Laptop or Macbook? Always been a Desktop user, apple scares me

[chagzuki]

The trackpad itself was very good. Globally a pleasure to use.

I had one issue though during the life of the razer, the track pad left click started to be less responsive. Turns out the battery was starting to inflate. After I changed the battery everything came back normal.

But overall, really, the build quality of razer is awesome, the oled screen is still perfect after 3 years, with very small bezels. The design is still my favourite of all laptops (including apple).
If it was not for the thermals and overall performance I would have (very) happily kept it.

It's good to see standards rising across the board. I'm kinda glad that I haven't experienced anything which makes me feel the MacBook Pro display is sub-par. I was quite happy with the Air display, then when I moved to the Pro the 120Hz refresh rate turned out to be a massive improvement, and it would be hard now to return to something less. Lots of folk comment that using an external monitor with a MacBook Pro can be a bad experience since the external monitor tends to look laggy/blurry compared to the Pro display.

[FapFilter]

yup, i"m loving my Air.
the only thing i'm missing is a higher refresh rate screen.
would love to see Apple offering at least a configuration option for a better screen, like most PC makers are doing since forever.
though honestly i'm hoping to sit this out and 60Hz is going to look too silly between all the 240+Hz (or 120Hz for even the cheapest $150 bargain bin Windows laptops) of pretty much any other maker when my next MBA will be due in around 2028-2030 or so, that even Apple can't offer 60Hz to anyone anymore.
- oh and at least 16GB of RAM and a larger SSD for the base model should hopefully be standard too by then

[PieBerger]

yup, i"m loving my Air.
the only thing i'm missing is a higher refresh rate screen.
would love to see Apple offering at least a configuration option for a better screen, like most PC makers are doing since forever.
though honestly i'm hoping to sit this out and 60Hz is going to look too silly between all the 240+Hz (or 120Hz for even the cheapest $150 bargain bin Windows laptops) of pretty much any other maker when my next MBA will be due in around 2028-2030 or so, that even Apple can't offer 60Hz to anyone anymore.
- oh and at least 16GB of RAM and a larger SSD for the base model should hopefully be standard too by then

I hope so too, paying £400 for £200 max worth of parts was a painful experience I hope to avoid again in the future

[FapFilter]

just be thankful that you aren't reliant on 128GB of RAM and 8TB storage!

[BONES]

"No one else's experiences are valid, I am always right"

If it was just my experience, that would be one thing but when I have facts to back it, it carries a little more weight than that. If you want to argue, argue the facts, don't get stuck into me. It just makes it look like you have nothing to back your point of view.

The fan noise thing is a bullshit excuse that has always annoyed the shit out of me. It is not a thing I reserve for Mac v PC debates, it's bullshit across the board. If you want to convince me otherwise, measure it, see what it is and prove that it's an issue. But don't tell me about open back headphones and partners watching TV because that's just absolutely krap.

[PieBerger]

just be thankful that you aren't reliant on 128GB of RAM and 8TB storage!

Indeed! I'm quite happy with 16 + 512 and a superfast thumb drive for storing samples/libaries on! £40 vs another £200, stick that where the sun doesn't shine Mr Cook

[PieBerger]

"No one else's experiences are valid, I am always right"

If it was just my experience, that would be one thing but when I have facts to back it, it carries a little more weight than that. If you want to argue, argue the facts, don't get stuck into me. It just makes it look like you have nothing to back your point of view.

The fan noise thing is a bullshit excuse that has always annoyed the shit out of me. It is not a thing I reserve for Mac v PC debates, it's bullshit across the board. If you want to convince me otherwise, measure it, see what it is and prove that it's an issue. But don't tell me about open back headphones and partners watching TV because that's just absolutely krap.

How disruptive or not background noise is to the individual or those around them is entirely subjective, therefore how can varying subjective experience from person to person "annoy the shit out of you " and be "bullshit across the board", exactly?

