Mac Fanboy Tries ARM Windows Laptops

I went to the store and bought a new ARM laptop to see if it competes with the MacBook Air.
Hohem Official Store: bit.ly/45TOdKf (20% off code: YT20)
Hohem iSteady V3 on Amazon: amzn.to/4bUGD3y
Pick up a MacBook Air - amzn.to/4deX4sm
There are finally new ARM computers for Windows. The last time we tried them, they were... terrible. But Qualcomm has got silicon-the Snapdragon X Elite-that they say now competes with Apple silicon. And Microsoft has completely redone Windows 11 ARM compatibility with their new Prism emulation layer-similar to Rosetta for macOS. And not only can it recompile x86 binaries to ARM, it can even do graphics API translation for DirectX games! Can a thin and light laptop game better than a MacBook Air? Perhaps! In this video, we'll discuss every laptop that currently ships with the X Elite, buy one, set it up, and see if it can hang with the best-selling laptop in the world: Apple's MacBook Air.
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[@chrism2279]

Rookie mistake expecting to be able to actually use a new Windows computer on the day of purchase.

[@roccociccone597]

rookie mistake to think you can use either Windows or macOS.

[@Jst4vdeos]

@@roccociccone597 Like how 85% of the market uses windows?

[@itsmilan4069]

​@@roccociccone597rookie mistake of you to think

[@demoman1596sh]

@@Jst4vdeos Are you defending this bs?

[@keco185]

@@demoman1596shrookie mistake to think you could win this argument

[@reesmorris]

Missed title opportunity to call this an ARMs race

[@SeanTube2099]

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@Hans-gb4mv]

Well, I know own an ARMed laptop, not sure if I'll be allowed to fly with it.

[@bumblethunder]

You can always edit it

[@jgames01]

Your use of a low, indoor voice while reviewing the laptops proves you're one of the good ones man.

[@tylerm.9408]

Yes, thank you so much. I agree completely. Emphasis is okay, yelling is annoying. Thank you Quinn

[@mindsnare1982]

the bar is so low

[@Con-Pin-]

The reason I only have very few subscriptions: too much screaming and overall stupidity

[@JonathanPaulin]

@@tylerm.9408 Could not get through the theatrics this time, I was genuinely interested sadly.

[@UV5R-]

I was thinking the exact same thing. I like he was being respectful to the store and other people shopping. Good stuff.

[@mike__5kp]

Nah, in this sense I prefer Mac! I'm already very used to its operating system and I also think it's better optimized.

[@Melissalove44]

I bought the Mac for work and I'm really happy with it, but I must say that I haven't found a way to install Office.

[@mike__5kp]

My office is from BNH Software and I really can't complain haha, everything works fine and I haven't had any problems with malware or software.

[@sid_sogrey]

@@Melissalove44Mac App Store , just sign in with the microsoft account with 365

[@ENNEN420]

I only clicked this because I misread "Mac Fanboy" as "Mac Femboy"

[@keithframe3489]

Equally true

[@akito_underscore]

Same with me T-T, am disappointed.

[@AustinWithAHead]

same

[@abdo-3259]

​@@akito_underscoreI have a question What do you think the video would be if that was actually the title? I would like to know

[@akito_underscore]

@@abdo-3259 As I was moving my eyes over the letters, reading the tittle, an insurmountable urge, rooted deep within me, grew at a tremendous rate. My heart pounded and my usually ever so clouded mind became crisp as a zen master's. At that moment only a singe thought occupied my mind: "Ohhh thank the lords of heaven and hell for bringing salvation on this petty mortal!!". Razing with ecstasy I moved my mouse from where it had been only moments ago and pressed the ever so intriguing thumbnail.. And, the rest you wonder? .... The rest is history..

[@jarretta2656]

I got second hand anger from that windows setup process. Why did you put me through that?

[@lelwani]

People unironically will claim this is better than MacOS

[@JamesR624]

@@lelwani Yeah. If you've ACTUALLY set up a Mac and either transferred your stuff from an old mac or worse, wirelessly from a time capsule, you're gonna be WISHING for the speed of the Windows setup process. Jesus. Not to mention with Windows you just sign in and done. With macOS, you have to look over toggle after toggle and feature upsell AFER you've alreday bought it!. And unlike on Windows, where all the setup toggles are on one or two pages, on MacOS, it's a SEPERATE page for EVERY SINGLE TOGGLE, like location, siri, icloud sync, icloud backup, desktop sync, wallet, app store, appearance, etc, etc....

[@ej_tech]

@@lelwani I use Windows primarily and Windows 11 is intrusive and annoying as fuck. I had to oobe\bypassnro to create a local account and I also had to meticulously uninstall and disable crap on my Surface Go.

[@jarretta2656]

@@JamesR624 bro. I've setup a mac before. Stop being dramatic. That said, I also hate macos for other reasons and use linux.

[@roccociccone597]

@@JamesR624 good luck using a local account without opening a command prompt just to kill the process of the authentication step. Sounds great :)

[@JamesR624]

"Let's see if I can install the entirety of Steam faster than the than a single-- It's already done." 🤣

[@Entertainment-]

Steam is basically just a Chrome Electron website.

[@Qrzychu92]

except the installer you download is actually just an installer :) as soon you open it for the first time, it downloads the steam actual, around 300mb if I remember correctly. It also auto-updates every time you open it not sure in what exact is it THAT much better than Windows

[@EinTypOhneHandle]

@@Entertainment-to be fair, the Xbox app is also just a fancy web browser

[@tui3264]

@@Entertainment- I thought it was CEF like Spotify

[@kirishima638]

That first boot experience - forced motherboard and windows updates, phone syncing, settings, 365 onboarding, popups from shovelware, incorrect clock - is infuriating. Why can’t PC manufacturers replicate the unboxing experience of a mac? They’ve had 20+ fucking years.

[@snazzy]

It’s honestly flabbergasting

[@Greengart]

@@snazzy Some -- not all, but some -- of this is due to the last minute recall of Recall.

