Seeking for best notebook in 2021
This story is related to the “seeking” process; which includes company approaches, some testing, and a decision path to the final bought. It lasts almost 2 months. You can find out why :) through the story.
First of all, the best notebook is not the same for all. But if you are a software developer, play video games a bit (e.g. League of Legends like), and want to buy a notebook for both needs; this story can help you while buying during Corona times. Due to circumstances, it not easy to go electronic market and test many. Therefore, you need to select carefully while you buying through e-commerce; especially spending money like 2000–2500 $ (which is almost 8 times higher than minimum wage in my country, Turkey).
1. First Bought, M1
There are lots of videos and reviews about 2020–2021 notebooks. And surprisingly (!) most of them praise M1 MacBooks.
It will change the industry; intel and AMD will collapse.. etc. Bold statements for all. For buying another product seems you look like grandpa due to evolutionary M1. Newer architecture, faster, cheaper, silent, design, incredible battery life, incredible benchmarks..
For the cons from videos: you cannot use bootcamp for Windows (at least x86_64 version), you cannot run x86 based applications but you can use Rosetta (which is fast really fast), one external monitor, two type-c only, SoC therefore you change nothing on it.. It is new tech; if you can wait for M2 or M1X..
So… I made my decision. I need to buy it within 2 months because I will return my machine to my ex-company within that date, I could not wait for M2 or next generations. And also I can live within MacOS because most of the programming tools and LoL working fine within there before with Intel Chip 2015 version; they must or will be in there with M1. Directly I order Macbook Pro M1 (16GB Ram 512GB SSD) from Apple Store Turkey in exchange for 2100 USD.
2. Two Days Later, need to wait super special (!) from China
I look at the Apple Store purchase status page and said that my product is a customized one, therefore it needs to manufacture for me. I feel like a king for a sec but it also said needs 3–4 weeks for these specifications. At that time I figure out, Apple does not have 16GB Ram 512GB SSD in their storehouses in Turkey. I talked with a very kind customer service person; they tell the story.
Even-if I asked annoying but accurate questions :) like:
What kind of customizations you mentioned?
Do I have my signature on M1?
Come on, it is not a customization; many notebook has 16GB Ram, 512GB within that price range. creating 8GB Ram must be real customization.
Why a big company like Apple cannot store this version in their store houses, or at least enough amount of them can be predicted, or not ?
But again, customer service was very kind and explained this M1 is very special and will come from China and just for me :).
3. SSD issue on M1, Type-C Hub make it brick?
To be frank, day by day while waiting for M1, I was getting annoying and seeking more about M1. Some annoying messages seem to pop up, like:
One of them said; due to Swap memory, SSD will collapse within a very short time. Actually swap memory, I am familiar with it. Almost all OS has that, and also macOS with Intel CPU has that swap and most probably the same ram requirements as M1. Is there something wrong write/read mechanism, what is going on there?
Another one said M1 was going to brick due to hub. Thanks to Apple, there are only 2 external type-c ports. I will need a hub, of course. But when I saw it, I blamed the hub, because many poor ones are in the market.
However, there are enough excuses and not mentioned within review videos. Immediately, I called customer service, to confirm what is going on there. Firstly a salesperson come up, again kindly connected to me a technical person: I asked some questions about the above issues:
Is there some reporting for SSD issue?
Does hubs harm the Macbook, even if I bought from your store?
I will connect my monitor with type-c due maximize refresh rate, and left only one; but I need Ethernet, at least one more old usb port; why did apple provide only two? Is this due to M1?
But this time answers are not so satisfying:
There is nothing for SSD issue, we are not aware.
We are not guarantee that hubs not harmful. Also you do not need to plug into charge for many times, because battery life is so long… Therefore one type c will be free most of the time !
Macbook airs has that amount of interface for a long time, no problem it must be
After that, I asked to cancel my order and take my money back. But they are again so kindly said to me; need to wait until Macbook arrived at me. After that I can return within 14 days; but during transportation, right now, I could not cancel.
Btw, there were some videos; it seems the problem of SSD is not the real-worried case:
But again, Apple-like big companies paid so much to reviewers (somehow). These videos can bend the truths like review videos. There is so much on the internet!
4. Finally arrived from China
M1 departed from China at 19.02.2021 and arrived at me at 04.03.2021.
It is time to testing; Firstly I plug in the Type-C hub and rest connections. It did not go to brick; working just fine. Installed basic tools, web surfing a little bit; almost during 3–4 days, I played LoL and did web browsing. I also checked the SSD situation; again it seems fine, but it is too early to say something.
5. Installing programming tools on M1
After that, I decided to show my professional side; firstly I tried to install Docker. But there was no valid release for M1 at that time (right now there is), only a preview release around. I installed it; some annoying command line work comes with it, but it is bearable. After that MySQL is not supported with ARM, which is annoying because one of my applications depends on it; again it can be solved by switching MariaDB which supports ARM for local development. Some other issues come out for PHP Apache, Java. They are solved by some sideways, but within Intel versions or Windows machines, you can install them within one click or one command. The above ones are almost essentials, what if something I need to install is not supported with ARM, does Rosetta will provide a solution.