I personally cannot stand the sound of background traffic noise; my friend lives near a busy main road and it drives me mad whenever I visit, especially at night but I lived under the flight path by Heathrow for a year and didn't really have any issues with the planes flying overhead constantly. They are about equal loudness, so given the empirical data would suggest they are one and the same, why does one bother me more than the other? Because it does and that's all there is to it.

What is it to you how much fan noise effects the next person (or not)? Given the choice between a laptop that is silent and one that is not, what is it to you if I, or anyone else, chooses the silent option because it benefits us, even if you don't appreciate the benefit yourself? Why is that bullshit that annoys you? I can absolutely give you krap about open back headphones and partner's watching TV, because it is my environment, my partner, my experiences, not yours. For example, you have no idea what my partner's noise tolerances are, so how could you possibly call bullshit if you aren't in possession of all of the facts? You can't and you do this all of the time, use your own experiences as the baseline for "fact" and then decide what is and isn't bullshit against it. That is bullshit.

[Jac459]

I personally cannot stand the sound of background traffic noise; my friend lives near a busy main road and it drives me mad whenever I visit, especially at night but I lived under the flight path by Heathrow for a year and didn't really have any issues with the planes flying overhead constantly. They are about equal loudness, so given the empirical data would suggest they are one and the same, why does one bother me more than the other? Because it does and that's all there is to it.

What is it to you how much fan noise effects the next person (or not)? Given the choice between a laptop that is silent and one that is not, what is it to you if I, or anyone else, chooses the silent option because it benefits us, even if you don't appreciate the benefit yourself? Why is that bullshit that annoys you? I can absolutely give you krap about open back headphones and partner's watching TV, because it is my environment, my partner, my experiences, not yours. For example, you have no idea what my partner's noise tolerances are, so how could you possibly call bullshit if you aren't in possession of all of the facts? You can't and you do this all of the time, use your own experiences as the baseline for "fact" and then decide what is and isn't bullshit against it. That is bullshit.

Don't feed the troll .

Just to make you confortable, many pc gaming publications, channels and everywhere on reddit compare the noise level of laptops because it can go until 50db and obviously it matters.
So imagine if it matters for gamers, it should matters for music production...
I guess professional studios spend large amount on room treatment and sound isolation because they are .... stupid... lol.

[PieBerger]

I personally cannot stand the sound of background traffic noise; my friend lives near a busy main road and it drives me mad whenever I visit, especially at night but I lived under the flight path by Heathrow for a year and didn't really have any issues with the planes flying overhead constantly. They are about equal loudness, so given the empirical data would suggest they are one and the same, why does one bother me more than the other? Because it does and that's all there is to it.

What is it to you how much fan noise effects the next person (or not)? Given the choice between a laptop that is silent and one that is not, what is it to you if I, or anyone else, chooses the silent option because it benefits us, even if you don't appreciate the benefit yourself? Why is that bullshit that annoys you? I can absolutely give you krap about open back headphones and partner's watching TV, because it is my environment, my partner, my experiences, not yours. For example, you have no idea what my partner's noise tolerances are, so how could you possibly call bullshit if you aren't in possession of all of the facts? You can't and you do this all of the time, use your own experiences as the baseline for "fact" and then decide what is and isn't bullshit against it. That is bullshit.

Don't feed the troll .

Just to make you confortable, many pc gaming publications, channels and everywhere on reddit compare the noise level of laptops because it can go until 50db and obviously it matters.
So imagine if it matters for gamers, it should matters for music production...
I guess professional studios spend large amount on room treatment and sound isolation because they are .... stupid... lol.

It's bullshit across the board, gamers are stupid or something

[chagzuki]

Actually, come to think of it, when I talked about MacBook speakers being very good for casual music-making, and even casual mixing, part of the reason for that is the lack of fan noise getting in the way.

[PieBerger]

Actually, come to think of it, when I talked about MacBook speakers being very good for casual music-making, and even casual mixing, part of the reason for that is the lack of fan noise getting in the way.

Lies

[chagzuki]

Lies

I know, I only said it because I'm an idiot.

And the pink noise method of mixing is great, so just get a fan with the right noise profile.

