Rene makes many good points

Solid perspective...

Nice to see people pushing back on him, rather vociferously, in the comments

turbineseaplane said:

Nice to see people pushing back on him, rather vociferously, in the comments

Can't fix stupid...

These days, people download a benchmarking app and think they have all the answers

iGeneo said:

Can't fix stupid...

These days, people download a benchmarking app and think they have all the answers

Nothing "stupid" about it at all

It's an additional way to analyze a machine and the value it can offer (or not) to a wide range of people.

Read the comments on that video you posted and you'll see a lot of people who like Rene... but disagree with him completely on the point he's making.

It's a disservice to reduce down to suggesting folks are stupid

I'm not sure if he's being genuine or not, but if so, good on him. The majority of the benchmark videos don't offer anything other than conjecture, & often just create toxic narratives about a product, that most users don't even fully understand.

The one thing I do wish he'd change is those video thumbnail styles..

lol

Rene has dirty hands and he didn’t admit to it. Hopefully, he changes for the better.

Benchmark, however flawed it might be, by far is THE most scientific view of a machine’s performance in different metrics and can be compared relatively objectively. Now, whether user takes benchmark seriously or not matters little of other users decisions, but none should dissect the importance of benchmarks recording the progression of our hardware design and evolution.

Shirasaki said:

Benchmark, however flawed it might be, by far is THE most scientific view of a machine’s performance in different metrics and can be compared relatively objectively. Now, whether user takes benchmark seriously or not matters little of other users decisions, but none should dissect the importance of benchmarks recording the progression of our hardware design and evolution.

Exactly right.

It’s just a further extension of excuse making on Apple’s behalf to suggest that benchmarking should be dismissed or that it’s creating “toxicity” around the messaging and marketing for a product.

Rene seems to have no low point on how far he’ll go to carry water for Apple

turbineseaplane said:

Exactly right.

It’s just a further extension of excuse making on Apple’s behalf to suggest that benchmarking should be dismissed or that it’s creating “toxicity” around the messaging and marketing for a product.

Rene seems to have no low point on how far he’ll go to carry water for Apple

Yeah, I notice that after watching a few of his videos, and since then I stopped. Guess he never changes huh. LTT or Dave2D is a bit better at doing review in this regard.

Loved this. I was chasing benchmarks for a bit and this video helped me slow down and realize I’d be fine with a base model M2 MacBook Air if I want one.

Honestly, benchmarks are pointless to me for what I do and if you like benchmarks there are so many other channels for that. I care way more about the overall user experience. How does it feel to use the computer? For example in the hand the M2 Air feels quite a bit different to me than the M1, the weight seems to be more evenly distributed than the M1 which seems heavier at the back. That matters more to my experience than SSD speeds. If it doesn’t for you that’s fine, all the more power to you to care about whatever you want. I just appreciate moving away from benchmarks. I hope that happens in his future reviews.

I don’t always agree with Rene but I always appreciate his perspective.

Asiatic Black Hebrew said:

I'm not sure if he's being genuine or not, but if so, good on him. The majority of the benchmark videos don't offer anything other than conjecture, & often just create toxic narratives about a product, that most users don't even fully understand.

This 👆right here! So many people flock to YouTubers like MaxTech (sensational titles & clickbait nonstop) which is the equivalent of the tabloid magazines from the grocery store, just in video format. They run the same benchmarks that everyone else does for 5 minutes and try to tell you how "Apple Lied" blah, blah, blah. People forget that all they care about is the revenue from their t-shirts and clicks. ArtisRight is a more legitimate reviewer (mainly geared towards photographers) but he runs real test (1K images not the 50 MaxTech uses) which is more in line with a real world workflow/ heavy workload on the system itself. His reviews are a bit drawn out at times & dry but more realistic and he doesn't get so damn obnoxious. That just my .02¢

I’ll bet ya $10 that as soon as benchmarks are showing the blazing performance of a future Apple product….then …Rene will be all into talking about benchmarks all the sudden.

There's a place in the world for synthetic benchmarking, obviously, but it's undoubtedly toxic to the point that it can ruin the reputation of a product. Some folks take benchmarking as an absolute. But here's the thing, folks are benchmarking the MacBook Air for extreme circumstances, circumstances that there's a better suited product for and that are marketed to those extreme circumstances. It's toxic, no way around it.

Good for Rene; As a sidenote, I don't think he's great in the Youtube format (I liked his work with iMore better) but generally find that I appreciate his opinions.

I agree with the video. It's so obvious what those videos are that are basically benchmarking machines and concluding with context that isn't in their marketed use case. I don't sub to those channels. Because they're blatantly obvious. Maybe because I work in the industry and see it. IDK. But it's one of the reasons I actually sub to very little tech channels. MKBHD, Linus mentioned in the video, lol, are literally 2 of the less than half dozen channels I sub to that are specifically tech. Very few people have the talent to objectively and creatively review tech and create digestible presentations. Lot of the tech reviewers just feel like super amateur and I suspect will fall to the way side as people stop tuning into them. Where as the people that know what they're doing and have clear passion continue to thrive and create good content. It's hard. I could never do it. But I think most of us can recognize good content vs what OP video is talking about.

This is where I bite my tongue and don’t say what I want to say about this video and Rene in general. I’ll let his work stand on its own.

COMPLICIT

iGeneo said:

Rene makes many good points

Solid perspective...

Click to expand...

To summarize:
"Benchmarks are bad because they don't paint Apple in a good light".

So, when Apple launches a new machine boasting 'up to two times faster flash to the 13-inch MacBook Air' that's okay, but when people criticise them for silently reducing the speed, that's wrong?

AJB1971 said:

So, when Apple launches a new machine boasting 'up to two times faster flash to the 13-inch MacBook Air' that's okay, but when people criticise them for silently reducing the speed, that's wrong?

Apple Updates 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display & MacBook Air

www.apple.com

Bingo!

Trust me -- Rene will flip flop on this as is required to be in defense of Apple interests

Would be interesting to see how many of the "MR benchmarkers" actually have purchased a M2 MBA or a MBP in the last week.haters gotta hate

The lengths some people will go to defend Apple at all costs...it's truly astonishing.

What happened to naming all the pros and cons of the device and then letting people choose?

Shirasaki said:

Benchmark, however flawed it might be, by far is THE most scientific view of a machine’s performance in different metrics and can be compared relatively objectively. Now, whether user takes benchmark seriously or not matters little of other users decisions, but none should dissect the importance of benchmarks recording the progression of our hardware design and evolution.

Hard disagree. Benchmarks don't remotely reflect real world usage which is the problem. I've posted this in other threads but I spent hours (days at this point) hammering my new MBA since I got it. I ran simulations in Houdini, rendered and animated in Blender, edited and exported 4k video in Final Cut, made music in Logic, worked in Xcode, played games, etc and this machine handled it all and didn't even get warm.

Why? Because it's real world use by a human, not a program designed to max everything 100% constantly for hours.

Real world usage > benchmarks every single time.