The problem with pivoting to being mainstream is, while your theoretical demographic gets larger, you're now competing with the brand loyalty that Apple and Samsung have, and people aren't going...
The problem with pivoting to being mainstream is, while your theoretical demographic gets larger, you're now competing with the brand loyalty that Apple and Samsung have, and people aren't going to change from what they know because they don't have a reason to.
It's antithetical to the enthusiast trap idea, but I believe if Oneplus had kept catering to the enthusiast, they would naturally become the mass-market option. Every family has the techy person they go to, and if you can prove to them you don't abandon your values, your products will eventually filter through to the general public.
The problem is that takes a very long time and very few companies have the patience to pull it off. The last company to truly make that jump in my opinion is Apple. Distasteful business practices aside (and boy do I have some beef there), through the 90s and early 00s they had a reputation for being easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, and reliable. They were never the cheapest or the first to market with a given product category, but that value commitment made them easy to recommend for techies who knew they wouldn't have to spend hours fixing weird problems for friends and family (I still remember those "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials).
What made me move to Apple (for laptop only) was their unbeatable specs. Back in 2010 I couldn’t find another laptop with better specs AND it ran windows pretty easily with drivers built in. And...
What made me move to Apple (for laptop only) was their unbeatable specs. Back in 2010 I couldn’t find another laptop with better specs AND it ran windows pretty easily with drivers built in. And they’ve kept that promise tbh. I might find a better gpu these days, but everything else is just top.
I will also admit that the move to cloud apps made it a lot easier to swallow as well.
HOWEVER, my next laptop will be a Framework because I support their ideals.
I really want to love Framework but every one I’ve seen that’s more than a couple years old looks like it’s taken serious damage. I guess it’s easier than normal to replace the shell or ports but...
I really want to love Framework but every one I’ve seen that’s more than a couple years old looks like it’s taken serious damage. I guess it’s easier than normal to replace the shell or ports but it doesn’t inspire confidence.
Kind of like saying "All these ThinkPads are pretty beat up and many have coffee spilled in them" hahaha. I think a confounding factor for Framework is that there is probably a large contingent of...
Kind of like saying "All these ThinkPads are pretty beat up and many have coffee spilled in them" hahaha.
I think a confounding factor for Framework is that there is probably a large contingent of users who say "all the parts are so easily replaced, I can beat it up a bit" but are also never going to replace any aesthetic part (I feel attacked by my own comment).
This is my framework 13 I've used daily since 2022: https://postimg.cc/gallery/FmTRkHf It is by far the most reliable and durable laptop Ive ever had and I'd buy one again in a heartbeat. At some...
It is by far the most reliable and durable laptop Ive ever had and I'd buy one again in a heartbeat. At some point in the last couple of years it picked up a small, purely cosmetic dent in the casing, but it has not affected the screen at all and I could fairly cheaply replace the case if I so desired. I'd rather it didn't have a dent, but I'd choose a laptop that lasts 4+ years and still feels as functional as when new over one that doesn't dent every time.
I did have an issue with the keyboard coating flaking off after a few years, but I think that was a manufacturing defect and when I contacted support about it a little under 2 years into owning the device they sent me a replacement input cover kit at no cost with zero hassle.
I ended up compiling a history of my other laptops for comparison, in case it's of interest to anyone:
Sony VAIO 17" VGNFW45X, Sept 2009 - Feb 2012, £???:
Power port snapped off the laptop completely. It was clearly a manufacturing defect. Sony product support denied any responsibility and said that it was due to non-standard use. They wanted to charge me £60 just for diagnosis.
It was a beast of a machine, but it was a beast to lug around and felt plasticy and a bit crap. Noisy as all hell.
MacBook Pro 15" (late 2011), Feb 2012 - Nov 2015, £1,350:
Dec 2013 I had the power block and power cord replaced under warranty. Dec 2014 I upgraded the RAM and replaced the harddrive with an SSD (£270). Jan 2015, bright green lines visible on display, full display replacement done under AppleCare. May 2015 I replaced the airport card (£60). Unclear from my emails if it were a new issue or complication from the display failure, but following a botched repair through AppleCare in Oct 2015 and what looks like multiple escalations, they ended up sending me a new MacBook. I wanted out of the apple ecosystem and so sold the replacement MacBook.