[Jac459]

I know, I only said it because I'm an idiot.

And the pink noise method of mixing is great, so just get a fan with the right noise profile.

[BONES]

How disruptive or not background noise is to the individual or those around them is entirely subjective

Up to a point but when said noise is largely undetectable, as is the case with the vast majority of laptops today, then it's just bullshit. Then there is the fact that until a little more than two years ago, Macs ran the same processors as everyone else yet, even then, there was all this bullshit around fan noise. It's a tired old horse that's been flogged to death and no longer has any relevance. The ridiculous scenarios posited in this thread confirm the absurdity of this position. Take the headphones example - do you know what the first thing I notice when I put on a pair of headphones is? It's the sound of blood rushing around my fat head. It drowns out any minor ambient sounds, even with my open-back AKGs on. But your brain learns to ignore it. It's the same with fan noise and all those other ambient sounds you can't control. You just have to choose to do so.

I personally cannot stand the sound of background traffic noise; my friend lives near a busy main road and it drives me mad whenever I visit, especially at night but I lived under the flight path by Heathrow for a year and didn't really have any issues with the planes flying overhead constantly. They are about equal loudness, so given the empirical data would suggest they are one and the same, why does one bother me more than the other? Because it does and that's all there is to it.

I'd suggest there is some mental health issue at play, particularly if you are aware of the condition, yet unable to deal with it. Perhaps some unresolved childhood trauma? Because it's definitely a choice - you are choosing to be annoyed by one thing but not the other.

What is it to you how much fan noise effects the next person (or not)?

My concern is only about misrepresentation of reality. Whether that comes from someone's desperate need to justify a poor choice, a deliberate lie or mental health issues, it's a misrepresentation nonetheless. If fan noise is an issue for you, it is because you choose to make it one, not because it is.

In fact, until I started reading about it here, a long time ago now, it is not something I had ever noticed, perhaps because of an ability to tune out distraction? But when I deliberately listened for it, it was there and I could understand people having a slight issue with it during recording. But in the last few years it has become such a minor thing that most of the time I can't hear it even when I am listening for it. That makes it impossible to see it as any kind of issue for someone buying a new laptop in 2023. It's as simple as that.

Given the choice between a laptop that is silent and one that is not, what is it to you if I, or anyone else, chooses the silent option because it benefits us, even if you don't appreciate the benefit yourself?

Because, and this seems to be a huge problem with a lot of threads here, it's not about you and I, it's about somebody looking for useful answers to a question. So when someone tries to peddle bullshit, I'm going to do my best to point it out so the person asking the question can make the best decision for himself. Why is it that you can't maintain that focus on helping someone out but, instead, have to make it all about you?

I can absolutely give you krap about open back headphones and partner's watching TV, because it is my environment, my partner, my experiences, not yours. For example, you have no idea what my partner's noise tolerances are, so how could you possibly call bullshit if you aren't in possession of all of the facts?

Because I have a little thing that seems to be in increasingly short supply in the world - common sense. Common sense tells me that if your partner is watching TV, you are walking into an already noisy environment, one in which I can guarantee you that none of my last 3 laptops would be capable of making detectable fan noise, even running flat-out.

You can't and you do this all of the time, use your own experiences as the baseline for "fact" and then decide what is and isn't bullshit against it. That is bullshit.

This might come as a shock to you but I actually know other people. A lot of them. That gives me a reasonable insight into norms and averages, so I can say with a fair degree of confidence that unless your girlfriend suffers from misophonia, I think your scenario is absurd and I simply don't believe it is accurate, indicative of anything or in any way useful to the OP. i.e. Why should the OP care about fan noise, just because you're afraid of your partner?

[revvy]

I’ve got tinnitus, I crave background noise. As I’m away from my better half due to work these days, I get to blast brown noise at night to help me sleep.

Got a motorway outside my office right now, love the constant woosh noise.

My MBP is too quiet…

[Apologies bones (aka Mr Common Sense) for making this post about me, I know you’d never do that]