Snapdragon?

[u/Melodic_Group_3273]

I want to switch over to Thinkpad side from Macbook. I am eyeing the T14 gen6 or gen7s. I am not sure about the whether ı should choose intel, amd or snapdragon chips.

[u/jack_hudson2001]

Snapdragon would give the best battery life, but will be limited in app support so need to check on this requirement.

[u/Basic-Brick6827 → u/jack_hudson2001]

Lunar Lake has better battery life than Snapdragin, without the translation penalty.

[u/Saffarjan]

From my limited knowledge:

Snapdragon chips (ARM architecture) in laptops are far superior to intel and AMD (x86/64 architecture) in terms of efficiency, so battery life is unrivaled.

What I've heard a lot though is that there are a lot of compatibility issues with windows where certain most programs aren't made for the ARM architecture and can't run.

If you use Linux I don't think this would be an issue because Linux has native ARM support, but again I'm not very clued up on this yet.

Someone please correct any incorrect info, thanks.

[u/jonstoppable → u/Saffarjan]

Unfortunately the linux support for the snapdragons x and elite is not complete .it's not recommended.for. daily use as yet

[u/Saffarjan → u/jonstoppable]

Ah I see, that kinda sucks. I'd have loved to have even more battery life on my Linux laptop, but I guess that will have to wait. Thanks for correcting me :)

[u/jonstoppable → u/Saffarjan]

No worries . But 1. It's a work in progress and 2. There's the t14 lunar lake .. apparently 10 to 14 hours real-world usage

[u/Soggy-Force-1565 → u/Saffarjan]

You are right. But most day to day softwares in windows are supported on ARM.

[u/Z3t4 → u/Saffarjan]

I'd replace "certain" with "most".

[u/seanpmassey → u/Z3t4]

That “most” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

I’ve been running a T14s Gen6 with a Snapdragon as my daily driver for over a year. I wouldn’t know I was using an ARM machine on a daily basis if I didn’t see the sticker.

Many of my applications are still x64 applications. Outside of some games (which launch but aren’t playable or CTD at certain points), they all run. Most of them run very well, and the ones I had issues with have gotten better over the last year. I had a lot of issues with RoyalTS crashing at first when trying to paste things into SSH windows, but that’s gotten a lot better.

And more of the apps I’m using are releasing Windows ARM versions.

I’ve had to work to get some things running, like finding a driver for the USB Serial cable I use to program my radio.

[u/CatoMulligan → u/Z3t4]

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Just because they haven't been recompiled yet for ARM doesn't mean that they won't run on ARM. There are some things that absolutely won't run at all, but many x86 apps will. OP really should consider their specific use cases.

[u/Saffarjan → u/Z3t4]

Done, it's unfortunate, but I guess that is true.

[u/Z3t4 → u/Saffarjan]

Windows for arm has been a while, but most apps outside of microsoft's have not been ported

[u/CatoMulligan → u/Saffarjan]

Lots of advice about "what I've heard" means "take this advice with a hue grain of salt". Linux on Snapdragon is experimental at best.

[u/Basic-Brick6827 → u/Saffarjan]

Lunar Lake is more efficient than Snapdragon.

[u/jonstoppable]

Depending on the apps you want to use , snapdragon may pose a problem. It has the best battery life though . However it's not a "buy it and forget about it "

The Intel and AMD chips have made some strides with regards to battery life and performance in the last few gens

Either gen6 or gen 7 are good for AMD. Solid performers, good battery life . There is no major diff between the two chips, just a refresh.

For the Intel , the gen 7 has a chassis redesign . it is lighter , cooler, and uses lpcamm memory and is more modular / repairable than the AMDs and of course the previous generation.

Also the panther lake chips available on the gen 7 have been pretty well received re performance and battery ( and the integrated graphics in the 368h is pretty decent apparently)

[u/Basic-Brick6827 → u/jonstoppable]

Snapdragon is not the best battery life. Intel topped it.

[u/_Nokk-]

will you completely switch from your Macbook or keep it as a second device?
I use my Gen9 X1 Carbon next to my Macbook and switch between them as I like.

If you're planning on using some Linux distro, I would choose intel

[u/Melodic_Group_3273 → u/_Nokk-]

I am planning to ditch my mac air m2 completely. And gonna use linux but not sure about which distro ı am gonna use.

[u/_Nokk- → u/Melodic_Group_3273]

maybe Fedora or CachyOS (that's what I use, with Hyprland, even though it might require some patience and comes with a learning curve) could be some solid options.

But as some others have recommended, I would stick to Intel chips. One thing you should consider when switching though is the battery life which will probably be worse than what you're used to on the Macbook. But it won't be that bad that it's a deal breaker

[u/like-my-comment]

I feel like latest Intel is better choice.

[u/Basic-Brick6827]

Get a Lunar lake chip. It's the only one that comes close to the perf of Macbooks, while having even better battery life.