I liked my MacBook, probably my second favourite laptop after the framework. The only other one that has felt high quality. It was basically the last of the user serviceable Macbooks and I don't think I'd have been happy with it if I hadn't been able to upgrade the RAM/SSD/etc.
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (128GB / Intel Core i5), Nov 2015 - Nov 2018, £870
Repeated issues with the type cover, I think two or three replacements. Screen shattered when it fell off my bed and landed on the corner, had that fixed. Stopped being able to charge even with a replacement adaptor in the end.
In general I really disliked the device and regretted going for it, but couldn't justify the cost of the £2k Surfacebook.
Dell XPS 9365, Nov 2018 - Mar 2022, £1,200
Good when I bought it, but felt flimsy and didn't work particular well as a convertible device; way too heavy to use as a tablet and annoying to use standing like an A, plus the webcam was at the bottom of the screen so people only saw your hands in a video call when using it as a laptop. Started really slowing down after a couple of years and needed replacing.
Framework 13, Mar 2022 - Jan 2026 (ongoing), £1,450
Feels great, still works just as well as it did when I bought it. The keyboard feels really nice to type on, and it's the only laptop I've seen that gets close to a MacBook in terms of trackpad feel/quality. It puts every other laptop I've owned to shame in one capacity or another.
Interestingly it doesn't feel expensive at all in the way my MacBook did back in the day. The thing with the Framework is you pay £1,450 and that's it, you've got a working computer for at least...
Interestingly it doesn't feel expensive at all in the way my MacBook did back in the day. The thing with the Framework is you pay £1,450 and that's it, you've got a working computer for at least five years no problem. My MacBook lasted, what, three years and needed upgrades part way through that, and between those and AppleCare I probably spent close to £2k on a computer that lasted three years. I don't forsee needing to switch the Framework (or even upgrade it) any time soon, and it's already my longest running computer!
YMMV, but I'm in my second MacBook in 11 years, no AppleCare, and the only problem they had was the stained screen — a chronic issue in MacBook Pro 2015 that Apple fixed twice for free.
YMMV, but I'm in my second MacBook in 11 years, no AppleCare, and the only problem they had was the stained screen — a chronic issue in MacBook Pro 2015 that Apple fixed twice for free.
My experience has been even better than yours. I'm in software development. My employer-issued laptop was a new 2011 Macbook Pro. It worked like a champ without issue for nearly a decade; I didn't...
My experience has been even better than yours. I'm in software development. My employer-issued laptop was a new 2011 Macbook Pro. It worked like a champ without issue for nearly a decade; I didn't get (or need, really) a new machine until getting a new 2020 M1 Macbook Pro, nine years later. And that upgrade was more about using the department's allocated budget than anything wrong with the old machine. Another four years later and I have a 2024 M4 Macbook Pro now only because I switched employers and got issued a new machine.
My current personal laptop is a working 2013 Macbook Pro (thirteen years old). The screen coating on that one isn't great any more, the speakers gave out around year 11, and the battery capacity took a dive in recent years, but it still works for simple daily tasks and websurfing. I think I swapped the hard drive at some point, but was able to do it myself so it didn't cost much. Never paid for or wished I had AppleCare for a Macbook.
2017 MacBook pro. Only had to replace battery once and keyboard due to accidental damage by myself. It’s gotten a lot slower in the last year, but it’s still pretty damn good for browsing and...
2017 MacBook pro. Only had to replace battery once and keyboard due to accidental damage by myself.
It’s gotten a lot slower in the last year, but it’s still pretty damn good for browsing and textwork.
To me I would think the opposite - that absolutely inspires confidence due to survivorship bias. Maybe the reason you don't see other laptops around that are beat up and still in use is because...
