ThinkPad T14s Gen3 AMD Vs MacBook Air M1/M2

cwtrick on 24/03/2023 - 15:58
Last edited 24/03/2023 - 16:40

Hi All,

I am looking to buy a portable laptop and will mainly use it for work, words, music, youtube videos and pdf. I might also need to use AutoCAD or Civil3D for some CAD works. My requirement are

  1. good battery life, anything more than 7-8 hours is good enough for me but not gonna complain for better performance, I have seen a few reddit post regarding the T14s AMD battery life that can get to similar range with some tweak to the laptop settings. Of course Macbook still the king in this.

  2. 13.6-15inch screen.

  3. Power efficient and thermal performance thus lower fan noise. This is the reason why I am not considering intel or otherwise there would have been more choice as I would have loved some TB4.

  4. Light weight (Both laptops weighted pretty much the same)

  5. 512GB SSD & 16GB RAM

After some research I have narrowed down my options to the below 2:

  • Thinkpad T14s Gen3 AMD 6650U (1x USB 4.0 which I can use like a TB4 with hub, some positive reddit reviews with good battery life, decent thermal performance and low fan noise during normal usage. only 300nits and 1920x1200 but given the screen size I am not too fussed about it)

  • Macbook Air M1/M2 (Better battery life, better screen, hear these laptop last very long time so the premium price tag will pay off eventually, I am not decided whether to go with M1 or M2 yet but any suggestion would be highly apricated, am leaning toward M2 as I can get an extra port but heard thermal performance is bad with M2?)

I know Macbook Air M2 has steeper price tag and am willing to cop that as long as it fits my usage. The main reason I am not 100% on Air is due to the lack of bootcamp. Having to pay $130 and potentially for every MacOS update is something I am not willing to cope, I heard when there's big MacOS update or new version, parallel windows will often act up and need to pay for updating the software to perform better. also I wonder how well will windows run on parallel, anyone that used parallel please advise.

Basically as long as windows will run fine in M1/M2 chip I am willing to cope the steeper price tag. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Computing 13.3inch 14inch Apple Computer Laptop Lenovo

Comments

  • freefall101 on 24/03/2023 - 16:33
    +6

    If you need to use Windows, buy the thinkpad. Buying a macbook and being totally reliant on another layer of software doesn't make any sense.

    Macbook air is also quiet but doesn't do as well thermally. Better off going with a macbook pro and having the fan to cool it - it's still nearly noiseless but gets better performance thanks to it.

    And the macbook air is 13.6", seems to fall outside your screen size requirement.

    • cwtrick on 24/03/2023 - 16:41

      Thanks for the suggestion. I made a typo, 13.6inch is fine for me as well. noted on the thermal performance with MBA

  • AustriaBargain on 24/03/2023 - 16:46

    You'll enjoy the Mac a lot more and the Air has plenty enough power. it's not just quiet, it's dead silent. But is there even a Mac version of Civil3D?

    Also Apple stopped charging for Mac updates 10 years ago with Mavericks, you've been out of the Mac ecosystem for a long time.

    • cwtrick on 24/03/2023 - 16:51

      I don't mean charging for MacOS update. I heard when there's an update for MacOS, Parallels might start having bugs or issues and will charge for the newer version of Parallels to address this.

      • AustriaBargain on 24/03/2023 - 16:53

        Oh right. I stopped using Bootcamp and Parallels years before ARM based Macs so I really don't know.

  • daydream on 24/03/2023 - 23:10

    Skip the software hassle and run Windows on the AMD (given what you've said about the programs). Running the programs you want to use is the highest priority.

  • Save Medicare on 15/04/2023 - 11:26

    I've read that M1/M2 battery life is not strong if you are running Windows via Parallels

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