To switch from Mac Air. Need Suggestions

G

Hi,

I am using Mac Air for last five years and had been happy with the smooth performance (in terms of no virus issues, no unwanted crashes, and no data loss most importantly). However once it had been out of warranty period (after 3 years), it started giving me trouble with hardware issues. First issue was something with logic board (motherboard), service center guys didn't hesitate to ask 48k to replace the board, and that was the moment I realized why Apple is expensive (not to buy but to maintain). Well, got it repaired for 5k from outside. Then it worked for a year, again got it repaired for 5k last month. And day before yesterday.. again had to sent to repair shop. Well, that's the story, liked the hassle free performance, but scared of repair expenses.
Now I guess is the time to switch. First suggestion needed is.. whether windows based laptops are able to offer similar reliable performance. And how can I sell/exchange my Mac Air for best value.
I will post my requirement once we first finalize whether it would be a Mac or Windows and how to get best value of my existing Mac Air.

Thank you.

Mac OS is more polished than Win10, means less random errors or bugs. Macbooks started shipping with SSDs earlier than Windows laptops, so Macs felt a lot smoother than Win10 running on HDD. Win10 on SSD is much faster than on HDD.

You have to decide if you need MacOS. Check the apps you use.

*www.amazon.in/ASUS-i5-1135G7-35-56cms-Graphics-UX325EA-KG511TS/dp/B095C6DBB3/
That is a great laptop for normal usage + multimedia consumption because of OLED panel (just put taskbar to auto-hide to avoid burn-in in very long term).

Amazon.in
This is a performance champ at 70k with a 8c/16t CPU but is bigger at 15.6".

G

Yes, I understand that Mac vs Windows is all together a different topic. Mac is more aligned with my requirement but aftersales experience has been bad for me.
Posting my requirements.

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD)
Approx.50,000

2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?

Thin and Light; 12" - 14" screen

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?

Web browsing (like 50-100 tabs at a time)
MS Office - Excel and PPT
R, Tableau, BI
Movies

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
- No

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: with good support.
b. Dislike: expensive repairs

6) Anything else you would like to say?

Battery back up Extended (5-7hrs)

I am also using Macbook Air 2015 version and i feel that the performance of os has declined over these years.Initially my mac used to boot up in like 2-3 seconds but now on mac os Big Sur it takes around 30-40 seconds to boot up.I also feel that the app opening time has increased over the past year on big sur.
I also agree to the fact that there is no denying that there is no comparision between mac os and windows as i have experience with high end windows laptop.Windows even on ssd is slower to open apps than mac os.
However this is over your budget but I would suggest you to go for m1 macs as there is no better time for that I also wish to update to m1 macs but budget is my constraint.There is no better time than now as you also getting free airpods.

G

As I mentioned, hesitating to go again for Mac because of aftetsales. Then M1 chip is supposed to attract even higher repair expenses as per few of the reviews I have read (reason being some components attached or something, I'm not from tech background ). Saying that, if I will go for Mac, better I'll wait for M1X.
How's your experience with aftersales?

Gauravchi said:
As I mentioned, hesitating to go again for Mac because of aftetsales. Then M1 chip is supposed to attract even higher repair expenses as per few of the reviews I have read (reason being some components attached or something, I'm not from tech background ). Saying that, if I will go for Mac, better I'll wait for M1X.
How's your experience with aftersales?

For me i have good experience aftersales with the apple authorised store.One time i switched off my mac and then next day it didnt boot so went for the apple store and they took it and reassembled everything and that fixed it.I was charged 1.7k for just inspection Yeah it could've been much pricy if there was some other failure.
Currently my issue is battery life for the laptop it has decreased to 3-4 hrs maximum.And apple store is charging 15k for battery replacement.

Has no one have used Surface laptops? How are they compare to normal Windows laptop?

TheSloth said:
Has no one have used Surface laptops? How are they compare to normal Windows laptop?

Good enough performance but bad price in India.

G

Well, so any suggestions for my use case?

Gauravchi said:
3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?

Web browsing (like 50-100 tabs at a time)

Not sure if 16GB ram would be enough for this.

W

SaiyanGoku said:
Not sure if 16GB ram would be enough for this.

It can suffice provided streaming/youtube/webpages with videos etc are not incl more than in 2-3 tabs. I am personally using around 60-70 tabs often in chrome with uBO addon with 8 gb ram but I make sure to not load more than 1-2 youtube like tabs at same time & not for more time than what is required.

W

omega44-xt said:
Amazon.in
This is a performance champ at 70k with a 8c/16t CPU but is bigger at 15.6".

The 2 sellers are new & 1 is not amazon fulfilled so not recommended for such expensive item.

whitestar_999 said:
The 2 sellers are new & 1 is not amazon fulfilled so not recommended for such expensive item.

It's OOS for me. I won't buy from non-amazon fulfilled sellers. Just gave the link for reference considering laptops come in stock & go out of stock fast these days.

Gauravchi said:
3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?

