I Want Apple to Bring This MacBook Pro Feature to the MacBook Air - CNET

I Want Apple to Bring This MacBook Pro Feature to the MacBook Air

"Commentary: The M4 MacBook Air has all the power and ports I need. But I could use one Pro feature that's still not an option for Apple's thin-and-light laptop.

See full bioMarch 21, 2025 5:00 a.m. PT

The MacBook Air's display is big and bright but has only a basic 60Hz refresh rate.

Josh Goldman/CNET

There are plenty of reasons to pick a MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air. For most people, it's getting the increased performance from an M4 Pro or M4 Max chip. For others, it's getting a bit more display, a 14.2-inch panel versus 13.6 inches on the smaller models or 16.2 inches to 15.3 inches on the larger MacBooks. And for others still, it's getting a better port selection with an extra Thunderbolt port to go along with an HDMI connection and SDXC card slot.

My primary laptop is a 14-inch MacBook Pro, but I don't really need Pro-level performance. After reviewing the new 15-inch MacBook Air M4, I'm nearly ready to trade my 14-inch Pro for the 15-inch Air. I love the Air's thinner and slightly lighter design and bigger display. But there's one thing holding me back. One feature exclusive to the MacBook Pro that I'm afraid I'd miss on the MacBook Air that's otherwise better suited to me. I'm not sure I can live (and scroll) without a ProMotion display.

Watch this: M4 MacBook Air Review: Still Fantastic Even if Not Much Has Changed

04:44

Display differences

The MacBook Air's Liquid Retina is a great laptop display. It's bright and sharp with accurate color. But it's not the Liquid Retina XDR display you get with a MacBook Pro. The 1,600-nit Liquid Retina Display XDR on a MacBook Pro is much brighter than the MacBook Air's 500-nit Liquid Retina display and bright enough for HDR content editing. My occasional video editing projects don't involve HDR video or extend beyond iMovie, so I'm willing to leave the extended dynamic range of an XDR display to the realm of the MacBook Pro. 

MacBook Pro displays also boast higher resolutions and pixels-per-inch counts but the MacBook Air's resolution presents a very sharp picture with more than enough pixels to my eyes. So I'm not asking for a higher resolution than what's currently offered on either MacBook Air model.

However, with the amount of scrolling I do, what I want on the Air is the faster refresh rate you get on a Pro. Apple labels it as ProMotion and it provides an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. That means it refreshes its image 120 times a second for smoother motion. With an Air, the display refreshes at a steady 60 times per second.

The MacBook Pro's ProMotion display has a refresh rate that is twice as fast as a MacBook Air's.

Lori Grunin/CNET

When I tested the new 15-inch MacBook Air, I looked at it next to my 14-inch MacBook Pro. And from this side-by-side comparison, I noticed the smoother motion when scrolling through web pages. The motion in YouTube videos or Netflix shows didn't look any smoother to me, but the more fluid motion was clear to me when I was browsing the web, an activity I do much more than watching YouTube or Netflix on a MacBook. Text stayed more legible on the Pro as I scrolled down a page. On the Air, letters and words blurred as I moved down the page, making it more difficult to keep reading while scrolling. 

And the adaptive part? A ProMotion display adapts the refresh rate depending on what's happening on your screen. When things are active and moving -- watching a movie or scrolling through an article, for example -- it cranks it up to 120Hz. When things are more static or when the display is sitting idle, it can drop the refresh rate to as low as 1Hz to conserve battery life.

My AirMotion compromise idea

I suppose it is called ProMotion for a reason -- a feature exclusive to the MacBook Pro. Any MacBook Pro from 2021 and onward has a ProMotion display. You'll also find Apple's ProMotion displays on its other "Pro" devices. iPhone Pro models got ProMotion displays starting in 2021 along with the MacBook Pro, but Apple introduced the ProMotion display with the iPad Pro in 2017. ProMotion is doubly important on an iPad Pro because it allows for smoother movement and scrolling and provides a more natural and responsive feel for drawing, sketching and writing.

