 code into ARM code on the fly and runs it, which is why most apps run faster on M1 Macs than they do on Intel Macs--and comparably priced PCs. Now that it has happened, we will likely see more from the PC industry. Probably not. If Intel and AMD were capable of this kind of performance per watt, they’d already be doing it. Years ago. Because the latest x86 chip has to be backwards compatible with 40 years of legacy code, there are certain limitations Intel and AMD just have to live with. Apple will likely have a hard time keeping up unless they have more up their sleeve. It's ironic that it's Apple that will have a hard time keeping up when they've already disrupted Intel and AMD. Remember, it's not just a processor; it's a system on a chip that contains an 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning tasks and other components. This has obviously been in the works for several years; Apple wouldn't have gone down this path if they didn't believe it would give them a sustainable competitive advantage for years to come. Even with its ridiculous performance, the M1 is the entry-level consumer version of the M series suitable for (in Apple's lineup) entry-level consumer hardware. The M1-based MacBook Air doesn't have a fan and it's faster and more capable now than many (most?) PCs that cost more and run hotter. One thing we know: the M2 will be faster and more capable than the M1 and won't be limited to 16 Gb. We'll probably see M2-based Macs by the summer of 2021.
mrmonkeyman 6y ago
> The longest battery isn't on an iphone, the best camera isn't on an iphone, the latest screen tech isn't on an iphone, etc. etc. It is not on any single Android model either. Fragmentation is a thing.

orestis 6y ago

Camera and screen have nothing to do with CPUs, right? And battery is also compared to size, so difficult to compare. AFAIK, iPhones do have the fastest benchmarks (and the smoothest experience) across all phones.

genghizkhan 6y ago

I don't know about the other metrics you talk about, but iPhones _are_ the fastest. In general, I find iPhones better than Android for general use - but that's a subjective opinion. Apple provides the best overall package, even as the only thing they beat everyone else on is speed (to the best of my knowledge).

bschne 6y ago
I think this is often about the experience of using it as opposed to raw compute performance benchmarks (even if M1 does excel in those). In many cases, be it because of integration, more care about design, or whatever, the apple experience feels more... snappy? Smooth? It's hard to put a finger on what exactly leads to this, and it may also be about the combination of many small details.
- user-the-name 6y ago
  Apple phones are faster both in subjective experience and objective benchmarks.
  - perryizgr8 6y ago
    In my experience that's not true. A Note20 ultra feels much faster and smoother to use than Iphone 12 pro.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - jeswin 6y ago
    Snapdragon 8x5 CPUs have been fast enough for a while now, and you wouldn't notice a difference as long as you run a decent flavor of Android. However you can notice a faster screen refresh rate, and high end Android wins there. I wouldn't trade 90 (or 120hz) screens for a faster CPU.
    - user-the-name 6y ago
      But crucially, nowhere near as fast as iPhones: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-destroys-every-android-phone https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-des...
  - haunter 6y ago
    .
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- tracker1 6y ago
  I think it's a bit of both... I don't doubt for a second that Apple creating both the CPU and Software together are why the X86 emulation is as good as it is. I'm actually thinking about getting one of these as I've been without a personal laptop for a while now. That said, I'm waiting for Docker support to get flushed out a bit more as I wouldn't mind getting work done. I am interested on how the really high performance ram effects my workflows, as I've often gone over 16gb as a sticking point, got my work laptop upgraded to 32gb earlier in the year and my personal desktop is at 64gb. I'm not sure it will replace my r9-3950X desktop for getting things done, but it's absolutely compelling for its' space. I swore off macs for a while now, and this might pull me back in.
perryizgr8 6y ago
I have used the latest iphone and the latest galaxy note and honestly the note feels faster. Maybe because of the screen refresh? But then the same question: what use is a faster chip when the end result feels slower?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mojzu 6y ago
Plus they seem to last a lot longer than your average android smartphone in terms of longer term performance/updates. I'm holding out a (faint) hope that they'll make at least one generation with USBC before going port-less as that's the main thing stopping me from switching
damnencryption 6y ago
I don't know that's true anymore. Overall experience feels better on android. Few things that make difference for me. 1. Notifications are leagues ahead of anything on iOS. 2. Little accessibility features like sound search, automatic caption, text selection from any screen/pictures, better integration with google assistant adds up. 3. Customizability. Yes, even now iPhone is super limited in the layout you can have on home screen or the new app launcher. You can't group things or put them wherever you want on the screen. This is ridiculous. 4. Android phones have higher refresh rates. Almost any flagship in 2020. The punch hole camera feels better than the notch. Face ID = problematic in the pandemic with masks. Though, I like it generally but apple could have given touch ID on the same device as well. 5. For tinkerers, it has better support again. Youtube vanced, tachiyomi, advanced adblockers, "real" firefox with extensions, etc are only available on android. The best part is you can get the pixel 4a for $300 with some carriers. 3 years of updates which is what typical upgrade cycle looks like for iPhone users even if they get "updates" for longer. Source: Own both.
- genghizkhan 6y ago
  You're not wrong, but things like a unified clipboard, continuity, the peace of mind which comes from knowing that there's a very small chance of malware coming in from the App Store, and (again my opinion) more polished indie apps like Ulysses, Things, Fantastical etc. keep the iPhone ahead in my book. I think notifications are perfectly fine on iPhones. I've not used android for 4 years now, but if their notifications are the same as they were in 2016 (or just marginally different) then I don't miss much. I confess point 2 sounds very appealing. I do use custom DNS for adblocking, so I don't think I miss it on the iPhone, and tbh I've fallen in the rabbit hole of tinkering with my phone enough that I feel more productive without a phone I can tinker with.
  - damnencryption 6y ago
    No, notifications have changed a lot in the recent years. And you can get unified clipboard by installing app for your OS (windows or linux) through playstore. You should try a new pixel device to see the improvement. Some apps are better on iOS but it's not a big difference because some apps are better on android as well. People care about different apps in the end.

