I have used Thinkpads for over a decade and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I can't imagine any scenario where a MacBook M chip would be required to be productive, it feels like a weird hill to die on.
I daily drive an M1 MacBook Air and a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 11 running Arch/Hyprland. Software-wise I absolutely adore the latter, but hardware-wise it falls short of the Mac on nearly every level.
Battery life is horrendous (despite extensive tuning). The speakers are complete crap (despite using Easy Effects). Fans get loud sometimes because, well, it's x86_64.
It's a shame, because even though the Apple Silicon CPU is faster on paper, the same task flies on the Thinkpad compared to the Mac. And of course the Thinkpad's keyboard is fantastic.
Honestly the one thing I simply can't look past are the speakers. I work from home so battery life isn't a massive issue for me. Fans I can look past. But I simply cannot stand listening to music or watch a YouTube video on it, they are SO bad.
I have a T14s and recently bought an iPad Air and was blown away by how good the speakers and display are. (I understand the iPad Pro is even better) Speaker and display is just not a priority for thinkpad it seems. Noise cancelling headphones solve the problem for me.
OTOH with Linux you can get an OLED display and amazing speakers right now if you want!
I bought an expensive Dell and I regret the decision everyday. Just after 2 years, lots of things are breaking down and that's not counting the battery which barely last 2 hours now. Also finding components/parts if you are not US-based is hell; compared to Apple which has better support and an international presence.
Battery life that needs to last all day is a first world computing problem. Most people leave their laptops plugged in and as long as you don’t run 10 chromium apps or other reasource hogs in the background, you will easily get 10-12 hours of battery.
ThinkPad T14s is silent, keyboard is known as one of the best across all laptops even if it has got thinner. Trackpoint is there for a reason. The display I will grant you, it is not as amazing as Apple's. But I'm using my laptop to code not watch movies.
Half of these can’t be real issues because macbooks had the same issues for decades and an aluminum body was enough to overcome that. What happened? Oh right the vanity shot through the roof.
