Those kinds of professionals won't be comparing it to other MacBooks, but to other computers of the same form factor. The M1 Macs still aren't the leader in multicore performance or multicore performance per watt.

If you're a programmer that mostly relies on multicore performance, the current M1 Macs aren't the gold standard. Unless of course you are drawn to the OS or something else.

Which computer in the same form factor as the air is as capable or better? All of them are throttling messes. AMD is better then Intel but they still throttle.

The high end Ryzen 5000 series processors even when throttled to their lowest continuous speed still outperform the M1 Macs in multicore. Having twice the cores makes a huge difference.

>Those kinds of professionals won't be comparing it to other MacBooks, but to other computers of the same form factor.

Not really, since most of those kinds of professionals concerned already used Intel Macbooks. It's not like they're gonna win the "build some tower yourself crowd".

The new AMD Ryzen 5000 series laptops are faster multicore than the M1 MacBooks. I'm not comparing towers, a powerful desktop computer would absolutely murder an M1 MacBook in multicore, it wouldn't even be close.

Can you send me a link of a ryzen 5000 laptop with the same form factor? All of them I know are either >14 inches or are much thicker.

Sure, if you're looking for the form-factor of a MacBook Air, there are quite a few. For example, the Lenovo 14p lineup, but there are many others.

Depending on where you live, there may be some supply issues, especially if you are looking for a model with an NVidia 3000 series GPU.

That's not really the same form factor. It's at least 20% heavier and much more thick and larger. The same form factor would be something like a Dell XPS 13 or surface pro. But those are not offered with Ryzen CPUs.

It is less than 10% heavier (1.4kg vs 1.29kg) and is 0.9mm thicker. It is about 22mm wider and 6mm deeper, with a screen 18mm larger in diagonal.

Unless you're really being pedantic the two are of the same form factor. Maybe you are comparing the Intel ThinkBook 14? That one is significantly heavier and a bit thicker.

If an increase in size of around 5% is too much, there are smaller laptops with the same processor family.