It isn't just thin: they are quiet and fast with the best trackpads, reasonable keyboards that (except for the idiotic move when they released the touch bar and dropped the escape key) have a reasonable layout that doesn't change much, and all of the power states work correctly every single time.
I am the second most stubborn person I know in my friend group on this, and after only using a desktop for a couple years during the pandemic, I avoided having a mac laptop for the subsequent five years and it sucked. I finally caved after I realized the new M5 Macbook Air is actually likely to be faster for web browsing tasks and is somehow also (awkwardly?!) competitive at compiling code to the monster modern Xeon build I had just completed, and it doesn't even have a fan!
As far as I am concerned, it is over: Apple has won on everything except screen quality (I am sadly now addicted to OLED and I fundamentally disagree with the Apple position of not having a touch screen on a laptop, a stance that is only more emboldened now that I spend a lot of time with children).
> I am sadly now addicted to OLED and I fundamentally disagree with the Apple position of not having a touch screen on a laptop
Both of these are reportedly coming to the MBP this year (lately rumoured to be next year), although there's going to be a steep price to pay and rumours say it will still just have the MacBook's normal angular range so no good for drawing or iPad apps.
Apple is so far ahead of everyone it's sad but they're catching up and Apple is so unflinching on so many topics it handicaps them, we could be stuck with touchscreen Macs that aren't useful for iPad apps for many years, and later this decade ARM chips will start nipping at the heels of the Pro and Max chips while build/component quality is rapidly improving too.
The last thing I want is a touchscreen laptop. Wouldn’t that be great adding stupid cost solely for the ipad kids to not feel so alarmed. Nothing like reaching your hand up unsupported to poke at a screen right? Gotta love the fingerprint smudges too and the eventual loss of the concept of an information dense ui entirely as ui elements need to be clicked with the imprecision of your elbow now instead of the mouse.
I am the second most stubborn person I know in my friend group on this, and after only using a desktop for a couple years during the pandemic, I avoided having a mac laptop for the subsequent five years and it sucked. I finally caved after I realized the new M5 Macbook Air is actually likely to be faster for web browsing tasks and is somehow also (awkwardly?!) competitive at compiling code to the monster modern Xeon build I had just completed, and it doesn't even have a fan!
As far as I am concerned, it is over: Apple has won on everything except screen quality (I am sadly now addicted to OLED and I fundamentally disagree with the Apple position of not having a touch screen on a laptop, a stance that is only more emboldened now that I spend a lot of time with children).