Laptop with best battery life - single and only criteria?

[BONES]

Thing is, it was the article that got it wrong, having probably been updated in part at a later date, when newer machines were tested. I was just quoting what was written, but I'm sure you understand what quotation marks mean as well as you do the meaning of "previous".

[Touch The Universe]

I ended up getting it in the mail but didn't notice it didn't come with a charger

I'll need that to come in the mail before I can test it out and decided if I want to keep it. If I get anywhere near 18 hours I'll be more than happy with the purchase

Now I can get to the fun part of planning on a road trip to put it to use

[Jac459]

Not sure if it has been yet mentioned but windows is moving to Qualcomm CPUs, it is a very important step towards awesome battery life...

The first thing to see is the watts/hour consumption of your CPU.
Before, Apple was king with the apple silicon which is blowing under the water the like of Intel (in particular) or AMD.
But then you have to compose with MacOS and the super restricted choices that Apple allow you to have.

What I can tell you is that in my personal experience, as a Windows user who moved to apple since 3 years.... After 3 years I still miss windows.... Not everyday, not for every scenarios, but as soon as I try something "complex" like accessing a share in my network, copying large number of files, read non "apple formatted hard drive" or any other "pseudo" power-user stuffs, I start to hate MacOS like crazy.... Windows is way way more powerful...

That's why in your position I would stay carefully the new line-up of PC with Qualcomm elite CPUs. They are not yet at apple speed but they are very decent I hear. You just need to double check your software compatibility with "windows on ARM".

[revvy]

Thanks for pointing it out. Always happy to learn!

No worries.

[4damind]

If Apple is also an option: MacBook Air (or MacBook Pro). When it comes to long battery life and excellent performance, Apple Silicon computers are currently the best, closely followed by Qualcomm with Windows on Arm (but personally I would wait a few more years for Windows on Arm).

[dellboy]

Apparently, Windows Qualcomm PCs are already being surpassed by the latest intel "Luna Lake" chip Laptops due out next week (if you believe the hype).

https://www.techradar.com/computing/lap ... macbook-m3

[uOpt]

Apparently, Windows Qualcomm PCs are already being surpassed by the latest intel "Luna Lake" chip Laptops due out next week (if you believe the hype).

https://www.techradar.com/computing/lap ... macbook-m3

I would like a more technical site to confirm this.

In any case, it will take forever for audio companies to provide Windows/ARM binaries. They already took long for Apple, where they had no choice since x86 was discontinued. x86 is not being discontinued for Windows. And only a portion of audio users work on battery for extended periods.

[dellboy]

Apparently, Windows Qualcomm PCs are already being surpassed by the latest intel "Luna Lake" chip Laptops due out next week (if you believe the hype).

https://www.techradar.com/computing/lap ... macbook-m3

I would like a more technical site to confirm this.

In any case, it will take forever for audio companies to provide Windows/ARM binaries. They already took long for Apple, where they had no choice since x86 was discontinued. x86 is not being discontinued for Windows. And only a portion of audio users work on battery for extended periods.

No need to convert the intel Luna Lake chips, they are native x86. This is the advantage they have over the Qualcomm Arm chips - no need for conversion. There are plenty of sites that say the hype is real, but until testers have the laptops in their hands we will not know for sure. The chips are down at the 3-4 nanometer level, similar to Apple Arm, so maybe its true. Anyway, only a week to wait to find out the real truth. Whatever happens,its a big leap forward for the x86 world.

[PAK]

What I can tell you is that in my personal experience, as a Windows user who moved to apple since 3 years.... After 3 years I still miss windows.... Not everyday, not for every scenarios, but as soon as I try something "complex" like accessing a share in my network, copying large number of files, read non "apple formatted hard drive" or any other "pseudo" power-user stuffs, I start to hate MacOS like crazy....

That’s fair, and common for Windows users if they go beyond very basic use cases. Mac OS comes with the expectation, nay requirement, that power users will use the command line to do some stuff. EG Common example - When quarantine isn’t showing “allow” in System Settings? It’s the command line, or you’re not running that file.

The use of keyboard shortcuts, and key modifiers, are also a requirement if you’re used to Windows and don’t want a miserable time in Finder. EG Knowing to press “Command + Shift + .” to show hidden files, or “option + command + i” to show multiple File Properties. (Otherwise prepare for a “Get Info” spamming )

Beyond that, you have to use 3rd party utils to address things you don’t like. EG Finder is not consistent about showing thumbnails sometimes, and doesn’t like non-Apple formatted drives as you’ve noticed. I use the Find any File app to “bypass” my Finder / Spotlight search annoyances. I'd struggle to use Mac OS without it.

