The MacBook Air’s Biggest Problem

[AlexTheGreatish]

 

The 2020 MacBook Air gets a lot of things right, but is it enough to beat the XPS 13 or Spectre x360?

 

Buy Macbook Air

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/hvsDK

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Buy Dell XPS 13

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/ccBlms

On Newegg: https://geni.us/ThjiP2s Buy

 

HP Spectre x360

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/jU8l

On Newegg: https://geni.us/9yHM

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

 

[Tom_nerd]

29 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

 

The 2020 MacBook Air gets a lot of things right, but is it enough to beat the XPS 13 or Spectre x360?

 

agreed

[burh4n]

From a data analysis standpoint, it would be good to see the distribution count of Male vs Female users measured. Probably not a critical aspect, but for anyone using the hand size information with regard to a purchase decision, it would provide a better sense of how applicable the %'s are by knowing how many people of each category were surveyed. 70% of 1000 female users paints a different picture (with respect to applicability) than 70% of 10 users. 
 

[AlexTheGreatish]

12 minutes ago, burh4n said:

From a data analysis standpoint, it would be good to see the distribution count of Male vs Female users measured. Probably not a critical aspect, but for anyone using the hand size information with regard to a purchase decision, it would provide a better sense of how applicable the %'s are by knowing how many people of each category were surveyed. 70% of 1000 female users paints a different picture (with respect to applicability) than 70% of 10 users. 
 

I'll have to find exactly where I got the data from and get back, but I used surveys of male hand size from several different universities and averaged the results.  Total number  of males is ~5000.  The female numbers are a bit more looesy goosey, because they weren't included in most of these studies (nicely proving the thesis of Invisible Women), so I only have about ~400 females, along with another 1000 that were extrapolated from studies of hand width.

[GDRRiley]

well I'm waiting for ryzen 4000U chips to make it into more premium laptops. the 4000U set in probooks will be a big upgrade and I'm tempted to change from a 445R g6 with a 3500U to the new gen for better performance and battery life.

[Hunter259]

If you guys want aerosnap on Mac there is a program called rectangle that honestly works better than Windows implementation atm lol. Absolute must have imo. Oh and it's free. And has keyboard shortcuts. And more options that standard aerosnap.

 

https://rectangleapp.com/

[hishnash]

2 hours ago, Hunter259 said:

If you guys want aerosnap on Mac there is a program called rectangle that honestly works better than Windows implementation atm lol. Absolute must have imo. Oh and it's free. And has keyboard shortcuts. And more options that standard aerosnap.

Yer, or you can also build your own with automator https://support.apple.com/en-nz/guide/automator/welcome/mac

[burh4n]

18 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I'll have to find exactly where I got the data from and get back, but I used surveys of male hand size from several different universities and averaged the results.  Total number  of males is ~5000.  The female numbers are a bit more looesy goosey, because they weren't included in most of these studies (nicely proving the thesis of Invisible Women), so I only have about ~400 females, along with another 1000 that were extrapolated from studies of hand width.

Thanks for the reply Alex. Personally I'm not worried about the specifics, it was more of a generalized comment. After rewatching that part of the video, I noticed that the in office ratio measurements were plugged into the publicly available data. Originally I missed that distinction and had thought all the measurements were from people at the LTT office.

Interesting (and clever) method of using the hand ratio(s) for extended vs typing, but I'm curious how well it extrapolates? Seems like the ratio could vary dynamically for a single user based on device or could vary depending on typing styles. Anyhow, it's not terribly relevant to the video, just my own (likely pedantic) musing. Thanks again for sharing the info Alex.

[xnamkcor]

Fun Fact: 50% of males that use MacOS have female hands.

[DrMacintosh]

1 hour ago, xnamkcor said:

Fun Fact: 50% of males that use MacOS have female hands.

I certainly have female hands....

[Commodus]

I'm glad the 2020 MacBook Air has finally returned to the "safe buy" category... as long as you get a quad-core model, anyway.

 

The Dell and HP systems have their pluses, but I'm still surprised at how many Windows laptop makers don't seem to know how to pick screen resolutions.  Your choices tend to flip between either an unspectacular 1080p screen or some ridiculous 4K touchscreen with poor battery life and lousy scaling.  Apple's 1600p strikes a very nice balance.

 

Like Linus said, though, the real question is what the 13-inch MacBook Pro's replacement will bring to the fore.  Even if it's largely the same external design with a fixed keyboard and modern performance, that could make it a better bargain.  Hell, it'll be great if the base model ships with 256GB of storage.

[AlexTheGreatish]

5 hours ago, burh4n said:

Interesting (and clever) method of using the hand ratio(s) for extended vs typing, but I'm curious how well it extrapolates? Seems like the ratio could vary dynamically for a single user based on device or could vary depending on typing styles. Anyhow, it's not terribly relevant to the video, just my own (likely pedantic) musing. Thanks again for sharing the info Alex.

It is hard to say without measuring a lot more people (of course).  I tried to make it so if the data is off, it is showing a larger percentage, since the real standard deviation is almost definitely lower than what I used.