It could absolutely be false nostalgia since I was a Mac fan from about 2005 to 2009 with an MBP that had the breathing feature but this really felt like a high point for computer hardware. It felt slick and performant but still serviceable.

Ironically, after a series of uninspiring Windows machines the next laptop that made me feel any level of enthusiasm like that Mac is my current Framework 13 running COSMIC on NixOS. Quite an about face!