Quick correction, the Pi5 is the new one

They’ve built a translation layer in for compatibility, though it’s not perfectly fast, it’s more than good enough from what I’ve heard.

It being Unix based definitely helps, though don’t doubt Apple wouldn’t have been able to deal with it if that weren’t the case.

The chips really shine in laptops, I’d say desktops are a bit weaker, unless you’re doing something heavily optimized (Final Cut Pro f.e.).

The biggest win is energy consumption, the difference is insane, I recommend you look up a benchmark or two, can range from 2 to 10x more efficient.

I honestly don’t agree though that they’re 3x the price of comparable products, the new Macbook Airs are pretty solid pieces of hardware for an okay sum of money. It really depends on your workload though, if you’re gaming, you’re gonna have a terrible time, if you’re a dev / work in the browser / do some light editing you’re gonna love the battery life and perf’s not gonna hold you back.

They use ARM now, which is super efficient, the laptops last forever on battery.

If there’s one thing Apple’s done right, it’s Apple Silicon

$350 in hardware sure, hardware that someone had to design and especially nowadays with Apple Silicon, that shit doesn’t come cheap