jb1991 6y ago

There is quite a significant difference between iOS and android devices, there is no android device that competes with the performance of iOS right now. Heck, most laptops don’t even compete with iPads these days.

grobibi 6y ago

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-destroys-every-android-phone https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-des...

swiley 6y ago

An Android could have amazing hardware but everyone knows the OS isn't going to get updated and you're going to have to pay to replace it in 2-3 years.

chokeartist 6y ago

Lol what are you smoking? iPhone as a whole has trounced Android repeatedly over the last few years. There really is no comparison aside from Android having some [random esoteric] hardware that iPhone doesn't for a particular year. None of this is focused on battery life, performance, and efficiency. It is window dressing on top of an inferior architecture. Also I fundamentally will not buy a piece of hardware that will cease receiving security updates within 36 months of purchase. That's insane, and frankly a major fuck you to anyone considering buying your product.

perryizgr8 6y ago
What can you do on iphone that can't be done better on an android phone?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- chokeartist 6y ago
  You have reduced the scope of the argument. It is a question of efficiency, performance, and battery life. iPhone beats Android in all over those categories. Of course iPhone and Android can do all the same tasks. One just does it a lot better efficiency and power wise.
  - perryizgr8 6y ago
    How does iPhone beat Note20 in battery life if the Note lasts longer? How does the chip performance matter if the Note feels faster in opening apps and scrolling due to the refresh rate? How does efficiency matter if the Note holds more apps in memory for faster task switching? How does a faster chip matter if the image processing is way superior in the Note so your photos almost always come out better? The difference is subjective. I would have expected it to be objective like in the M1 laptop. The new air and pro absolutely obliterate other comparable systems in every metric.
- dhosek 6y ago

akmarinov 6y ago

The whole isn't the fastest, the biggest comes up with big caveats. For example the iPhones don't have the longest battery, but the phone that has the longest battery has two times the amount of battery, while having a much higher consumption than iPhones. If Apple decides to stick a 5000+ mah battery in an iPhone - Android phones would have no way of catching up to its battery life. Another big thing being the latest screen tech - Apple can't afford to do an OLED screen on the iPad, since Samsung and LG can't possibly manufacture enough OLED screens to meet demand. Where Samsung is perfectly fine doing it, when they won't sell enough tablets to matter. In the end it's not that the iPhone is clearly inferior to Androids, it's mostly that Apple has some numbers in mind that they consider optimal and going beyond those won't increase their sales (certain amount of battery, certain screens, etc).

bni 6y ago

Flagship iPhone absolutely crushes any flagship Android phone in benchmarks its not even close. Has been like this for many years. It is also very common that people that like Android are not aware of this for some reason.

tracker1 6y ago
Can't speak for anyone else, but for me, the biggest sticking point is being able to side/load software and other app stores... not that I pull in much, but I don't want my device mfg tell me what I'm allowed to run on what I buy. Sometimes this means the software is more clunky, less polished and isn't as fast... but I'm still using my now 3yo Pixel 2XL, which is still mostly acceptable (I really need a new battery).
chungus_khan 6y ago
It also basically doesn't matter for 99% of people. Most people just need their phone to be fast enough to run common applications responsively. Benchmarks are irrelevant to the average user, and are mostly a dick measuring contest. People tend to prefer mobile platforms on the basis of features that they offer, practical hardware traits like battery and connectivity, and familiarity.
- spaceisballer 6y ago
  Completely agree with your sentiment. But a lot of people are used to thinking about performance like it much matters anymore. You’d be hard pressed to find much of a difference between yearly updates of the same model phone. But I think a lot in this community will look at those numbers, I mean that’s how most people grew up when thinking about PCs and seems to be how Android devices have also marketed to people. I think now the majority of people just upgrade to the latest phone of the OS they prefer. I mean personally after deleting social media and a lot of other items off my phone I wonder what I really use my phone for other than texting, taking pictures and checking email and my calendar. I could easily get by with some basic phone (honestly contemplated getting some e ink phone with basic capabilities). But there are plenty of people out there that use their phone constantly and for a host of things. All that to say I feel like phones won’t have another large advance for some time, small iterative changes. That jump from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G seemed gigantic. Sure there have been form factor changes but even on the android front there have been changes but not things that are revolutionary to the majority of users.