To me I would think the opposite - that absolutely inspires confidence due to survivorship bias. Maybe the reason you don't see other laptops around that are beat up and still in use is because when they took damage, they were put out of commission?
I have a framework that’s taken serious damage. I put it in a backpack, forgot to close the backpack, and so ended up throwing the laptop across the room and denting it and damaging the keyboard...
I have a framework that’s taken serious damage. I put it in a backpack, forgot to close the backpack, and so ended up throwing the laptop across the room and denting it and damaging the keyboard when I swung the backpack onto my back.
A Mac or similar premium laptop would have required either replacement of the entire laptop, or at least enough that it would appear new to an observer, and so you wouldn’t observe it in its damaged state
Can you still run windows easily on a modern mac given their ARM chipset? I agree though. My parents main computer for the last several years was an early 2010s macbook that I installed Windows 7...
Can you still run windows easily on a modern mac given their ARM chipset?
I agree though. My parents main computer for the last several years was an early 2010s macbook that I installed Windows 7 on. We had to retire it this past summer when the battery suddenly became a spicy pillow.
I don't think there's been much work on getting Windows for ARM running on Apple Silicon, it's only really designed to work on Snapdragon SoCs. I'm not sure how much interest there is either since...
I don't think there's been much work on getting Windows for ARM running on Apple Silicon, it's only really designed to work on Snapdragon SoCs. I'm not sure how much interest there is either since you can emulate x86 Windows with Parallels pretty well.
You can also virtualize windows ARM for it. It works pretty well in my experience, but I have only used for light tasks because I installed it as a demonstrator so I could show kids where to go...
You can also virtualize windows ARM for it. It works pretty well in my experience, but I have only used for light tasks because I installed it as a demonstrator so I could show kids where to go when they had to do Windows-specific things.
You can’t. But it isn’t easy to just point the blame at Apple. They certainly aren’t doing anything to make it work, but they don’t seem to be going out of their way to prevent it from happening....
You can’t. But it isn’t easy to just point the blame at Apple. They certainly aren’t doing anything to make it work, but they don’t seem to be going out of their way to prevent it from happening. It’s the same apathy they have been giving to all of macOS for years now.
And Microsoft, especially in the beginning, did go out of their way to prevent it from happening. This may have changed now, but for a long time, there was no way to just install windows on a generic arm machine. They effectively whitelisted specific Qualcomm processors that could be used. So, while there was seemingly no will at Apple to build boot camp for Apple silicon, if there were, it still wouldn’t have been possible because of Microsoft.
If the Steam Machine doesn't pan out (too expensive or some other non-software issue), my next computer will be a Framework Desktop or their laptop with the GPU
If the Steam Machine doesn't pan out (too expensive or some other non-software issue), my next computer will be a Framework Desktop or their laptop with the GPU
I really go back and forth on the Framework desktop. It's a weird machine with kinda weird specs. But it also has the AMD AI Pro Max (extreme no limits 69 blaster double pro...) which is an...
I really go back and forth on the Framework desktop. It's a weird machine with kinda weird specs. But it also has the AMD AI Pro Max (extreme no limits 69 blaster double pro...) which is an interesting chip but also it's all soldered to the board. But it's also $1200+. It's a product that has a use case, I'm sure, it's just a bit pricy for what it is (kind of?)
With component pricing the way it is currently though... I don't know if I see the Steam Machine coming in much cheaper. There's certainly an argument that the Steam Machine will be more explicitly gaming oriented and, thus, performance will reflect that (doubt) but real world testing will show that. Maybe the Framework has a place after all.
Yea, I have enough M-series Macs for generic computing needs, I'm specifically looking for something that can do Linux gaming. The FW desktop has the added fun factor of being the only non-mac...
Yea, I have enough M-series Macs for generic computing needs, I'm specifically looking for something that can do Linux gaming.
The FW desktop has the added fun factor of being the only non-mac machine that can actually do local AI as well as being decent for gaming.
