Podcast Ep.2: New MacBooks, Samsung Laptops, Panther Lake Update

[00:01] Apple's new announcements this week. >> It's a very boring update. Yeah. Why isn't Josh in every video? Oh, good lord. Okay. What is your favorite Panther Lake laptop so far? I think it's really good

[00:14] I think that's everything except we didn't bring up Samsung. Oh, good it's lord. Okay. I think we're starting with the Neo. Is that right? >> Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're back with our delayed February episode of the

[00:29] podcast. We actually already filmed this, didn't we, Ciara? Yes, we did. And it was out of focus, which is so annoying. Yep. Even a professional problems. Anyway, we got a big episode today.

[00:44] one, the new Apple laptops have come out, so we're going to talk about our thoughts on those. Uh we're also going to talk about, you know, just we might uh we've already reviewed, and we have further thoughts on. We're going to talk

[00:57] so far, and just everything going on in the laptop space. Uh we're going to talk about the chair drama. Um you might have seen there was a chair video where it's seen there was a chair video where it's the latest uh drama in the tech space.

[01:10] to talk about, Ciara. Um we're going to answer some viewer >> Yeah. >> Um just a few that came in. Um and then >> About like how we test for battery life, what I I think there was obviously what

[01:22] I've already mentioned that. Yep. Yeah. And I think just to get started, though, why don't we do our usual what laptop have you chosen to use? Uh ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and it's because

[01:35] anything. Um I want a nice keyboard. I want good battery life. Um I like a nice screen. And it's very lightweight. Um I think it's one of the lightest 14-in we um it also I think I mentioned this last

[01:50] time, but I can't pick a laptop that we're currently reviewing because it's being tested, right? So, I have to pick one that's a little bit older, which in this case, you know, it's only like a year old. Um but it is old enough that

[02:03] we're not actively testing it anymore. So, yeah. And funnily enough, um I picked the MacBook Pro 14. Similar similar reason. It just works. You know, on a day-to-day basis, I have been using the Razer Blade 16, but my I

[02:19] think today was the first straw that just finally broke the camel's back. I cannot get this thing to work with an external dock. And in my setup, and most of our setups in here, we use a big external monitor. I have a, you know,

[02:32] And I've tried two different docks. It I'm talking about when you plug it into a dock via a Thunderbolt connection. I the display is constantly going on and off. It just drives me up the wall.

[02:45] We've tried multiple cables, an anchor dock, UGREEN, etc. something important like this, you know, this one has no fan noise, great battery life. And you just want to open it, and it works. And I I think you've nailed it

[02:58] kind of brand that I think everyone knows very reliable, especially X1 series. So, yeah, same deal here with the MacBook. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely hit a spot with your Blade today. Yeah. I am on the hunt. In fact, funnily

[03:10] enough, at home, I've been trying out that desktop, which I've got to make a video on of my experience using this desktop. It's um ASUS accidentally sent us a big gaming desktop. Um and obviously, we don't review desktops, but

[03:22] know, just try it anyway." Mhm. So, I have, and I'm ending up going to the MSI Titan 18, which is really weird, and I will probably do a video explaining why. >> I'm excited to see the whole journey come together. Yeah. One thing I did

[03:36] actually running the air con on for the first time. Normally, we don't do that hot in Arizona. Let us know with a comment below, can you hear us like background noise? Is it annoying? Um because if it works here,

[03:51] filming. >> Yeah, especially I think with these badly. So, >> Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully. Let's get into it. Yeah. So, we have Panther Lake power scaling. Um I don't know if you

[04:05] wanted me to talk about this or if you remember what um I remember exactly what this is because this was interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So, um we discovered in in the lock video that

[04:17] upwards, and that it didn't have the same diminishing marginal returns curve that we normally see on laptops when you feed them more power. Mhm. on laptop chips when you feed them more power. Um Although, it did cap out at 60. So, we

[04:32] still don't know what the curve looks like after 60, but it's actually quite a linear line up until that point, which was um Just to be clear for the audience, Yeah. when we say cap out at 60, it can feed these chips, according

[04:45] to Intel, up to 80, including the boost. >> It's just that we haven't seen a manufacturer successfully feed them more than 60. Right. With I think the lock >> Weirdly enough, the OmniBook actually got up to 63 on average, but it's still

[04:59] around the same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's nice to see see, you saying. You It was like with AMD, you're kind of seeing it just flatten the curve matter what power profile you put your laptop to, you know, performance or

[05:13] the same with Aero Lake H, same with the prior generation. Well, now we're seeing interested to see how far it goes. >> Yes. I I'm hopeful that it keeps going up, and um I think what I had said last time was that I was interested in

[05:29] whether this means the later gaming chips are also be going to be built on >> Yeah. >> So, so they might be able to be more powerful as well. Yeah, I've been wondering if a chip if there's a laptop

[05:42] 80 watts. Yeah. I mean, that would be great. Okay. So, the next topic was one that you were actually surprised by when we tested this, but we tested upscaling Panther Lake. >> Let's just quickly catch people up on

[05:58] [clears throat] some of these Panther Lake processors, the problem is um they're coming in really premium laptops that you would find for casual users. Those tend to have very high-resolution screens. So,

[06:11] we're talking 2880 by I believe it's 8800 3200 by 3200 by 2000. And they look very crisp for browsing that. But once you get into gaming, that's a lot of pixels to render, and

[06:25] ones in these Panther Lake chips, the X1s, are very good, >> Yes. they're still like more of a lower end 50/50. Right. And so, driving that many pixels is hard. So, stretching is basically when you render at a lower

[06:37] resolution, and you just have basically the computer just do a very simple calculation to stretch it up. Right. And you render at say 1920 by 1080, you stretch it up to 2880 by 1800. There's nothing special done here. There's a lot

