Some people are natural enemies, like Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, Inter Milan and AC Milan, Sochikyo and Iori, Virgo and Sagittarius... While some people are born in the same era, they exist in the same era. They are good at each other's fields. Two mountains and two tigers are quite harmonious and do not invade each other. However, some people want to decide the winner. In the notebook field, the MacBook Air series and
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon series is such a pair of old enemies. They have been fighting openly and secretly for many years and continue to this day.
ThinkPad New X1 Carbon (hereinafter referred to as the new X1C) has just been launched, and the predecessor of this series can be traced back to the 2008 ThinkPad Appearing at this time, the two have been competing with each other since then. The amazingness of the original MacBook Air in 2008
I have just recalled here. The price of thinness and lightness is like the side effect of liposuction to lose weight. It is achieved through ruthless "subtraction", and the X300 It has always adhered to pragmatism. The optical drive and interface were crammed in after squeezing the inner space of the fuselage like hell. It seems that the ThinkPad dictionary only has practicality and does not allow a trace of exaggeration. .
Today, the new ThinkPad X1C and MacBook Air meet again. This is a reunion after six years. The two laptops on the top of the Forbidden City are still on their respective platforms
The best one, the MacBook Air, six years later, is a little late due to the competition from the MacBook Retina 13. The replacement is very likely to be completed this summer, and the X1C is a new force
, after landing on the Win8.1 platform, it then realized an exploration of carbon fiber materials, and more importantly, the X1C uses a larger 14-inch display, which itself gives the new X1C a huge psychological advantage
Potential.
1. Material: Aluminum alloy and carbon fiber
Apple began to use the Unibody process in 2008, and it has been used to this day. This technology uses CNC cutting of an entire aluminum plate. Today, there are still few manufacturers that can 100% learn and transplant it, so that Unibody has become Apple's label, and it has also made other Apple products such as iPhone and iPod besides MacBook. Aluminum products are very
common materials in daily life, so the material cost of MacBook Air is not high, but the "almost technological monopoly" and scale in the process make it difficult for other manufacturers to follow at a lower cost. This has been the case for 6 years.
2. Portability: 14-inch is lighter than 13.3-inch.
This round of testing is not fair, the 14-inch new X1C and the 13.3-inch Air. It is not a heavyweight, so in terms of portability, this is a cross-level competition. Thinness and lightness have always been the core selling points of the two series, especially since the Air was just born and emerged from the envelope. When it was slowly taken out, it became Apple's most glorious moment in 2008, and also announced the advent of the ultra-lightweight era of notebooks.
In terms of weight, the X1C achieved a counterattack, with a 14-inch version. The X1C is slightly lighter than the 13.3-inch Air 13. This is partly due to the slimming effect of carbon fiber. It is difficult to imagine that a 14-inch notebook can be so light, and it sticks to 14-inch, the most popular size in China. , while pleasing domestic consumers, it also improves the product use experience.
3. Screen: 16:10 or 16:9?
The 13-inch MacBook series is the only notebook on the market that uses a 16:10 ratio screen, and the MacBook Air 13 is the thinnest one among them, and many people still rely on it
Although I miss 16:10, there has been endless debate about which is the golden ratio compared with 16:9. 16:10 has more pixels than 16:9. You can see more pixels when drawing, and
16:9 is more criticized as a compromise in cutting costs. In my opinion, I personally prefer Air 13’s 16:10. For example, for film post-production work Or, 16:9 high definition
Movies need these "extra pixels" to put the progress bar and the picture together for editing...etc., after all, there is no harm in having a few more pixels.
Relative to the screen ratio, resolution is the culprit. Fortunately, both of them do a good job in this regard. The resolution of the new X1C is 1600×900, and it can be equipped with up to WQHD (2560 x 1440 ) IPS high-brightness display, while the Air 13 has a resolution of 1440×900, and it is possible to complete the iteration of the Retina screen version this year.
4: Interaction: Comfortable touchpad and humanized little red riding hood
The glass touchpads of MacBook series products have always been rated by users as the most successful in design and the most comfortable to use. The hardware design has been applied for a patent. The author also believes that currently no notebook touchpad can reach the comfort level of MacBook, whether it is the keys or the accuracy of cursor control. Let’s talk. Although the touch panel of the new X1C has also been replaced with glass material, and the left and right buttons have obvious red lines
to separate them, and the left and right buttons are set up (to avoid infringement), the feel is still inferior.