My understanding is that catering to the enthusiast market in order to eventually capture some of the mainstream market was always the business plan for Oneplus, given that enthusiasts are too...
My understanding is that catering to the enthusiast market in order to eventually capture some of the mainstream market was always the business plan for Oneplus, given that enthusiasts are too small and fickle of a group to build a sustainable and profitable business on. Unfortunately for that type of business plan, it seems like there are way fewer android enthusiasts these days. /r/android used to be full of discussion on modifications and new products, and now traffic seems way down with most discussions being competing sides calling any opinion they disagree with "fanboyism." I just checked, and google trends search interest for "XDA Developers" peaked in 2011 and has been below 5% of its peak for about ten years now. The Oneplus One was released near the end of what I would call the heyday of XDA (2010-2014), and it seems like the enthusiast market has been shrinking since then as major Android manufacturers worked to improve their software and get out of the users' way.
It seems that even though the major players have taken steps to lock down their hardware as their software has improved, there isn't that much demand for a brand that allows for more customization. Phones are getting closer to being generic appliances both in reliability and how they're viewed by users. There just isn't as much to gain from tinkering as there used to be, so although maybe some smaller kickstarted project could exist to fulfill niche demands, I don't see any room for a major player in this space.
You're right the android enthusiast niche is smaller than it used to be, but I think it's because of how the software is so integral to the experience in a way that's different from the past....
You're right the android enthusiast niche is smaller than it used to be, but I think it's because of how the software is so integral to the experience in a way that's different from the past. De-googling a phone makes it harder to do mobile banking, for example (even shopping on my PC sometimes asks me to confirm a purchase via the phone app).
And while there are some companies catering for the niche buyer, like Fairphone aiming for an ethically produced phone, they confusingly don't add a headphone jack despite cabled headphones lasting decades compared to wireless stuff (and no Bluetooth fiddling) which goes against their purported longevity.
I guess that's the double-edged sword of commodification. Paradoxically a more level playing field ripe for disruption, and an entrenched duopoly because people stick to what they know.
I think the decrease in traffic to XDA has three parts: As with many forums, it’s had to deal with being displaced by social media and Reddit A lot of the demand for custom ROMs used to be just...
I think the decrease in traffic to XDA has three parts:
As with many forums, it’s had to deal with being displaced by social media and Reddit
A lot of the demand for custom ROMs used to be just how bad manufacturer UIs and update lifecycles were. Stock Android or whatever comes on your phone is a lot more usable than it was in the gingerbread days
Installing custom ROMs is much more inconvenient these days. The security improvements, while good, does mean that it’s much harder to get a custom ROM on a device by an uncooperative manufacturer and restrictions like the play integrity stuff means you might get locked out of banking if you do.
The same is also somewhat true on the iOS side. If you look at the three reasons I jailbroke my iPod touch 2G back in the day, they were UI tweaks, emulators and piracy. A lot of the most useful UI tweaks are base features now (like a notification drawer and quick controls), they are better platforms for playing classic games on now (switch and steam deck) and I have enough money that I don’t bother with piracy.
What made me move from Android to iPhone 5 back in the day was the short lifespan of Android phones. My Samsung Galaxy phone became unusable by year 4. Frequently hangs, reset itself and then one...
What made me move from Android to iPhone 5 back in the day was the short lifespan of Android phones.
My Samsung Galaxy phone became unusable by year 4. Frequently hangs, reset itself and then one day won’t turn on anymore.
It wasn’t a flagship phone so whatever, but then the same thing happened to my dad’s Xperia phone. A flagship phone that became so laggy it was literally unusable.
Meanwhile the iPhone works like day one. My iPad Air 2 still works flawlessly, though these days I only use it for reading.
I’m using a 6 year old iPhone 11 that still works fine. Sure it’s slower than newer phones when compared side by side, but for daily tasks it’s unnoticeable. Launching the camera and snapping photos are fast, which is all I care about.
I might need to upgrade soon because of security updates. But otherwise the 11 is still a decent phone.