[06:50] of assumptions made. You might find bad anti-aliasing, so a diagonal line looks kind of jittery and stuff like that. Mhm. Then you got a choice of upscaling. And upscaling, really what you're doing is you're using AI to do that, so there

[07:02] is saying anti-aliasing effect. And even the hard the heads-up display in those items, those are actually because those aren't tough to render, those are resolution, so they look very very very sharp. So, it's overall a better

[07:15] discussion, right, about Right. Which one should you do? And I think you were under the impression that upscaling was going to be a better option because I upscaling algorithm and the the AI of it and all of that. Um but Seth and I both

[07:30] thought that it actually looked better than you'd think. Um and so, we obviously had to test it and see who was right. Um but yeah, the stretching >> think correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think we landed that actually the best

[07:46] >> Yes. Yeah. It was we found if we did we basically did stretching from 1920 up, but we did do upscaling to get to 1920. Yes. Only from

[07:58] upscale up to 1920, the base resolution is not that much lower than 1920. But we got a we used upscaling a certain And it looked That was I think it was the best combination, right?

[08:10] >> Yes. I think we used quality for the 1200p upscaling. But yeah, it's um it's a good combination because I think it really allows people that get these more premium laptops to still do some decent mid-range gaming on the side.

[08:25] Yeah. So, And I think we've got a video up. It's a real It was I really liked people have watched it, where we went through the 10 10 of the most popular settings on these Panther Lake laptops.

[08:38] remember. Yes, probably. And um it was really interesting seeing interesting to gameplay in a variety of different games. So, we'll put a link for that one video. Yeah. I I think it was really fun to put together.

[08:53] Um okay, next on our list, we have laptop pricing, which actually you just know if you want to recap the video or >> Yeah, and I just made a noise that's probably picked up by the mic cuz I had

[09:07] Um the moral of the story is this. I Yeah, the same time as this podcast. The moral of the story is that we've heard very bad things that we could see a big bump in laptop prices in

[09:20] the second half of this year. Um that could come in the tune of maybe this video. Maybe there's less frequent sales. So, Mhm. technically, it's the >> [snorts] >> your weighted average price you're

[09:34] paying is actually higher. Right. Or we could just see newer laptops coming in much much higher. But we have heard from numerous people in the industry that there's going to be big sticker shock in second half of this year. Mhm. So, I

[09:47] always say buy responsibly buy responsibly. I I nick that from Epos from Hardware Canucks, who who says that. Um and, you know, look, buy You don't need to be buying a laptop on credit. If you can't afford a new one,

[10:01] there's plenty of beautiful, fantastic ones in the second-hand market that would love a new home to go to. Um but, if you are looking to buy a laptop and you can buy it responsibly, I would definitely putting pedal to the metal

[10:15] and doing serious research now to try and snap that laptop up in the next Um And I think this leads nicely to when available because a lot of them aren't available yet. Yeah. And I talked a bit

[10:28] about this in the video, too. Some manufacturers are making decisions which are kind of difficult on which configurations they even offer in certain markets like the US cuz the US has not only

[10:40] raising prices, but we also have the tariff situation. >> Right. That maybe some laptops are just so expensive that they don't even bring the laptops that are going to be available though, the selection sounds

[10:53] like it might be limited. But, um which ones did we order in? Oh, yes. So, you to review X laptop?" Well, we're going to reveal everything now. Yeah. So, um we don't know what manufacturers send us. Sometimes it's Sometimes it's the

[11:08] what we've We know what we've got coming. >> So, we've ordered the Slim 7i Ultra with the eight-core Intel H chip, not the X >> Okay.

[11:21] that's going to be a great competitor to the Dell XPS 14 that had that incredible Slim 7i >> Right. Yeah. And I think we liked the Slim 7i Ultra a little bit more mostly probably because of the keyboard.

[11:34] keyboards. >> Yeah, and that Dell XPS 14 keyboard is a bit rough. Um And then the Yoga Pro 7 which we're also pretty excited about. >> So, we've ordered in the Yoga Pro 7i with the 5060. That's the 15-in Yoga Pro

[11:49] which is completely new design this year. And I think one thing that it was interesting that Cameron pointed out is that we were We were like, "Should we get the 5050 model with the Ultra 7 or the 5060 model with the

[12:01] [clears throat] order both cuz as you guys know on the channel, we try to be that you can see hey what the difference is on this. But, then Cameron pointed out he's like, "Hang on a second, Josh." An X chip for a Panther Lake is going to

[12:13] be around the same as a 5050. So, why would you even get a 5050 anyway these days, especially when it's not a If it's in a gaming laptop that feeds at 115 W which I think is the max, fine. But, not in like that kind of laptop. So,

[12:26] going to be or like something like >> But, my assumption is it won't be more complete assumption. But, based on what You know these laptop the It can be a little bit less. Yes. Yeah, 80 sounds about right. We'll

[12:39] >> We'll see. But, but yeah, so that one we've ordered the Ultra 9 version. That's not the X chip, it's just the H chip with the 5060. And then the other one that I'm very excited about is the Slim 7X, the Yoga Slim 7X. Oh, yeah.

[12:55] When it That was the Qualcomm one that was by far the best Qualcomm one we we had in. Fantastic [clears throat] laptop. So, this is the one with the X2 chip which will be our first X2 chip. So, I'm very excited about that one. We

[13:07] do have one coming in as well from um ASUS which is the 16-in ZenBook 16. highest-end Qualcomm X2 chip. So, that's coming in as well. >> I think. >> Yes. Yes. So, that's four laptops. Then

[13:24] >> Yes. Yes. So, that's four laptops. Then we also have the new Legion 5i and 5A which are very popular gaming laptops. That I I When you look at the laptops that have been sold by recommendation of this channel, that is by far one of the

[13:37] >> You know, you say that actually Seth and I discovered something recently because we got these in very very recently and they're on our testing docket right now. Um we feel that they made the lock better. Mhm. But, they might have made

[13:50] the Legion 5 worse. We're not sure. But, it It felt like maybe they brought them closer together in quality if nothing else. Aha. So, because the lock is compelling even if the Legion hasn't changed much.

