[PartiallyTyped]

> The real question should be: would most developers WANT to use a Mac, if given the choice?

If the decision is between Ubuntu and Mac, they will go with Mac because it usually means better hardware and build quality. I don't think that non-mac laptops have screens that can compete with XDR displays.

> (and allows almost no) tinkering to get working

I think that we tend to overlook or dismiss the amount of tinkering we do in MacOS. Installing certain toolchains can be a real PITA, we have to deal with homebrew, outdated utilities (thank god for coreutils in homebrew), and so on.

[bee_rider]

Apple makes perfectly decent devices, but I’d be shocked if there was a metric, maybe other than CPU power with good efficiency inside the envelope that they target, where one couldn’t find something where non-Mac laptops “can’t compete” with a Mac.

The XDR display is nice I’m sure, but there are laptops out there with 4K OLED displays…

I dunno. From what I’ve observed, Apple products are mostly nice due to the attention to detail and the fact that the purchaser can be pretty sure that nothing will be truly deficient. Other than that one time with the MacBook keyboards.

So many products are like: fantastic but here‘s some crippling issue. Apple skips that.

[PartiallyTyped]

- speakers

- chassis flex / build quality

- battery life

Just because a panel is oled and 4k doesn’t mean that it is a good panel. I have a 4k oled tv and its contrast ratios are garbage compared to the laptop.

The panel in the 16inch mbp has variable refresh rate, 10k dimming zones due to the 10k mini leds, 1600 nits peak brightness, 1000 sustained.

[bee_rider]

It is impossible for the contrast ratios of the mini LED display to be better than OLED. Because the OLED screen can turn off individual pixels, the contrast ratios are infinite. With mini LED, the LED must be set to a particular brightness for a dimming zone. 10k looks impressive, but it is just a 100x100 led grid.

For me, I prefer a screen which can go truly black on a pixel-by-pixel basis. You might like the MacBook screen better, and there are surely some metrics by which is can beat an OLED panel (for example some people like really bright screens which OLED can have trouble providing). But it is not true to say that non-Mac laptops can’t compete with the XDR display. For any given metric, there exists a screen out there that is better, and choosing which metrics to prioritize is a matter of preference.