But Why?

So I bought a Macbook. To be specific a 2024 M3 15" Macbook Air. Why? You may ask. Put simply I had a Windows laptop for about two years and was not impressed. It was loud, hot, clunky, and built like a toy you'd find in a kinder egg. I know they're not all like that but in my defense I did my research to find one that suited my needs. When I finally made the decision to get a new laptop I decided to look in store to see the quality in-person and I found that the majority are all the same. So I swallowed my pride and decided to look at the option I had previously marked as NOT an option. Very quickly I was sold and so I'll share what I've experienced since then in this article.

Design

Probably the best features about a Macbook universally is the product of Apple's very well-funded engineers. They're slim, lightweight, and sleek, what more could you ask for right?

Form factor

Macbooks (at least in 2024) are incredibly slim. Usually this would make me a little nervous. What if I sit on it? What if I drop it? What if I forget to take it off a pneumatic press? While it might not survive the last one, I can say with confidence that, despite looking fragile, Macbooks are built to last. In only a couple months I've already dropped it, sat on it, left it in the rain, and yet not a single scratch. Modern Macbooks are a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Peripherals

I won't lie, at first I was not a big fan of the peripherals. Their design is VERY simple compared to a lot of other options; While this is great for a lot of people, wherever I see simplicity I also see limitation. I can say though after a short while my opinion of them has changed drastically. To start, the trackpad is amazing. While most trackpads simply make me frusturated and at some times wanting to rip them out with rage; The trackpad on Macbooks are so well designed that I actually find myself wanting to use it over a mouse. This is largely due to its ability to ONLY track my fingers. A huge problem with trackpads is that most track everything that touches them which leads to a ton of very frusturating palm swipes. The amazing trackpad software, created by people with very well-deserved salaries, not only removes this issue but also has an option to turn it back on if you for some reason would want to. Aside from this the trackpad (like the rest of the laptop) is built like a brick. While a ton of companies are starting to introduce the digitalization of inputs using touchscreens and other methods, I find that nothing is more satisfying than a tactile button. Something about the beefy click that you get from this trackpad is simply unmatched. On the other side of things we have the keyboard; While I've grown to enjoy the feel of the keys and learned (most of) the different functions, I still can't get over the debatably undersized arrow keys. I will give it a pass though since I feel like this might only be due to the fact I've used a standard Windows mechanical keybaord for so long.

Performance and Cooling

Knowing very little about the M3 chip at first, I can say I'm very impressed. This chip seems to handle everything I throw at it from watching movies and developing websites to 3D rendering and light gaming.

On top of this, the laptop somehow always stays cool. At first glance I noticed a lack of any exhaust vents which was worrying to say the least. For a while I had just assumed that Apple's engineers were actually just wizards when in reality the vents are hidden in the gap between the screen and the body. Yet still I'm amazed by the incredibly low heat output despite the Air having no fans. This is thanks to the design of the M3 chip and its use of "effeciency" and "performance" cores. It really helps to show how the M3's design has helped not only performance but heat management and even battery life.

MAC OS

Probably the biggest change for me was getting used to MAC OS. At first I was completely lost; having never used it before I didn't even know where to start. Luckily, one key feature is that it is incredeibly intuitive and within a few weeks I felt I already had an above average understading of it.

Key features

I thought I'd start by listing off some of the features I have found useful during my short time as a MAC user. I'm going to do a lot of comparisons with Windows because as a user of both I feel like these features are definitive improvements over their Windows counterparts. One big difference from Windows (ironically) is the window management. Despite its name, Windows is not the greatest at this especially when you only have one screen. With MAC OS however, splitting windows and creating desktops is as easy as it can get. This one improvement has drastically helped speed up my workflow. Another great feature is the spotlight tool. While it's nothing revolutionary, it does its job and it does it well. I've found the Windows searchbar just doesn't match up. It has this weird bias of looking up what you search in a browser instead of actually opening the app you search for even if you know it's installed on your computer. I know the reason for this but it's just incredibly annoying and rather unintuitive to fix.

Terminal

Oh boy, where do I even begin. I've decided to give the terminal its own paragraph because it has to be my favourite feature of MAC OS by a long shot. I'll start by saying that I think every OS if not unix based should use a unix-like terminal. They just work so much better and make it so that I'm not confused using a terminal in another OS. No more are the days of restarting the terminal because youy forgot to launch it as administrator. No more are the days of outdated and undescriptive Microsoft documentation. Welcome the world of "cat", "chmod", and "vim". Working from a unix terminal actually makes sense and I've found myself actually using it almost as much as anything else. As a developer I felt like the windows command line held me back more than anything but with unix terminals everything just makes sense. I've enjoyed it so much that it has made me genuinely consider switching my main desktop to linux which is somehing I previously would've never considered. If you're a Windows user and haven't tried a unix terminal before I would highly recommend you do.

Conclusion

I can confidently say I've been pleasently surprised by how much I've enjoyed using a Macbook. Not that long ago I would've defended windows unitl my last breath; now I can proudly say that using a Macbook has helped me see the flaws of Windows and really reminded me of the importance of keeping an open mind. For a desktop I still believe that Windows is the best option over the others for the average user. On the other hand I can't see a scenario where I would want a Windows laptop over a Macbook. The one advantage Windows laptops hold over Macbooks for the most part is the price. Although the entry price for a Macbook has been dropping over the last few models they are still quite an investment. When it comes to high performance gaming I'd argue why you'd even use a laptop at that point. Sure a Macbook is not going to handle that well but, in my experience, neither will a Windows laptop that's built for gaming. Laptop GPU's are very underpowered compared to their desktop counterparts and even with the 4000 series GPU's while performance might not be an issue, a heat output that rivals a small fission reactor surely will be. For the sake of my sanity I won't even start on chromebooks. In the end I'm happy with my decision and if you're in the market for a laptop I would highly recommend a Macbook.