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Actually surprised that you were able to natively install windows on an Mac with Apple Silicon. Windows on Arm is still catching up. On intel based Macs it was easy given windows was actually built for an X86 architecture.


Would love to hear more on how you are finding the software usage and performance. Have you faced any glitches?

If you want good battery life with Windows laptops, try to go for a AMD Ryzen processor. The latest Intel Core Ultra series processors are also good for battery life. They still won't beat a macbook in battery life but come quite close, easily good enough that you won't feel battery life as a con.

Unfortunately, the downside with windows laptops is that you need to do your due research to get a suitable laptop as all manufacturers make plethora of laptops. The positive side is if you know what you are buying into, then you can find a suitable laptop for use at much cheaper price and will last for a long time.

The positive thing about macbooks is that a layman can simply go to an Apple store, give them a big wad of cash and can be sure that he will get a good performing, good sounding, good built laptop with good battery life adequate for average usage.

With that said, the Macbook Air M1 is a terrific VFM if you can get it around 65k-68k and will last an easy 4-5 years for light usage.

Well that is one laptop that should theoretically serve you for a decade atleast, I have been using a macbook air mid 2013 model for more than 10 years now and it is still completely usable for general workflow - Microsoft Office, web browsing and some mild Photoshop and audio editing. It even supports Corel Draw now so some graphic work from our office can be viewed and edited right here as well. My entire music library is still offline and all managed and stored in this laptop.

It started with a 10/10 performance but the last 2 updates dropped it extremely significantly to a 5/10 performance level, guess you should stop updating after first couple of years. I have heard downgrading the OS back to an older version or switching to Windows using Bootcamp can restore the performance level but I have to bother doing that, will probably switch to a newer laptop provided it has been a decade, my wife is perfectly happy with this one as it is and this will serve her for years to come.

MacOS is something that only bothered me for the first month or so and even as a power user, I have had all kinds of apps and done all kinds of stuff with it in the past decade and never missed Windows at all, unlike iOS vs Android, this can pretty much do it all but you have to give it a couple of months and in return for that it rewarded me better than most windows laptop level of perfect performance for the first 5-7 years atleast.

It is an 11.6 inch model and costed just INR 50,000 on some sort of sale on Amazon in early 2014. It was still USD 999 in the USA at that time, but in India it costs extremely and unreasonably high today.

What else, not only does it look fantastic and is extremely well built, much better than windows laptops of that era, it was the cheapest and most compact ultra book at that time, it is pretty much as small as an iPad and is a full fledged computer which can do anything, unlike iPad which is still pretty much an iPhone with bigger screen.

P.S The only somewhat trivial issues I have faced are-

1- The poor quality cable that comes with its charger started to disintegrate after 3-4 years and slowly became a frail and gooey mess like all apple cables until recently when they switched to braided cable in the iPhone 15 series, what's worse it was not a replaceable cable like today's USB C chargers so buying a good quality cable for like ₹500 or so on Amazon was not an option, Apple's charger was in true Apple fashion an unreasonable ₹7500 or so, Samsung's 45w charger for example can be had for ₹2000 as an example.
I didn't want to switch to a knockoff charger for safety reasons, today macbooks use a USB PD charger which are available from high quality brands at fraction of cost as compared to Apple, they are even available from OEM brands like Samsung and Google for a really low price, hell even Apple's chargers are cheaper now.

I took this to Nehru Place and replaced just the cable for 800 bucks, it is a magsafe cable no less with same backlit Aluminium connector, working great since the past 3 years.

2- I always used to keep the laptop plugged in and the battery used to be at 100%, my battery hardly had 25-30 cycles in 7 years and my logic was I will use the cycles when I actually use it outside, other than my office and home where power is easily available, this will keep the battery running for as long as possible since Apple being Apple sells a replacement for 15K, well that was a bad idea as after 7 years and 30 cycles battery got swollen and became a safety hazard, had to take it off and dispose it.
Since then I have learnt to use apps that limit the charge to 80% or so, I have learnt my battery got swollen because of being at 100% all the time, Apple gave no option to limit the charge, guess they want you to pay them 15k every 3-4 years. Well had it stayed at 80% and kept plugged in indefinitely, it wouldn't have had any issues at all.
Also, the laptop can work without battery as well when it is plugged in, I could have used it like this without issues since I anyways used to keep it plugged in, but Apple for some reason limits the performance to 40% or even lower for some reason and it makes it unusable, well they really want your 15k (it maybe higher now) donation every few years, they have thought it through.

I replaced it from a 3rd party battery from Nehru Place as well, I don't endorse using 3rd party batteries for safety but Apple's not only costs 600% as much as this but they have stopped selling it altogether as they don't support this model now. Replacing the battery was really easy as well, all it took was some screws and anyone can do it, Apple has now made it extremely difficult for a regular/non DIY kindof person to do it and glues the battery now for reasons best known to them, it is not related to thickness as well as my macbook air feels about as thick as the latest ones.

No man, one has to use Parallels Virtualization software to run Windows on the Macbook Ms. In fact, Microsoft officially recognizes Parallels now.

