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0 pointsdangus15d ago0 comments

The MacBook Pro is essentially a really conservative packaging choice for people who buy the plain M5 chip. They are buying the size/weight/thickness that's required to support the M5 Max, and Apple could probably even get an M5 Max into a thinner/lighter system.

The lineup is a little bit odd because of this, and I bring up the Zephyrus as something of a demonstration of the idea. When you by a MacBook Pro 14" M5, you buy an integrated graphics-class system and essentially you're getting a laptop that's the exact same size as a laptop you can get packed with a 100 watt RTX 5070Ti. Your CPU doesn't even really need a cooling fan and yet the computer it's inside of is the same size as a gaming machine with a dedicated GPU.

Obviously I don't mean to say that Apple should make a laptop that sacrifices fan noise to that degree, but the same idea is happening in their lineup:

You buy a M5 MacBook Pro, you're getting a laptop thick and heavy enough to thermally support a much higher tier system that isn't even on the same planet in terms of performance (an M5 Pro or Max system).

Here's how I would change the lineup:

MacBook Neo is your entry level, stays the same.

MacBook Air 13" and 15" handle your everyday computing very well, they stay the same.

MacBook Pro 14" and 16" with the M5 chip gets a thinner and lighter chassis, closer in size/weight to the MacBook Air. These systems are there to give you the extra I/O and better quality screen/other additional "pro" features that you get with the Pro lineup but for someone who is only doing medium-intensity tasks.

MacBook Pro 14" and 16" with Pro/Max chips remain roughly the same.

Bonus points: Apple could also more enthusiastically enter the PC gaming market (>900 million customers) if they put out something like the MacBook Neo but instead of targeting Chromebooks they would target low to mid range gaming laptops like Lenovo LOQ. Do a lot of the same cost-cutting as the MacBook Neo: no haptic trackpad (gamers don't need it), worse speakers, lower resolution screen (good for games), take the Steam Deck route of using an SD card for expandable storage and keep profit margins by continuing to solder the internal storage in and limit the size to ensure pros only buy the more expensive MacBook Pro lineup. Launch that along with a Steam Deck competitor handheld.

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carefree-bob14d ago

You are basically arguing that Apple should make the laptops thinner at the expense of more fan noise, as the size of the aluminum chassis is directly proportional to the effectiveness of the passive heat dissipation but I suspect that for most people not hearing fan noise is much, much, much more important than a smaller chassis.

What Apple is doing instead is not putting fans on the air and using a small chassis. For the pros there are fans but unless you put the laptop under heavy load they stay off.

If anything I would go the reverse option and choose an even larger chassis for the Max models, but the manufacturing complexity of this may not be worth it given that a small proportion of the models sold will use the max chips.

dangusOP14d ago

That is not what I'm arguing.

I am arguing that the base M5 chip-equipped MacBook Pros are heavy and thick laptops and have a lot of thermal headroom, while the M5 Pro and Max chips are being used in the same chassis.

I think the MacBook Pro lineup should essentially be split so that the M5 model is in a thinner chassis while the M5 Pro and Max can continue to make those weight and thickness sacrifices.

The M5 MacBook Pro is basically the same as a MacBook Air but with a fan to get that extra 10% performance boost, and better screen and I/O. It should essentially turn into a MacBook Air Plus or something like that.

I think that the M5 base chip could easily operate in a much thinner/lighter chassis without the throttling of the fanless Air design while maintaining quiet performance.

Also, the edge of the MacBook Pro is sharp and uncomfortable compared to other laptops when you are resting palms/arms on the laptop directly.

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