i've been meaning to make this video for
a while actually somehow i didn't
realize
that this had even happened and that i
hadn't updated you guys i've had some
findings
some some adjustments to my life
and i think you might want to know about
them so i mean you probably read the
title of this video you kind of know
what it's about on the left-hand side
here i have the 13-inch macbook air over
here is the thinkpad x1 carbon now when
this laptop came out i made a very
complimentary video about it the best
laptop for most people it was brand new
and
based on that evaluation at that moment
it seemed like a really good buy for a
lot of people especially considering its
starting price the build quality the
association with the apple brand you
know just just a good package for a lot
of people so i called it that but i ran
into problems with this shortly after
publishing that video
in fact i kind of felt guilty having
called this laptop the best purchase for
most people so i came on here and i
showed you guys that the keyboard was
not functioning as
expected i had problems with the e key
jack has a macbook pro kirk has a
macbook pro and will has a macbook pro
and i do too so this isn't coming from a
place of just wanting to bash a
particular brand apple anything like
that this is just a personal experience
so anyhow the e key starts to give out
and i kind of put it down and went back
to using the macbook pro then i come
into work and will tells me his macbook
pro is now exhibiting the same thing
that this one was then the emails start
to roll in for me of other people having
experienced the same thing and i was
like man i think this issue is bigger
than i had ever expected and the guilt
started to pile up for me maybe i should
be warning people will apple fix it
presumably but if this happens to you
after your warranty expires that could
be a very expensive fix and this is not
an inexpensive laptop when that happened
it kind of reconfigured my brain a
little bit i was like man i've been
using apple laptops exclusively for a
very long time almost 10 years and i was
like i should go back to windows and see
what's happening in windows and search
for some windows based devices that i
might actually like so that took me down
the thinkpad path and guess what i loved
it wow i really didn't look back i just
tweaked it a little bit so that it was
suitable for myself so that i liked it
and i have fully switched over from mac
to windows without much fanfare
obviously without telling you guys
officially
and i'm not missing it it's kind of a
flipped version of that ad campaign from
back in the day when you got the guy
who's the mac and the guy who's the pc
and the one guy's in the suit and the
other guy's cool
i'm going the other direction this
became my main laptop x1 carbon good
battery life surprisingly i i began to
to really like the matte display without
the the glare and the gloss not the
brightest display in the world but i
lived with it i even lived with the chin
on the bottom here i lived with the
inferior track pad on this thinkpad when
compared to the macbook i lived with the
bizarre button placement i lived with
the weird location of the fingerprint
scanner live with all that stuff and i
did so because when i got to type on
this beautiful keyboard you see how i
did that right there jackets like vanna
white i just i come across it when i
typed on this keyboard
i had a sense of euphoria an epiphany of
sorts that i was like man i've been
missing out there are great laptop
keyboards out there i'm talking about
the actual experience having used this
even if this thing was completely
functioning correctly i would trade it
in a second for this experience this
thing invites me to answer emails and
nothing does ever i never want to look
at email but here
it's a pleasure it's a joy and it got me
thinking about laptops in general in the
modern era
apple used to have some pretty strong
advantages in thinness lightness battery
life things like this
but now we look at a product like this
it's like geez
it's barely thicker
it's lighter in fact with a bigger
display 14 inch display two and a half
pounds 13 inch display three pounds
pretty much as thin light way more
interface capacity here type c
to a breakout ethernet usb there's an
hdmi port another usb port headphone
jack sim card slot you could enable this
device for full mobile connectivity
along with a sim card and a connection
through your carrier so you're always
connected it could be an always on
mobile device but the biggest thing was
windows itself i went with like the
simplest setup ever that i can show jack
here i took the number of apps that i
use like on a relatively frequent basis
i made them nice and small i pinned them
and then most of what else i do just
lives within the chrome browser right
there and via tabs i mean this thing is
so clean that's basically what i
interact with my daily life cup of
coffee over here maybe it's over here
and checking you know a couple of
different apps i mean it's windows guys
what do you what do you really need it
got prettier it really did it's not like
it used to be it's more reliable
it's smoother it's better looking i
turned off most of the system-based
notifications that i didn't need so
they're less abrasive that for me was
like that's way more seamless that's too
easy and i should have been looking at
these products a long time ago because
they are valid substitutes for what
apple is doing now i should say that
these two devices are not necessarily
targeted at the same clientele i think
most people are going to say this thing
looks prettier of course myself
i like the industrial appearance of the
thinkpad that's the simple matte finish
it's like
it's it's a tool it's cool with being a
tool it's a cool tool it gets like
smudges on it it's so what i'm okay with
that i don't think everyone will be the
exchange you make there is you must go
with this wonderful slick aluminum which
i have to admit it looks great but i was
surprised i enjoyed the switch and i'm
actually quite happy to be in the window
space now and have the wide variety of
laptops to choose from what is a laptop
for most of us these days what do you
really need here what are you paying for
durability form factor you need
something that's light you need
something that has good battery life and
then after that it's a keyboard and a
display so ask yourself how good are
those components and i can pretty safely
say not just based on my experience but
also on the reliability factor that
these keyboards on the macbooks are
flawed and that is a major if not the
most major component in a laptop it's a
reason to pick up a laptop when compared
to a phone or a tablet or some other
device that you have if you do this
experiment yourself if you move over to
a keyboard like the one on the x1 carbon
you will never want to touch or tap
anything like this again windows is not
that bad it's not as bad as it used to
be it's actually kind of pretty now and
you can make this move i have officially
quit using apple laptops and it kind of
happened quietly i didn't even really
expect it i didn't even really set out
to do it
but i'm living over here now
and i'm not missing much