[14:03] um you know, more to come. But, um Seth and I are uh cautiously uh optimistic. But, but we bit less value prop than there was previously.

[14:17] >> Gotcha. So, but you know, get subscribed, notification bell on. Legion is coming >> love those laptops for the record. Yeah, soon. Um then obviously, I've already covered

[14:31] this. We have so many MacBooks coming in. I think I'm still ordering them because when you're ordering this many like credit card limits are being hit at this point. So, I've ordered uh the 16-in with Max chip. I've ordered the um

[14:45] two MacBook Airs, 13 and 15 with M5. I've ordered the M4 M M5 Pro, the the lower end of the two chips in the 14-in. And I think we'll probably order two more in the 14-in, the higher-end Pro chip and then one of the

[15:00] so we can see like what the worst-case scenario is running in that like what's the performance hit. Um I think though when I look at like what one I would personally get, Mhm. I think the sweet spot is probably

[15:14] this time the Max chip, the lower the 16-in with the lower of the two Max chips with 36 I think comes with 36 gig of RAM. That's plenty of RAM. I think that is priced more It's It's It's a more appetizing to

[15:27] me than the higher-end Max chip because you still get two media engines which is thing contributor or one of the biggest contributors. It's the same on either of the Max chips. I don't do 3D rendering

[15:41] one's going to be a good one to get, the lower-end Max chip in the 16. Or the This year, the lower-end Pro chip in the 14 is probably the two that I would actually think that we would want. Um but, we're going to get these other

[15:55] ones just for you guys. For sure. anything else here that we've got coming in before we move on? Oh, um No, not that's coming in. I think on the last podcast, we discussed the eGPUs

[16:08] that top with Strix Halo. Oh, we do have the toughest Strix Halo coming in. We or something. >> going to be super popular. review it. Yeah, I don't know which Strix Halo I I hope it's got a good

[16:20] ones a small change in the processor number is huge for them. I believe it's the 392 which I believe is the one with a 40-core GPU or the the high-core GPU. a 40-core GPU or the the high-core GPU. So, yeah. I'm excited. Um okay. So,

[16:36] we had a Linux testing update on our list. Oh, yes. Um which added the tier and what >> you can do this. I think it's It's enough at this point. Yeah, fair enough. Um so,

[16:51] overall, we always get the feedback that we want more Linux testing, we want full installs, we want more you know, we want to test the GPUs, all of that. At the end of the day, Linux testing does take quite a bit more time

[17:03] none of us are really like Linux experts here. Um we are probably just a little bit more expert than most people than the average thing. So,

[17:17] to make sure we do it right. We want to make sure we're testing everything. Mhm. So, Linux testing does take more time. And I think that's why Josh recently changed the membership tiers where there is a Linux option so that you can

[17:30] directly support us being able to spend more time on Linux. Cuz right now, we checking with the boot drive, checking that certain things work or don't work.

[17:42] Um but, if we get enough support, we might be able to do full installs on any Um I I think it's something we would like to grow in. It's just we have so many tests we already run and it takes

[17:55] many tests we already run and it takes so much time. So, it's kind of a triaging situation of where to put our time and what's the most important. And Linux is while important, um you know, it's not the majority of

[18:08] users. So, we don't We can't always spend as much time on it. I I think it's a really cool thing and I've been surprised by the uptake of it. I think quite a few people have signed on already. Yeah. Clearly, the people who

[18:20] who want Linux are very passionate about it. And I think we want to give you guys an opportunity to contribute and get something out of it, you know? So, I think if we could get that tier to like, you know, 100 subscribers, even if

[18:36] really seriously. Like we could literally have someone have enough time to do a full install of the right distribution on the right laptop and do distribution on the right laptop and do a full kernel update to really see where

[18:50] booting up off a drive with an older kernel. So, I'm I think it's super cool that we've done this and I'm surprised no one's done this before. So, if you do love Linux and you want us to test more Linux, we've got the tier

[19:05] down below. I think it's like $7.99 per month. And the more we get, it's going straight back into Linux testing. >> Yep. Yep. And we we did bring it back at least on I think the at the boot drive level. So,

[19:19] we did bring that back. I think we did We skipped it maybe like one video. talked about even testing from the USB drive. Yes. We brought it back cuz there was people really wanted it. Yes. Yep. All right. What else we got? Oh, um

[19:33] so, this is on the list, but I don't know anything about it. Um there was some sort of chair drama uh like chair videos. Okay. I mentioned this at the videos. Okay. I mentioned this at the beginning. So, great video by Honestly

[19:46] >> Yeah, I I've never seen this person before, but the the video popped up in my feed. And basically it's in the vein of like the Megalad drama video on PayPal honey or who is the other one it was I've got who

[20:01] is the other one Steve Gamers Nexus did a video on online as tech tips and specifically calling out your average consumer and Matt Moniz who we actually know pretty well first of all I think it's really good

[20:15] that people hold YouTubers accountable and companies accountable in general which is obviously Megalad one on on honey I think that's a very good thing without a doubt and in this video basically he

[20:29] alleges that these YouTubers are sponsored but they're not adequately sponsored but they're not adequately disclosing their sponsorship and >> [clears throat] >> you know the synopsis and