This is the biggest challenge.

It's very tough to buy a great Windows laptop. You have to research a lot, and even then, you can end up with a lemon (everything in my Dell Latitude 7490 has been replaced, save for its CPU & body).

On the other hand, it's very easy to buy a great Macbook. No research required. Walk into store, and buy based on size preferences & budget.

Thanks! Great post. Yes, you should most definitely switch to Windows using Bootcamp on the Intel Macbooks. My better half uses a 5-6 year old Macbook Air and she was struggling even with basic tasks in the OS. Her Macbook Air had gotten extremely sluggish too. I installed Windows for her (via Bootcamp) and she is absolutely loving it!

A 1.5-2 lakh rupee Windows laptop works as good, or may be even better for those who need heavy processing. XPS, Thinkpads etc

Cannot really compare a 50K laptop with a 2 Lakh one. It isnt really about Windows vs MacOs.

A few days ago, I was sharing pictures of my laptop dock with a couple of older BHPians, and one of them (Khan_Sultan) said, "What is that?" Moderator Zappo, who also saw the picture, was "Zapped." rl:

I had to search a bit and found that I hadn't changed my setup since 2007-8, which was 16 years ago. I don't know if that is too long, but everything still works, so I am NOT touching it. It does take a few minutes to settle when I start it up, but I use that time for other chores such as making phone calls, getting coffee, fishing my iPad out of my bag, etc. I don't see the need for a faster laptop when the limiting factor is me. All these GHz and MHz mean nothing if I am operating at KHz.

BTW, I use this machine exclusively for all my bank work (which is considerable), team-bhp, checking and answering emails, MS Office, etc. I have other devices for other activities (for example: an iPad for YouTube, an iPhone for Social Media, a Camera for taking photos, a Music player for music, etc.).

File management on mobile OS such as iPadOS is really difficult. I had an iPad Pro that I used as a daily driver in lieu of my laptop. Within 4 months, I was sick and tired of it and got myself a Microsoft Surface since I needed Touch and Pen Input. It cant run heavy apps (at least the i5 one), but if you want a laptop that can double up as a tablet, Surface is the closest you would get to full functionality.

I'm glad someone asked the question about how you're running Windows on an Apple silicon Macbook, I was initially confused when I first read it and not to mention a bit wistful. My wife has an M1 Air and there's been many an occasion I've looked at it and thought if only there was a way to run Windows on it, I'd get one in a heartbeat to daily drive.

My main issue is I use a lot of specialist software for work (Petrel, Leapfrog, ArcPRO, etc) that (and do correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm no computer expert) isn't designed to run outside the X64 architecture and thus limits such programs to Windows workstations only. But if there's a workaround or indeed a fix in sight to allow Windows natively on ARM based chips like the M-line, then yeah, when it comes time to replace my XPS, I'll be keen.

That being said, I don't know if folks here are familiar with the Framework brand. They've been the only brand in the past couple of years who've put their money where their mouth is in terms of easily repairable and hence upgradeable laptops. Sure there are compromises compared to a fully hermetically sealed product like a Macbook but I can't help but be drawn to their MO, and I can see myself contemplating a Framework 13 as my next down the line. I absolutely love the customisation options and the ability to swap out stuff to suit your needs should you change your mind down the line.

Give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my 2003 version of Microsoft Money (accounting software) installed without a hiccup on the ARM Windows running via Parallels on my Macbook M3.

Windows really works hard on backward compatibility. This software has stayed with me since my final year of education, and from the first buck I made post-MBA...across 10 different computers.

So I looked up Parallels and from what I can tell it's a subscription service for a Windows Virtual Machine? In a sense we do have access to Windows VMs through work IT, I suppose existing Mac users must be doing that. I'd likely need the Pro plan of Parallels considering I would regular max out 128GB RAM with my PhD era models, let alone some of the stuff I work on now. I might ask our resident IT expert at work if there's anyone who already uses it. Could be quite compelling as an option moving forward. 7200 INR all in for that Pro plan isn't too bad either for that functionality.

All the modelling software I tend to use is usually proprietary stuff where versions aren't backwards compatible often which does make it tricky to transition from one platform to another, especially if I'm in the middle of a longer term model. I suspect the open source modelling stuff will play better with Mac's on Apple silicon. Some bright spark must've gone through the effort to make it work.
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I remember when the M1 chips came out, wishing for similar silicon performance on Windows laptops. Read something recently that observers are awaiting to see if some much touted Qualcomm silicon, can't remember the name, might be the first big ARM breakthrough on Windows. I guess that'll force the hand of Microsoft to finally make Windows work like the full fat X64 version on ARM based silicon.

I do agree that choosing a laptop in Apple world is a bit simpler. Choose your screen size and your budget basically though there does seem to be some overlap between the Air and Pro lines. I tried one of the new M2 Airs recently and I do miss the classic wedge shape. The whole Macbook line up looks indistinguishable now.

Wonder if they'll bring back the plain Macbook line. A friend of mine swears by their 12 inch Macbook.

