Think Cooler
Farewell to the Intel Skillet
Recently, I found an old laptop I had tucked away. It was a beast. It weighed nearly six pounds. The iPad that I write this on weighs one pound. And honestly, it’s now hard to imagine ever using such a massive piece of hardware. But I did and we did, all the time, every day, just a few years ago.
I think about these types of things a lot. Things we currently use and do every day which will seem insane in just a few years. Nothing will probably ever top smoking on airplanes. I mean, we used to let people enjoy cigarettes in cramped pressurized tubes flying at 600 mph, 30k feet in the air. Hell, we even gave them ashtrays built into the seats! But the steady progress of tech will still make other things seem more subtly ridiculous.
I think one of those is going to the Intel-based MacBooks. Not because of their speed necessarily, but rather their heat. I’ve been noticing this a lot recently because I’ve been using my work machine (an Intel-based MacBook Pro) and my personal machine (an M1-based MacBook Air) interchangably. Yes, the M1 MacBook is noticably faster in basically every way. But a difference even more noticable is if you happen to place the machine on your lap.
One is basically a skillet, the other sits there virtually undetectable. It’s aluminum base is almost the opposite: as cool as a Jony Ive-narrated video.
I know we’re told this isn’t dangerous for people, but my god these things run hot. It’s just extremely uncomfortable and ridiculous to put such a hot plate on your lap as if your legs were sausage links getting sizzled for breakfast. Months into using it, I seemingly cannot coax the M1 MacBook Air into getting hot, even though, remarkably, it has no fan. Granted, I’m not the most taxing MacBook user. Still, I’m not for the Intel MacBook either! And… ouch!
Speaking of no fan, unsurprisingly, the M1 MacBook is completely silent whereas the Intel MacBook often sounds like a helicopter spinning up its blades to lift in the air. Again, it’s ridiculous. And I have to imagine it will seem beyond ridiculous in just a few short years once all Apple products are running their own silicon and the company has forced all the competition, including Intel, to do better.
Think cooler.
Published on July 26, 2021 📆Written from San Francisco, CA 🗺Written on a 2021 11-inch M1 iPad Pro ⌨️