[20:41] into them I get he gave some examples there that it did seem you know very apparent that that was what was going on you know I think this really opens up this wider kind of can of worms that I

[20:54] want to do a video on about this kind of situation cuz there's so much stuff that I think you guys need to be informed about when you're watching YouTube about when you're watching YouTube videos I think if someone is saying hi

[21:07] you know in partnership with or things like that it basically means they're sponsored and if they're not clearly disclosing it guys you should be really calling it out and you got to be treating that as a product announcement

[21:19] like when YouTube videos are kind of dressed up to feel like a review but it's really a sponsored video right I can't speak to

[21:31] what we're doing on this channel we only take sponsorships when it is a product announcement and it is presented as such that this is a new product we have been sponsored by say Dell to talk

[21:45] about the new XPS's here's what they're coming with here's what we're excited about wait for our full review before you make a buying decision right if the manufacturer can't agree to that they're not getting a video the other thing is

[21:57] on this channel we would probably only take one sponsored video for every say non sponsored we want most of our videos to be non sponsored and give you less YouTube ads as well because it's already sponsored

[22:12] so that's how we're trying to do it but when I talk about opening up a wider can of what can of worms I'm talking about how you guys could be potentially misled not just in sponsored videos I think one of the big ones that's also kind of

[22:26] coming up at the moment is affiliate marketing Mhm. and we're noticing a couple of things here firstly in the YouTube space when a channel earns money from affiliate marketing I you know you click

[22:38] about you buy it they get a small kickback that's how we are mostly funded here Mhm. there also can be potential misuse for instance if you talk positively about every product what

[22:51] might only watch one or two videos and not watch any more and they don't know that the YouTuber talks positively about everything right yeah it's really good to check the channel because you're probably just searching the name of it

[23:05] whatever but you know make sure that channel has some critical reviews as well maybe they don't have to be negative but at least bring up the cons bring up what what you should be concerned about I think that's

[23:17] right that's right and I think I like affiliate marketing to be honest versus sponsorship for revenue sources for YouTubers because I think it allows us like when we work with say a Best Buy we or B&H we can choose our favorite

[23:30] available so it gives us that flexibility they don't particularly care what we sell as long as we sell something so it really allows us to narrow down that search for you guys the ones we like and you'll see in our video

[23:43] reviews from us but I think affiliate marketing again has the ability to be misused and particularly we've even seen now lots of redditors who are running Reddit subreddits giving laptop advice on

[23:57] laptops there is no way they've ever owned those laptops themselves and you links even though the subreddit rules are not meant to have affiliate links but the moderator is posting affiliate links yeah well very dodgy and we're

[24:10] with some of the retailers to say hey you guys need to be tighter on who you accept into these programs because that is a little bit of a misuse because people think they're getting good advice from someone who perhaps is an expert

[24:23] >> right next we have what is your favorite Panther Lake laptop so far I'm going to ask you this one at the end too okay I still don't think we've had a winner I think the closest we've had I think the

[24:38] Panther Lake 8 chip in the lock was real and it's not the chip but the lock on the price it's going to come from but some point in the year you can get one with that Panther Lake 8 chip for about

[24:52] 1000 1200 dollars massively improved this year lighter battery significantly better battery life that was pretty impressive laptop the other one that I thought was really good

[25:05] was the Asus ExpertBook Ultra but it's it's not quite as premium as like the Dell XPS it's got a lot of positives but it just I don't think honestly Sierra to answer that question I personally don't think we've had the

[25:19] winning Panther Lake laptop yet maybe it's going to be the Slim 7 i Ultra but I don't think we've had one I mean what do you think yeah I don't really feel you know number one but I would agree

[25:31] that the ExpertBook Ultra the lock is great too but I preferred the thin and light form factor and all of that I actually just made it feel a little

[25:45] cheap for me like that kind of rough coating on the palm rest that that in the office I I called it yeah I called it sandpaper it wasn't like that bad it just it was just weird

[25:58] and unusual to other laptops so it it kind of threw me off when I was typing um I see I found it rejected sweat really well like I sweat on these MacBooks sometimes and it just the the metal just pushes it back at you

[26:11] get what you're saying when you use it for like the first like at least for me the first couple of minutes I'm like oh this is very odd yeah it is very odd but other regard I would say the only negative of it is that probably because

[26:26] of how thin and light it is it doesn't max out that chip it doesn't make the chip perform like as well as we've now seen it perform in in like OmniBook X16 so so that would probably be the one negative is you're not getting the full

[26:41] negative is you're not getting the full Panther Lake I like that OmniBook X16 other than the the screen is if they if I think and sometimes HPs do have better the screen we have by the way in the OmniBook X is 1920 by 1200 it's probably

[26:54] the one of the worst OLEDs we've seen dreadful screen door effect but the laptop everything else about it is really nice except the price yes when we first reviewed it or when I was writing the review up front it was 1400

[27:08] not great but when it goes on sale it might be a little bit more compelling that's awesome and then it shot up to 1900 and it's

[27:20] just you know to our earlier point about pricing we'll we'll talk about it more but it is a lot more >> you can almost buy an older MacBook Pro you can certainly buy a MacBook Pro 14 for that amount Mhm. almost a 16 for

[27:33] that amount and it's just like no it does rival the M5 in terms of some the M4 Pro chip or something like that >> yeah yeah and I just thought the overall the screen is the biggest issue oh for sure if HP I've seen them have different

[27:48] ones are coming for that but yeah this is a best buy specific model that we received but I I do think they'll probably have more configs on their website once it comes out fully um

[28:01] okay and then we already covered what's coming next so we're in viewer questions coming next so we're in viewer questions territory all right um me which is what settings do we do for battery life

[28:13] and like which mode do we run it on stuff like that so funny enough one of our manufacturers Asus actually got in touch with us recently to ask this because our ExpertBook Ultra results were not lining up with what they had

