There is an Immense Contrast between Current Windows Laptops and Apple M1/M2 MacBooks in Terms of Heat, Noise and Battery

TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 09:44

In my opinion Windows is by far the superior OS for anything to do with corporate work and gaming (although you wouldn't wanna game on a laptop). However my one gripe with any Windows laptop is this: every single one generates so much heat, so much noise, and the battery degrades very fast. Pretty much from day 1.

Even if you buy the best Windows laptop ever, it will still heat up immensly, make noise, and battery will die start to die in 2-3 hours after a couple of months of use. It's just ridiculous. My WFH laptop is a decently specc'd Dell Latitude, and it will become hot and noisy while in standbly doing f-k all, and meanwhile I'm powering through my M1 MacBook Pro 2020 on multiple applications and there quite literally no sound, the surface is actually cold as there is no heat whatsoever, and the battery will probably last me all day if I choose to have it on battery.

I've used countless modern Windows laptops - ultrabooks, thicker productivity/work laptops, gaming laptop, you name it. They all just become a slug after a few months. Some will be hot and noisy from day 1. And almost always, their battery will significantly degrade in 6-12 months even with moderate use. Where as I have used the crap out of my MacBook and it still feels almost brand new a year later - no heat, no noise, and battery is still almost perfect. The only thing I have ever felt is a slight warm area near my MacBook fan but it's only if I'm smashing it and it's on my lap running on battery, and then that little bit of heat disappears real quick. Still no noise.

This is the one area where M1 / M2 macs absolutely blow every single Windows laptop out of the water, and feels like Windows laptops are about a decade behind.

Of course I know this is because of the ARM-based approach Apple has taken with their in-house processor. But I'm just thinking, how long before Windows laptops come anywhere close to something that feels this good? Or rather Intel/AMD/etc.

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • iamherenow on 23/08/2022 - 09:49
    +3

    The time is now. From my ideapad pro 5 running silently with no heat issues and great battery run-time.

    • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 10:10

      This is interesting! So you can do whatever you want and it doesn't become hot or lots of air blowing out of the fans?

      Also I have heard the battery on the ideapad pro 5 is not the best but still good enough

      • iamherenow on 23/08/2022 - 10:49

        If the graphics card kicks in, then the fans will get going. Of if it's doing hard work. In a normal day for me, the fans will never turn on.

        • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 10:57

          That's pretty impressive for a Windows / AMD laptop

  • Amaris on 23/08/2022 - 09:53
    -5

    There is an Immense Contrast between Current Windows Laptops and Apple M1/M2 MacBooks in Terms of Heat, Noise and Battery

    Thank you

  • BewareOfThe Dog on 23/08/2022 - 10:06
    +2

    Windows OS is a far superior OS, more logical and easier to use, however I am a muso, and find my M1 MBPro an awesome unit (I wish I bought 16GB Ram).

    • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 10:12

      Agree with both points. I think Windows is a better OS for sure, but love my M1 MBP and am a muso too. Usually use GarageBand with a digital piano and a mic connected.

  • GordonD on 23/08/2022 - 10:07

    So what are you complaining about? Everyone gets to choose what they consider important. Paying a high price from one company and getting a technically superior product that you can't actually do much on, or paying a range of prices according to what you can afford for a range of capabilities from limited to great that you can do pretty much anything on. Its like cars, you can get a fantastic car if you can afford and want to pay a lot of money, but you don't have to if that isn't what you need because, basically, even the most basic ones do the basic job that is all that most people need done. In cars that is getting from A to B and back reliably. In computers its looking on the internet and running basic apps.

    • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 10:09
      +7

      The money thing is irrelevant imo - you can get an 2020 M1 MacBook Air for <1.5k and it will smack any 2022 2-3k windows laptop in terms of the three things I mentioned here - heat, noise and battery

      • ColtNoir on 24/08/2022 - 15:34

        Agreed mate. I’ve been looking at laptops for a few months and for comparable build quality and specs you’re paying more (without sales) on an PC ultrabook.

        I figured if I’m going to pay more, and deal with noise etc I might as well be able to game on it, so I bought a Legion 5 Pro.

  • Mechz on 23/08/2022 - 11:14
    +1

    Have you adjusted your power profiles?