[Jac459]

What I can tell you is that in my personal experience, as a Windows user who moved to apple since 3 years.... After 3 years I still miss windows.... Not everyday, not for every scenarios, but as soon as I try something "complex" like accessing a share in my network, copying large number of files, read non "apple formatted hard drive" or any other "pseudo" power-user stuffs, I start to hate MacOS like crazy....

That’s fair, and common for Windows users if they go beyond very basic use cases. Mac OS comes with the expectation, nay requirement, that power users will use the command line to do some stuff. EG Common example - When quarantine isn’t showing “allow” in System Settings? It’s the command line, or you’re not running that file.

The use of keyboard shortcuts, and key modifiers, are also a requirement if you’re used to Windows and don’t want a miserable time in Finder. EG Knowing to press “Command + Shift + .” to show hidden files, or “option + command + i” to show multiple File Properties. (Otherwise prepare for a “Get Info” spamming )

Beyond that, you have to use 3rd party utils to address things you don’t like. EG Finder is not consistent about showing thumbnails sometimes, and doesn’t like non-Apple formatted drives as you’ve noticed. I use the Find any File app to “bypass” my Finder / Spotlight search annoyances. I'd struggle to use Mac OS without it.

Yes you are absolutely right. I have a software engineering training so I do love the fact that MacOS comes with the terminal. I like the terminal. It is much nicer than PUTTY.

But... That doesn't excuse the finder... Oh my, the finder...

I am a super neutral guy, in the sense that I like neither windows, neither macOS, neither Linux, neither QNX or BeOS... You get my point... They are all decent with plus and minus...

But if you asked me 3 years ago, while discovering MacOS, I would have said that MacOS is roughly on par with Windows. I don't think that anymore... On top of the horrible finder (but you are right, for a few dollars, you can get a good one), I find some "standards" implementations extremely badly done.
Connection to Samba ==> very unreliable.
Connection to FTP ==> very unriable.
Connection to Android... ==> not available (fortunately third party softwares exist but are far from great).

This is all horrible. Then you may say, "why the f**k do you have an android, embrace the ecosystem!". But:
1 - they don't have foldables
2 - I do what I want.
More seriously, as a music lover, I have a Digital Audio Player. There is no good digital audio player in this planet that is not under android. So even if I was an apple fan-boy with all the ecosystem, I would still be f**ked. And the fact that my router is using Samba and FTP to share files isn't my fault, should I also buy Apple for router? Does it even exist? Basically I thought the problem was my router until I tried with my android phone and got absolutely no issue.

Anyway, rant is over, I still absolutely love the fact that the Mac is on ARM super powerful silicon, that was a genius move. As per tablets with audio software, there is no choice, the iPad rules....

Sorry, back on topic...

[4damind]

Apparently, Windows Qualcomm PCs are already being surpassed by the latest intel "Luna Lake" chip Laptops due out next week (if you believe the hype).

https://www.techradar.com/computing/lap ... macbook-m3

We'll see... It's hard to speculate about unreleased CPUs and hardware. The comparison with the M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max will then be interesting.
The advantage would be that you wouldn't need a translation for X86 programs and no native Arm versions. I think this is currently one of Qualcomm's biggest problems, that there is hardly any Windows software that is adapted for Arm (Afaik)

[Jac459]

Apparently, Windows Qualcomm PCs are already being surpassed by the latest intel "Luna Lake" chip Laptops due out next week (if you believe the hype).

https://www.techradar.com/computing/lap ... macbook-m3

We'll see... It's hard to speculate about unreleased CPUs and hardware. The comparison with the M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max will then be interesting.
The advantage would be that you wouldn't need a translation for X86 programs and no native Arm versions. I think this is currently one of Qualcomm's biggest problems, that there is hardly any Windows software that is adapted for Arm (Afaik)

Somehow, I have hard time to believe in intel capacity to comeback in the game. These kind of announcements have been seen before...

[revvy]

Qualcomm just approached Intel about a possible takeover. Hmmm.

[Touch The Universe]

Okay, got the charger, should be able to test the battery now.

On a side note, guess I gotta learn a mac.

After a couple minutes, I was able to find the apple menu and can change the desktop

[Jac459]

Okay, got the charger, should be able to test the battery now.

On a side note, guess I gotta learn a mac.

After a couple minutes, I was able to find the apple menu and can change the desktop

So you got a Mac with apple silicon finally?
That's a good choice, I predict you will be very satisfied with the battery.

As per macos, as long as you don't do power users stuffs, you are fine.