[28:26] um you know between us I think we all know that manufacturers overestimate their battery life quite a bit we feel that our battery test is maybe not perfect but at

[28:38] least slightly more realistic than than a lot of those other tests recently made it harder so so the big changes is we we went from 200 nits to 300 nits um the screen being brighter obviously right the screen being

[28:51] brighter and we are now leaving Bluetooth on as well as Wi-Fi we were already leaving Wi-Fi on we've removed energy saver so anything like presence sensing or dimming that can happen on the screen automatically

[29:06] we turn the lights off when we leave and we run these overnight and we want it to >> and we want it to be repeatable we want it to be fair so so all of those kinds of settings are consistent

[29:19] and I think I have a list like if if there's anything I'm missing um but yeah it's it's a pretty long list of just like oh no background tasks we make sure there's no background tasks on like

[29:31] Discord or OneDrive or something like that um you're running on the best battery settings right Mhm. so so you're going um and we're turning 60 hertz on the

[29:44] display I believe Mhm. Yep we do lower it down to 60 Hz. Um keyboard backlight off, you already said that. I did. Yeah, but but that's yep yep. Uh ASUS got back to us. I I do love that they are very diligent about

[29:58] um looking into these kinds of issues. So, they said that there is a Oh, this is not related to the battery life. This is related to we were having remember this? I I saw that that they going to send us another unit, I

[30:11] was some sort of issue with their noise cancellation algorithm. So, that's nice >> Yeah. Yeah. All right, what's the next question, All right, what's the next question, Sierra? Oh, yeah. Um

[30:27] >> [laughter] >> We get this one a lot, um particularly when you're on camera at the moment. Um but we also get a lot of more positive obviously you've improved dramatically, as as have I over the last year or so,

[30:40] watch my old videos anymore. Yeah yeah. Uh but look, guys, realistically, we can't have it all. If you want me to run an effective

[30:52] business, to produce multiple videos per week, um and test laptops thoroughly, these all they just don't go together, right? There's only a certain amount of time in the day. Um I'm certainly working super hard, but

[31:07] and presenting on camera takes quite a long time. It really does, especially I'm a bit slower than you are. Um it might take me what an hour and a half to two hours to film a shorter video, maybe even three or four. And

[31:19] some of the longer videos we do not over the days. Yeah, like the LOQ, the lock should I say, I always get it wrong. Um I filmed twice, right? I filmed the the other day. >> Right. And each shoot goes for, say, two

[31:32] ready before it. It's like a half a day event, and it's very exhausting. Like I'm just spent afterwards, so if we want to do three videos per week, plus one or two shorts, which is what we really want to be hitting, it's very

[31:46] hard for me to be in all those videos, plus use all the laptops myself for a we're doing a lot of testing, and I don't do all the testing myself, I want to make sure I've got my I'm hands-on, I'm really trying the laptop for its

[32:00] intended purpose before, even if say you're the primary person writing the review, I also I'm doing a second look at the guys. >> use whichever laptop before the review goes out. It And definitely before the

[32:12] >> That's right. And if it's a gaming laptop, I want to play some games on it. content creator laptop, I want to do some content creation on it. All of that stuff. And I think you guys can assume, by the way, that we have two people at

[32:25] which is great, cuz you get different viewpoints, and you find more stuff. So, if we want to review laptops down to the level that we are, um which I think is good, and I think it sets us out from from competitors,

[32:38] it means that it's very hard for me to be in each video, given the the depth and the frequency of the videos. So, I think where we're kind of landing is um I'll be in most of them. Um

[32:52] If if it's like a big researchy video, like the Panther Lake ones, which we do "Hey, these are the new Panther Lake chips, they outperform, tons of graphs and findings." I think it's good for Sierra or even Seth to kind of be on

[33:05] camera, because these guys are very hands-on using them. the testing, right? >> And I think it's good for you guys to hear from the from them directly, versus a pass-through. Like, I don't like

[33:18] feel nervous watching where the presenter is really just a presenter, and isn't really using the devices themselves. So, I think it's good for those deeper research ones, I think having Sierra on camera's great, or Seth

[33:33] on camera's great. Um we certainly when I'm well, or which I took my first one in like two and a half years, I think, a couple of weeks ago, it's great to have, you know, Sierra obviously uh present. Then, what

[33:48] user laptops, which matches your use case, I'll probably do the summary of maybe hand off to you. And then for the more laptops that I'm more of a laptops, the gaming laptops, I'll probably do the full thing. So, that's

[34:03] kind of where we're landing, but I think you guys need to assume that look, as what you guys need, we're going to have to have multiple presenters. It just is unfortunately is what it is. Um I don't say I don't think it's that unfortunate.

[34:16] I think it's nice to hear different perspectives. Yeah, and um I think I don't know if everybody knows this, but we are our own writers, as well. And that's just a part of the timing that you didn't bring up, but like writing

[34:28] research and putting it all together, that probably takes more time than being on camera. And um Josh and I both have to review each other's scripts, make sure that we're all checked on facts, and you know, wording, and little stuff

[34:41] we discussed this actually yesterday, that I think it's great, like when you multiple people saying, "Hey, I don't understand what you mean there." And then the writer can go, "Oh, okay, let me explain that a bit better." Or, "Have

[34:54] making an assumption there." You know, it really does help. We have that funny something, and I think I'm kind of flowery, because I'm a poet. So, sometimes I'll say something a little flowery or a little bit um convoluted.