Warning: Meta comment only related tangentially. Mr. Mobile addressed this in his OnePlus 10 review a few years ago and quite a few others have made similar videos. I’ve noticed that over the past...
Warning: Meta comment only related tangentially.
Mr. Mobile addressed this in his OnePlus 10 review a few years ago and quite a few others have made similar videos.
I’ve noticed that over the past 5 or 6 years, the quality of MKBHD’s videos have dropped considerably. He used to be a smart and knowledgeable reviewer. He’s no longer a leader in the tech review field…now it just seems like he follows trends and makes the most basic, superficial videos.
I stopped watching after he wiggled and wiggled and covered up that speeding debacle. And aside from that, I agree. He's coasting on reputation now, which will fade. After that will come...
I stopped watching after he wiggled and wiggled and covered up that speeding debacle. And aside from that, I agree. He's coasting on reputation now, which will fade. After that will come retirement or the grift phase.
MKBHD is probably my least favorite mainstream YouTuber, so I'm not going to watch the video, but I'm not sure how OnePlus is exactly in a downfall. They've done an extremely common business...
MKBHD is probably my least favorite mainstream YouTuber, so I'm not going to watch the video, but I'm not sure how OnePlus is exactly in a downfall. They've done an extremely common business tactic which lots of successful companies employ.
Run at a loss or breakeven for a few years while gathering a customer base, then slowly increase the price to become profitable.
And it's not like buyers were getting an objectively worse product. I owned the OnePlus 3T black edition, the OnePlus 7 Pro, and now currently the OnePlus 12 Pro. Each phone of mine has been great, and has come in at a lower price than Samsung/Google/Apple while having some great features.
I have an IR sensor which I've actually been using for my TV because the remote has been non-responsive for whatever reason. The camera has been stellar; my partner has an iPhone 16 Pro and she almost never wants me to take photos with her phone and solely wants to use mine. Others have commented on the camera quality as well, and the design.
There's also charging, which OnePlus has been class leading in for like... Almost 10 years?
The main things I dislike about the phone are the weight and the size, I think I'll definitely be looking for a smaller phone in the future, but I don't really have any remorse about my purchase otherwise.
The problem with pivoting to being mainstream is, while your theoretical demographic gets larger, you're now competing with the brand loyalty that Apple and Samsung have, and people aren't going to change from what they know because they don't have a reason to.
It's antithetical to the enthusiast trap idea, but I believe if Oneplus had kept catering to the enthusiast, they would naturally become the mass-market option. Every family has the techy person they go to, and if you can prove to them you don't abandon your values, your products will eventually filter through to the general public.
The problem is that takes a very long time and very few companies have the patience to pull it off. The last company to truly make that jump in my opinion is Apple. Distasteful business practices aside (and boy do I have some beef there), through the 90s and early 00s they had a reputation for being easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, and reliable. They were never the cheapest or the first to market with a given product category, but that value commitment made them easy to recommend for techies who knew they wouldn't have to spend hours fixing weird problems for friends and family (I still remember those "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials).
What made me move to Apple (for laptop only) was their unbeatable specs. Back in 2010 I couldn’t find another laptop with better specs AND it ran windows pretty easily with drivers built in. And they’ve kept that promise tbh. I might find a better gpu these days, but everything else is just top.
I will also admit that the move to cloud apps made it a lot easier to swallow as well.
HOWEVER, my next laptop will be a Framework because I support their ideals.
I really want to love Framework but every one I’ve seen that’s more than a couple years old looks like it’s taken serious damage. I guess it’s easier than normal to replace the shell or ports but it doesn’t inspire confidence.
How much of that is bias that the kind of person that buys a Framework is the kind of person that uses their laptop aggressively?
Kind of like saying "All these ThinkPads are pretty beat up and many have coffee spilled in them" hahaha.
I think a confounding factor for Framework is that there is probably a large contingent of users who say "all the parts are so easily replaced, I can beat it up a bit" but are also never going to replace any aesthetic part (I feel attacked by my own comment).