Any VLSI/semiconductor industry folks running EDA software like Mentor Graphics Tanner, or Cadence Innovus/Virtuoso on a MacBook laptop?

I am considering upgrading to the Macbook Air for the longer battery life and overall crispness of use and this seems to be a major irritant, especially for students. Any inputs from you/or what your organization IT team is doing would be great. My present Oct 2020 Inspiron 15 5590 is lousy at best, barely 2 hours of battery life, heats a lot despite a recent service, sometimes not that under heavy use of these softwares/Youtube, my primary use case.

Parallels suggested some optimizations to my Macbook Air 15", which I duly implemented. Damn thing is now running really fast & smooth. I have updated my original review (on page 471) accordingly.

RAM usage has dropped. Battery life has further increased!

This screenshot is after using the computer for 1.5 hours (look at the bottom right of this image).

Hi All! Thank you all for your inputs, and I have an update on this front. I decided to go down the Tablet + Keyboard route, for a few reasons:

1. I have a separate work laptop for all things work related
2. My personal use includes content consumption, basic photo and video editing, occasional basic work on MS Office Apps (Word, Excel). A good tablet is more than enough for this.
3. A touchscreen is fairly convenient yes, and when coupled with portability is the absolute best.

The M1 Macbook is overkill for my current usage. Battery life on most other laptops at the price range is nowhere near the macbook as well. I didnt' want an ipad as well because an Ipad Pro with a mere 128gb of storage is 76k plus an additional 27k for the magic keyboard :mad: I love the setup, but its not worth that kind of money IMO.

The Samsung alternatives weren't much better either. I wanted a tablet with 12GB RAM as I multitask a lot. The S9 FE in the 12+256GB configuration was Rs 57,000 + Rs 19,000 for the keyboard, which again, is a little over the top. I'm not disputing that samsung makes beautiful tablets, but tech prices are absolutely ridiculous now.

Whilst I was searching for more options, I came across the Oneplus Pad. I've been using a Oneplus 8 for about 3.5 years now with no issues really, apart from when the phone refused to fast charge a couple months prior. The fix was just an easy port cleaning at the Service Centre. The build quality is excellent, the phone still works like new, and has never let me down. Based on this, I checked out the Pad, and quite frankly, its a near perfect android tablet, with some lovely ecosystem features if you have a Oneplus phone.

I picked up the 12+256 GB Configuration at Rs 39,999+Rs 7,999 (For the Keyboard Case). Attaching a few pictures below.







The quality of everything is top notch. I've been using this for about a week now, and here is a list of what I like and what could have been improved:

Likes:

1. Crisp and clear display (2.3k, 144Hz, IPS LCD, Dolby Vision Certified)
2. Great Audio (Dolby Atmos enabled, Quad Speakers )
3. Good screen size, 11.61 Inches
4. Good quality keyboard. Soft touch leather and aluminium build. Good key spacing and travel, and it also has function keys on top, which thr magic keyboard lacked until the latest launch yesterday
4. Seamless integration with oneplus devices. I don't want to elaborate too much on this here, so I'll leave a video link below. He also talks about tthe various multitasking features of the Pad.

https://youtu.be/xJkmlyVtj6k?si=45QoKoIvTxBTH3wy

5. Good battery life, lasts well over a day with continuous usage.
6. Very fast charging at 67 Watts. Bonus, a 100W charger is included in the box.

Dislikes/Prospective Improvements

1. No Keyboard Backlight. Even a one step keyboard backlight would have been awesome.
2. No Display Port output from the USB C port. Although I don't need this feature, I believe this should have been there
3. Non adjustable viewing angle when docked onto the keyboard.
4. No fingerprint reader. Its either face, or a number/patter lock.

Overall, I'm super stoked with my purchase!

Hi Guys, sorry for bringing up this possibly noob question. I have an Apple iPad pro which I mainly use for streaming videos while travelling.. For a computer, I had my Macbook, which decided to give up recently.

My iPad is great and I was wondering if the iPad can be a replacment for the Macbook. The things I really need in thr iPad will be:

1. Mouse
2. Keyboard
3. Photoshop
4. Google Sheets (Desktop version)
5. Possibly a desktop/homescreen like area to save and access files, mainly photos and videos.
5. Chrome & Safari, sometimes firefox.
6. Instagram/Facebook in browser if possible.

If the above is possible, what is the hardware I'm expected to buy.

I think one of the main complaints I see online is users raging at Apple for not allowing MacOS on the iPad especially since the transition to Apple silicon. iPadOS seems to be much more limited when it comes to working as freely as you do on MacOS.

All that being said, in terms of accessories, I'd recommend the Logitech Folio Touch, or maybe it's the Combo Touch. I always confuse the two. It's reasonably priced, very sturdy (ages very well). Get a Surface like kickstand and you can detach the keyboard. Plus it's got proper function keys, has a touchpad and is illuminated. I got that set up for my mum and the few times I've used it, I've had no reason to complain.

As for the other accessories, I think you're going to be on that dongle life if you want to connect to a screen. I'm less sure about how good the apps will be compared to their desktop counterparts. There'll be workarounds though I'm sure.