So he advised them to change to a needlessly complicated power button and friction hinge, because I cant count the amount of times I've needed a position between open and closed on my record player.
Looking at the old one, this edition looks rather different, more refined in a way. Doing great design work can be as much about not doing as it is about doing.
In those two examples alone, one of the stark differences between either an old macbook and new, or a new one and any other computer, is a lack of an extra power button, one hinge instead of two, and (less rare now) being able to gently open the lid and have it remain there in place without the lid wobbling. When you use a macbook for 10 years and then go and try to use any other laptop, you realize that unless they've copied everything, they're usually trash.
ironic example given johnny ive was responsible for the piece of crap previous gen macbooks with faulty keyboards, no in-real-world-use ports, throttling due to poor thermals, no matte screens, missing escape and function keys, and the rest.
I definitely don't want a matte screen or ports I don't use, but I agree that particular generation wasnt so good. I think some of the issues came down to engineering durability problems rather than industrial design though. Seems a bit childish to point one failed product in 20+ years and use that to try and dismiss someone's skill. Sometimes your thing just doesn't land.
I'd add that although the new macbooks are much more compelling, what makes them more compelling is not some wild departure from the previous industrial design; they basically just added ports, ironically one of which is best suited for office projectors more than anything; I'll never use HDMI unless I'm doing a presentation or am issued an HDMI-only monitor. One of the macbook's longest running flaws that fits somewhere between design and engineering, is the tolerance between the screen and keyboard that will eventually have a high likelihood of eroding the coating on the screen. Does that mean I think the rest of the computer is a bad design? Hell no.
Your Lenovo example was quite surprisingly expensive for what it is. I don't personally consider them to be very appealing, but they do have a particular aesthetic that's more or less remained consistent for at least a decade, same as MacBooks, presumably with a few iterative changes. I'm looking at $4800 CAD for a 14" with 32gb of ram, 1TB SSD, and a pretty miserable looking screen. 1920x1200 seems insane to me in the current era, and I've used those screens, they ain't brilliant even for what they are imo. By the same token however, I do think direct cellular connectivity is probably quite nice to have, and that would make any future upgrade a much easier sell.
Pretty good connectivity though. Would I like a USB-A port? It's a tough call, but I'd take it in-place of HDMI if given the choice. Comes down to personal preference I guess.
Don't have a car though, sometimes rent, but I'd say most are pretty hideous and rarely avoid design flaws.
1080p is pretty reasonable on a 14" display, you can option a 2.8K OLED display but personally I think its overkill.
The x1 carbon is a light weight option, for similar weight to the macbook you can get a X1 Extreme which has 4K panels including oled, discrete graphics, etc.
No org ever pays list price for a Lenovo, typically they have around 40% discount.
I picked up my carbon X1 on sale for around 1300 AUD.
I have an X1 carbon with the newest screen and every day I think about changing it because of the screen. The rest of the device is absolutely perfect for my needs and I love it, but after getting used to sharp screens on phones and macbooks, I feel a slight ting of negativity every time I open my laptop and realize I'm going to be looking at the worst screen I own, on the most expensive consumer electronic device I own.
1200p used to be fine on a laptop, and OLED might be nice but idk much about how well they do these days yet, but 2.8k is a no-brainer, which I guess would be the equivalent to the bottom-tier Air. I've had a 2560x1600 screen on my 13" for 10 years at this point, it's tough to see how that's a compelling thing to look at for any period of time.
All the flaws were due to the one trick pony "make it look thin" era of Ive - the stupid butterfly keyboard switch, the fact it was riveted to the chassis, the poor thermals, the lack of larger sized ports.
And after all that the thing was still heavy.
Look at something like a Lenovo carbon X1 for thin done right.
The latest macbook was basically and undo button for all Ives choices.