Web browsing (like 50-100 tabs at a time)

From experience, I can say that 100 tabs is a sure no go on 16GB RAM. 50, maybe barely. With 15-20 tabs or so each across my Chrome & Brave, I easily cross 11-12GB of RAM usage.

G

Well, so it seems my guess was right, lot of tabs is a real issue. Based on the suggestions, I would opt for extra RAM to make it 16.
Most of the times it will be in 40-50 range, with around 20% of the time between 50-100. Also, there would not be multiple multimedia pages (YouTube would be limited to 1-2).
16 GB ram is neccessary, I didn't know. Thank you for sharing this. But again.. Mac Air with 8 gb was taking all that for five years, I guess that's why it's in repair shop

G

omega44-xt said:
It's OOS for me. I won't buy from non-amazon fulfilled sellers. Just gave the link for reference considering laptops come in stock & go out of stock fast these days.

Yes, thanks. But I guess I'll restrict my budget to 50k.

W

Gauravchi said:
Well, so it seems my guess was right, lot of tabs is a real issue. Based on the suggestions, I would opt for extra RAM to make it 16.
Most of the times it will be in 40-50 range, with around 20% of the time between 50-100. Also, there would not be multiple multimedia pages (YouTube would be limited to 1-2).
16 GB ram is neccessary, I didn't know. Thank you for sharing this. But again.. Mac Air with 8 gb was taking all that for five years, I guess that's why it's in repair shop

See my above post, I am typing this post from a laptop with 61 tabs currently opened in chrome(no youtube/streaming site though).

@omega44-xt

Gauravchi said:
Well, so it seems my guess was right, lot of tabs is a real issue. Based on the suggestions, I would opt for extra RAM to make it 16.
Most of the times it will be in 40-50 range, with around 20% of the time between 50-100. Also, there would not be multiple multimedia pages (YouTube would be limited to 1-2).
16 GB ram is neccessary, I didn't know. Thank you for sharing this. But again.. Mac Air with 8 gb was taking all that for five years, I guess that's why it's in repair shop

See, older pages will be cached to storage, like SSD, will happen to both Mac & Windows, but heard Mac is better optimized for RAM usage vs Win10.

whitestar_999 said:
See my above post, I am typing this post from a laptop with 61 tabs currently opened in chrome(no youtube/streaming site though).
View attachment 20727

View attachment 20728

@omega44-xt

Likely cached to storage. Windows uses RAM based on available memory. Cuurently have like 25 tabs open.

W

omega44-xt said:
Likely cached to storage. Windows uses RAM based on available memory. Cuurently have like 25 tabs open.

In chrome go to more tools--task manager & see your tabs memory usage. If any tab is using more than 100MB ram then either that site is graphics heavy or your adblocker/site bot protection feature is increasing ram usage. Open that same site in another new tab to see how much ram usage shown for that tab.

whitestar_999 said:
In chrome go to more tools--task manager & see your tabs memory usage. If any tab is using more than 100MB ram then either that site is graphics heavy or your adblocker/site bot protection feature is increasing ram usage. Open that same site in another new tab to see how much ram usage shown for that tab.

Only videos are 100+MB, with actively running one at 300MB.

W

omega44-xt said:
Only videos are 100+MB, with actively running one at 300MB.

Yeah youtube tab in my chrome browser also consume around same ram. I can easily open 50-60 tabs in chrome but avg ram usage of each tab is around 40-50mb.

G

Well, going with that calculation, 8 GB would suffice.
Any suggestion within 50k?
Mac air is yet in repair shop, trying to sell it.

Gauravchi said:
Well, going with that calculation, 8 GB would suffice.
Any suggestion within 50k?
Mac air is yet in repair shop, trying to sell it.

HP 14 with R5 5500U, it's usually out of stock.

G

omega44-xt said:
HP 14 with R5 5500U, it's usually out of stock.

Is this the one:
Take a look at this HP Ryzen 5 Quad Core 3500U - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/256 GB SSD/Windows 10 Home) 14s-dk0501AU Thin and Light Laptop on Flipkart

*dl.flipkart.com/s/egTNgeNNNN

Some more options?

G

My bad, you have mentioned 5500U. Will check for that.

This is the one:
Amazon.in

Something cheaper & bit more powerful than R5 3500U:
*www.amazon.in/HP-14-inch-Windows-Natural-14s-fq1029AU/dp/B0928SZKL1/

It has a free RAM slot, so add a 2nd RAM.

G

It seems laptop prices are current on the higher side, like 10% higher compared to Dec last year. With chip shortages, I am not sure if it will come down. But how about waiting for good offer, especially the exchange value for Mac air.

Gauravchi said:
It seems laptop prices are current on the higher side, like 10% higher compared to Dec last year. With chip shortages, I am not sure if it will come down. But how about waiting for good offer, especially the exchange value for Mac air.

Laptop demand skyrocketed post 2019 lockdown because of WFH & studies from home. So all under 50k laptops are kind of inflated in price. Earlier (pre corona) you could get a decent R3 + SSD + 4GB RAM laptop for ~30k, now its almost impossible even at 35k.

Consider switching to Linux unless you need it mainly for games. Will use your hardware much better.