7 ms·
Not going to lie but Apple have put pretty high standards on what people expect to work with all laptops nowadays, and many OEMs seem unable or unwilling to try
by joeberon 5y ago
Not going to lie but Apple have put pretty high standards on what people expect to work with all laptops nowadays, and many OEMs seem unable or unwilling to try to catch up.
- siva7 5y agoIt's funny how the competition tries to copy the success of the Macbook line but fails on such an elementar design. I really wish they would succeed and make laptops not made by Apple suck less.
- joeberon 5y agoI guess it's difficult when you don't control the full stack. Windows is a bit of a mess nowadays to be honest, you will probably get better luck with a linux laptop
- chriswarbo 5y agoApple laptops have their own problems, like delivering mild electric shocks from their exposed-metal cases. Unfortunately the trend of copying Apple has lead to other manufacturers having exposed-metal cases, and inheriting this flaw.
- joeberon 5y agoYes, I have noticed this too. Still, to me that is very minor compared to some people's descriptions of literally red hot XPS's in their backpacks here...
- toxik 5y agoI had an electrical engineer tell me this was more or less inevitable. I thought that sounded very strange.
- avianlyric 5y agoI suspect that without complete galvanic isolation (which would require a transformer in the power supply), you can’t avoid this phenomenon. Although why you can avoid it probably depends on what country you’re in. But as a general rule it pretty tricky to get a true “zero volt” reference out of an AC socket. (You can’t know if the neutral is actually zero-volts, or just a different phase, or if a fault elsewhere has caused your neutral to drift slightly. Equally you can’t rely on the ground, because if you started leaking current down it, it would trip the ground current leak protector and turn your house off). Which means the ground the power supply presents to the device is alway gonna be a little bit off.
- toxik 5y agoBut laptop chargers _do_ have transformers, and inductors for that matter -- they're switching power supplies! I actually had a problem with this on my MacBook to the degree that I would simply connect a wire between the protective earth and a radiator I had. It worked, strangely enough. It's also perfectly safe to do.
- avianlyric 5y agoI stand corrected, the power supplies you find for electronics do have transformers in them that provide galvanic isolation. I guess I’ve spent too much time looking at high voltage (measured in kV) power electronics used in HVDC transmission, it didn’t occur to me that household electronics would use a slightly different approach.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- reitzensteinm 5y agoI have a 2020 MBP, and it's as shitty as any high end Windows laptop I've used. The thermals are awful under moderate CPU use, the fan spins when using an external monitor, the battery vampire drains when it's shut for an extended time instead of saving memory to disk and shutting off. I think what really happens is people compare $1k Dells with $3k Apples. I'm looking forward to an M1X MBP, though. That may legitimately outclass any Windows device.
- joeberon 5y agoI've never had any of that happen with either of my $1000 MacBook Pros, from 2013 and 2017 respectively. Now I just got a 2020 M1 MBP, we'll see how that goes but it seems great so far
- rawbot 5y agoSame thing with my MBP from 2018.
- FlyingAvatar 5y agoRegarding the problem discussed in the article, the Dell could easily cost $3,000, and the problem would not exist a $1000 MacBook, even an Intel one. In this case, I think it’s Apple’s proper prioritization of features. Probably also that Apple is able to do this because they don’t have to work on dozens of different models at the same time. It’s amazing to me that no major PC manufacturers have really done this yet.
- reitzensteinm 5y agoDon't get me wrong, the Windows laptops I've used had their own list of things too. The MBP from my perspective is just more of the same. Not better, not worse, but different.
- campl3r 5y agoThe problem discussed in the article happens for MacBooks too
- Macha 5y agoThis is absolutely a problem on some Macs too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28304628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28304628
- blablabla123 5y agoYes and no. Speaking of hibernation/standby/wakeup, that just works (TM). Also the chassis is more robust than classical PC laptops - although many manufacturers have catched up. On the other hand the keyboards have mixed quality, CPU/GPU model and choice has been questionable (below average performance). Also other manufacturers don't seem to have problems building "always-on" systems when it comes to tablets or smartphones. Because this is essentially what modern Macbooks are, some weird fusion of a laptop and a standard consumer appliance. (It works like a stereo) So I'd argue Apple has been focussing on the latter and ignored performance/storage requirements which is actually more practical if you really carry the laptop around a lot.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Hamuko 5y agoIt's not really Apple alone. Everyone has a smartphone and everyone expects it to just work when they put their smartphone display to sleep and then stuff the phone in their jeans pocket.
- weberer 5y ago>Apple have put pretty high standards on what people expect to work with all laptops nowadays Linux too. I have a Dell XPS Developer edition with Ubuntu. When I close the lid, it simply goes to sleep and doesn't wake up again until I tell it to.
- liminal 5y agoI have to charge my Macbook using the port on one side and not the other because its thermal management isn't good.
- sethammons 5y agoMy 2015 mbp is usually solid. Twice I've put it in my bag only to take it our 45 minutes later being too hot to handle.