kelchm 6y ago

> In fact this makes me wonder: if Apple chips are so far ahead, why are iphones not the fastest, best smartphones by a wide margin? Apple has pretty consistently had the fastest SoCs for phones and tablets for a few years now, particularly in single core performance. Here are some benchmark results of the iPhone 12 versus some of it’s Android competitors [1]. Notice that last year’s iPhone 11 Pro Max still outperforms Android phones from this year as well. I think part of the reason this isn’t a major differentiator (for phones at least) is that phones have been “fast enough” for several years now. Given the very aggressive throttling that is utilized on these types of devices, I think the primary difference ends up being battery life / efficiency rather than raw performance. It’s also worth noting that while the performance / efficiency gap between x86 and ARM seems to be pretty sizable at this point, the gap between various current generation ARM CPUs isn’t nearly as drastic. 1: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-destroys-every-android-phone https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-benchmarks-this-des...

perryizgr8 6y ago
Yeah that's what puzzles me, why has chip superiority not translated into an objectively better phone? For laptops the M1 laptops are best in class in everything, battery and performance.
- wrsh07 6y ago
  I honestly don't know why you're being downvoted. I think for some people (eg my oldest brother), the iPhone is "the best." He's not a tech person - and that might be perspective that you're missing. I tend to agree that there are great androids that seem competitive with iPhones (disclosure: I haven't really owned a flagship phone for a while; this is one of android's issues! The flagships aren't that much better than the $300-400 phones) But I know a lot of people who think the iPhone is the premium phone experience, and if they're going to spend over a thousand dollars on a phone, it'll be an iPhone. My point here is that for many people, the iPhone is objectively better.
  - Yetanfou 6y ago

II2II 6y ago

> I don't understand the comparison to the iphone and android situation. Because articles like that are pure nonsense. Take the initial paragraphs. We already knew that faster processors don't necessarily run hotter. People are simply conflating higher clock speeds with higher performance, while ignoring all of the ways CPU design optimizes computation. Likewise, we already knew that "emulation" doesn't imply that performance will be unbearably slow. There has been enormous amounts of research and development into the problem over the decades, to the point where much of our software is optimized at runtime. None of this is meant to diminish what Apple has accomplished. They were clearly paying attention to details that have been largely ignored or at the very least rarely highlighted by their competitors. Now that it has happened, we will likely see more from the PC industry. Apple will likely have a hard time keeping up unless they have more up their sleeve.

alwillis 6y ago
Likewise, we already knew that "emulation" doesn't imply that performance will be unbearably slow. Apple’s Rosetta 2 doesn't do emulation; it translates the x86 code into ARM code on the fly and runs it, which is why most apps run faster on M1 Macs than they do on Intel Macs--and comparably priced PCs. Now that it has happened, we will likely see more from the PC industry. Probably not. If Intel and AMD were capable of this kind of performance per watt, they’d already be doing it. Years ago. Because the latest x86 chip has to be backwards compatible with 40 years of legacy code, there are certain limitations Intel and AMD just have to live with. Apple will likely have a hard time keeping up unless they have more up their sleeve. It's ironic that it's Apple that will have a hard time keeping up when they've already disrupted Intel and AMD. Remember, it's not just a processor; it's a system on a chip that contains an 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning tasks and other components. This has obviously been in the works for several years; Apple wouldn't have gone down this path if they didn't believe it would give them a sustainable competitive advantage for years to come. Even with its ridiculous performance, the M1 is the entry-level consumer version of the M series suitable for (in Apple's lineup) entry-level consumer hardware. The M1-based MacBook Air doesn't have a fan and it's faster and more capable now than many (most?) PCs that cost more and run hotter. One thing we know: the M2 will be faster and more capable than the M1 and won't be limited to 16 Gb. We'll probably see M2-based Macs by the summer of 2021.

mrmonkeyman 6y ago

> The longest battery isn't on an iphone, the best camera isn't on an iphone, the latest screen tech isn't on an iphone, etc. etc. It is not on any single Android model either. Fragmentation is a thing.