This is my framework 13 I've used daily since 2022: https://postimg.cc/gallery/FmTRkHf
It is by far the most reliable and durable laptop Ive ever had and I'd buy one again in a heartbeat. At some point in the last couple of years it picked up a small, purely cosmetic dent in the casing, but it has not affected the screen at all and I could fairly cheaply replace the case if I so desired. I'd rather it didn't have a dent, but I'd choose a laptop that lasts 4+ years and still feels as functional as when new over one that doesn't dent every time.
I did have an issue with the keyboard coating flaking off after a few years, but I think that was a manufacturing defect and when I contacted support about it a little under 2 years into owning the device they sent me a replacement input cover kit at no cost with zero hassle.
I ended up compiling a history of my other laptops for comparison, in case it's of interest to anyone:
Sony VAIO 17" VGNFW45X, Sept 2009 - Feb 2012, £???:
Power port snapped off the laptop completely. It was clearly a manufacturing defect. Sony product support denied any responsibility and said that it was due to non-standard use. They wanted to charge me £60 just for diagnosis.
It was a beast of a machine, but it was a beast to lug around and felt plasticy and a bit crap. Noisy as all hell.
MacBook Pro 15" (late 2011), Feb 2012 - Nov 2015, £1,350:
Dec 2013 I had the power block and power cord replaced under warranty. Dec 2014 I upgraded the RAM and replaced the harddrive with an SSD (£270). Jan 2015, bright green lines visible on display, full display replacement done under AppleCare. May 2015 I replaced the airport card (£60). Unclear from my emails if it were a new issue or complication from the display failure, but following a botched repair through AppleCare in Oct 2015 and what looks like multiple escalations, they ended up sending me a new MacBook. I wanted out of the apple ecosystem and so sold the replacement MacBook.
I liked my MacBook, probably my second favourite laptop after the framework. The only other one that has felt high quality. It was basically the last of the user serviceable Macbooks and I don't think I'd have been happy with it if I hadn't been able to upgrade the RAM/SSD/etc.
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (128GB / Intel Core i5), Nov 2015 - Nov 2018, £870
Repeated issues with the type cover, I think two or three replacements. Screen shattered when it fell off my bed and landed on the corner, had that fixed. Stopped being able to charge even with a replacement adaptor in the end.
In general I really disliked the device and regretted going for it, but couldn't justify the cost of the £2k Surfacebook.
Dell XPS 9365, Nov 2018 - Mar 2022, £1,200
Good when I bought it, but felt flimsy and didn't work particular well as a convertible device; way too heavy to use as a tablet and annoying to use standing like an A, plus the webcam was at the bottom of the screen so people only saw your hands in a video call when using it as a laptop. Started really slowing down after a couple of years and needed replacing.
Framework 13, Mar 2022 - Jan 2026 (ongoing), £1,450
Feels great, still works just as well as it did when I bought it. The keyboard feels really nice to type on, and it's the only laptop I've seen that gets close to a MacBook in terms of trackpad feel/quality. It puts every other laptop I've owned to shame in one capacity or another.
At £1450 it better last at least twice as long as it already has!
Interestingly it doesn't feel expensive at all in the way my MacBook did back in the day. The thing with the Framework is you pay £1,450 and that's it, you've got a working computer for at least five years no problem. My MacBook lasted, what, three years and needed upgrades part way through that, and between those and AppleCare I probably spent close to £2k on a computer that lasted three years. I don't forsee needing to switch the Framework (or even upgrade it) any time soon, and it's already my longest running computer!
YMMV, but I'm in my second MacBook in 11 years, no AppleCare, and the only problem they had was the stained screen — a chronic issue in MacBook Pro 2015 that Apple fixed twice for free.
My experience has been even better than yours. I'm in software development. My employer-issued laptop was a new 2011 Macbook Pro. It worked like a champ without issue for nearly a decade; I didn't get (or need, really) a new machine until getting a new 2020 M1 Macbook Pro, nine years later. And that upgrade was more about using the department's allocated budget than anything wrong with the old machine. Another four years later and I have a 2024 M4 Macbook Pro now only because I switched employers and got issued a new machine.