A display with an adaptive refresh rate would bring smoother scrolling and longer battery life to the MacBook Air.

Josh Goldman/CNET

I'd argue that smoother scrolling from a ProMotion display is something all MacBook users can appreciate, unlike a true pro-level feature like a super-bright XDR panel needed for creating and editing HDR content. Plus, the adaptive part of ProMotion would help with battery life, another item that all MacBook users would certainly welcome.

Plus, with MacBooks no longer the longest-running laptops I've tested -- they've fallen behind Copilot Plus PCs based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors -- it's in Apple's interests to bring ProMotion or something close to it to the MacBook Air to improve battery life. 

I understand adding a feature called ProMotion to a non-Pro product might cause Apple's marketing team some consternation. So let's do some rebranding. Call it AirMotion and give MacBook Air displays an adaptive refresh rate up to, say, 90Hz. Better yet, call it AirMotion with a 120Hz refresh rate and bump ProMotion up to 144Hz. That would maintain the Pro's edge over the Air while also helping to strengthen Apple's case that a MacBook Pro can be used for gaming.

In the end, any variety of a ProMotion (or AirMotion!) display would strengthen my ability to trade in my 14-inch MacBook Pro for the larger yet thinner and lighter 15-inch MacBook Air."

I Want Apple to Bring This MacBook Pro Feature to the MacBook Air - CNET

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Opinion | Trump Needs a Lesson From Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence - The New York Times

The Document That Has Uncomfortable Lessons for Trump

March 11, 2025

Damon Winter/The New York Times

By Todd S. Purdum

"Mr. Purdum is a former White House correspondent and the Los Angeles bureau chief for The Times.

Last week, The Atlantic reported that President Trump wants to display the Declaration of Independence — perhaps a rare copy — in the Oval Office. That’s fine, although the Oval is already getting so overstuffed with objets d’art as to resemble Louis XIV’s ministorage.

Indeed, it would do Mr. Trump good to be in the presence of our founding document. It would do him even more good to read it every now and then, because he might just find that Thomas Jefferson’s masterwork — which is, after all, a ringing bill of particulars against King George III — rings uncomfortably close to home, and not just because of its 18th-century Quirks of Capitalization. Take only a few piquant examples from Jefferson’s eloquent indictment of a heedless monarch:

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good …”

Mr. Trump’s administration has frozen spending and sought to shutter agencies approved by Congress, moved to jettison government employees covered by Civil Service protections, canceled federal contracts and threatened to deport people based on their political views. In granting TikTok a temporary waiver to continue U.S. operations, Mr. Trump ignored the requirements outlined in Congress’s ban on that social media platform — and the Supreme Court’s upholding of said ban — which allows for a 90-day delay in enforcement only if the president certifies to Congress that an agreement is in place to end Chinese control. No such deal has been made, and now Mr. Trump has suggested he’s about to extend the waiver.

“He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither …”

Mr. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants is one thing; his packing some of them off to hotels in countries they’ve never lived in is another. And his specious contention that Democrats have fostered open borders to build a menacing new coalition of liberal voters is quite another still. That he’s even entertaining the idea of revoking temporary legal status for roughly a quarter million Ukrainian refugees is cruel and counterproductive. His attempt to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants born here flies in the face of the 14th Amendment.

“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice …”

Mr. Trump has purged professional staff from the Justice Department; punished law firms representing clients he doesn’t like by revoking their lawyers’ security clearances; fired inspectors general, overruled his own appointed prosecutor in the corruption case of New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, and disregarded or slow-walked his response to judicial orders.

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance …”

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, including his coterie of juvenile engineers, has burrowed its way into the federal bureaucracy, wreaking havoc, discarding experts on issues from nuclear weapons safety to avian flu and then quickly moving to reinstate them, claiming billions of dollars in supposed savings, then quietly dropping boasts that proved unfounded.