[@Jst4vdeos]

Why did it take Apple 20yrs to let you snap windows properly?

[@itsmenotjames]

@@Jst4vdeosthat feature bugs me so much. Why does it exist. Let me put my windows where I want them.

[@SMor42]

@@Jst4vdeosbecause the design language of Macs is to not use snapping windows. The tool bar always at the top of the screen means that you can have multiple instances of windows for the same program open at once without having a bunch of repeating tool bars. It’s less important now, but applications like photoshop used to not take up the entire screen and had floating windows with tool bars off to the side. It was just a different philosophy for an operating system.

[@Jack32X]

The first time set up of Windows 11 has quickly become one of the most painful things to have to go through. The more crap MS bolts on the worse it gets

[@togoxo]

i think it’s actually ok. the ads for microsoft stuff is skipable at least but the only few actually annoying things are -the weird winui and old explorer hybrid file explorer that can get very slow sometimes. -the long animations for everything that are too heavy for 8,9,10 and 11th gen intel uhd gpus on lots of laptops -the slow start menu quick settings panel and notification panel -there is no need for any animations for opening and closing windows. every other one is tolerable but this isnt you also cant disable this animation only withou disabling every other one

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

I begged to have Windows 10 on my Framework laptop, but my supplier said it'd be impossible. But what fool would want Win 11?

[@TheAlaskanBullW02]

@@togoxo the ads? windows 11 has ads?

[@JZTechEngineering]

@@gdutfulkbhh7537 people who like better operating systems

[@mastroitek]

Indeed, I used to tollerate the W10 setup, now on W11 I have a custom build with an "autounattend" file that strips down the OS to the bone. It is impressive how much faster the setup and OS is

[@Celphirio]

Was laughing my ass off throughout the video at your reactions, but one of my favorite parts was when you made the Death Stranding guy jump to his death while calmly saying "yeah, so 30-40 FPS" 🤣

[@StacheMoney]

Best Buy Microsoft Advisor here! One small correction: At 7:18 you say that the Surface Lineup is not carried at Best Buy stores and is only displayed there. I can verify that this is not the case, however after the launch the Surface lineup quickly sold out and a lot of Models cannot even be ordered, which is likely what you encountered. Small nitpick, and I am sure others have likely mentioned that already, but I figured I'd say something just in case. Love your content!

[@snazzy]

Glad to hear it! That makes more sense than what I was told haha Good to hear they’re selling well!

[@c9k]

Thanks for the clarification, that sounded like utter insanity

[@SoftwareManiacLSM]

I bought one for my wife at Best Buy here in Bellingham WA. Killer system. She jumped between trying out Surface and Lenovo Yoga Slim. Guess which one we bought? Yoga. Better keyboard, OLED and finally a quality laptop that competes with a MacBook Air. Now, if only the apps and drivers get converted from vendors.

[@SoftwareManiacLSM]

Oh, one more thing. MacAfee still like a virus that comes standard with constant nag messages until you figure out HOW to REMOVE IT COMPLETELY!?!?! When MS has Defender, why does this MacAfee nightmare continue?

[@JamieLikesGames]

Can confirm. I tried to order the $999 Surface Laptop and it was out of stock in store and online I had to get it from Amazon 😂

[@TheBen4151]

Hi. First - love this video. I am a finance professional so I use microsoft excel every single day. Every single youtuber will run video rendering benchmarks, but for the love of the god can someone please tell me how the Snapdragon processors hold up when working with hundreds of thousands of rows of data in excel. For those not in finance, excel is the sole reason why we require windows laptops. This will never change.

[@snazzy]

This is very good and something I will aim to test more thoroughly in the future. Thanks!

[@nick_yt23]

Great point.

[@maximusg88]

Exactly my thought… Love Snazzy - but every single tech influencer does the same shit… Gaming, gaming, gaming… And for productivity - video edits… Realistically - how many people edit videos on their laptops? I don’t know anyone

[@TonyMacina]

Yes! While I edit video and game I'm also a sales manager and running excel on an ultrabook when I have to handle docs with 90k rows and lookup tables across multiple tabs is excruciating. I could have cried when IT said I didn't have to use my personal device anymore and was stuck with an 11th gen i5 as my work computer 😂

[@snazzy]

@@maximusg88For whatever it’s worth, we usually do AI/ML stuff and dev build compiles. We just didn’t on this once since it’s a first-look and not a full review.

[@pave_unpaved]

15:22 As an arch user i can confirm this. At least the install guide gives you relevant useful information in a clear manner.

[@leviwuzere07]

"More recent games" "Red Dead Redemption 2" RDR2 is 6 years old mate...

[@cameronbosch1213]

Still very vRAM heavy. For example, the game couldn't even run properly on some budget laptop GPUs (specifically with under 6 GB of vRAM).

[@superqaxclub]

RDR2 looks way better than actual recent games

[@cameronbosch1213]

@superqaxclub That's especially true on PCs with higher quality textures, which of course uses a lot of vRAM; you really needed at least 6 GB of vRAM for the maximum presets even back then. Granted, even the 8 GB GPUs were borderline even back then.

[@lankylame8]

Fitting for Windows

[@Autumn_red_fox]

recent when compared to something like... idk, the original DOOM

[@depotwest]

Nice that Lenovo doesn't appear to have any stickers on the laptop like many of the ones you looked at at the store. I can't believe they are still doing that!

[@snazzy]

Oh no, there’s still two! Haha. An X Elite one and a Yoga one listing specs which is insane cause it’s like YA I ALREADY BOUGHT IT I KNOW

[@Ashanmaril]

I don't give them any credit as long as they're preinstalling McAfee

[@Pakistani890]

What's wrong with the stickers they look good plus they also tell you important info at a glance like CPU spec's or which CPU it is etc...

