this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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[–] Private62645949@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (7 children)

More efficiency, more performance. When you are already the best, you don’t need a significant jump in performance. Battery efficiency though? The battery life on these Mac’s is already outstanding, but I will always want more. The dream is a battery that never runs out 😁

[–] peduxe@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (5 children)

if you turn on power saving mode when you’re doing light tasks the laptop runs forever at 50% brightness.

I find myself doing that like twice a month so it’s not a concern at all, battery life is phenomenal for the power these machines have while producing minimal heat and being completely silent.

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[–] no-mad@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The dream is a battery that never runs out 😁

in my home, we do not violate the Laws of Physics.

[–] Greelys@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Violate the law of gravity at your own risk at MY house

[–] Tourgott@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

in my home, we do not violate the Laws of Physics.

In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

[–] SpaceBoJangles@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Well, then I’m going to build my own home, with cocaine and perpetual motion machines.

[–] Ecsta@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I just got the 2023 MBP 16" (base model) and honestly I'm insanely impressed with the battery life. I work in the living room from about 8am to 6pm and have ended the day with ~20% battery life. So when they say all day battery life they aren't kidding.

Obviously if I'm on non-stop zoom meetings or doing more intensive stuff it might not last, but so far its been impressive.

[–] vassyz@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have the 16 Pro Max that's always plugged in, so I had no idea how good the battery life was. Went to the office a few days ago and forgot the charger at home and was planning on asking people if they got a spare charger. Finished the working day on 25%. That's more than enough for me.

[–] ahothabeth@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If it is plugged in most of the time you might want to consider "AlDente".

[–] Ok-Bill3318@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not required on modern Mac. Have not used it and compared my battery health to those who have and my health is better with more cycles.

[–] 00DEADBEEF@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Optimised battery charging never correctly figures out my habits which are very random, so I use Al Dente.

[–] AHrubik@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

MacOS has a built in 80% limiter for Macs that stay plugged in a lot. There is even a menu bar option to trigger a charge to 100% before needing to leave.

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[–] designated_fridge@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

As a developer who spends 99% of the time docked to a monitor though I'd happily take performance over efficiency..

[–] 00DEADBEEF@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Same, these are Pro machines designed for Pros who need performance. I have an M1 Pro 16" machine and the battery life is already more than enough to get me through the day.

[–] AHrubik@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Buy a desktop/Mac Studio. That's literally what they're for. Want or need to work remote? Use an iPad to remote into your desktop for performance. These days the only reason to buy a workstation laptop is if you need performance remotely somewhere that doesn't have good internet or you're mobile 75% of the time.

[–] homerjay42@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What do you use to remote in from your iPad?

[–] AHrubik@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (6 children)

VNC client works well.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/allow-apple-remote-desktop-to-access-your-mac-mh11851/mac

https://support.apple.com/guide/remote-desktop/welcome/mac

Edit: I feel like I should add that you should never expose your computer's remote access software to the internet. Use a VPN server or Reverse Proxy setup. Both can be done easily using a Raspberry Pi.

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[–] tf_17@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Currently waiting for my order. Any Pro or Mac chip is a total overkill for my use, but i still wanted a Pro machine. Awesome to hear that the M3 Pro 16 inch is that efficient. Should still be overkill for my use in even five years time.

[–] jacobp100@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It definitely feels like there was a price jump this series with the base model starting at 8GB, so you have to pay a lot more just to get 16

[–] Nawnp@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Not really, discounting the 13 inch MacBook Pro that also has 8GB of ram, the cheapest MacBook Pro with Pro chips was and is still $2000. Now the M3 base chip is $1600 for the Pro, and even accounting for the jump to 16GB of ram (nobody should be buying that 8gb of ram model) it's still only $1800.

Then again the 15 inch MacBook Air is only going to be $100 cheaper than the same specs Pro models. (And why they're redundant but that's another story.

[–] jacobp100@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I got the baseline M1 14" and it was £1,800. The equivalent now is £2,100

[–] _Nick_2711_@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The UK definitely saw a price jump because everything got more expensive & Apple saw opportunity in that.

I don’t think it was a global price hike, though.

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[–] domdog31@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

so basically you are saying the 15” MBA at 16GB RAM is not worth it vs the 13” MBP at 8GB RAM?

[–] mabhatter@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The issue is that the 15" M2 Air and the 14" M3 Pro are too close together. The only really save here is that Apple jumped up the M3 to appear in the 14" Pro before the 13" Air this time. Maybe that will be the plan going forward? That Pros get new gen chips first.

The M3 MBP and 15" M2 Air are too close together with 8GB and the M3 in the new 14" chassis without 16GB ram just isn't good value proposition for an MBP model. Now if the M3 MBP only cane with 16GB or 24gb it would be a slam dunk... but telling people an MBP with 8GB is a bad joke and the upgrade to 16GB is way too expensive in a $1600 laptop.

