Apple M1, and generally laptops

[non_compos_mentis]

I'm seriously a bit angry about it. Maybe you can help me somehow, maybe there is something I just don't see.

 

I'm a software dev and I use laptop. Not because I like to sit on a couch with it, not because I work during commute or whatever that would require better battery life. I need my computer to be portable and with attached screen because sometimes I need to bring my laptop to work, sometimes I need to take it back to my parents house when I'm visiting.

 

The thing is though, I never need to use it in a scenario where there is no plug near me which I can use. I honestly wouldn't notice if my laptop didn't have battery after all - I always have it plugged in (also because of the days where plugging out would decrease performance). I'm currently running macbook pro (last available when you could still buy it without touchbar) and it pisses me off that most of this laptop internals is a battery. I don't care. And now, M1 is here. Great. I see reviews (for example Dave 2D) which pretty much completely focus on battery life and I, honestly, couldn't care any less.

 

I don't need 2x battery life, what I need is more RAM (and in case of current M1, really more RAM, I'm running VM's which take more than 20GB sometimes) and better CPU (and this again, Docker for now on new M1 chips isn't working afaik), and to me, if you say that hey, 2x battery life - it means that they could have halved the battery size and make use of this space in a different way.

 

So I don't know, is there anything that does that? I would kill for a non-gaming oriented laptop with strong, PC league, CPU, 64GB of RAM and it could even not sport any battery at all.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

well you are a niche case, and less than 1% of Apple's customer base. sorry to break this news to you but Apple won't make a laptop without a battery just because of you. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Does Apple have software that allows you to keep the battery charged to at max 60 or 80% to maintain longevity? Something similar to this:

[emosun]

what you want is called a pc not a macbook

 

[non_compos_mentis]

 

Just now, Ashley said:

well you are a niche case, and less than 1% of Apple's customer base. sorry to break this news to you but Apple won't make a laptop without a battery just because of you. 

Well, I think I might have phrased my point badly. Obviously they won't make a laptop without a battery - what I want is a laptop which focuses on other things much more, than it focuses on battery. And honestly, with saying I'm less than 1%, I think you're wrong.

MacBook Pro's are extremely popular among software devs and most of the ones I know share my frustration here.

 

Just now, emosun said:

what you want is called a pc not a macbook

 

As I said - I need my machine to have a screen attached to it and be portable, not because I use it without power source, but because I need to take it with me sometimes

[emosun]

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

As I said - I need my machine to have a screen attached to it and be portable, not because I use it without power source, but because I need to take it with me sometimes

So who's gonna tell him they've been making portable pc's longer than they've been making portable apple computers.....

[ProjectBox153]

Yeah, a laptop without a battery is not considered a laptop by most people. I can't see Apple doing anything like that. 

[Guest]

You'll actually have longer battery life if you put it through cycles as it's intended. 

 

You have restricted yourself to a wall via cord for nothing. Wasting electricity. 

 

Just use the wall when it needs charging and use as intended. 

 

The battery also often times acts as a cmos battery. Without it, loose the bios password and settings. 

 

 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

Well, I think I might have phrased my point badly. Obviously they won't make a laptop without a battery - what I want is a laptop which focuses on other things much more, than it focuses on battery.

they won't, because the oither 99% care about it. 

 

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

And honestly, with saying I'm less than 1%, I think you're wrong.

MacBook Pro's are extremely popular among software devs and most of the ones I know share my frustration here.

they are popular among devs, but devs are less than 1% of the consumer market. so even if Mac's are popular with them, it makes no difference to the 1% number. 

 

like, Mac's are popular for students, designers, video editors, i could go on. basically people in every field like them. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, ShrimpBrime said:

You'll actually have longer battery life if you put it through cycles as it's intended. 

 

You have restricted yourself to a wall via cord for nothing. Wasting electricity. 

 

Just use the wall when it needs charging and use as intended. 

 

The battery also often times acts as a cmos battery. Without it, loose the bios password and settings. 

this exactly, i had a used 2017 MBP a while ago and the previous owner always had it plugged in, the battery was dead. it would randomly shut down and do other crazy stuff. 

[wall03]

10 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Does Apple have software that allows you to keep the battery charged to at max 60 or 80% to maintain longevity? Something similar to this:

battery settings there is something in Big Sir

[non_compos_mentis]

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

So who's gonna tell him they've been making portable pc's longer than they've been making portable apple computers.....

I'm saying this the 3rd time - I need portable computer with attached screen. Show me one that isn't laptop and is something I can put in my backpack.

4 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

You'll actually have longer battery life if you put it through cycles as it's intended.

I think you missed my point - I don't care about longer battery life. I also don't mean nothing that keeps electricity inside, obviously. I said that for all I care I can have no battery - I know that there obviously will be one, I just mean it's not important to me.

5 minutes ago, Ashley said:

they won't, because the oither 99% care about it. 

 

they are popular among devs, but devs are less than 1% of the consumer market. so even if Mac's are popular with them, it makes no difference to the 1% number. 

 

like, Mac's are popular for students, designers, video editors, i could go on. basically people in every field like them. 

What is the source for 1% you're talking about here? Companies buy MacBook Pros for developers in bulks, this is a huge market.