[@xeon2k8]

if you havent got the physical capacity to peal them off maybe you shouldnt buy a laptop

[@Entertainment-]

⁠@@Pakistani890Dude probably only buys shirts that screams Adidas or Polo

[@biochipper5710]

I really wish that gaming wasnt so restricted to windows because I genuinely hate running it on my machines.

[@xenotiic8356]

Until Apple opens up the Metal API and supports Vulkan, the best we can hope for is the Steam Deck continuing to be a sales wunderkind.

[@rustyfox887]

@@xenotiic8356 apple opening up anything seems to be fever dream to me. Maybe one day when they get forced but probably not anytime soon.

[@trog871]

Proton Exists

[@Eridescent]

At this point, the only games that are *restricted* to Windows are ones with specific kernel-level anticheat like Fortnite, Valorant, D2 and League of Legends. Aside from those, Proton is extremely solid. I haven't run into anything so far I couldn't get working on my Debian desktop. There's a handful of things on ProtonDB that don't work but nothing very high-profile.

[@_xX_me_Xx_]

@@xenotiic8356 I believe Asahi Linux has Vulkan and OpenGL 3.1 support now.

[@uioui]

I am pretty sure that the AV1 encode test was run purely on the CPU on both machines. You will need to go into the video tab to change to any hardware encoder.

[@snazzy]

Oh frick. You’re right. Let me retest again in the morning and I will provide results.

[@patrickthecoolest6969]

​--also, av1 is on the m3--

[@PerihelionSummer]

@@patrickthecoolest6969 Only decode though, right?

[@friendlyfredward]

​@@snazzy handbrake's AV1 presets use SVT (software encoder) to ensure compatibility even when hardware encoders are present and even the h264/hevc presets tend to use software rather than nvenc or videotoolbox. to switch encoders you don't need to switch presets, just go to the video tab and change the codec/hardware to whatever you want on the same preset. that keeps all other settings identical and you can be sure it's specifically using the hardware encoder.

[@patrickthecoolest6969]

@@PerihelionSummer oh, you're right

[@danielzolfaghari]

I have to say, I generally enjoy your content on Mac because it's extremely informative because you are a pro on a mac! But what did I just see here? 😐. What is your aim here honestly? You set up your laptop once and you forget it. If you really wanted to test how good or bad the new windows laptops are, just test them as your daily drivers! I mean, they are ultra books and Qualcomm specifically told the world they're not gaming laptops and the first thing you do is to test some games??? I mean come on man! what happened to you?? Also, you said now to test the "business" aspect; then you proceed to do a benchmark, handbrake and opening speed test for browser and file manager?????? I mean seriously??? This is honestly your way of testing how good these laptops are??? Emmm, how about testing them for some actual work?????? I really didn't expect such a noobie's video from you.

[@keithframe3489]

Bro, he is apple fanboy, why do you expect him to be fair with windows.

[@i3_i9]

Typical apple fanboy getting angry at windows. Nothing new here.

[@JMNTN]

i had my frustrations with mac too but boy seeing the windows experience again i will never complain again

[@boogyman10o1]

If you walked into my store, I’d probably poop myself

[@snazzy]

I’m just a fat dad-looking type man lol

[@fmax6000]

@@snazzyyou forgot to ask him where’s his store! lol

[@MrLuis85698]

He is not only very handsome, he is among the smartest Tech KZbinrs in the world.

[@iSant0S]

I feel the frustration setting up new laptop

[@Pakistani890]

it's just a one-time setup bruv...

[@Stormlywing]

@@Pakistani890 people said Mac is hard to get used to the problem is i never touched a macbook in 17 years as i never used one Some how i know how to set it up If you match windows vs apple laptop setup i guess you see Apple would won that part as is their idea if they want to add an account not their people

[@MarcosRobertoDosSantosJF]

@@Stormlywing Well, Mac is not hard to get used to (there is a learning curve, but it is ok). In fact, you can keep using both Mac and windows (like I do) without problems.

[@zUltra3D]

​@@Pakistani890No it's not. This is just the first of many "f u"s that Microsoft has to offer.

[@ArthropodSpidey]

10:24 "at least this has facial recognition which is more than what can be said about the iPhone." Quinn was indeed having a stroke.

[@snazzy]

My brain had been frying for over 35 minutes by that point lol

[@fusionsigh]

I was wondering what was going on

[@SgtRaptor]

"I'm going in as just a regular user" - I've been using Windows for the last 15 years and I've never heard of Winget

[@snazzy]

OK, regular nerd user.

[@kaasbaas9532]

SgtComputerIlliterate

[@long-long.]

I'm not sure you can really call yourself a user, just standard consumer.

[@Mario583a]

Winget is just the Microsoft Store with extra steps.

[@dalmationblack]

@@Mario583a tbf im not sure I've ever used the microsoft store either lmao

[@HaikuOezu]

Not to take anything off the Snapdragon Elite but the the reason Edge launches super fast is probably because by default it has Startup Boost enabled so its literally already loaded in memory when you boot Windows Any subsequent launches looked within margin of error

[@snazzy]

macOS is similar.

[@HaikuOezu]

@@snazzyhuh, Safari being preloaded with macOS is actually news to me When did they start doing it? A quick google search is not helping

[@mehregankbi]

@@HaikuOezulinux, mac and windows all use almost all the unused memory to load frequently needed files (including app files) into memory. It’s called cached or buffered RAM.

[@HaikuOezu]

@@mehregankbi I know that happens on subsequent launches, but what I'm saying is Edge has a feature called startup boost where it literally launches the edge process upon boot and keeps it permanently in memory so that it will always take less time to boot

[@mehregankbi]

@@HaikuOezu I didn't know that part. Do you have a source regarding this behavior on windows?

[@ezBeanie]

14:25 Using the Windows Store is a big mistake. Nobody uses it ever. Just download programs the normal way.