My current personal laptop is a working 2013 Macbook Pro (thirteen years old). The screen coating on that one isn't great any more, the speakers gave out around year 11, and the battery capacity took a dive in recent years, but it still works for simple daily tasks and websurfing. I think I swapped the hard drive at some point, but was able to do it myself so it didn't cost much. Never paid for or wished I had AppleCare for a Macbook.
Interesting, thanks for the insight!
2017 MacBook pro. Only had to replace battery once and keyboard due to accidental damage by myself.
It’s gotten a lot slower in the last year, but it’s still pretty damn good for browsing and textwork.
To me I would think the opposite - that absolutely inspires confidence due to survivorship bias. Maybe the reason you don't see other laptops around that are beat up and still in use is because when they took damage, they were put out of commission?
I have a framework that’s taken serious damage. I put it in a backpack, forgot to close the backpack, and so ended up throwing the laptop across the room and denting it and damaging the keyboard when I swung the backpack onto my back.
A Mac or similar premium laptop would have required either replacement of the entire laptop, or at least enough that it would appear new to an observer, and so you wouldn’t observe it in its damaged state
Can you still run windows easily on a modern mac given their ARM chipset?
I agree though. My parents main computer for the last several years was an early 2010s macbook that I installed Windows 7 on. We had to retire it this past summer when the battery suddenly became a spicy pillow.
I don't think there's been much work on getting Windows for ARM running on Apple Silicon, it's only really designed to work on Snapdragon SoCs. I'm not sure how much interest there is either since you can emulate x86 Windows with Parallels pretty well.
You can also virtualize windows ARM for it. It works pretty well in my experience, but I have only used for light tasks because I installed it as a demonstrator so I could show kids where to go when they had to do Windows-specific things.
You can’t. But it isn’t easy to just point the blame at Apple. They certainly aren’t doing anything to make it work, but they don’t seem to be going out of their way to prevent it from happening. It’s the same apathy they have been giving to all of macOS for years now.
And Microsoft, especially in the beginning, did go out of their way to prevent it from happening. This may have changed now, but for a long time, there was no way to just install windows on a generic arm machine. They effectively whitelisted specific Qualcomm processors that could be used. So, while there was seemingly no will at Apple to build boot camp for Apple silicon, if there were, it still wouldn’t have been possible because of Microsoft.
If the Steam Machine doesn't pan out (too expensive or some other non-software issue), my next computer will be a Framework Desktop or their laptop with the GPU
I really go back and forth on the Framework desktop. It's a weird machine with kinda weird specs. But it also has the AMD AI Pro Max (extreme no limits 69 blaster double pro...) which is an interesting chip but also it's all soldered to the board. But it's also $1200+. It's a product that has a use case, I'm sure, it's just a bit pricy for what it is (kind of?)
With component pricing the way it is currently though... I don't know if I see the Steam Machine coming in much cheaper. There's certainly an argument that the Steam Machine will be more explicitly gaming oriented and, thus, performance will reflect that (doubt) but real world testing will show that. Maybe the Framework has a place after all.
Yea, I have enough M-series Macs for generic computing needs, I'm specifically looking for something that can do Linux gaming.
The FW desktop has the added fun factor of being the only non-mac machine that can actually do local AI as well as being decent for gaming.
My understanding is that catering to the enthusiast market in order to eventually capture some of the mainstream market was always the business plan for Oneplus, given that enthusiasts are too small and fickle of a group to build a sustainable and profitable business on. Unfortunately for that type of business plan, it seems like there are way fewer android enthusiasts these days. /r/android used to be full of discussion on modifications and new products, and now traffic seems way down with most discussions being competing sides calling any opinion they disagree with "fanboyism." I just checked, and google trends search interest for "XDA Developers" peaked in 2011 and has been below 5% of its peak for about ten years now. The Oneplus One was released near the end of what I would call the heyday of XDA (2010-2014), and it seems like the enthusiast market has been shrinking since then as major Android manufacturers worked to improve their software and get out of the users' way.
