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Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

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Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#181

Post by lostlogin »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #167

Look for non-Intel solutions. There is absolutely zero reason to adopt Intel CPUs until Intel has proven that they can ship CPUs that do not contain expensive-to-fix security bugs year after year after year (you're on a laptop, every CPU cycle counts to keep heat down and battery life longer). Several companies make Zen 3 APU (Ryzen 5000 series models)-based laptops that have good keyboards, good screens, and the usu…

> There is absolutely zero reason to adopt Intel CPUs

I’d live to ditch Intel, but quicksync is just so good for video transcoding. 10 or 20 high bitrate video streams can be attacked without any noticeable load on the system. Its excessive from what I need, but it’s just so good. Maybe I’m too easily impressed.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#182

Post by _Understated_ »

Darmody wrote: post #169
harry8 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Dell xps and will never buy another laptop from dell. It's an embarrassment how awful if is. Close the lid without full shutdown, warranty voided bad.

It's not exactly like that. Under no circumstances should you leave a laptop powered on and in any sleep/hibernate/standby mode when placed in a bag, backpack, or in an overhead bin. The laptop will overheat as a result of that action. Why would you put a laptop on a bag if it is still running and expect the warranty to cover any damage if it overheats? What's next? Expect the warranty to cover you taking showers whi…

Your own quote mentions you can't hibernate it.

And we recently could close laptops, have them sleep/hibernate and not wake up until you open the screen again so sticking them in a backpack was fine.

Not sure if the issue is Windows or the hardware but it's a recent thing.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#183

Post by trevyn »

godDLL wrote: post #106
random_kris wrote: post #2

M1 MacBook pro no competition

I've looked at those. They are glossy. But that's not even the thing that turned me off. The keyboards did. One speck of dust and that thing gets stuck. The keys have no travel, that's no good. And having typed on it a bit, I can attest there is not much difference between those keyboards and typing on straight up glass, feeling-wise. I love what they are doing with the CPU, GPU, no significant interconnect overhead…

None of the M1s have the infamous glass keyboard; they switched back to the old style. (Which is still relatively low-travel, but much better than the glass one, and does not have dust issues.)

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#184

Post by chx »

michalf6 wrote: post #71

1) Maxed-out battery (90-100WH) 2) Low-TDP modern CPU, ideally Ryzen 3) Bright, hi-res screen There is nothing on the market that offers this. M1 mac is the closest option, but Apple shouldn't be given money. I'm currently on a Thinkpad T480.

Ryzen still doesn't have Thunderbolt. For some -- like me -- this still excludes Ryzen.

And you are right that Intel U chips are rarely are shipping with 90Wh+ . But https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/Zenbook/Zenbook-Flip-1... does. The Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (Yoga Slim 7) has a 71 Wh, the Schenker Via 14 has a 73 Wh, the HP Spectre x360 15 72.9 Wh, the MSI Summit E15 has a 82 Wh.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#185

Post by lostlogin »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #20

As for the laptops built-in screen 1920×1080 resolution is the only I want, also reasonable colors and preferably anti-glare screen. For external displays it must support 4K unless very cheap.

What is the reason you want resolution that low? I find high dpi and high refresh rates to be just so nice. I prefer smaller text and UI elements, but even when text is large it just looks so much better.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#186

Post by diroussel »

Leherenn wrote: post #148
foobarbaz33 wrote: post #119

> if I'm missing on any new developments since 2015 Yes, you missed something huge. Apple Silicon M1 or nothing. It's just too good. Low power consumption allows the laptop to actually be used as a laptop. The power use-to-performance ratio is unmatched by anything on the market. Apple is breaking us free from decades of stagnation on the hardware front. Nothing else on the market comes close. I expect this to change…

Is ARM really the reason the M1 is so much better than the current x86 CPUs? If you have a look at the competition (Qualcomm), it sounds to me that it's Apple expertise at designing a SoC and using a more advanced node that makes it such a good CPU, not really the architecture. Said another way, I highly doubt we will see a non-Apple ARM CPU outclass the x86 competition in such a way anytime soon, so saying "never x8…

ARM isn’t _the_ reason. It is a reason.

If we were to go back in time to before apple introduced it’s own SoC and before it had acquired chip design start ups, even before than ARM was on the table as that is what the iPhone ran.

RISC-V wasn’t a thing back then. So the alternatives were MIPS, Power or maybe a home grown instruction set.

So we just have to go with what the reality is now. The apple silicon has been well optimised for performance per watt. And it runs on an ARM instruction set that apple itself helped in the design of.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#187

Post by can16358p »

allwein wrote: post #114
grandpoobah wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> and if Visual Studio ran on Mac I'd probably switch my PC out also Not sure if it supports all the features you need, but it exists. https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/mac/

Note that if OP expects anything like the "real" Visual Studio that runs on Windows, this is really nothing compared to it. I'd even go further and actually prefer Vscode with the right extensions compared to this "Visual Studio".

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#188

Post by Darmody »

_Understated_ wrote: post #182
Darmody wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not exactly like that. Under no circumstances should you leave a laptop powered on and in any sleep/hibernate/standby mode when placed in a bag, backpack, or in an overhead bin. The laptop will overheat as a result of that action. Why would you put a laptop on a bag if it is still running and expect the warranty to cover any damage if it overheats? What's next? Expect the warranty to cover you taking showers whi…

Your own quote mentions you can't hibernate it. And we recently could close laptops, have them sleep/hibernate and not wake up until you open the screen again so sticking them in a backpack was fine. Not sure if the issue is Windows or the hardware but it's a recent thing.

Unless Windows is doing something weird, hibernate is no different that shutting it down.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#189

Post by emouryto »

I'd say you are in a very tiny niche for the SIM and stylus alone. Which vendors/brands does this leave you with?

Personally I previously searched for:

1. Super fast CPU (got the Ryzen) 2. With enough RAM (32GB, unofficially) 3. At a cheap non-Apple price ("gaming" laptop) 4. That looks somewhat professional (Lenovo won against the ASUS which screamed teenager) 5. That runs Linux well enough.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#190

Post by lostlogin »

pg_1234 wrote: post #121
random_kris wrote: post #2

M1 MacBook pro no competition

I'm typing this on a M1 MacBook pro, but only because that is what my employer mandates. 1) The M1 MacBook Air is better value and has a better keyboard. 2) Properly rugged business PCs are still better hardware (hardware is more than just the CPU). 3) Kubuntu or Linux Mint are a better OS.

> 2) Properly rugged business PCs are still better hardware (hardware is more than just the CPU).

Any models you’d point at? After 5 minutes with an HP thing the employer gave me, I’ve never touched it, that thing was an abomination. I’d like a good alternative.

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