[@junesgames]

Just a note: The companion app Link to Windows is available on iPhone. So you could use it instead of dismissing it as "I don't have Android". Otherwise great video. I can't wait to buy an ARM laptop in a few years and run Linux on it ;)

[@xEqualsRandom]

True but the setup screen says to click Skip and set up Phone Link later if you have an iPhone

[@_EyeOfTheTiger]

iMessage doesn’t work

[@rossfororder]

The joke about arch being easier to install made my day. Microsoft for a massive company really goes out of their way to things hard to do

[@johanb.7869]

Microsoft tries to force all kinds of crap down your throat, Arch does not. I don't use Arch, BTW.

[@frogdeity]

Arch is actually really easy to install these days. So he's right.

[@OttuR_]

i think the most impressive thing in this whole video is that the alarm never went off when you went to pick up the laptops in the best buy

[@snazzy]

I’ve honed in this skill over many years.

[@artyknotswastaken]

I don't know why but I thought these machines were at like a 300-500 price point not 1000+ 💀💀

[@Bibbatron]

Qualcomm CEO said we'll have 700$ machines in 2024. Right now they simply can't provide enough chips to lower the price.

[@GreatTaiwan]

@@Bibbatron aka he lied

[@andybak7575]

Whenever I buy hardware as a gift, I open it to update including ipad or phones. it's nice to be able to prep things without signing in and missing out on the "new user experience"

[@timr.2257]

Finally a tech reviewer that actually talks about the price.

[@CrackerSnifferBurger]

this is a good video. i’ve used windows my entire life but wow, windows 11 has killed my love for it. the setup process is just a gauntlet of subscriptions. never thought id consider a macbook but here i am.

[@maximusg88]

While I agree it got worse… realistically, how many times will people actually go through those steps in their lives?

[@Lukas_K_Seidl]

I have a macbook pro and a windows desktop and if it weren't for gaming I'd switch to mac completely. It's just less intrusive and annoying with updates and useless notifications, with windows you have to be afraid of some useless change with pretty much every update.

[@dadthelad]

It can take a few months to fully get used to, and appreciate, macOS, but once you do, you will wonder how the hell you put up with using Windows all those years.

[@chilelekochileya5676]

​@@dadthelad Opposite is true when youve used both for a bit too, window management in MacOS feels archaic

[@lohlundgames]

Maybe you can also think about switching to Linux.

[@andrescarrasco1248]

fun fact: if you just format your drive and install a fresh W11 it won´t ask for so many updates at least on a x86 PC/Laptop, and you remove all the bloatware the laptop may come with

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

@@andrescarrasco1248 I think he wants to show that he is having grave difficulty because he loves his Apple devices. He even says so in the beginning and throughout the video.

[@dawgre]

i recently got a new laptop (13th gen Intel) that came with a fresh copy of windows 11, no preinstalled bloat from the manufacturer and it still had to restart like six times to flash BIOS updates, took what felt like 40 minutes doing some feature update then tried to make me log into an MS account just for me to find out i still had multiple pending updates (including *ANOTHER* BIOS update) once i got to the desktop. besides that most of my laptop manufacturer’s bloatware just installed itself through Windows Update anyway (besides McAFee, of course) i’m afraid it’s just a Windows problem, no matter what architecture.

[@Pakistani890]

@@dawgre you can just fresh install windows for no bloat and also remember that the laptops you buy might be sitting in the warehouse for weeks or months so updates start piling up espically on windows 11 as it's Microsoft's focus righ now.`..

[@Celphirio]

I wouldn't recommend this because it might fuck up built-in devices like the fingerprint reader or Windows Hello camera. Never got the drivers fixed on them. That's what happened to me, anyway.

[@hockey1freak]

Nothing like buying a new computer and having to reinstall because its pre-built with "virus" lol

[@FrancescoDeRosaTheOne]

Great video, as always. But I think the final part, about video transcoding in HandBrake at 27:37 to the end, has some problems. You used software-based CPU encoding presets, both in the H265 and AV1 tests, on both machines, and you left the deinterlacer Decomb filter on, which consumes more CPU power (and on a progressive video is useless). On the Mac, the hardware accelerated encoders are indicated as "VideoToolBox", while on Windows they are labeled as Intel QSV, Nvidia NVENC or AMD VCE encoders (I don't know how HandBrake calls the Snapdragon encoders, and I don't know if they have already implemented support for them at all). That is the reason why the AV1 test didn't show that much of a difference and why the Windows machine had the fans at full speed. Both machines were using just CPU software encoding.

[@Bezroth]

Snazzy Labs: Remember when Edge was good My Memory: 404 file not found

[@jamescollins6085]

As someone who has to use it at work, it's not nearly as bad as I expected. I'd still much rather be using Firefox, though.

[@IsoMacintosh]

It still is pretty ok, being chromium based and what not, also has some features missing from other browsers like more supported languages for spell checking

[@F41LZZz]

dude that sponsor spot at 7ish mins was on point. like insanely well integrated. showing how it could be expertly used in the store, and not mentioning how you filmed it until after. this was a really high quality video all around.

[@snazzy]

Thanks so much!!

[@chejooriberam3371]

I have a short attention span and I never watch videos in full. I watched every second of this video. Great flow, great content. Keep creating!

[@snazzy]

I appreciate that!

[@Yellowhound1]

As a long time Linux/Windows user, and also now at 10+ years into IT, the main reason I dumped Windows out of my life and bought a mac and still use Linux is exactly the happening around 15:19 everything is just a poor user experience. Don't get me wrong Windows is a good thing to have for niche gear that corporations support, but even in those industries we are starting to see Linux on those special devices. Tektronix now has Ubuntu as an option for it's hardware. IXIA is fully supporting linux now and has basically abandoned it's windows stuff ( i say this tongue in cheek windows no longer gets feature updates first exclusively anymore). Windows 11 is a failure of user experience, never have i had an Operating System get in the way of me doing work as much as Windows 11 has. It boils down to a hubris that Microsoft knows best for the user and they are no longer listening to feedback. The biggest feedback i can give them at this point is start fresh build a new version of windows that isn't legacy from essentially Vista now.