[wall03]

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

What is the source for 1% you're talking about here? Companies buy MacBook Pros for developers in bulks, this is a huge market.

9 minutes ago, Ashley said:

they are popular among devs, but devs are less than 1% of the consumer market. so even if Mac's are popular with them, it makes no difference to the 1% number. 

devs are kinda important to Apple, but a. they don't really like expanding their line and b. it does have a market, but that's like 10%, including all Mac and iPad/iPhone devs forced to use MacBooks bc of XCode.

I know several software devs with MacBook Pros

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

What is the source for 1% you're talking about here? Companies buy MacBook Pros for developers in bulks, this is a huge market.

logical thinking. 

[emosun]

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

I need portable computer with attached screen. Show me one that isn't laptop and is something I can put in my backpack.

ah , i think somebody is just here to argue , might explain the burner account

[Guest]

1 minute ago, non_compos_mentis said:

 

I think you missed my point - I don't care about longer battery life. I also don't mean nothing that keeps electricity inside, obviously. I said that for all I care I can have no battery - I know that there obviously will be one, I just mean it's not important to me.

Noted. 

 

You're just pondering the what if's. I gotcha.

 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

5 minutes ago, wall03 said:

battery settings there is something in Big Sir

@non_compos_mentis just so we can get back on topic. Look into battery settings (if you updated to Big Sur already) and see if you can set it to charge to a maximum of 60% capacity or something. 

[non_compos_mentis]

  

Just now, emosun said:

ah , i think somebody is just here to argue , might explain the burner account

I just opened an account to discuss it - nothing "burner" about it. I asked for a simple example, because you two times mentioned that portable pc's are a thing - so show me one. Backpack level portable + attached screen.

2 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Noted. 

 

You're just pondering the what if's. I gotcha.

I think you went out of the topic a bit. Your response has literally 0 overlap with my question and rant about laptops and batteries.

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

@non_compos_mentis just so we can get back on topic. Look into battery settings (if you updated to Big Sur already) and see if you can set it to charge to a maximum of 60% capacity or something. 

There is nothing that would allow you to increase the performance. And on my mac it would be throttled by thermals anyway (thus again, the thing with focusing on not important things to me, but leaving important ones suffer)

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, non_compos_mentis said:

  

I think you went out of the topic a bit. Your response has literally 0 overlap with my question and rant about laptops and batteries.

 

Stated nothing more than facts. Very much not a rant. But to each their own opion... Like staying plugged into a wall for no obvious reason lol. 

 

8 minutes ago, emosun said:

ah , i think somebody is just here to argue , might explain the burner account

I would now gather this statement is correct and have nothing more to add to this discussion. 

[non_compos_mentis]

3 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Stated nothing more than facts. Very much not a rant. But to each their own opion... Like staying plugged into a wall for no obvious reason lol.

Yes, you stated a fact but you must see how this fact has nothing to do with topic. I'm talking about how I don't care about battery at all and for me it could not exist at all and your answer is how to extend battery life and that I could be unplugged. How is this related?

3 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

I would now gather this statement is correct and have nothing more to add to this discussion.

You'd be wrong then

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

17 minutes ago, non_compos_mentis said:

There is nothing that would allow you to increase the performance. And on my mac it would be throttled by thermals anyway (thus again, the thing with focusing on not important things to me, but leaving important ones suffer)

I'm not talking about CPU/GPU performance... I'm talking about controlling the capacity of which the battery gets charged to... So instead of having it charge all the way up to 100%, restrict it to 60-80% which is far more comfortable for the battery. 

[non_compos_mentis]

9 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I'm not talking about CPU/GPU performance... I'm talking about controlling the capacity of which the battery gets charged to... So instead of having it charge all the way up to 100%, restrict it to 60-80% which is far more comfortable for the battery. 

Thanks for you response but again - I don't think this is related to my frustrations, which I described in the post. Also this setting is on by default (not that it matters in context of this thread)

[dizmo]

You're using it for something it's not designed for. Yes, it works for you like that, however it does not mean that was the way they intended it to be used.

The issue really comes down to your company buying Apple. There's loads of companies that make devices that do what you need. They just don't run IOS.

If that's a requirement for you, then yeah, you're up shits creek. You're not the market they're going after.

As others have said, you're a niche case. Why do you think you're not?

[non_compos_mentis]

30 minutes ago, dizmo said:

As others have said, you're a niche case. Why do you think you're not?

I have work macbook pro and private one. All the people I work with have the same. Companies mostly buy macbooks in bulks for their developers and developers mostly buy macks, for a myriad of reasons. All the devs I know and all I spoke to share my thoughts here - the only reason they have mac is because they need to sometimes take it with them (both work and private ones) and they don't really care about battery life - they care about performance and memory.

 

I understand that this isn't the main target for apple, but this isn't a niche - not by a long shot (especially nowadays, with covid, where people need to bring their work computers home and very often work few days a week from office and the rest from home).

[Roswell]

What's the issue here? You're able to spec MacBook Pros up to 64GB of memory if you really want to with 8 core i9 chips. M1 based models replaced the budget models and once they expand Apple Silicon to the higher end models they will also have options with high memory capacity.