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us …” See Jan. 6, 2021; res ipsa loquitur.

Mr. Trump has celebrated his self-declared authority to rescind traffic congestion pricing on the streets of Manhattan with the social media declaration “LONG LIVE THE KING!” and his aides have circulated a meme of him on a Time-like magazine cover wearing a golden crown. No wonder Lin-Manuel Miranda — no “sweet, submissive subject” — announced, along with the producer Jeffrey Seller, that he’s canceling a planned production of his musical “Hamilton” at the Kennedy Center next year, a run that had been envisioned as part of a celebration of the Declaration of Independence’s 250th birthday.

Mr. Trump isn’t actually guilty of one of Jefferson’s biggest beefs about King George: “He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.” Nope; congressional Republicans have effectively done that all by themselves.

Jefferson was America’s original polymath: author, lawyer, farmer, architect, statesman — a “redheaded tombstone,” as the playwright Peter Stone called him in the musical “1776.” And he was pretty smart, warning in the Declaration that “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” Like personal vengeance, for one.

But Mr. Trump’s presidency may well be proof of the limits of Jefferson’s — and our country’s — defining credo, that “all men are created equal.” No past president has ever been anything like the equal of Mr. Trump — or so qualified to be on the receiving end of the Declaration’s list of damning charges. He might want to think twice before installing such proof of his unfitness in his own workplace, where he and all his visitors would be reminded of its enduring power and foresight every day."

Opinion | Trump Needs a Lesson From Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence - The New York Times

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Rare seven-planet parade will be visible from the sky - The Washington Post

A rare seven-planet ‘parade’ will light up the sky. Here’s how to see it.

"The planetary alignment will be visible Friday night, but not all of them can be seen by the naked eye.

Angie Orellana Hernandez

February 27, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. ESTYesterday at 9:00 a.m. EST

If you bring a telescope and get away from city lights Friday evening, there’s a chance you’ll see seven planets parading through the sky.

Most of the planetary alignment, which is colloquially referred to as a planet parade, will be visible to the naked eye just after sunset Friday, according to Preston Dyches, writer and producer of NASA’s monthly sky-watching video series, “What’s Up.”

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter will be visible without a telescope Friday. Saturn will be faint and difficult to view. Uranus and Neptune require dark skies to be visible, and Mercury will have already set before it gets dark, meaning it won’t be possible to see all seven planets in an arc at one time, Dyches said.

What will be visible?

If you stay out into the night, it will be possible in the whole United States to have seen the planets within a six- or seven-hour time span.

Friday after sunset is ideal because Mercury — which had not popped above the horizon until late February — will be at its highest and brightest, said Dyches, who has worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The only challenge will be spotting Saturn, which has almost dropped out of the horizon after being visible for months in the sky. Saturn may be faint and lost in the glow of sunset Friday, but that is also the best time to spot the second-largest planet in the solar system, he said.

“Maybe a very skilled observer with a clear view to the horizon would be able to find it with binoculars, but because of that difficulty, it’s not something you would call out as a target for general interest observers to go looking for,” Dyches said.

Why does it look like the planets are lined up?

The arc which the planets appear on is the plane of the solar system, Dyches said. They all move at different speeds — Mercury takes 88 of our days to orbit all the way around the sun, for example, while Neptune takes about 165 Earth years to do the same. As each planet follows its path at its own speed, they can appear for brief periods to line up next to each other from our perspective on Earth.

“We’re all on a racetrack together with the other planets,” he said. “As you look across, it’s like looking across the racetrack and other cars that are zipping around at different speeds than you.”

How rare of an event is this?

The remarkable aspect of this celestial event is attributed to luck and timing, according to Tracy Becker, a lead scientist at the Southwest Research Institute.

Usually, the planets are in different places all at once as they orbit the sun. The planet parade means that, for a certain amount of time, the orbits seem to align.