    My Lenovo Thinkpad work laptop was cranking up all the time (and using 6gb of 16 at idle coping with Teams and Symantec) when I first got it 18 months ago. I changed the win10 power slider to the left and now it doesn't annoy me ever. Has plenty of grunt for everything and the battery lasts several hours.

  • CodeXD on 23/08/2022 - 11:17
    +1

    My Lenovo laptop allows me to only charge the battery between 50-60% to maintain the battery health.

    • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 11:19
      -2

      What do you mean allows? Like software blocks it from overcharging?

      This is ridiculous imo - in 2022 you should be able to use a laptop as you please, with no micro-managing battery.

      Hence why M1 / M2 MacBooks are so superior in battery.

      • CodeXD on 23/08/2022 - 11:20

        It is part of Lenovo Vantage software. I would say it stops charging from a deeper level than software as it also blocks it from charging when laptop is off.

        Battery degrades over time, no matter if the battery is in a windows laptop or macbook lol

        • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 11:31
          -1

          Of course, nothing is going to stop a battery from degrading. What I mean is, we shouldn’t need special softwares that help restrict battery charging to maintain battery health - it should be built into the OS in a generic way and the technology should be there so can just use your computer as you please, and get decent battery performance without having to baby it - either manually or with a software

          • CodeXD on 23/08/2022 - 11:33
            +3

            @TwentyTwoCarats: It is based on usage.

            I use my laptop mostly at home while plugged in, so I prefer to keep the battery in good condition sitting on 59%. When I want to go out and use it on battery mode, I charge it up to full so I get to maximise the battery without carrying the brick around. '

            macbook also have a similar feature

            • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 11:41
              +1

              @CodeXD: Yeah, gotcha. Pretty much same thing. My overall point is that these things should be built in and you shouldn’t need to play around with settings to get good usage. But yeah it’s nice to have these options.

  • shaybisc on 23/08/2022 - 11:53
    +3

    I know nothing of Apple but if you search there is loads of stuff on M2 MacBook Pro throttling and overheating.

    Like this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVIknUcCjiQ

    • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 12:07

      Maybe I got the better one - M1 MacBook Pro tests never found anything this bad. Same as the M1 MacBook Air.

      M2 seems to have become worse on this front.

      Regardless, my general point stands in that there is a clear difference in user experience

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 23/08/2022 - 12:19
    +1

    my bought one release day surface pro 3 is still going good, much to my surprise. Still getting me through a full work day.

  • Gareth on 23/08/2022 - 13:33
    +1

    I guess it depends on whether Nuvia (now part of Qualcomm) is ever successful in making a competitor Arm product.

    An alternative might be if OEMs could source Apple's Arm chips - but doubt Apple is going to give up its IP to competitors.

    Of course, you could just run Windows on Arm on a Macbook.

    • BewareOfThe Dog on 23/08/2022 - 23:13
      +1

      Apple=selfish

      I doubt it.

      • DoctorCalculon on 23/08/2022 - 23:56
        +3

        Hell will freeze over before Apple will share their R&D work. Don't forget they are one of the most litigious companies out there.

  • blonky on 23/08/2022 - 13:35
    +2

    Agree with Op. Had good spec'd out XPS15 and other Windows laptops and would always crank the fans as soon as they're turned on.

    Excel is a good proportion of my work and even though the OSX version is crippled, moving to Mac was overall the better choice. Longer battery and far less random BSODs

  • ShortyX on 23/08/2022 - 14:41
    +2

    Nice try Tim Cook.

  • randysal on 23/08/2022 - 14:47

    Different manufacturers will try different designs to keep things cool. Possibly you have been unlucky with windows machines. I have surface pro 3, surface pro 8, current dell latitude from work and all are exceptional. I also have a work MacBook Pro, but to be honest I don't use it much, so cannot directly compare. However I have never been bothered by any heat/fan/battery issues on any of these machines.

    Surface pro 3 has been my daily for 10 years now, before the upgrade and the battery life is around 75% from new.

    On a side note for portable devices, I would stick to i5/i3 chips to make the most out of battery - unfortunately these configurations usually come with less RAM/storage.

  • gavincato on 23/08/2022 - 14:50

    I have a mbp 16 max and it's wonderful - but I also have a 15" surface laptop and it's also great. Doesn't run hot, about 6-7hrs battery usage.

