Which thin & light should I get?

[Hokahn]

Hello folks on LTT forum, 

 

I‘m a 20y old Swiss student, and after this summer I will need a notebook in school. The requirements are, that it has at least 10h of battery life, because we aren‘t allowed to charge it in school. Performance doesn‘t matter, I have a desktop with a 2070s and 3600xt at home for gaming and light CAD work. My budget is ± $1000
 

I want something thats light, quiet (my old one is a jet engine), doesn‘t look to bad and has a great trackpad. My first thought was a m1 air, because its silent and I already use a iphone & airpods pro, but I’m sure there are better options out there. 

 

to summarize:

• ± $1000
• ± 10h battery 
• quiet operation 
• don‘t look to bad
• good trackpad
• 13“ would be alright

 

Thank you all :)

Greetings Elias 

[resolve_beta]

6 minutes ago, Hokahn said:

Hello folks on LTT forum, 

 

I‘m a 20y old Swiss student, and after this summer I will need a notebook in school. The requirements are, that it has at least 10h of battery life, because we aren‘t allowed to charge it in school. Performance doesn‘t matter, I have a desktop with a 2070s and 3600xt at home for gaming and light CAD work. My budget is ± $1000
 

I want something thats light, quiet (my old one is a jet engine), doesn‘t look to bad and has a great trackpad. My first thought was a m1 air, because its silent and I already use a iphone & airpods pro, but I’m sure there are better options out there. 

 

to summarize:

• ± $1000
• ± 10h battery 
• quiet operation 
• don‘t look to bad
• good trackpad
• 13“ would be alright

 

Thank you all

Greetings Elias 

get a standard windows laptop you can find them everywhere or even just a chromebook if itd for school

 

[Zmimgo]

The Apple M1 Macbook Air is just the best option right now. The only thing that would beat it would be the future ARM laptops, not only by Apple Silicon, but also from Microsoft, Qualcomm, Nvidia etc. Get the base model, maybe considor upgrading the storage one tier.

 

If you really don't want macOS and want a laptop right now, the HP Envy x360 with Ryzen processors seems like a great option as well.

[Hokahn]

10 minutes ago, resolve_beta said:

get a standard windows laptop you can find them everywhere or even just a chromebook if itd for school

 

Not every standart windows laptop has the batterylife I need, and chrome os isn't allowed because it can't run most programs (and online office 360 is terrible). 

[GenericFanboy]

1 minute ago, Zongohihello said:

The Apple M1 Macbook Air is just the best option right now. The only thing that would beat it would be the future ARM laptops, not only by Apple Silicon, but also from Microsoft, Qualcomm, Nvidia etc. Get the base model, maybe considor upgrading the storage one tier.

 

If you really don't want macOS and want a laptop right now, the HP Envy x360 with Ryzen processors seems like a great option as well.

I've got the HP Envy x360 with ryzen 7 4000 series. 16Gb ram, and honestly. Its one of the best machines i've ever used.

[Darkseth]

2 hours ago, Hokahn said:

My first thought was a m1 air, because its silent and I already use a iphone & airpods pro, but I’m sure there are better options out there. 

Are you? I wouldn't be sure.

There is not a single option, that comes fanless and has even remotely this performance.

Also, Nothing in the Windows World in this "thin and light" formfactor will give you this Battery life, with this Performance.

 

This triangular package of Performance, Battery life while beeing silent can't be found anywhere else.

 

Battery Life is also way way more than just "how long is videoplayback", or "how long does this Webbrowsing script run".

When doing stuff, the M1 chip stays so incredible efficient, nothing you do seems to draw power.

 

I have the M1 Pro, Zoom with 100 people consumes 20% battery in 3 hours..

The best i've seen in the Windows World is 6-7 hours during video conference, often 3-4~ hours. Windows decives with x86 CPU tend to exponentially increase powerdraw as soon you do anything actively, and battery drops quick.

During Office work, i can manage 20 hours.

I mean: The Power consumption stays extremely consistent during all kinds of work.

 

Also: Best trackpad in the industry, bright 400 cd/m² Display, with the perfect resolution sweetspot, very great 16:10 ratio, and MacOS's great UI scaling.

 

And this is even before counting in your iPhone and Airpods, which will work best with a Macbook.

 

 

There are good Windows machines, but i don't see any of them beeing better at those "core aspects" than an M1 Macbook.

But if you prefer Windows, take a Look at the Elitebook 845 G7 (400 cd/m² display, don't bother with 250 options), or Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (pro).

 

However: They at best scratch at 10-12 hours during those scripted battery life tests. If you do more multitasking with it, i'm sure, it will drop below 10 hours.

They also have Fans, that are most likely silent/quiet, and turn on during heavy load (Notebookcheck). But only the Macbook Air will never make a noise.

 

 

If you aren't allowed to charge your work device at school (which idiot even got this stupid idea?! Most laptops can't do that tbh), i wouldn't take risks, and "hope". There's a chance, you might turn Brightness up, do more multitasking etc, and the windows machine dies in <7-8 hours.

You need 10+ hours without fail? Get the Macbook Air M1.

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, Hokahn said:

Hello folks on LTT forum, 

 

I‘m a 20y old Swiss student, and after this summer I will need a notebook in school. The requirements are, that it has at least 10h of battery life, because we aren‘t allowed to charge it in school. Performance doesn‘t matter, I have a desktop with a 2070s and 3600xt at home for gaming and light CAD work. My budget is ± $1000
 

I want something thats light, quiet (my old one is a jet engine), doesn‘t look to bad and has a great trackpad. My first thought was a m1 air, because its silent and I already use a iphone & airpods pro, but I’m sure there are better options out there. 

 

to summarize:

• ± $1000
• ± 10h battery 
• quiet operation 
• don‘t look to bad
• good trackpad
• 13“ would be alright

 

Thank you all

Greetings Elias 

I'd lean toward the MacBook Air, since all the ingredients are there. It doesn't get any quieter than "fanless;" the battery life will easily meet your expectations; the integrations with your AirPods and iPhone will spoil you.

 

If not  that, I'd lean toward either the Dell XPS 13 (be sure to get the latest version)  or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano. Both are slim, reasonably speedy and have good input. They just won't be as quiet, fast or long-lasting as the Air, as a general rule.