“We all just happen to be in the sky on this side of the sun at this time,” Becker said."

Rare seven-planet parade will be visible from the sky - The Washington Post

CANON vs SONY vs NIKON: Camera Wars 2025

Canon EOS R Review by a Professional Photographer | Is it Worth the Cost? | Canon EOS R vs. Canon 6D vs. Canon 5D Mark IV

​

“The Canon EOS R is a powerful mirrorless camera with a sharp 30.3 megapixel sensor, making it ideal for portrait and food photography. While it offers customization and video features, its touchscreen sensitivity and lack of intuitive controls may be a downside for some. Ultimately, the choice between the EOS R and other Canon models depends on individual needs and budget.

​

June 5, 2024

Is the Canon EOS R Worth the Cost? 

Canon EOS R Real World Review by a Professional Photographer 

Canon EOS R vs. Canon 6D vs. Canon 5D Mark IV

(This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links.)

I’ve been shooting with the Canon EOS R for about 4 years now and I figured it was about time to share my thoughts! When I originally bought the EOS R, I was thinking it would become my #1 camera, replacing my Canon 6D and 5D Mark II. While yes, it is better than both of these cameras and was my number one camera for about a year and a half, I wanted to share why I eventually ended up getting a Canon 5D Mark IV as my main camera and now use the EOS R as my secondary camera. BUT, don’t get me wrong! The Canon EOS R is an incredible camera and has all of the potential to be a major money-maker for your photography business. I originally purchased mine for $1799 for the body only. You can currently buy an amazing EOS R kit with a 24-105mm lens on Amazonfor around $2300, which is not a bad deal at all for such a pro camera! At a photo shoot, I’m typically carrying my Canon 5D Mark IV with my 24-70mm f/2.8L lens and then my Canon EOS R with a 50mm f/1.2L lens. That’s my go-to camera set-up these days and it has been working very well for me for the last few years. It’s hard for me to imagine changing it up because it truly is a great set-up and covers every lighting and photography situation I’ve found myself in. I photograph everything from weddings to food to fashion to corporate events to portrait shoots, and this camera set-up has managed it all gracefully. 

(Canon EOS R with Canon 50mm f/1.2 L Lens - click to enlarge images)

Canon has a huge line of mirrorless cameras now, but today I’m going to be focusing on the EOS R specifically because that’s what I personally have a LOT of experience with. Plus, it was their very first full-frame mirrorless camera so it set the standard for the brand. I’ll share some sample photos as well so you can get a good idea of the kinds of photos that this camera is capable of. Keep in mind though that the lens you use also plays a HUGE role in the photos you’ll get. I always recommend L series lenses, or the newer line of Canon RF lensesthat are supposed to be incredible. The RF lenses are quite pricey though, but I’ve heard they are absolutely amazing. I’m all about a budget though and the L series lenses have served me well over the years.

So, I’ll talk about the pros and cons of the Canon EOS R and then share a comparison between the Canon EOS R, Canon 6D and the Canon 5D Mark IV.