[35:07] what you mean there." And then I'll just explain it like perfectly. And he'll be >> [laughter] >> Um but I think it's it's one of those you just have to check each other on things, and it's part of the being

[35:21] thorough. It's part of having as accurate and um thoughtful of a channel as we can. Yeah. Um there we go, almost spilling my Uh what's [clears throat] the next one? Um

[35:33] Oh, yes. I think someone asked about music production benchmarks, and I think this leads to hey, how do we deal with other use cases, not not the primary ones we deal with, which is, you know, like gaming or creators or casual users.

[35:47] we're kind of what we're trying to do at this business is really fuse together a trusted shopping experience of where to go to get the best deal and find the best price, with trusted reviews. We're trying to fuse that together, and get

[36:01] rid of the noise that comes with like shopping on Amazon, where you're getting recommendations for gaming laptops that don't even have a dedicated GPU, there's there's sponsored search results crowding out real ones. We're trying to

[36:15] really create an experience that kind of goes back to what Amazon was kind of goes back to what Amazon was when it was good. And so, combining what we like to do is have the shopping

[36:27] most people shop for a laptop for an intended purpose, and I think that's a competitive advantage versus showing you 300,000 laptops, and you have to filter by a processor that you may or may not know even what you want. It's really not

[36:40] So, with shopping for a use case, obviously we need to have more use cases. And uh engineering, data science, uh music production, photography, all that kind of stuff. When we add use cases to the

[36:54] ones we heavily cover, so these are filterable on the site, uh we have lists on the homepage. So, and just so you know, list on the is really like our top And then with the use case filters on the all one is like which laptops are

[37:09] viable for that use case. And and because sometimes people cross use cases, which quickly narrows down the available laptops. Realistically, where I'm going with this is when we add these lists to the site,

[37:21] And when we think when we added data science to the to a list on the homepage, we did two videos really delving deep of interviewed real data scientists working in the field, a variety of them. We did

[37:36] tests ourselves, and that helps us know what what they're looking for. When it comes to other use adding thoroughly adding other use cases, and the lists on the homepage, that one we need to do our research

[37:50] first, to see what are the main software applications they use, and really, you >> [snorts] >> That being said, what we're quickly finding when we add other use cases is they're really more CPU dependent, GPU

[38:04] only a couple of variables. Like even encoding engines, which are very important for exporting fast on a video edit, those media engines scale with more powerful GPUs. Right. So, those are

[38:19] need more GPU, more CPU. When it comes to music production, my gut is it's heavily CPU based, it's heavily memory based, and I think that's what we're once we do a little bit of research in these, we can quickly, by testing some

[38:33] of these benchmarks, it will give us an idea of what are the parts of the laptop that these people need, and then we can do it. So, I think music production it is on our list to add. I would say we're probably going to get to it. If we get

[38:46] half of this year, once we get through all the new laptops. Um but it is absolutely on our list of I would say the next four. Like we wanted to architects and interior designers, engineers, traders, music production are

[38:59] probably the ones we really want to focus on adding next. Yeah, and I think you had said something um off camera about the proxy of a benchmark versus like the actual benchmark

[39:12] lot of what we notice is there are patterns that end up being followed, patterns that end up being followed, where a a graph, like for Cinebench, will look the same, um have the same bars, same order, and everything, as

[39:25] another benchmark. And so, they're they're possibly testing the same things, or they're they're going down the same like I think that's a fantastic to find with music producers, it's probably going to align to like

[39:37] Cinebench. Mhm. [clears throat] Right, but it is good to test still, so that we can say oh this does really well in Cinebench which might be nice for music producers or whatever. It is a good proxy for for those software too. Yeah.

[39:50] Uh but we don't know that yet obviously. Um yeah so Apple's new announcements this week um one of them just came out today um and I that right? >> Yeah. Yeah. And just before we get into

[40:05] already jumped in and said you know what are your thoughts? What we're going to give them to you right now but looking for reviews of this I just want to explain like how we do things here. You're going to see a bunch of reviewers

[40:17] woodwork and just cover these Apple products and rush out videos on them as soon as possible. We're just not like that here. Like we like to do a real proper thorough job. And we really have we've been testing

[40:30] updating our test suite of the older MacBooks that we have in the studio can get it out as fast as possible. Nonetheless these are probably coming going to be testing them for another week. So you'll probably see a video

[40:45] month. I'd love to get it out sooner. If we with them. But on this channel we're about quality over a rush job to get more views in the short term.

[40:58] And I just I I know you guys probably know that have been following us for a while but if you're wondering where I'll we're not ignoring these laptops and we're about to talk about them. Mhm. We just like to be

[41:10] example of that was the keyboard in the MacBook Pro 14 with M5. this that it uses the low travel keyboard of the Air Mhm. not the better keyboard of this laptop which is the MacBook Pro 14 with the Pro chip. So

[41:26] when they come in but to find and that's a very material thing. It's a less comfortable keyboard. You use the keyboard all the time. Right. And it stuff. Like we could throw up a video tomorrow just it you know

[41:40] it is and how awesome Apple is but that's just not what we do here. I think the point you're kind of getting at here that I find really interesting is that you want our videos to have more longevity. You want them to be able to

[41:54] be accurate for longer um because we've discovered maybe everything there is to find out or as much as there is to find out within that period of time and I feel like that's a really nice goal with the videos. Um I

[42:06] but I think the other part I think that is a big part of our aim for sure. The you know you can But it's also just about hey they people you guys go to our channel you watch one of our videos and you know you're getting a pretty

[42:20] in-depth look at the laptop from people who actually used it in real world scenarios. Not people who've unboxed it ran Geekbench and are just going wow the numbers are big. Yeah. No I I do appreciate the thoroughness and accuracy

[42:33] that we bring Yeah. to our videos. But the Neo let's let's get into it on my thoughts on the Neo. This is me processing this within you know the same day it was announced but with that said of the Neo of what I've seen thus far

[42:47] you know really it's coming in at about $600 with a student discount at 500. It's essentially the iPhone 16 Pro processor Okay. in there so um unlike

[42:59] Qualcomm you know at macOS was always designed to run off that architecture which was the M series was kind of based on their iPhone architecture so I assume that most things are going to work pretty well not like when the arm

[43:12] version of Windows versus Right. >> the x86 version um that being said from what I'm seeing it has the performance of like an M1 processor. Okay. Um it does have 8 gig of of RAM. Mhm.

