I hope one day latency in general will be "back to normal".
I still remember how fast console based computing, an old gameboy or a 90's macintosh would be - click a button and stuff would show up instantly.
There was a tactility present with computers that's gone today.
Today everything feels sluggish - just writing this comment on my $3000 Macbook Pro and i can feel the latency, sometimes there's even small pauses. A little when i write stuff, a lot when i drag windows.
Hopefully the focus on 100hz+ screens in tech in general will put more focus on latency from click to screen print - now when resolution and interface graphics in general are close to biological limits.
I'm on an M1 Air (cheapest base model), and I use it largely for writing (also dev but I get that that's not your question).
- For native M1 apps like Pages, Sublime, or Highland there's no lag at all. For example, with Highland 2 from double-clicking a file to editing it is less than a second and there's no lag during use even with a 49,000 word book manuscript open.
- For x86 apps like the not-quite-latest Office there's a couple of seconds at first launch (for that session) whilst Rosetta does its x86 translation work, but after that it launches without lag for the remainder of that session and it stays snappy in use (snappy for Word that is).
- Native VS Code goes from launch to editing in under two seconds and never lags, even with something like side-by-side Markdown preview going.
- If you're using Vellum for publishing it's about 1.5 seconds from double-clicking a file to editing it.
That's very good to hear, I've been looking at MacBook Air also because they're pretty much the kings when it comes to battery life for a handbag sized laptop. I think the bidder MacBooks have slightly better battery, but you can't really fit those in a smaller bag, you do kinda need a backpack for it or a laptop specific bag.
> I've been looking at MacBook Air also because they're pretty much the kings when it comes to battery life for a handbag sized laptop.
Battery life is, indeed, impressive.
Last night I spent around 5 hours doing C# dev in VS Mac, with multiple projects being built every few minutes, cross-platform binaries for Intel Mac, Windows, and Linux being produced every half hour or so, plus Highland 2, Word 2016, and Vellum. With all that it used 28% battery across that 5 hours (and never got warm). On full brightness too (for my sins).
I know the question isn't about dev, but writing uses less resources and gives even better battery life so 18 hours (for example) is definitely possible.
The only issue I have is the keyboard. Far better than the 'broken' ones of a few years ago but I really wish they'd go for thicker machines and increase the travel. I've just got rid of my last ThinkPad and it's the one thing I miss.
Oh, and there is no longer a hotkey to control the backlight brightness; it's automatic. Which genuinely works perfectly except that it doesn't come on for your very first sign in at boot-up, so entering your password then can be tricky without ambient light (though after that you can use the fingerprint reader). It's a really strange UX flaw. Not related to your question, I know, but you don't say whether you're already on a Mac or switching so I wanted to be honest about this as it is really annoying but rarely mentioned.
I have an M1 Air right I'm typing on right now and have not had any sluggishness concerns besides when switching between Spaces. Even that is more of a visual stutter instead of actually lagging to the point the animation takes longer than usual. This is the first thin & light computer I've owned that I'm 100% happy with its performance.
Weird. I don't use Spaces (this is the multiple desktops thing, right?) but I've just tried it and it's not laggy at all for me. I turn on the reduce motion thing, so it fades between them rather than swiping, but neither feel laggy.
(I'm on an M1 Air and I think the performance is great)
Most flagship Android phones are >60hz and have been for a few years. Flagship iPhones and iPads are >60hz. Very nearly every gaming laptop is >60hz. Many new TVs are >60hz with inputs to match.
My guess is that few people have stopped to compare them. I've never knowingly seen a 100+hz screen in person, so I stopped by a local store. Sure enough, I could tell that the motion was smoother. Bought 2. After using those, I can feel my older monitors that I'm using to write this are choppy.
But do you notice the smoothness in the day to day basis or have you, in a way, crippled yourself, because now the majority of monitors feel choppy to you?
Sounds a bit like the, 'Never meet your heroes', thingy.
I 100% notice it but interestingly it doesn’t affect me on my laptop/desktop much since I use a mouse and scrolling is already not smooth. While mobile has smooth scrolling and a lot more animations/swipes.
Do you think that besides gaming there really any need to move to higher then 60Hz on desktops and laptops?
My phone (POCO X3 PRO) allowed me to turn on 120Hz but when I do I don't notice any change except if I really look at it, like scrolling up and down very quickly while looking behind the phone I notice a difference, but otherwise I don't notice it, so I just have it turned off, should give more battery life.
True, it's probably just bleeding edge, but i've noticed several flagship phones, have 90HZ, and the new iPad Pros have up to 120hz "smooth scrolling", so it seems something will be happening x years down the line.
For me, there is far more latency on typical operations, but far less waiting for longer intensive operations like opening a program/tab or saving a file (bloat aside, some are guilty here).
I'd also prefer the sluggishness gone if I had my choice between the two.
I still remember how fast console based computing, an old gameboy or a 90's macintosh would be - click a button and stuff would show up instantly.
There was a tactility present with computers that's gone today.
Today everything feels sluggish - just writing this comment on my $3000 Macbook Pro and i can feel the latency, sometimes there's even small pauses. A little when i write stuff, a lot when i drag windows.
Hopefully the focus on 100hz+ screens in tech in general will put more focus on latency from click to screen print - now when resolution and interface graphics in general are close to biological limits.