PROS OF THE CANON EOS R

I think my absolute favorite feature of the EOS R is how sharp the photos are. It has a 30.3 megapixel full-frame sensor so your images are large and dynamic. I’ve used a variety of lenses on my EOS R, but I find it to work best with the Canon 50mm 1.2L lens. For a while, I tried it out with my 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens, but it never felt quite right. In order to use EF-mount lenses on a Canon RF Mount (which is what the Canon mirrorless cameras use), you have to use a lens adapter. It’s not really that big of a deal, but with zoom lenses, it can be common to experience distortion, even without a lens adapter. I did notice the distortion quite a bit when using the 24-70 lens with the EOS R since the adapter just adds more length to the lens, so I started using my 50mm lens with the EOS R. You’ll see in some of the sample photos that you almost get a sort of fisheye effect when shooting fully wide. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I just don’t find it quite as flattering when doing up-close portraits. With the 50mm f/1.2L lens though, I immediately noticed how beautiful portraits were with this set-up and haven’t been able to go back since! Canon is known for it’s softer and more natural-looking images than some of the other main camera brands. I’ve noticed that the Canon mirrorless cameras tend to produce images that have more of a digital look to them, which I’m not the biggest fan of. This was another reason I didn’t really like the look of the images when using my 24-70mm zoom lens with the EOS R. They looked a bit too sharp and digital and commercial for my taste. BUT. With the dreaminess and softness of the 50mm L lens, I found it to be a perfect combo. The “digital” look disappears and you get that beautiful portrait look, but with just a tad more sharpness than the non-mirrorless DSLRs. I absolutely love using this set-up for food photography as well. And at a wedding, I’ll typically use it for those moments when I’m alone with the couple to get those dreamy wedding portraits. 

(Canon EOS R with Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L Lens - click to enlarge images)

Another pro of the EOS R is the ability to personalize the camera to your individual tastes. The EOS R is much more customizable than cameras like the Canon 6D and Canon 5D Mark IV. Because it’s a much more digitized experience, you can set many of the buttons and sliders to your liking. It even has a multi-function bar you can set to pretty much any feature you’d like. Whether you prefer to change the ISO, white balance or exposure compensation consistently when shooting, you can set it up to make those settings more easily accessible for yourself. This enables you to shoot faster and avoid flipping through the setting screens constantly. I personally have ISO set up on the multi-function bar because I end up changing the ISO a lot, especially at weddings because I’m constantly switching lighting conditions. 

(Canon EOS R with Canon 50mm f/1.2L Lens - click to enlarge images)

It also has a touch-screen, high quality video features (4K at 30fps and 1080 at 60fps) and fun features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options. It also is quite sturdy, though I wasn’t sure if it was going to hold up when I first got it in the mail. It seemed fragile when I first started using it. But when I dropped it hard on a concrete floor with my 50mm L lens and everything seemed to be still functioning perfectly, I changed my mind on that one. :) 

CONS OF THE CANON EOS R

As a zoom lens girlie, the EOS R didn’t quite cut it as becoming my main camera, unfortunately, The distortion and “digital” look I was getting when pairing it with my Canon 24-70mm L lens made me start considering other options. A zoom lens will always be my main lens, it’s just who I am! This fact has caused the EOS R to come into second place in my camera set-up. 

I also ended up running into a few glitches when it came to the touch-screen and customizable settings. While it’s great that you can set the buttons and multi-function bar to your liking, I also found the camera to be a bit non-intuitive. What I mean by that is that I never felt quite comfortable using it in high-stress situations like a wedding. I found myself fumbling through the buttons and constantly hitting the wrong settings on the touch-screen with my nose because I’m used to looking through viewfinders. The touchscreen is very sensitive, even when I set it to the “less sensitive” mode. And sometimes my fingers will graze the multi-function bar and end up jacking up my ISO to 25600 or something crazy and my photos will be totally overexposed and ruined, which I won’t find out until later because I’m not always checking my images at a fast-paced event like a wedding. It’s caused me a handful of issues that I never ran into with my Canon 6D or 5D Mark II. But if you’re not in fast-paced shooting situations, then I think it could be a great camera because it does have so many customization options. And while the Canon 5D Mark IV also has a touch-screen, I find it to be much less sensitive. I tend to avoid using the touch-screen at all and just use the buttons to click through the setting options. 

I find myself shooting through the viewfinder with my 5D Mark IV, but holding my EOS R out in front of me and using the touch-screen to focus and take photos. If you’re not used to shooting through a viewfinder though, then the EOS R might be an easier switch for you than the 5D Mark IV! 