[–] KyledKat@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The M3 MBP and 15" M2 Air are too close together with 8GB and the M3 in the new 14" chassis without 16GB ram just isn't good value proposition for an MBP model.

I dunno, I think there is a bit of overlap for the 13" MBA and base 14" MBP. Once you spec them for similar internals, it's a $200 difference which nets you the XDR/ProMotion panel, extra cooling, and built-in HDMI 2.1 and SD card slots, while also reducing (albeit not eliminating) the arbitrary external monitor limit.

The problem is that the base MBA is such a good computer in its own right that it's debatable whether it's worth speccing the internals higher rather than just committing to a slightly more expensive MBP to start.

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[–] Professional-Dish324@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

M2 air - consumer / light creativity laptop & THE Mac laptop to buy in this price range.

M3 base 8GB RAM MBP - corporate purchase computer for managers who are running MS office and keynote.

Expensive for what it is but they’ll claim back some of the sales tax.

No consumers and genuine pros should ever buy this machine - it’s not meant for you.

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[–] ailyara@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

By the time you pay $1800 for 16gb of ram on the M3 why not add $200 (10% more) and get 18gb on the M3 Pro?

[–] Nawnp@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Exactly, Apple is always enticing you to upgrade, that $1800 model is decent, but at $2000 you have even more ram (since the M3 Pro is now 18GB) and a slightly faster chip.

[–] 00DEADBEEF@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly why Apple carefully designs their pricing strucutre. They want you to think that.

[–] rotates-potatoes@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes, they spend tens of millions of dollars designing and building machines they don’t want people to buy, just so they can make a couple hundred more dollars on a different machine. And if the M3 outsells the Pro because most people don’t want to spend $200 for benefits they don’t need, well, that’s, hey, look over there!

[–] 00DEADBEEF@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I never said they don't want you to buy it, I said they design their pricing structure so you spend more. The prices for upgrades don't often reflect their true value, but a carefully chosen price point by Apple that leaves you in a position to justify spending a little more.

[–] rotates-potatoes@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They design their pricing structure to have a compelling offering at a series of price points??? Have you called the police?

[–] 00DEADBEEF@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Are you being deliberately facetious?

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[–] UnjustNation@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

It's a laptop, efficiency should be the number one priority, then performance.

[–] shivaswrath@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I didn't check off the flickering option.

[–] isync@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

My only complain is the lack of Wi-Fi 7. Considering that a laptop lasts several years, would be great if it comes with the latest Wi-Fi tech.

[–] MC_chrome@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My only complain is the lack of Wi-Fi 7

As /u/januszeal pointed out, WiFi 7 has not been completely finalized yet. Additionally, it's not like WiFi 6E is slow or will become slow in the useful lifetime of this laptop.

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[–] design_ai_bot_human@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] isync@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Probably old enough to remember that Apple used to be the early adopter of new tech (Wireless AC, USB-C, Thunderbolt and USB)

[–] JoshRTU@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Sounds like a review where you go out of your way to make the best in class laptop sound just ok.

[–] mi7chy@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Still destroyed on Blender GPU by low end 4050 mobile.

[–] Logicalist@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I think that's the point. If you're doing graphics design or rendering, you should be using an max. Pro is a like office apps, some programming, etc. and the baser model for people that want to play media and browse socialmedia.

It's a pretty nice lineup.

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[–] awkwrrdd@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (9 children)

I sure would like them to start prioritizing efficiency before performance/features in products like the watch. A two/three day Apple Watch battery would make me far more likely to use it for sleep tracking.

[–] Gets_overly_excited@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I have a series 7 and use it every night for tracking. I just plug it in about an hour before I go to sleep and then again for an hour in the morning when I’m getting ready. I wouldn’t mind it having a longer battery life, but I rarely find it running low

[–] awkwrrdd@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I think something like this would work for me as well. Just need to figure out the schedule. I’m currently throwing it on the charger at like 60% every night so surely it’d work

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[–] goldengraaam@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Fast charge from 0% works in 75 minutes. How is that preventative? Charge the watch while you get ready/cook dinner/etc.

[–] ShaidarHaran2@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I hope the band connector redesign and possible skipping of a year before much bigger updates in the Apple watch X/Ultra 3 lead to big increases in battery life

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[–] mirrordisks@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't mind if that extended to phones as well. I'd happily have a phone 3mm thicker if that meant double the battery capacity

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[–] SilasDG@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (12 children)

Wait do Apple Watches not last 2-3 days?

My old Samsung Gear S3 Frontier was rated for 3 days and often went 4-5 way back in 2016. I cannot imagine owning a smartwatch that lasted less than 3.

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[–] AaronParan@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

“Oh look honey!!!! Another wall of numbers that don’t matter!”

Law of diminishing returns. You can only innovate so much as the generations proceed further.

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