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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?

#221

Post by flyinghamster »

nikau wrote: post #175
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…

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.

My two-year-old Dell Inspiron also has a BIOS option for a "Mostly on AC power" charging profile. I'll still give the power cord a yank every now and then and let it run on battery for a while.

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

#222

Post by jonathanlydall »

rishav_sharan wrote: post #162

here's mine, in the order of priority; 1. Keyboard - I love the old Thinkpad keyboard and hate the new chick-lets which seem to have become the norm. 2. Display - 13-15" , 4k and matte. I am currently using a surface book 2 and the screen while lovely is reflective enough to do my hair in between meetings. 3. Discrete GPU - I generally use a single laptop for both work and play and would prefer the laptop to have a g…

Interesting, makes sense.

I still have a desktop for when I (rarely) play games and the lack of a discrete graphic card on my current laptop is one of the things I love most about it since it’s amazing for battery life and I don’t need any AMD or Nvidia software installed and needing updates.

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

#223

Post by f6v »

On a somewhat unrelated note, I recently realized my MacBook has 16 Gb RAM in 2021. My 2012 MBP also had 16 Gb. I know it’s possible to get machines with 64, but 16 is still a standard developer machine in many organizations I worked at. I was even considering asking for a non-MacBook work laptop with 32 Gb(to get it cheaper).

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

#224

Post by bregma »

1. A good hinge. A really good hinge. Hinges are the Achilles heels of laptops.

2. Power connector in a sane place. Power connectors are the other Achilles heels of laptops, just like phones, and everything you can do to prevent mechanical failure of either the cable or the on-board socket is good.

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

#225

Post by mindvirus »

Always fun threads, thanks for posting! I've learned a bunch.

Truth be had, I'm still loving my 2013 MacBook pro. It's bulky and the battery's not what it used to be, but it's fast and the keyboard is great but after 8 years of hard use, a couple keys are wonky. I'll probably pick up whatever Apple announces on Monday.

I've really want to like the XPS series, but I've bought and returned 3 of them in the past several years due to bad quality control - two would crash when the lid closed, one had a really wobbly trackpad. The XPS 15 or 17 is ideal in terms of form factor though.

A few others that I've had my eyes on:

- The surface pro 8 seems really versatile and powerful. High refresh screen, good battery, nice keyboard.

- I like some of the stuff Asus is doing with dual screens and propped up keyboards, so I'm definitely curious about those for a dev.

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

#226

Post by siva7 »

That it doesn't get in the way of my work and life. Let me phrase it this way: A laptop is good when i don't have to think about it.

Super quiet, exceptional battery performance, lightweight, sturdy, excellent design, super fast, doesn't crash, doesn't reboot when it wants, does what it should do when i close the lid and never lets me down. Basically the M1, the first laptop that does fit my requirements.

I like Linux, but i have to be honest: Windows/Linux laptops can't compete in 2021 with the Apple M1. Maybe some day they will catch up.

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

#227

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#228

Post by iamtheworstdev »

flyinghamster wrote: post #221
nikau wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My two-year-old Dell Inspiron also has a BIOS option for a "Mostly on AC power" charging profile. I'll still give the power cord a yank every now and then and let it run on battery for a while.

dell has had this feature since i was in college twenty years ago.. it's such a great one

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

#230

Post by dcz_self »

Smithalicious wrote: post #166

0. Linux compatibility, I am not super picky about getting everything to work perfectly but I should be able to trust that the software I prefer to use will run and my laptop will connect to wifi and play audio properly and so on. 1. IPS screen (mostly a given nowadays, but this wasn't always so) 2. Trackpoint, I hate trackpads. Pretty rare option so I could possibly be convinced otherwise if the trackpad is particul…

Similar here. I've been spoiled by Lenovo, although it's not perfect. It's mostly a coding machine for me too.

0. Linux compatibility: minimal driver problems, hibernation can fail less than 1% of the time. 1. Touchpad with mouse buttons (ideally 3) is not negotiable. 2. A decent keyboard with all keys from the home/end/... block. Full sized arrows would be nice, half-sized are a no. 3. Not bigger than a sheet of A4 paper. 4. A non-glare, wide angle display. 5. Good WiFi sensitivity and performance. 6. A hard drive activity light is quite useful. 7. When it inevitable gets thermally throttled, it should still be useful for web browsing. 8. Mute/mic mute buttons are nice. So are volume buttons. 9. Open firmware: WiFi, coreboot, libreboot. I'm a hacker, and don't like fences.

Same thoughts about the Framework laptop. I hope it becomes an option in the future.

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