I also just might be too old-school for the modern touch-screen and customization of the EOS R. I get frustrated with it because it’s not like the cameras I “grew up” on. It doesn’t feel intuitive and natural to me. My husband thinks maybe I just haven’t spent enough time attempting to customize it to my liking and he might be right. I’m very impatient when it comes to things like that so perhaps I’ll mess with those settings one more time. BUT, the good news about the EOS R is that I haven’t been able to beat the beauty of the images that it takes with my 50mm L lens, so it’s been impossible to justify getting rid of it. 

THE CANON EOS R vs. CANON 6D vs. CANON 5D MARK IV

In comparison to my Canon 6D, which I was using for years as my main camera, the EOS R is significantly sharper and does much, much better in low-light situations. After shooting with the EOS R at a wedding, I would never go back to using the Canon 6D. The 6D is very soft, especially with low-light images, and can work quite slowly when it’s having trouble in a lighting situation. I never upgraded to the Canon 6D Mark II though, so I’m not sure how it compares to that one. However, it does seem that the mirrorless line just produces sharper images overall. Even in comparison to my Canon 5D Mark IV, which is my current main camera, I still find the EOS R images to be sharper. They are pretty incredible, if I’m being honest. However, as I’ve mentioned, I missed the way the Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 6D felt in my hands, so I ended up upgrading to the Canon 5D Mark IV. You can read more about my thoughts on the Canon 5D Mark IV here, if you’d like! 

The Canon 6D is significantly cheaper than any of the cameras on this list though and I’ll always recommend the Canon 6D or Canon 6D Mark II to beginners because they still produce amazing images that will impress your friends and family. Even my very first DSLR, the Canon 5D Mark II which I just recently sold, is a great option for beginners. It’s a pro-level camera that you can get at a super affordable price now because it’s a bit on the older side. I also truly believe that you don’t have to have an incredible camera to be an incredible photographer. I think it’s entirely possible to create award-winning photos with cheaper cameras. There’s no shame in that game. In fact, my favorite camera of all time is the Holga, a $50 toy camera that hardly has any features at all! 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, I personally place the Canon 5D Mark IV above the EOS R due to lens pairing and intuitiveness, which makes sense because it is more expensive and you’ll get more bang for your buck. However, the EOS R places above the Canon 6D and Canon 5D Mark II for me. The EOS R could easily be the number one camera in a photographer’s bag, it really just depends on your personal photography style. If you love super sharp images and tend to lean towards Sony & Nikon images, you might LOVE the EOS R. Canon’s mirrorless cameras are definitely fighting for a spot up there with those other brands. Also, it’s important to share that before I bought the 5D Mark IV, I considered selling ALL of my Canon gear and switching entirely to a new brand. I watched YouTube videos for days, comparing pricing, battery life, camera weight, features, video modes and lens options. I was itching for something new in my life and I truly considered this major life change! But at the end of the day, after making massive pro/con lists and considering every option, Canon kept winning for me. I just LOVE how Canon’s images look and it just feels so ME. Many of the other cameras in my price point were much heavier, or the battery life wasn’t as good, or they didn’t do multiple exposures. Some of those things are deal-breakers for me. 

I guess I’m just a zoom lens Canon girlie and there’s not much I can do about it! I’ve supported myself entirely on photography for the last 12 years and I definitely attribute some of that success to Canon. They produce cameras that offer professional-quality images and are actually affordable, and it’s always been that way. Some of these other brands have cameras that just seem overpriced to me. The fact that you can buy a Canon 6D Mark II for $1200 is pretty amazing. Pair that with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens for only $400, and you’ve got yourself an affordable camera set-up to start a photography business. That’s a much cheaper investment that many other businesses require! And if you’re willing to buy gently used gear from KEH Camera or eBay, you can save quite a bit of money that way too! Just make sure if you’re using eBay that you buy from a reputable sellers with lots of reviews! 

