thinkpad
Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
171–180 of 731 posts
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#172Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#173For me the laptop must have at least these minimum features if money is no objection: 1) Weight about 1 kg. I do carry another e-ink reader in my bag thus a lighter laptop is a big plus. 2) Minimum 2K resolution. Once you have used 2K screen the Full HD just don't cut it anymore. 3) Military grade certification for drop. I once dropped my laptop bag from shoulder height containing less than a month laptop but because…
>128 GB RAM What do you need, a mainframe?
Qubes OS?
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#1741. AMD CPU
2. Modular design & replaceable parts (à la https://frame.work)
3. Physical kill switches for camera, audio, Wi-Fi (à la Purism/Librem)
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#1751. S3 Standby/suspend support. If your laptop supports that, you can close the lid and it will power ~everything except the RAM down (sometimes a USB port still charges). In 'new' laptops, including almost everything Tiger lake and Intel, S3 is being phased out for Microsoft's "Modern Standby", known as S0ix (or sometimes InstantGo). This is much more like a mobile phone, where it stays on but attempts to use as litt…
Was going to post the same thing (albeit far more poorly explained). Isn't Microsoft embarrassed about this? This has been an issue for my last two laptops over the last 5 years. How is it acceptable for this problem to still exist? My Lenovo supports S3 sleep, but I didn't discover it until probably a year into having bought it, so at that point my battery's ability to hold charge had already been sufficiently degra…
Your battery is likely worn from keeping it charged at 100% constantly, lenovo have an option to limit max charge to something like 80% which will greatly reduce battery wear, you just have to turn it off if you are actually planning to
run it without AC for as long as possible.
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#1761. S3 Standby/suspend support. If your laptop supports that, you can close the lid and it will power ~everything except the RAM down (sometimes a USB port still charges). In 'new' laptops, including almost everything Tiger lake and Intel, S3 is being phased out for Microsoft's "Modern Standby", known as S0ix (or sometimes InstantGo). This is much more like a mobile phone, where it stays on but attempts to use as litt…
So which laptops do a good job of reliably supporting S3 standby/suspend? Any idea if the Framework laptop does?
You can check which ThinkPad BIOS has the option at their BIOS emulation site: https://download.lenovo.com/bsco/index.html
For mine it's under Config // Power // Sleep State. Windows 10 means useless Modern Standby, Linux means S3. https://i.imgur.com/Y5CchL9.png
In this covid helped me because I learned about this before I cooked my expensive new laptop in its bag :(
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#177Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#1781. S3 Standby/suspend support. If your laptop supports that, you can close the lid and it will power ~everything except the RAM down (sometimes a USB port still charges). In 'new' laptops, including almost everything Tiger lake and Intel, S3 is being phased out for Microsoft's "Modern Standby", known as S0ix (or sometimes InstantGo). This is much more like a mobile phone, where it stays on but attempts to use as litt…
> get critical Windows Updates
So you mean Microsoft can force your laptop to restart and lose all your work even when it's "off"? Amazing.
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#179battery, trackpad, screen.
MacBook Air M1, MacBook Pro, Microsoft Surface Go (if you want touchscreen) fit the bill. I'm optimistic about Framework laptop as well.
Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?
#1801. Upgradable and repairable.
2. Linux and Qubes OS support.
3. 64+ GB RAM.
4. Coreboot and focused on verifiable security, neutralized Intel ME.
5. Hardware kill switch for camera, microphone.
Actually, there is only one such laptop: https://puri.sm/products/librem-14.