It seems that even though the major players have taken steps to lock down their hardware as their software has improved, there isn't that much demand for a brand that allows for more customization. Phones are getting closer to being generic appliances both in reliability and how they're viewed by users. There just isn't as much to gain from tinkering as there used to be, so although maybe some smaller kickstarted project could exist to fulfill niche demands, I don't see any room for a major player in this space.
You're right the android enthusiast niche is smaller than it used to be, but I think it's because of how the software is so integral to the experience in a way that's different from the past. De-googling a phone makes it harder to do mobile banking, for example (even shopping on my PC sometimes asks me to confirm a purchase via the phone app).
And while there are some companies catering for the niche buyer, like Fairphone aiming for an ethically produced phone, they confusingly don't add a headphone jack despite cabled headphones lasting decades compared to wireless stuff (and no Bluetooth fiddling) which goes against their purported longevity.
I guess that's the double-edged sword of commodification. Paradoxically a more level playing field ripe for disruption, and an entrenched duopoly because people stick to what they know.
I think the decrease in traffic to XDA has three parts:
The same is also somewhat true on the iOS side. If you look at the three reasons I jailbroke my iPod touch 2G back in the day, they were UI tweaks, emulators and piracy. A lot of the most useful UI tweaks are base features now (like a notification drawer and quick controls), they are better platforms for playing classic games on now (switch and steam deck) and I have enough money that I don’t bother with piracy.
What made me move from Android to iPhone 5 back in the day was the short lifespan of Android phones.
My Samsung Galaxy phone became unusable by year 4. Frequently hangs, reset itself and then one day won’t turn on anymore.
It wasn’t a flagship phone so whatever, but then the same thing happened to my dad’s Xperia phone. A flagship phone that became so laggy it was literally unusable.
Meanwhile the iPhone works like day one. My iPad Air 2 still works flawlessly, though these days I only use it for reading.
I’m using a 6 year old iPhone 11 that still works fine. Sure it’s slower than newer phones when compared side by side, but for daily tasks it’s unnoticeable. Launching the camera and snapping photos are fast, which is all I care about.
I might need to upgrade soon because of security updates. But otherwise the 11 is still a decent phone.
Warning: Meta comment only related tangentially.
Mr. Mobile addressed this in his OnePlus 10 review a few years ago and quite a few others have made similar videos.
I’ve noticed that over the past 5 or 6 years, the quality of MKBHD’s videos have dropped considerably. He used to be a smart and knowledgeable reviewer. He’s no longer a leader in the tech review field…now it just seems like he follows trends and makes the most basic, superficial videos.
I stopped watching after he wiggled and wiggled and covered up that speeding debacle. And aside from that, I agree. He's coasting on reputation now, which will fade. After that will come retirement or the grift phase.
I totally get it, but that's actually what I like about him. I'm not very techy so the superficial level is perfect for me
MKBHD is probably my least favorite mainstream YouTuber, so I'm not going to watch the video, but I'm not sure how OnePlus is exactly in a downfall. They've done an extremely common business tactic which lots of successful companies employ.
Run at a loss or breakeven for a few years while gathering a customer base, then slowly increase the price to become profitable.
And it's not like buyers were getting an objectively worse product. I owned the OnePlus 3T black edition, the OnePlus 7 Pro, and now currently the OnePlus 12 Pro. Each phone of mine has been great, and has come in at a lower price than Samsung/Google/Apple while having some great features.
I have an IR sensor which I've actually been using for my TV because the remote has been non-responsive for whatever reason. The camera has been stellar; my partner has an iPhone 16 Pro and she almost never wants me to take photos with her phone and solely wants to use mine. Others have commented on the camera quality as well, and the design.
There's also charging, which OnePlus has been class leading in for like... Almost 10 years?
The main things I dislike about the phone are the weight and the size, I think I'll definitely be looking for a smaller phone in the future, but I don't really have any remorse about my purchase otherwise.