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Microsoft's mission to take down the MacBook Air

35 points by mgh2 2y ago

sillywalk 2y ago
Ars Technica pointed out that these devices are not fanless like the Macbook Air.
al_borland 2y ago
All Microsoft did was demonstrate that they believe the MacBook Air to be the best laptop on the market.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > All Microsoft did was demonstrate that they believe the MacBook Air to be the best laptop on the market. They also believe that Windows is secure. /s
- karmakaze 2y ago
  Well they did demonstrate something else as well (though cherry-picked and have to compare all variables, were the displays equally dimmed?): > All of this app compatibility and performance is nothing without battery life, though. Microsoft uses a script to simulate web browsing. On 2022’s Intel-based Surface Laptop 5, it took eight hours, 38 minutes to completely deplete a battery; the new Surface Copilot Plus PC lasted two times that, hitting 16 hours, 56 minutes. That’s an incredible jump in efficiency, and it even beats the same test on a 15-inch MacBook Air M3, which lasted 15 hours, 25 minutes. That’s a whole hour and a half more.
KingOfCoders 2y ago
To take down the MacBook Air, Microsoft needs to own the supply chain and microprocessors the way Apple does. Apple can create mighty expensive CPUs with larger caches and bigger memory bandwidth because they have the margins. Intel and AMD (Qualcomm etc.) would have problems selling such expensive CPUs to e.g. Asus/Dell/Lenovo/...
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
[dupe] More discussion on the official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40417828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40417828
NayamAmarshe 2y ago
Can't take down MacBook without providing a good and efficient software first. I'd pay to not use Windows 11.
- aeurielesn 2y ago
  I can't imagine paying 3k$ to get adware.
  - thefz 2y ago
    I can't imagine doing any meaningful work on Mac either. Worst offender is Finder, but nowadays OSX is death by a thousand cuts for professional work.
    - ulfw 2y ago
      What is it always with these statements on Hackernews. Such hyperbole. "I can't imagine doing any meaningful work on Mac" I've worked in every company I've ever been in on Macs. I guess it was all meaningless.
      - thefz 2y ago
        It's just a mix of Finder being mostly useless, SMB versions kept back on puropose to spite who knows who, and a low information density due to the user interface being composed of large, distracting elements and pushing weird paradigms to the user (like the drag-everything one). Disregarding Windows 10 which has a decent UI, I find any major DE in Linux to be leagues better in information clarity, information density and speed of common taks/actions than MacOS in daily usage. Not saying your work is useless because to each their own, with the above statement I mean "I would suffer very much".
        NayamAmarshe 2y ago
        Linux is the king for devops work. MacOS is great for professional use, especially if you're in a creative field. Windows, is good for gaming I guess but I like my *nix and privacy better than games.
daghamm 2y ago
I don't know if I can trust the Verge's reporting on these subjects. When the original surface was released, they invented a new critical use case (lap-ability in an airplane seat, seriously?) so they could claim surface has a huge weakness.
- al_borland 2y ago
  I’m no van of The Verge, but being able to use a laptop on my lap is pretty big for me. I’m not going to do it on an airplane, but when sitting on the sofa I do it all the time. The Surface always seems like it would be bad at that.
- jitl 2y ago
  I gave up on my Surface Pro because it turned out that lap-ability is really important for me after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Terretta 2y ago
  Not invented. The new iPad Pro 13 with Magic Keyboard is less lap-able, as it falls over backwards more easily than the 12.9. You have to keep hands on keyboard palm rest, if knees slant down, else it tips. Super annoying to not be able to use things atop your lap.
karmakaze 2y ago
The point I think MS misses is that the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite based devices likely won't be as popular as x86 PCs unless MS/Windows pulls of a Rosetta-type migration and execute a plan to discontinue support for x86. If the platform is always 2nd class with limited application support, it will have lower adoption numbers.
dormento 2y ago
> “You’re going to have the most powerful PC ever,” says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, during the briefing. “In fact, it’s going to outperform any device out there, including a MacBook Air with an M3 processor, by over 50 percent on sustained performance.” Is it really a Personal Computer though? Also, haven't they said the same thing about xbox and "The Power of The Cloud (tm)"?