[43:25] I think there's some good things and bad things here is my two cents and and cut down about it by the way guys. Um the USB-C ports are really really really >> or something right? >> Yeah one's two I believe. Yeah one is a

[43:39] you're talking you've got to be careful about that but I think there's good and bad here. I think the great thing is do we want more cheaper laptops? Absolutely. These will probably go on sale to four or five hundred dollars I

[43:53] would assume. I think that puts pressure on the entire industry and I think that's a positive thing. I think my concerns are that these seem to be laptops designed first to be sold first to be used and they're going to

[44:05] look incredibly pretty. They have great material build. They're going to look they'll probably rush off the store shelves. But you know Lillian we just upgraded about half a year ago I upgraded her

[44:18] from the M1 MacBook Air with 8 gig of RAM so similar kind of thing to this and even for her just honestly just web browsing in 2026 and she's not a tough user Right. she was noticing it was a little slow and I

[44:33] M1 chip came out in 2020. It was way ahead of its time but if you if you say okay let's give it three years so maybe it's a equivalent to a good thin and light processor for 2023 it's still well behind what's currently

[44:47] out there. Right. Um so there's not going to be a 16 gig for these. >> Um I can't that I can't recall Sierra we can put it up on screen okay but I think the whole selling point here is the

[44:59] >> Right. Right. So the cheapest models only have the 8 gigs which we would not Yeah I I think it depends. I actually don't mind that. I do think there's people who can get away with it. I think it's a about like for Lil for Lillian it

[45:14] was just a slow down in her in those kind of tasks. It they were just not they just weren't snappy and I think it's about getting and that's where it worries me is they're going to kind of get confused

[45:27] that they feel of a similar quality to the Air they kind of look a similar quality to the Air Yeah. but these are massively cut down in terms of their >> Yeah. Okay. And I think the other thing that I think that buyers need to be

[45:39] aware of here is for that price in the second hand market or buying an older if you can get an M you should be able to get an M2 Air or M3 Air with 8 gig of RAM for that same price. Mhm. And that is going to be much better than this

[45:55] Right. on numerous facets. So I think it's about and what worries me is that already an Apple store is already pretty unaware of what's going on because quite to say a Best Buy and buy the same laptop $200 off. Right. Who are

[46:10] almost always have these things on sale. Mhm. So I worry that people are going to buy one of these not really knowing truly what they're getting into or what they could have got elsewhere. Especially with who they're

[46:24] targeting with this. Yeah. Yeah and I think you know honestly like even some of the Qualcomm laptops like the Surface we've seen go down very very cheap. I think it's probably going to be a much more capable laptop than this

[46:37] Neo. Mhm. Yeah. That's a fair point. Yeah and I think >> [laughter] >> it it take the VivoBook right? You can get a really high quality VivoBook around this price with a Qualcomm chip.

[46:52] I think it's good for the industry but I don't think people need to be very careful about who's buying one of these. Yeah. Well um I think that kind of brings us to how is the Air changed and is that still in

[47:06] that price range where it would maybe be affordable for some people. Yeah. So the Air has basically introduced M5 they've put in Wi-Fi 7 one thing that they've done and this includes both the Air and the Pros and

[47:20] we'll talk about that in a second but it used to come with 256 gig of storage at the base and 16 gig of RAM. Now comes with 512 gig of storage but and 250 uh not giving you that storage upgrade free. They're charging you $100 extra

[47:34] instead of starting at 999 it's now $1,100. Right. So and that's the same with with the Pros which we'll get to. Now realistically I still think even at that price the Airs are still a really good

[47:48] deal really good sweet spot. I do think they're starting to fall like Windows Panther Lake is fantastic but it's coming in a lot higher right now in >> Right. If Panther Lake starts to drop in pricing due to big sales I think it's

[48:04] Air than there was last year. For instance the Airs still have 60 hertz displays in 2026 which is just utterly ridiculous. The Airs still only have two USB-C ports on one side not one charging on each side or more variety. Right. The

[48:19] keyboard and which isn't the most comfortable. So I would say the Airs are still a good sweet spot but they're losing their they're losing a little bit of their the gap between them and competitors is is a

[48:33] lessening. I still think it's a great laptop to get but I think Apple has we needed a faster refresh rate display um at a minimum and that should have been

[48:46] pretty easy for them to do. So that's a little bit disappointing but I still think they're a decent laptop. Okay. Got it. Yeah I know that there's that like $800 range that they sometimes fall into on sale so Absolutely. but they'll still

[48:59] sales it sounds like. I think so. I think so. I think so yeah. Okay. So what were you saying about the Pros changing? Yeah. So just actually Sierra just to think one of the best ones to get is actually the the Pro with the M5 chip

[49:15] which came out last year. Because we look we're going to test these Airs but if the Airs end up throttling the M5 chip and Apple has gradually by the way their new like the chips more power over the years.