So, while the EOS R isn’t my TOP camera, I’d still recommend it to anyone looking for a sharp, modern camera with incredible low-light capabilities, especially if they aren’t willing to shell out the $2300 for the 5D Mark IV body alone. For that same price, you can get a body AND a lens with the EOS R on Amazon. When comparing the EOS R to other Canon cameras within a similar pricepoint like the Canon 6D Mark II, I’d recommend the EOS R. But you will find that the 6D is the cheapest of the bunch. The original 6D was actually my main camera for many years and I photographed dozens of weddings and fashion shoots with it. It’s not a bad camera by any means and is great if you’re working with a tight budget! 

I hope that this post has helped you determine which camera to go with! You can also watch my unboxing of the EOS R on my YouTube channel here! You honestly can’t go wrong with any of these cameras and all of them have been majorly helpful for my business over the years. 

If you found this post helpful or if you’d like to see more of my work, I’d love it if you considered signing up for my Patreon! For as little as $1 a month, you’ll get early access to all of my YouTube videos, plus tons of photos that I don’t post anywhere else. Depending on which tier you choose, you could also receive seasonal prints and/or discounts! I always use all of the proceeds towards cameras, film & processing. Find out more here!

Feel free to leave any questions/comments below. Thanks so much for stopping by! You can also check out my Amazon storefront for more camera/film recommendations. :) Have a lovely day! “

-Myles Katherine

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Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of Matter to Power Quantum Computers - The New York Times

Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of Matter to Power Quantum Computers

"Microsoft’s new “topological qubit” is not based on a solid, liquid or gas. It is another phase of matter that many experts did not think was possible.

Feb. 19, 2025

Microsoft’s new quantum chip is based a new state of matter developed by the tech giant.Video by Grant Hindsley For The New York Times

Anyone who has sat through a third-grade science class knows there are three primary states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.

Microsoft now says it has created a new state of matter in its quest to make a powerful machine, called a quantum computer, that could accelerate the development of everything from batteries to medicines to artificial intelligence.

On Wednesday, Microsoft’s scientists said they had built what is known as a “topological qubit” based on this new phase of physical existence, which could be harnessed to solve mathematical, scientific and technological problems.

With the development, Microsoft is raising the stakes in what is set to be the next big technological contest, beyond today’s race over artificial intelligence. Scientists have chased the dream of a quantum computer — a machine that could exploit the strange and exceedingly powerful behavior of subatomic particles or very cold objects — since the 1980s.

The push heated up in December when Google unveiled an experimental quantum computer that needed just five minutes to complete a calculation that most supercomputers could not finish in 10 septillion years — longer than the age of the known universe.

Microsoft’s quantum technology could leapfrog the methods under development at Google. As part of its research, the company built multiple topological qubits inside a new kind of computer chip that combines the strengths of the semiconductors that power classical computers with the superconductors that are typically used to build a quantum computer.

When such a chip is cooled to extremely low temperatures, it behaves in unusual and powerful ways that Microsoft believes will allow it to solve technological, mathematical and scientific problems that classical machines never could. The technology is not as volatile as other quantum technologies, the company said, making it easier to exploit its power.

Some question whether Microsoft has achieved this milestone, and many leading academics said quantum computers would not be fully realized for decades. But Microsoft’s scientists said their methods would help them reach the finish line sooner.

“We view this as something that is years away, not decades away,” said Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow who led the team that built the technology.

Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow, next to a refrigerator that cools quantum computing components to temperatures colder than space.Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

Microsoft’s technology, which was detailed in a research paper published in the science journal Nature on Wednesday, adds new impetus to a race that could reshape the technological landscape. In addition to accelerating progress across many technological and scientific fields, a quantum computer could be powerful enough to break the encryption that protects national secrets.

Any advances are set to have geopolitical implications. Even as the United States explores quantum computing primarily through corporations like Microsoft and a wave of start-ups, the Chinese government has said it is investing $15.2 billion in the technology. The European Union has committed $7.2 billion.