[@Dave102693]

Legacy support is why Windows sucks so much lol.

[@kevikiru]

@@Dave102693 Not really! A lot of UI design and bloatware has nothing to do with legacy support! It is a conscious choice. Including the annoying ads and broken functionality.

[@cameronbosch1213]

Windows 11 was final straw for me. I went full-time to Linux after it's release.

[@Qrzychu92]

for me it was MacOS that was a failure in UX. It is designed for a single screen, and can be used in only one way, unless you convert it to a Linux dsktop (which you can also do on Windows). Inconsistent, random shortcuts, full screen apps being a separate virutal desktop? Cannot alt-tab between two chrome windows? Cannot have a shortcut to Chrome profile? With multiple screens, you get only one task bar. If you want to interact with an app on another screen, you need to first click to focus it. On Windows I can just move cursor to another screen and scroll, without loosing focus on the first app. Very useful. Default terminal sucks balls, everything default sucks balls to be honest. "Natural" scroll on a mouse? Sure, you can change the setting, but it also affect the touchpad, so now that's upside down. Yes, you can install apps to fix that (for most you have to pay BTW), but you cannot tell that out of the box experience is better. It is better ONLY IF you use single screen, and are not a power user. I spent a month with Macbook 14 with M2 Pro and 32gb of ram, yes it was fast, yes the screen is good, touchpad really good and speakers are better than any other laptop. And when you push it, it gets to hot to keep on your lap, just as any windows laptop. I still want two screens, proper speakers or headphones, external ergo mouse and keyboard. For the price of that Macbook I can get i9-14900k tower with 128gb of ram, AND a laptop to remote into it on the go. The

[@OluwadiyaKehinde]

No OS is perfect You choose your own poison!

[@jlnho1]

As a person who uses Windows everyday, the struggle is real. Every time I restart my PC after an update, Microsoft gonna ask me “oh do you want to connect your phone? Do you wannn-“

[@entroheat]

apple does the same, I have macbook pro and ipad and reality is the battery life of apple being outstanding is in the eye of the user, i see it better than windows but not so much better and simple stuff like virus software Is hard to download

[@the-answer-is-42]

Yeah, I'm primarily a Linux person, but I wanted to setup a Windows 11 VM because of reasons... I got really bothered by how Windows was constantly like "what do you think of this? What about that? Hey, login with your MS account, why don't you? Can we get this data from you? No? How about that data? No? But this data? No? Hey, you better set this one up for your own security, so why don't you do that?" Exaggerating a little, it's just rather off putting when you're not used to it, so my VM plans never materialized because Windows was too annoying 😂.

[@wockreaper]

@@entroheat Why would you download an antivirus in 2024 lol. Especially on Mac

[@Tools2Survive]

I'm glad you went through this troubleshooting nightmare, so I didn't have to! ARM on Windows isn't there yet, so I won't be buying one of these anytime soon.

[@eliaswestcoast]

Really enjoyed the flow and style of this one. Nice work!

[@snazzy]

Much appreciated!

[@iikurt]

One thing I noticed during the gaming comparison of the X Elite and the M2, was that the X Elite was plugged in throughout. Curious to see if there'd be any performance drop if it were running on battery.

[@kevikiru]

That's interesting because some X Elite laptops do increase performance when plugged.

[@andyH_England]

I know the HP Omnibook throttles nearly 50% on battery, but HP said that was a firmware issue and should be fixed...or so they say. Others suggest a loss of 5-10% on battery power.

[@r6201sk]

In some synthetic tests it was like 10460 vs 10452 points plugged vs unplugged (made up numbers .. just for example)

[@SteveHuffer]

Your daily reminder that it's not 'early days' for Windows on Arm. It's been around since well before Apple Silicon.

[@bodycounter9386]

That just makes it even more sad. Their first ARM was like a decade ago and they are still struggling with the absolute basic user experience.

[@riopato2009]

You are comparing a modified phone chip to a dedicated chip made for Windows. The Elite X is technically first gen. Of course, if Microsoft didn't botch and abandoned Windows Phone, maybe they would have learned to code Windows for Arm more effectively instead of relying on QUALCOMM to make a chip that can run Windows efficiently. We won't know because development on Windows 11 on old Snapdragons barely exists except for someone reverse engineering Surface Duos to run Windows in his spare time. He has an uphill battle though but as a proof of concept, not impossible so what's Microsoft's excuse?

[@AkashYadavOriginal]

Gotta love the KZbin AI jump ahead that pops up on sponsored spot and allows me to skip it automatically saving me a few double taps.

[@oscar-7788]

Great video! Also happy to see that you’re answering comments and connecting with your audience. It’s rare to see that 2024.

[@Entertainment-]

That was not a fair comparison, the X Elite was charging while the MacBook was using battery. Sometimes Windows machines throttle while simultaneously handling the power input.

[@mzr9710]

sir, did you just say that minecraft is not a real game?

[@MrNoahTall]

I have a whole middle school, including competitive Minecrafters (school stuff), who will compose fine argumentative essays that Minecraft is indeed a real game.

[@leakyabstraction]

I find it crazy that Best Buy was marketing these ARM-based laptops so prominently on their building. I personally (as a software engineer) think that in their current state they're mostly good for IT professionals who know exactly what are they getting into. Can you imagine the average person buying it and realizing they can't use their printer with it?

[@Hans-gb4mv]

Most printers these days work fine with universal drivers. You really think a printer needs 1GB of drivercrap installed?

[@nottingham82]

Step 1: buy windows laptop Step 2: try to install mac software no one on pc has ever used Step 3: act suprised it didn't go well. Lol love ya snazzy. Never change

[@420beffjezos]

Thank you for being honest, so far yours is the only one that is actually comparing xElite laptops to Macbook covering every aspect. I was especially interested in trackpad, speakers & fan noise. Looks like I'm gonna be holding on to my M1 MBA for much much longer.

