[lnenad]

It's not a valid comparison. Up until this (theoretical) machine, the playing field wasn't equal. Windows laptops in general couldn't really compare in many aspects with Macs since M1 (outside of gaming), batteries were horrible due to bad efficiency, performance wasn't amazing even with the best SKUs, and the distance between the vendor and Microsoft was always impacting different aspects of the finished product. Even with the ARM Surface, the ecosystem still wasn't ready for ARM, the performance was lacking. If this device doesn't cost an arm and a leg, it will offer something that is really the first instance of a Windows device that's a better choice than an M-Macbook in many ways (at least on paper).

[threetonesun]

Back when Macs were suffering under poor Intel chips there were valid competitors in battery life and size and weight from Dell. Except they ran Windows, and the trackpad was never as good as a Mac, and you'd find yourself searching for driver updates for things like the built in camera, which also wasn't very good because Dell doesn't have an entire division building amazing tiny cameras for phones.

Microsoft maybe had a chance when they decided to build their own Surface tablets/laptops but trying to make an OS that worked for that but also worked for your corporate issue Lenovo laptops is (as Apple seems to know), impossible.

[pathartl]

They were only suffering and had great battery life because they were kneecapping their own machines with improper cooling. It's pretty obvious their last few Intel laptops were intentionally designed so that the M1 would look better in almost every way. It was still an incredible chip, but I personally didn't believe that it was a fair comparison.

[loloquwowndueo]

> Dell. Except they ran Windows,

Dell XPS series have been available with Ubuntu since 2012 at the very least.

[lnenad]

I mean, yeah ok? Not sure what your point is? This isn't directly related to this machine though. First Nvidia SoC and a much better vertical integration with now non trivial amount of experience in hardware stands to offer something that wasn't avaliable before.

[bryanlarsen]

> Up until this (theoretical) machine,

A little earlier than that. With Intel's Lunar Lake / Panther Lake, x86 laptops are again in the same ballpark as a Mac efficiency-wise. There are reputable reviews where people are getting 16-20 hours of battery life out of them doing real work, in both Windows & Linux.

M5 is probably still better, but at least the x86 machines don't embarrass themselves any more.

[thewebguyd]

They still run a bit hotter and louder.

Outside of that though, there's still hit and miss quality on the PC OEM side of things. 1080p screens are still the default for a ton of models, even higher end ones, and the OEMs keep missing the point of why people prefer Apple hardware.

Several are coming out with 8GB machines now at macbook Neo price points with....1920x1200 screens, probably a low quality panel, and questionable trackpad. Again, missing the entire point of the Neo.

[bryanlarsen]

Yes. Intel may now finally be producing chips that allow OEM's to build machines that aren't embarassing, yet they still do.

[wiseowise]

I have Surface copilot whatever. The battery life is great. OS is a complete garbage. No amount of HW thrown at windows will fix its issues.

[drfloyd51]

That is a lot of misdirection that doesn’t address the main point of the of OC.

This fancy new device still runs windows. And that is a non starter from many people.

[alkonaut]

That works both ways: The macs run MacOS which for my work at least is a non-starter. I write win-only apps and sell to win-only customers who run only windows-machines. I do want to run local AI models on my machine though so I really do see the need for shared memory laptops.

[spjt]

As if the reason people don't like Windows is because the ads on their desktop weren't loading fast enough.