[49:27] Um if M5 is more power hungry than M4 and I can't remember off the top of my head if it is if it's in the Air chassis without a fan it may the delta between running the M5 chip in the air chassis versus running it in the pro chassis

[49:40] seen before. So we are going to test that when we get in and if so that MacBook Pro with the M5 chip could be the the true sweet spot here. Now on the the 14s with the pro chip and the 16s with the pro chip

[49:56] I got to say it's it's a pretty boring and disappointing update which I think I I texted Max about that. That um look this chassis and I have it in front of me it came out many years ago and

[50:10] in today's day and age it is a little bit heavy it's a little bit thick it's which makes it a little bit uncomfortable to use. I still think it's a great laptop but again similar to the airs the gap is

[50:25] narrowing a little bit to the competitors and I think you know what's happened with the the air again um particularly on the ones with the M5 pro chip they've got rid of rid of the uh 512 gig storage

[50:38] yes that's right now I believe it starts at one one terabyte this is with the pro chip but they're not giving it to you free. They're essentially forcing you to do that upgrade. I actually don't mind this and here here here's my merry thing

[50:52] this and here here here's my merry thing it used to be $2,000 or $2,400. $2,400 got you the better pro chip the 20 core I believe it is right here versus >> it was 14 versus 12. Thank you very much you're right. The I was thinking the GPU

[51:07] cores you're right. Yeah so the 2000 got you the 12 and the CPU cores and then the 2400 got you 14 but the reason to upgrade was because you got the one terabyte of storage versus the 512. And if you customize this with 512 it was a

[51:21] custom config. Most times you order custom configs you lose that $200 sale price that you can get if you buy through a retailer. Stock MacBooks go on sale a lot more than custom configs. So it was better let's say you saved two

[51:35] $200 you to get this one with one terabyte you're basically paying 2200 to >> Right. >> This one's 2400 $200 on sale same price you may as well get the better processor with one terabyte. So I actually like

[51:48] >> configs are now going to be available with one terabyte. Exactly so I actually you're basically hopefully when they go on sale could be paying 2000 but getting the extra storage. So [clears throat] it still before you were paying like say

[52:03] 1800 with a $200 sale and you were getting it's that is as bad as what it seems by forcing you to do the upgrade because of could be on sale. I don't know if I'm making sense with that.

[52:17] >> No that does make sense. I know that Best Buy is like kind of our main Best Buy is like kind of our main seller for Apple B&H does as well but both of them offer about $200 off as pretty consistent sales so

[52:30] terabyte for the the lower end pro chip. And so with that in mind I think I I probably go with the lower end one now cuz the only reason I went with the high one before was because of that. Oh okay. Um because it basically I was getting it

[52:45] free because otherwise it was a custom config. So I think that one could be the one to get. I am excited to get them in I think it is good to see Wi-Fi 7 on the I think it is good to see Wi-Fi 7 on the air and the pro

[52:59] not an exciting update guys as again you know the notch is still huge and all of them in we'll test them. I'm very interested to say I think one thing I'd comments do you want us to get every chip in in

[53:12] the 14 um so at least we can show you what happens because it's our assumption yeah that like these only go up to a 96 watt charger the the bigger pro goes the watt charger the the bigger pro goes the 16 goes up to 140 in the 14 inch do you

[53:25] what is the performance degradation as you up the CPUs? all of them in otherwise we'll try and pick the ones we think are probably the best like on the 16 we're going to get the one with the max chip but overall

[53:39] it's a very boring update. Yeah. So look we're going to get them all in guys as I said it's probably in a week or two um and then we'll we'll about them but

[53:53] like the Apple like X chip in terms of I mean just so I the chips will be very good I can't see the launch being as exciting. Right I would agree which I mean we've got to cover it but um I I think you know in my personal life this

[54:07] you're a Mac person you should totally buy this this version or this interested to see is we have the M2 Max here in the 16 inch to see how much of a benefit is there truly of going to M5 Max like should you really upgrade if

[54:22] you're on something like the M2 already you Yeah yeah I think that's fair. A lot of people are still with their M1s and M2s. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think that's everything except we didn't bring up Samsung. Oh good it's what okay. So we

[54:36] Samsung's probably one of the brands we've covered least on the channel just so you guys know we have deep relationships with most brands that we coming except Samsung and Apple. Apple seems to

[54:49] favor I call them like glossy tech reviewers they've you know these cover they they don't go very deep on what they cover um and they tend to favor working with those kind of ones the first look they

[55:02] really hype things up and maybe I'm being a little bit negative because obviously they don't work with us but um we don't have a relationship with Apple or Samsung and that means we're buying them retail. We do get some help

[55:15] nice that means we've really got to wait till they come out for sale. Samsung hasn't come out for sale yet Right. but we hear the excitement for Samsung. We haven't

[55:28] have in the past we've probably done small number of Samsungs. We're taking year we're a much bigger company than we have in the past and we now have the means to go and probably buy at least four or five of them um and we will go

[55:44] thoroughly. So and just on that now we've talked about a lot of laptops coming out we haven't talked about when um most of the hot new laptops that about we're probably going to have reviews out I would say late March

[55:59] We still haven't heard about the new gaming laptops like the new Zephyrus G16 and G14 those will probably be after that but some of these other ones that people are bringing up the Slim 7i Ultra and things like that I'd expect more of

[56:12] an April kind of review for those ones so hopefully that gives you guys some timing. Yeah. Um I think that covers everything though I we talked about a lot today. We did we did um let us know with the

[56:25] other one did pretty well so that's why we're back. Um I put a call out to Jared to see if he wants to come and join us on the next one because I know he's got which should be pretty cool to hear about

[56:39] channel. >> Yeah I don't think I've ever talked to Jared one-on-one. I know you guys are close but I mean look get subscribed you know the

[56:51] website bestlaptop.deals we've got all the laptops we recommend there based on our real world testing and thorough use of the laptops um you'll find everything there and I think that's all we got. Like subscribe share

[57:05] with your friends do all that kind of stuff let's get this stuff out there. >> Um what we'll catch you guys later. That's that's what we do. See you guys.