[@dannonyogurt98]

You know he's a hardcore fanboy when we get to the gaming section. I bet there's still more compatible games on the x elite and he only complains about compatibility on the window side.

[@hivetyrant7]

I'm a grown ass adult that prides myself on not getting easily angry at anything. But the windows 11 experience (especially updates and as you perfectly showed, the unboxing and setup experience) makes me want to develop my own OS to get away from it. It's maddening.

[@moomew64]

Linux from Scratch got you covered!

[@cameronbosch1213]

​@@moomew64Or even any non Ubuntu distro.

[@karanjoshi2662]

when an influencer says the only thing going for it is the price then they are forgetting about their poor audience who make up for most of their audience. price is the most important factor these days for most of the people.

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

@@karanjoshi2662 No, we all have thousands of dollars laying around so we all can afford both an iPad and a Windows device. We would never just get one Windows tablet and be happy.

[@2failepic]

If you have a tight budget, you should not buy a new Laptop from this generation. The best value is always the last generations on clearance sales. For example the M1 Macbook Air have been going on really good sales the last few months. If you only need a Web browsing machine a Google Chromebook is much better then entry level Windows machines.

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

@@2failepic let's tell it all the way. A Chromebook is better than even an iPad for actual work and if you're a poor college student, depending on your major, a Chromebook is definitely better than buying a new laptop or an iPad. I think you can even run full Linux on Chrome OS. You should also be able to run Wine for some Windows stuff if you truly need it. I second your idea of buying an older computer instead. Though I could buy a brand new laptop, I instead use a Dell tablet from 2017. I just don't upgrade it because of what I use my Windows tablet for. It's running Windows 11 and Ubuntu. I found that I needed more storage so I upgraded the internal storage (the screen is meant to come off easily for servicing) to 1tb for $35. I have been using it for a couple of years and it's great. It is definitely a good idea to shop for an older device.

[@roliletea]

I would go for a used ThinkPad. My first years as a software developer I worked on a used thinkpad I got for around $400. Obviously not ideal for heavier use such as Solidworks or a complex DAW setup, but solidworks is arguably not ideal for these machines either.

[@thetannerpowell]

M1 MacBook Airs are like $650 at Walmart now. I’d take that and an external monitor over any of these and still come out ahead.

[@alanc6416]

I had the exact experience when I setup a windows laptop for my friend. It's just so frustrating and pain staking. The fact that my friend needed me to help setup tells a lot about the experience.

[@nikolayrogchev9628]

"Let's do something its designed to do" , proceeds to try to play games on it....

[@ismh86]

Review an Acorn machine next

[@snazzy]

Ah yes, we love Arm.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

RISC-V Framework!

[@davk846]

Well done ! You have thrashed almost all the Co-Pilot notebooks !! 😂🤣😂

[@marcoazeem]

of course it has updated, it doesn't update while the PC is shutdown and kept in a box, it's the same for every laptop purchased stop complaining dude!

[@keithframe3489]

Yeah, that part is hard to watch. He is clearly nitpicking stuff.

[@NiSE_Rafter]

I would prefer to use it on old updates first to get things set up then update at my convenience. Just because everything does it doesn't mean it's a good thing.

[@SqueamishKeemish]

For me personally, the pinnacle Windows laptop has got to be the ThinkPad T480. It has all the ports you’d need and more, the screen resolution can be upgraded to a 2K resolution, two DIMM slots for 32GB of RAM, an NVMe slot and then an extra slot for a 2242 SSD, and my favorite thing: Powerbridge, which is one internal battery and another external battery. That way you can swap out your external battery for another one without powering off your device or losing any of your work. It’s a shame that never got adapted as the norm.

[@harpersneil]

That laptop setup was hilarious! Great upload

[@nels8302]

Love how all the comments are from people who haven't even watched the entire video yet...

[@snazzy]

Including yours 😜

[@HearMeLearn]

they're bots man

[@zacharyhansen6474]

I have run into Quinn twice in that exact Best Buy. Why he hasn’t hired me yet is a mystery 🤔 haha

[@snazzy]

😜

[@fieryprophet]

I got the Yoga Slim 7x, tried it out for a few days, and ending up returning it. . .because I liked it so much that I ordered the 32 GB/1TB version from Lenovo directly, and the upgraded version was only around $80 more.

[@keithframe3489]

Yeah right dude

[@jonlpage]

I love how three minutes into setup Quinn's already ranting like a man stuck in traffic 😂

[@technofou]

You do know we can actually go through that same "process" trying to install actual Pro apps (code, design, editing, 3D, etc) on an iPad Pro. This experience isn't great, but the one for creatives on Apple juggling between two devices to draw, code, test for example, is horrible. On a PC you suffer for the initial setup, but then you're flying. On Apple's devices, it's always "nice", but always limited.

[@Sonnell]

To be fair, when M1 came out it was a shitshow on day one too, regarding software compatibility. Comparing a system that is several years developed with a one month old is not fair.

[@riopato2009]

The comparison between first gen SOC vs 2nd gen SOC is a very Apple thing to do. This Mac head would actually compare it to a 3rd gen SOC to give Elite X an obvious disadvantage if he had an M3 on hand.

[@eggbag4182]

The worst part about these laptops is the OS that they are advertising as a feature

[@arondyte318]

It’s 2024 and Microsoft still couldn’t figure out a good new user experience

[@vjtech17]

One of the best reviews I’ve seen of these CoPilot+ laptops! That first day setup experience…thats a deal breaker for me 🤯

[@KennyVert]

I used to love visiting Best Buy as a kid. Thanks for letting me feel like a kid again. Great video!

[@Schlierfy1]

your pain at the windows experience is hilarious. Once upon a time Mircosoft cared about it's users, not anymore.

[@EricParker]

11:18 One of the most annoying things with the clock is if it gets more than 24 hours off, the sync wont work because of SSL issues.

[@duckyatsea]

SSL time sync issues usually start much faster than 24h difference. It’s usually 5 minutes or so of difference.