Having said that, the little red dot of TrackPoint once again saved the situation in the user control interaction. There is really no need to say more about TrackPoint. Back then, IBM was researching
TrackPoint controller. A special transfer function and algorithm are used to filter out the tiny errors in the user's finger operation, so there is that wonderful "pointer acceleration" experience. It can be said that
The advantage of the MacBook Air trackpad lies in multi-touch. Through the cooperation of multi-finger touch and Mac OS system, the mouse is gradually eliminated. The X1C's TrackPoint and future touch screens
are, to a certain extent, substitutes for the mouse.
5. Interface:
The slim body will undoubtedly abandon some larger interfaces, whether for VGA, RJ-45, or the new X1C and Air. It's all said to be a thing of the past, but compared to reducing the weight and size of the fuselage, carrying two adapter cables weighing more than ten grams is obviously not a big problem. Both of them are All you need is a mini DP to VGA converter. Although the original cable has better quality and compatibility, it is expensive
.
The left side of the new X1 Carbon is equipped with a power jack, HDMI port, MINI DP port, a USB 3.0 interface that supports shutdown charging function, and a headset
Microphone jack. The right side of the fuselage is equipped with a USB 3.0 interface and a network port conversion interface. The interface configuration of MacBook Air 13 is basically the same. The difference is that Air has a Thunderbolt interface and is compatible with the MINI DP standard.
6. Details:
At this price point, we pay great attention to details. Let’s take a look at the heat dissipation first. I have to say that Air’s heat dissipation is hidden at the hinge. The design is really wonderful. The hot air blows out parallel to the direction in which the screen is opened, without disturbing the user at all. The heat dissipation vent of the new X1C is on the left side of the fuselage, and there is a large hollow heat dissipation hole on the back. Without an independent graphics card, it is a relatively rare notebook that uses two heat dissipation copper tubes. Under high load conditions, both have good temperature control capabilities. The Air's aluminum-magnesium alloy conducts heat faster, so it heats up and dissipates faster than the X1C. Based on personal experience. Generally speaking, X1C is better than Air in terms of user experience, but the advantage is not obvious.
In terms of opening and closing angle, the X1C uses a sunken hinge and can also fully open 180°, while the maximum opening and closing angle of the Air is only about 150°. In terms of damping, the X1C cannot open it with one hand. Opening and closing, the damping of the Air's rotating shaft is more even and the feel is better.
Looking at the details, Air’s one-piece molding process makes the appearance of the notebook more integrated, giving it a tight-fitting feel. The tolerance rate of the metal shell under high-precision machining is very low, and the overall workmanship is excellent. , and the X1C is equally good, almost representing the highest level of ThinkPad. The overall user experience is more business-oriented, and a lot of effort has been put into security.
7. Hardware/battery life: Air is slightly better.
In terms of hardware configuration, they all use their own "beggar's version". In contrast, Air replaces the new processor Intel core 4260U, while the new X1C continues to use the 4200U. The performance of the two is almost the same, but AIR's HD5000 is a basic low-frequency model at the GT3 level, and its graphics performance is better than the X1C's HD4400.
In terms of solid-state drives, both Beggar Edition notebooks are equipped with 128GB solid-state drives. For daily use, the difference is not obvious. In terms of battery life, Apple MacBook 13 has been upgraded to
On the Haswell platform, the battery life is claimed to be up to 12 hours, which is due to the reduction in power consumption of the Mac OS system and processor. The ThinkPad X1C's official battery life is also claimed to be up to 9 hours
, which is different from the actual battery life. The error is not big.
8. System: Mac OS/Windows, habits first
The debate between Mac OS system and Windows system has always existed. It is impossible to give a clear result objectively here. Overall It is said that the work platform of most domestic business users is still based on the Windows system, and Mac OS has its own strengths in work types such as advertising design, graphics and video, and program development. Which one is better or worse cannot be judged.
There are almost software and applications that can replace each other on their respective platforms. For users, this is actually just a matter of habit. For users who have used Windows systems for a long time, it is difficult to quickly get started.
It takes at least longer to get started with Mac OS than someone who has never touched a computer. The interaction languages ????of the two systems are completely different. Once you choose one, the cost of migration is not small.
Summary:
Air’s fine workmanship and simple design style make people fall in love with it, and the innovative improvements of the new X1C in notebooks are also very exciting. To put it simply, The Air is more fashionable, and the new X1C is more practical.
The two products represent the product concepts of the two companies. It is actually not bad to separate the two fields. At least it gives everyone more choices and the right to purchase. In your hands, comparison is meaningless. Most people have already made their decision before reading this article.