Therefore I began to research ARM and x86 differences. The main difference I find is instruction sets are different:
Rosetta converts them but in some cases, it can be failed. Therefore, using such applications solely depends on coders; need to refactor their applications for using ARM or at least Rosetta. Also besides this difference, there is a Docker issue; it could not be used with Rosetta, most probably their problem is not related to instruction sets, maybe with virtualization; I do not know deeply but somehow they solved the issue within 2 or 3 months.
6. Return of first bought, M1 the specialized one.
The issue with programming tools, SSD problem, and 1-month waiting makes me uncomfortable with the M1. Therefore I decide to return the product. The returning process is good. They took it from home and 2 or 3 days later they paid my money back.
7. What to buy, MSI maybe?
During the process, I also checked other possibilities. I come with a ridiculous idea, If I willing to spend 2000–2500$; and stick with the old x86 architecture why did not buy a gaming/business notebook. Which is hard to achieve the requirement. It needs to have a powerful GPU, CPU, and also thin and light. There is little less selection in the market. Razer, MSI, Asus claim that provides such requirements. Unfortunately, Razer does not have distributors or services within Turkey. Therefore it is omitted. Asus models, in Turkey, are either big but have powerful GPU, or thin but have lower GPU. But for MSI, it is a different story. The creator or stealth series has GeForce RTX™ 30 Series GPUs and New Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, and also light and firm case. In meeting rooms, no one knows what is in the computer, but this is a beast :), maybe Etherium mining possible…
So… I ordered MSI Creator 15 (Intel® Core™ i7–10870H Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3060 Laptop GPU, 16 GB 3200 Mhz Ram, 512GB SSD) from Amazon.
8. Jumbo Jet is launching.
Thanks to Amazon; they delivered in less than 1 day. I order at night; in the morning I have MSI.
I installed the machine, but there is something wrong; the fan noise is so loud. I thought it is the initial response; maybe some background applications are working for the initial setup. I omit at the beginning. But by the time, even if a chrome tab opens, fans are gone crazy, CPU goes to 80–90 °C. I looked at the above video again. It says 34–49 Db(A) on average. Of course, I missed that point, because no-one says about idle or lower load noises will be the same. I measured 32 Db(A) for an idle. To compare; the mosquito is around 20–30 Db(A).
Someone record the noise with Stealth GS66 which is similar to Creator and asks whether is normal (I do not think so)
Also, I find some comments about that noise and solving suggestions; like undervolting. The below video suggests changing the energy feeding mechanism within BIOS and using some applications.
Actually, I did not want to involve such kind of changes; I would rather stick to recommended ones. There is no need to do engineering instead of MSI’s engineers, or there is? Blame the robin hood not me :)
In my opinion, most probably, MSI designed one of hell machine; GS66 first gen. (maybe with Clevo-like firm). This design has products with less temperature and provides better cooling. But due to selling pressure, and competition with other products; they put 30 series GPU and 11th gen CPU into this machine without redesign to reduce the cost.
Also, it is shocking that almost all such gaming/business have these loud fans
Firms suggest that it will be a business computer and no one knows it is a gaming computer; but in a silent environment, and long working hours, these fans can send an “I am here” message with morse code.
Finally, I returned it also :)
9. Final Bought, Again M1 and Why
The final destination is to go to Apple again. The reasons are below:
- Design, quality, 20 hours battery life, so quiet, cool, it never runs the fans whatever I did; perfect for business.
- I can play LoL with ultra settings with 80–100 fps even through Rosetta. For other games, Nvidia Now is available.
- M1 Price is more affordable, and also I came up with a campaign within another store with the almost same price as the first bought one, but 1 TB SSD. Also, they sent it to me in 2 days. 1 TB seems not customization for them at all :) It completely about storage, not customization.
- There is no such thing as a gaming/business notebook. (still have doubts maybe Asus eGPU models can break my thoughts)
- During the process, in short times; I have no computers. At that time I connected my mobile phone (Samsung S9+) to the monitor. It comes up with Samsung Dex OS, which is run on ARM (Qualcomm). Surprisingly seem fine, I can open many applications, connect my keyboard and mouse. I can surf the internet without any problem with many Chrome tabs. Do Intel and AMD lie to us :)
- Even if many applications are not ready for ARM and M1; They most probably will. Such kind of evolutionary change only can be done by Apple or Tesla or such kind of crazy company.
- If there is an SSD issue or any kind of issue; when I looked at the other products in the Turkey market; most probably best support after sales can be provided by Apple also. And if again this swap issue belongs to M1 itself; they will fix it in the next releases. (which again I have not face the issue yet)
P.S.: Intel provides some advertisement on the website, I find them amusing :)
P.S.II: Macrumors fired back :)