[@kirishima638]

Haha

[@repomansez]

gotta love how GrapheneOS instead of using ntp or similar they just get the output of date from FSF

[@edbolton]

That's not true. First, it's not SSL (or even TLS) it's kerberos. Second, it's technically true that you can get this to happen if you're an enterprise using Active Directory DS to secure NTP with preshared keys backed by kerberos. Except you can't get a kerberos session key to do the request encryption with in the first place if your time is that far off, and it will fail back to unsecured NTP (which will obviously work fine). So the way to manually break it is to have the correct time, authenticate and get a session key, and then change the clock to be outside the window.

[@edbolton]

Also, SSL doesn't care about time sync at all (you're thinking of Kerberos), it only cares that the certificates are within the notbefore and notafter window. Which is usually months if not years. For instance the current youtube cert I got is from June to September of 2024. Rather more than 24hrs

[@Piipperi800]

You're doing the Handbrake encoding wrong. All the tests you did were using the CPU. You have to specifially change the encoder to use hardware encoding. Also as for gaming, graphics APIs are the same on x86 and ARM, as they are just GPU APIs and not related to the CPU.

[@JK-ux3cu]

It sounds like you don’t have much patience and weren’t really open to using this.

[@Aygross]

I love reviewers who like the yoga when every repair shop in the country sees more yoga hinges fail then any other laptop on the planet.

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

Most people in the world use Windows laptops. The whole "I MUST have a Macbook" thing feels like such an American thing. Windows laptops have been great since 2020, it's just that the expectations for them have shifted significantly since M1. It's weird seeing so many people complaining about what most people I know perceive to just be regular stuff you do with a computer.

[@caseycu]

It’s not an “American thing”. Switzerland and Luxembourg have a higher ratio of Mac users than the US does. The UK, Iceland, Canada and Australia have the same ratio as the US.

[@BeefIngot]

One of the first mistakes: Using the windows store. I don't think many people do; they just download each individual program installer caveman style. Linux gets more appealing all the time... mostly because windows has gotten worse.

[@zUltra3D]

I can't get over how windows made installing things worse, while Linux is actively being worked on to make installing things easier. I'd say installing things on Linux is actually better than Windows now. With appimages and flatpak integration, it literally takes all of 2 clicks to get what you need

[@BeefIngot]

@@zUltra3D I agree and disagree. When it comes to proprietary apps and even many non proprietary apps, you often have third parties packaging the applications for specific distros which I think hurts the maintainability and security of it. It means that often updates are late, or that the app developer might not know what changes have been done and will therefore have poor feedback mechanisms.

[@roman_prystaiko]

Did all apps work on Mac when it was released? Why do you compare a native game for MAC and an un-optimised game? it's the same when I compare MAFIA 2 on Windows and on MAC - OHH it's not working on MAC, MAC is a bad PC...

[@phoxrenvatio]

I think because we’ve all been told that PC is better for games, and that “all games work on PC but not Mac” has been hammered into everyone. Kinda debunking the PC is for gamers myth.

[@kizitom]

@@phoxrenvatio Just one game not working doesn't mean a debunked myth. Actually, PC is far better for many many many games than MAc. Even a dead clock is right twice a day....

[@Code_Eye]

5:18 i love the shout out to microsofts 13 inch laptops. i feel these laptops get overlooked to much. they are actually pretty great and the build quality is always top notch. also he didnt mention this but every version in their line-up has a touchscreen which my dad swears by on his laptop 3 haha. EDIT: 13:24 to be fair it is an official microsoft product, but it functions more like macos homebrew so it doesnt care if things are considered "optimized"

[@2002ec]

This video is hilarious!! I feel your pain. I never realized all these prompts existed when I used Windows, but now that I am a macOS user, I realize I was dealing with so much crap in Windows. lol

[@Luckysury333]

why are you spending 80% of the video on gaming when these are clearly not meant for gaming. It took Apple 3 years to put out game porting toolkit to make mac gaming even possible. You could've tried video editing (timeline performance) , photo editing (layers) or something else you would do on a normal macbook.

[@bruxis]

For what it's worth, the Snapdragon ARM chips _under load_ do not have much better efficiency than recent X86 chips; ie. if you played demanding games on the X1E your battery would tank just like it does on X86. The main benefits are low-load processes (word processors, video players, light web browsing, etc.) and super idle time.

[@TalynOne]

Is x86 still full speed on battery without blaring the fans and heating your lap like a furnace?

[@goobfilmcast4239]

Right...the low hanging fruit of efficiencies.

[@andyH_England]

Yes, no wonder Qualcomm were reluctant to post efficiency tables! My X Elite SP11 gets around 8-9 hours SOT at 50% brightness, which, for me, comes from an M2 MB Air 15 that gets double that, which isn't exactly earth-shattering. Do any intensive apps or multitasking, and battery life falls off a cliff? It has awful efficiency, which is not a shocker. Bearing in mind, they dump 12 performance cores in to boost multi-core benchmarks for bragging rights- and didn't they brag about that?

[@IDontKnow-bb6mt]

Windows has become trash, can't stand it anymore. I'm holding out buying new arm hardware until it runs well on Linux. And no Mac os isn't an option, is garbage in it's own ways.

[@uglyrikk]

Ignoring the hardware all operating systems are pure pain. Either you go for Windows and have bugs while having 0 control over your operating system (atleast u get games that have anticheat?) or you go for MacOS and have to go through 20 settings to even just install programs outside of the AppStore or you go for Linux... You have all the freedom, privacy and customizability... But it takes a LOT of time to learn edit: 15:22 arch is pretty easy to install nowadays. You can probably install gentoo easier than Windows on ARM.

[@tjoenh4054]

It's 2 maybe 3 clicks pipe down.