  • Muten-Roshi on 23/08/2022 - 15:08
    +1

    Linux is the answer

    • BewareOfThe Dog on 23/08/2022 - 23:14
      +1

      Os/2

    • H4nd0 on 24/08/2022 - 08:22
      +1

      Nice try, Linus.

      • BewareOfThe Dog on 24/08/2022 - 09:02
        +1

        That comment was sponsored by Malwarebytes.

  • GordonD on 23/08/2022 - 16:59

    Apple keeps switching to RISC chips, then after a couple of years switching back to Intel, or to another different RISC chip. If RISC was so fundamentally superior, why don't they keep using it? Maybe they've finally picked the right one - ARM - this time.

    • H4nd0 on 24/08/2022 - 08:33
      +1

      Apple Silicon (aka M1, M2) is an ARM designed and licensed RISC based System on a Chip (SoC). In terms of Apple desktops and laptops:

      Motorola 68K: 1984-1995: CISC
      PowerPC: 1994-2005: RISC
      Intel: 2006-present: CISC
      ARM: 2020-present: RISC

      Apple scarcely "keeps switching". They don't.

  • EdZachary on 23/08/2022 - 17:04
    +2

    Yes, M1/M2 are way better performance per watt, but i think a lot of what you are describing is due to all the junk that Corporate IT shovel onto your laptop.

    Symantec Endpoint, etc, all of that junk eats CPU and RAM. My work machine sits idle just after boot with 8gb of 16gb used. 50%! Nothing loaded!

    If your work machine was clean formatted and set up with your personal stuff, i think you would have a different experience with the hardware.

    I’m no windows apologist (run a Mac Studio at home) but corporate IT bloatware on a PC is not an even footing to compare with a Mac, let alone an M1 or M2.

    • TwentyTwoCarats on 23/08/2022 - 17:20
      +1

      Agree the IT bloat may contribute to some of it. But unfortunately my personal windows laptop that ran on bare minimum standby programs suffered the exact same experience. To me it feels like the heat, noise and battery implications are just inherent to any intel chip full stop. I don’t have much experience with AMD chips but I still see the M1/M2 macs leading in this topic of heat noise and battery

      • samfisher5986 on 24/08/2022 - 10:51
        +1

        Its not the Intel chip or AMD itself, what you are seeing are chips being pushed to their limits for performance reasons combined with slimming down laptops to their limits, rather then anything else.

        The issue is that Windows 8/Vista/10/11 are too resource hungry combined with how resource hungry today's web applications are.

        If you put Windows XP/7 on one of those machines and clocked the CPU down to something reasonable, it would be perfect.

        Either AMD/Intel need a huge performance increase or applications need to be more efficient.

  • Seraphin7 on 23/08/2022 - 17:49

    YMMV, but I can honestly say I've never heard a laptop running (other than when something is clearly wrong with it), at least not since SSDs became standard kit.

    As I type this, I'm sitting here alone with nothing but low-level ambient noise from outside several floors below me and I can't hear a thing from my (Wintel) laptop, even with my ear down over it's keyboard.

  • Boogerman on 24/08/2022 - 09:41

    Running Windows 11 on an M1/M2 Mac is easy with Parallels

  • Gekov on 24/08/2022 - 15:19
    +1

    "my one gripe with any Windows laptop is this: every single one generates so much heat, so much noise, and the battery degrades very fast."

    HMMM …

    My desktop Windows PC is totally SILENT and doesn't generate much heat.
    Previously the fan noise of my desktop PC was very irritating and would leave me with a ginormous headache at the end of the day.

    So, I upgraded to a silent PC case, fitted a silent power supply and silent internal cooling fans.

    PC Case: Antech S O L O I I [The SOLO II emphasizes Quiet Computing]
    Silent Fan for CPU to replace the VERY NOISY original: Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler
    By "silent power supply", I mean the cooling fan only cuts in above a certain power level, and so far it has never cut in!
    Power Supply Model: Corsair CRM Series™ RM650 650-Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified Fully Modular

    I can now work all day on my PC in total silence, without being blasted by fan noise, and still feel fresh at the end of the day!

    • GlobalWorming on 25/08/2022 - 21:03
      -1

      I can now work all day on my PC in total silence, without being blasted by fan noise

      Sure, if you keep it turned off and use it as a chair

      • Gekov on 29/08/2022 - 10:44

        "Sure, if you keep it turned off and use it as a chair"

        HUH?

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