While I don't have a 2013 Mac anymore, I do have both an M3 MacBook Pro, and a Ryzen 5 Lenovo for development work with different clients and I really don't find the Mac that much faster in day to day usage.
Sure in benchmarks it gets bigger numbers, but in normal usage it's negligible. That's probably more due to MacOS getting less efficient than anything else though.
It’s not about raw speed. If you want raw speed, you will be better off getting an x86 desktop or laptop. Except of course where the unified memory/GPU comes into play where an M1 Mac will win.
The benefit of the Mx Macs are the combination of speed, quietness, battery life and lack of heat.
> The benefit of the Mx Macs are the combination of speed
Which I've stated is generally not that obvious to me. My compiling, and running of tests isn't massively different between machines.
> quietness... and lack of heat.
I can't think of a laptop I've had except the 2019 MacBook Pros that were so noisy and unnecessarily hot. It is a marked improvement over that, but that was a particularly low point in laptops.
> battery life
I'm sure it's really important for some folks to get more than 8 hours battery, and there's always someone here talking up their productive 15 hours flights, but I honestly don't get that much advantage from it, or have met someone who has. Definitely not enough to warrant more than £200 over the Thinkpad.
Unnecessarily hot? All x86 laptops are some combination of unnecessarily hot, underpowered or loud because of fan noise. It’s just the nature of x86 and a trade off you have to make
And you have never met anyone that thinks battery life is a big deal for a portable battery powered device?
Sure in benchmarks it gets bigger numbers, but in normal usage it's negligible. That's probably more due to MacOS getting less efficient than anything else though.