[@AkashYadavOriginal]

M1 was introduced in 2020. If you are expecting a complex and fragmented ecosystem of Windows applications to support a new processor at launch. That's your fault. Also when Windows is still coming out with new x86 systems unlike Macs, which switched to ARM in one go. You can criticize Windows for their stupid update system as much as you want. But this test is not practical. Windows on ARM platform is not for general users as most will still go for a x86 CPU. ARM platform on Windows will progress a lot slowly. And currently no users is gonna buy them. And if they did, they'll regret their decision.

[@TheRunningDad]

This is exactly why I switched to a MacBook years ago and never looked back

[@fazloondon]

i tried, but end up selling my M1 macbook air and back to windows.

[@Stormlywing]

@@fazloondon I change the background to windows 11 and set the menu bar always to hide and hide dock and you see windows 11 wants to be macbook so bad How can windows 11 look like mac without a menu bar on top ( Remove the top for the taskbar as it would get them lawsue as their system would mirror theirs

[@stevejoseph1664]

I feel your frustration. I've always complained that the Windows setup is crap next to a Mac setup.

[@ChristopherFonseka]

Windows is like climbing up a mountain: you can climb any mountain you want but it’s always a challenge. MacOS is like taking a chair lift to the top: not every mountain has a chair lift, but it’s effortless to get to the top of the ones that do

[@stackcycler]

19:39 You said you'd disable all upscaling on both machines, but the Macbook shows resolution scaling at 0.5, meaning it's running at half the resolution. Unless you fixed it off-camera, the Macbook did upscale, it just didn't use MetalFX for it.

[@snazzy]

It was fixed. We just cut it since the section was running long.

[@cyb3r1]

Hope Coca Cola paid for the ad in the background at 30:59

[@jaiden051]

I recently set up a Windows 11 PC and it took forever. The animation on first startup lagged.

[@oppy124]

I saw that on one of the new celeron systems... the fact that those are considered compatible with windows 11 but the 7700k isn't is mind boggling

[@keithframe3489]

Get a better computer hardware or faster internet.

[@deargodwhyme]

Can the X Elite support multiple monitors without any silliness like the MacBook Air? That’s the one of only a few things I still can’t stand about Macs. I use both Win 11 and MacOS all day every day. No real preference.

[@Greengart]

Yes. I just tested the HP EliteBook Ultra with two 4K monitors + laptop display. Works flawlessly, and Windows 11 display management is excellent. I have multiple other Snapdragon X Elite systems in and they should all be able to do three monitors, that's just the one I was testing today.

[@xeon2k8]

@@Greengart what he means is that if they dont need any display link BS docking station to be able to use one cable for plugging multi-monitor setups

[@andyH_England]

They do but I am not sure why you would use an ultrabook for this type of desktop setup. I would get a Windows with a dGPU and you can get them a lot cheaper than these X Elite laptops.

[@deargodwhyme]

@@andyH_England Purely for productivity and simplicity reasons here. Small space and work from home. I use both Win11 and a Macbook for work, along with my personal Macbook. Quickly swapping between them is annoying at my desk. Even the most basic Windows laptops since 2015 could use my Usb-C/Thunderbolt 3 basic-ass Dell docking station with two 1080p monitors just fine...my Macbooks require some finagling

[@bfjoutdoors]

apples software not being compatible is an apple issue not a Microsoft issue.

[@ruffmadman]

In this case, I think it's a Microsoft issue. Like he said, Microsoft has an x86 to ARM translator. So it can emulate a lot of x86 software. iTunes and Apple Music, which are both x86 applications, are on the Microsoft store, but only iTunes is given permission to be emulated, but not Apple Music.

[@WendelTC]

Man... When you said you're a mac fan boy you really meant that

[@CurtGodwin]

2:25 Good camera work - didn't lose lock on the primary target.

[@dregavero]

Useless review, wasted 80% of time complaining about the new device setup on Windows and that a 1st gen product, specifically labeled as not good for gaming, is - shockingly - not good for gaming 🤦‍♂ then only did a browser benchmark test and some video editing. Great value 👌 Oh and about that Apple Music test, you can just open it in the Browser and use it from there.

[@MrRamezsultan]

You act like a kid when you want to and a pro when you want to. It's very annoying because you know that is not made for gaming

[@andyH_England]

According to research, 60% of Windows laptop users play games. So it is essential to not release a Windows laptop that doesn't do this well. Qualcomm has managed to lock itself out of 60% of the market, which is not a great business plan. Let's stop making excuses, this is 2024 and there is no plausible excuse that the X Elite sucks so much at gaming.

[@snazzy]

I didn’t say it was made for gaming.

[@gmt1]

This video sums up why I ditched Windows for Linux 4 years ago.

[@danieldougan269]

I own a Dell G5 15 SE gaming laptop for personal use and use a Dell Latitude 7420 for working at home (typing on that computer now). The quality difference with the business-oriented Latitude is incredible. Sure, it doesn't have a built-in GPU, but it does have a far superior build, keyboard, and trackpad. The G5 15 SE has its place. It was well under $1,000 and is wicked fast, but you can tell they cut a lot of corners with the build. The power brick for my gaming laptop is an absolute boat anchor as well. I have taken it on a couple of trips, including on airplanes, and it was unwieldy to say the least. Windows laptops can be amazing. This Latitude also has Iris Xe graphics, and that's probably all I would really need for my personal use anyway to do light RAW photo and 4K video editing. I've been thinking about picking up an older Latitude for personal use just for the portability and power efficiency, but I don't really need another computer around the house. I'd love to get a Macbook, mainly for Final Cut Pro, but I can't really justify the cost. What I'd really like is an iPad with FCP that can also handle editing and offloading my RAW photos when I travel. Many Android tablets are perfectly capable from a hardware perspective but lack creator apps. I'd love to see a powerful RAW photo editor on a Galaxy Tab or a Kindle Fire. I know there's Snapseed, but it doesn't work with my Olympus RAW files. Even the Olympus / OM System app doesn't work with my Olympus RAW files, which is insane.

[@warthunder1969]

half of this video is showing exactly why I switched to linux - because its just less headaches