this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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I don't think you'd need to use an A-series SOC, considering the power usage of even a M4 is basically a rounding error - and they've already got M-series stuff running passively jammed into a tiny case anyways.
I'd be on something like that immediately, but I somehow doubt Apple will ever make a 12" Macbook ever again, given that the majority of people seem to like the 13" airs just fine.
Love to be wrong, though.
The M1 going full tilt will use 35+ watts, vs like the A15 which I think people guess is limited to around 7 watts. I have a 10th gen and it gets outstanding battery life doing basically anything. Meanwhile the M1 powered iPads can actually drain pretty quickly. The CPU is efficient compared to a core i9, but 30 watts in a tablet is a lot for their battery.
But the latest phone CPU constrained to say sub 10 watts would last an insane amount of time on even the smallest battery you'd put in a tablet/keyboard glued to a tablet running Mac OS. I get 10-15 hours of battery life on my M1 MBP, and most of the time I don't really need all that performance. If I could double that that would be insane.