35 points by mgh2 2y ago

sillywalk 2y ago

Ars Technica pointed out that these devices are not fanless like the Macbook Air.

al_borland 2y ago

All Microsoft did was demonstrate that they believe the MacBook Air to be the best laptop on the market.

hulitu 2y ago
> All Microsoft did was demonstrate that they believe the MacBook Air to be the best laptop on the market. They also believe that Windows is secure. /s
karmakaze 2y ago
Well they did demonstrate something else as well (though cherry-picked and have to compare all variables, were the displays equally dimmed?): > All of this app compatibility and performance is nothing without battery life, though. Microsoft uses a script to simulate web browsing. On 2022’s Intel-based Surface Laptop 5, it took eight hours, 38 minutes to completely deplete a battery; the new Surface Copilot Plus PC lasted two times that, hitting 16 hours, 56 minutes. That’s an incredible jump in efficiency, and it even beats the same test on a 15-inch MacBook Air M3, which lasted 15 hours, 25 minutes. That’s a whole hour and a half more.

KingOfCoders 2y ago

To take down the MacBook Air, Microsoft needs to own the supply chain and microprocessors the way Apple does. Apple can create mighty expensive CPUs with larger caches and bigger memory bandwidth because they have the margins. Intel and AMD (Qualcomm etc.) would have problems selling such expensive CPUs to e.g. Asus/Dell/Lenovo/...

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

[dupe] More discussion on the official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40417828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40417828

NayamAmarshe 2y ago

Can't take down MacBook without providing a good and efficient software first. I'd pay to not use Windows 11.

aeurielesn 2y ago
I can't imagine paying 3k$ to get adware.
- thefz 2y ago
  I can't imagine doing any meaningful work on Mac either. Worst offender is Finder, but nowadays OSX is death by a thousand cuts for professional work.
  - ulfw 2y ago
    What is it always with these statements on Hackernews. Such hyperbole. "I can't imagine doing any meaningful work on Mac" I've worked in every company I've ever been in on Macs. I guess it was all meaningless.
    - thefz 2y ago
      It's just a mix of Finder being mostly useless, SMB versions kept back on puropose to spite who knows who, and a low information density due to the user interface being composed of large, distracting elements and pushing weird paradigms to the user (like the drag-everything one). Disregarding Windows 10 which has a decent UI, I find any major DE in Linux to be leagues better in information clarity, information density and speed of common taks/actions than MacOS in daily usage. Not saying your work is useless because to each their own, with the above statement I mean "I would suffer very much".
      - NayamAmarshe 2y ago
        Linux is the king for devops work. MacOS is great for professional use, especially if you're in a creative field. Windows, is good for gaming I guess but I like my *nix and privacy better than games.

daghamm 2y ago

I don't know if I can trust the Verge's reporting on these subjects. When the original surface was released, they invented a new critical use case (lap-ability in an airplane seat, seriously?) so they could claim surface has a huge weakness.

al_borland 2y ago
I’m no van of The Verge, but being able to use a laptop on my lap is pretty big for me. I’m not going to do it on an airplane, but when sitting on the sofa I do it all the time. The Surface always seems like it would be bad at that.
jitl 2y ago
I gave up on my Surface Pro because it turned out that lap-ability is really important for me after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Terretta 2y ago
Not invented. The new iPad Pro 13 with Magic Keyboard is less lap-able, as it falls over backwards more easily than the 12.9. You have to keep hands on keyboard palm rest, if knees slant down, else it tips. Super annoying to not be able to use things atop your lap.

karmakaze 2y ago

The point I think MS misses is that the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite based devices likely won't be as popular as x86 PCs unless MS/Windows pulls of a Rosetta-type migration and execute a plan to discontinue support for x86. If the platform is always 2nd class with limited application support, it will have lower adoption numbers.

dormento 2y ago

> “You’re going to have the most powerful PC ever,” says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, during the briefing. “In fact, it’s going to outperform any device out there, including a MacBook Air with an M3 processor, by over 50 percent on sustained performance.” Is it really a Personal Computer though? Also, haven't they said the same thing about xbox and "The Power of The Cloud (tm)"?