Quantum computing, which builds on decades of research into a type of physics called quantum mechanics, is still an experimental technology. But after recent strides by Microsoft, Google and others, scientists are confident that the technology will eventually live up to its promise.

“Quantum computing is a thrilling prospect for physics, and for the world,” said Frank Wilczek, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To understand quantum computing, it helps to know how a traditional computer works. A smartphone, laptop or desktop PC relies on tiny chips made from semiconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity in some but not all situations. These chips store and process numbers, adding them, multiplying them and so on. They perform these calculations by manipulating “bits” of information. Each bit holds either a 1 or a 0.

A quantum computer operates differently. A quantum bit, or qubit, relies on the curious behavior of subatomic particles or exotic materials cooled to extremely low temperatures.

When it is either extremely small or extremely cold, a single object can behave like two separate objects at the same time. By harnessing that behavior, scientists can build a qubit that holds a combination of 1 and 0. This means that two qubits can hold four values at once. And as the number of qubits grows, a quantum computer becomes exponentially more powerful.

Companies use a variety of techniques to build these machines. In the United States, most, including Google, build qubits using superconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity without losing the energy they are transmitting. They create these superconductors by cooling metals to extremely low temperatures.

Dr. Nayak holding Microsoft’s new quantum computing chip.Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

Microsoft has bet on an approach that few others are taking: combining semiconductors with superconductors. The basic principle — along with the name topological qubit — was first proposed in 1997 by Alexei Kitaev, a Russian American physicist.

The company began working on this unusual project in the early 2000s, when many researchers did not think such technology was possible. It is Microsoft’s longest-running research project.

“This is something that all three C.E.O.s of this company have bet on,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in an interview. (The company’s previous C.E.O.s were Bill Gates, a founder, and Steve Ballmer, who ran Microsoft in the early 2000s.)

The company has now created a single device that is part indium arsenide (a type of semiconductor) and part aluminum (a superconductor at low temperatures). When it is cooled to about 400 degrees below zero, it exhibits a kind of otherworldly behavior that might make quantum computers possible.

Philip Kim, a physics professor at Harvard, said Microsoft’s new creation was significant because topological qubits could accelerate the development of quantum computers. “If everything works out, Microsoft’s research could be revolutionary,” he said.

But Jason Alicea, a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology, questioned whether the company had actually built a topological qubit, saying the behavior of quantum systems is often hard to prove.

“A topological qubit is possible in principle, and people agree it is a worthwhile goal,” Dr. Alicea said. “You have to verify, though, that a device behaves in all the magical ways that theory predicts it should; otherwise, the reality may turn out to be less rosy for quantum computing. Fortunately, Microsoft is now set up to try.”

Microsoft said that it had built only eight topological qubits, and that they were not yet able to perform calculations that would change the nature of computing. But the company’s researchers see this as a step toward building something far more powerful.

For now, the technology still makes too many errors to be truly useful, though scientists are developing ways to reduce mistakes.

Last year, Google showed that as it increased the number of qubits, it could exponentially reduce the number of errors through complex mathematical techniques.

Error correction will be less complex and more efficient if Microsoft can perfect its topological qubits, many scientists said.

While a qubit can hold multiple values at the same time, it is burdened by an inherent problem. When researchers try to read the information stored in a qubit, it “decoheres” and collapses into a classical bit that holds only one value: a 1 or a 0.

The clean room of a Microsoft lab that works largely to validate quantum computing components built elsewhere. It is lit a specific yellow hue to protect components.Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

This means that if someone tries reading a qubit, it loses its basic power. So scientists need to overcome an essential problem: How do you build a computer if it breaks whenever you use it?

Google’s error correction methods are a way of dealing with this issue. Microsoft believes it can solve the problem faster because topological qubits behave differently and are theoretically less likely to collapse when someone reads the information they store.

“It makes for a really good qubit,” Dr. Nayak said.

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz"

Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of Matter to Power Quantum Computers - The New York Times