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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?

#261

Post by hutzlibu »

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.

Most batteries on laptops are worn out by heat. They really do not like heat, but will take lots of it, when placed and used in unfavorable conditions, which most laptops probably are.

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

#262

Post by mazone »

1. 13" , 14" laptop

2. IPS matte good quality display with similar resolution to 2560x1440p, Superb colors and peak brightness.

3. At-least 32GB RAM but pref up-gradable RAM to 64GB

4. Linux full support, preferable AMD

5. Keyboard similar to old thinkpad 7 row style. General going back to retro style with proper keys, Topre switches or why not a mechanical keyboard if possible.

6. Trackpad of high quality. Atleast similar to Apple. Not seen any that have it yet on pc. If not possible, add a trackpoint and remove the trackpad.

7. Ports! Please have many ports. As many as possible.

8. Hardware quality. hinges, case and overall. Make it durable.

9. Battery time, make it last.

10. No spyware or bloatware. Published schematics of the laptop and help the open source community.

11. Good quality parts in chipset for wifi, bluetooth, sound. Latest AMD. Should not be a issue.

12. No intel inside stickers or other stickers on my laptop. If have to put a logo on it, make the logo very small and not in your face.

Okey, so what can i be without to make the above possible and

- No frills or extras. - No touch display. - Medium powered CPU. ( think road warrior not full fledged desktop replacement ) - No discrete GPU needed if it makes my laptop warmer, or make battery go down faster. Integrated GPU is "good enough" - No need for fingerprint sensor, even if convenient. - No magic bars or other innovation someone thought would be good. - Weight and thickness is less important then manufactures seem to think. To a degree. Slim laptops get warmer, rather have it a bit ticket with more room for battery etc.

Do the basics correct. A modern take on the Thinkpad x220. Remove things that don't matter and make a classic awesome laptop for the ages.

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

#264

Post by deadmutex »

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…

100% agree.

A lot of people asking for ARM based machines do not really realize that the reason is not because of ARM, but they just want faster/more efficient machines. I think to make a analogy for HN frontend sw devs, imagine a non-technical marketing person going to a developer and saying "I want this website in AMP, because AMP is fast.". And sure, a lot of sites with AMP framework are fast... but that doesn't mean that you have to build a site in AMP to make it fast. You could build a simple site with similar principles and get it fast too. Similarly, not all ARM laptops are fast. Even if the laptops hw is fast, you want something that can efficiently run x86 code as well for compatibility purposes for many years.

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

#265

Post by throwawaycuriou »

siva7 wrote: post #226

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 Linu…

What you describe reminds me of my time with the Pixelbook. Nothing since has come close to comfort and peace of mind that brought me.

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

#266

Post by Sanguinaire »

0. Linux support, specifically with the option to purchase without paying the Windows tax for an OS I'll never boot. This is a deal-breaker for me, meaning Dell are one of the few main-stream manufacturers I'd go with.

1. No touchscreen (I'd rather have a higher quality, low glare non-touch display).

That's about it, actually. Practically all modern laptops seem to meet my expectations on battery life and performance in a way which corresponds well with their cost. Weight is mostly a non-issue since I'd only consider a 13" chassis anyway. Screen resolution can be traded for battery life without concerning me.

An M1 Mac with a non-apple keyboard and full Linux support would probably be great, but I don't hold out any hope for another manufacturer matching the M1 without ruining it somehow (looking at you, Chromebooks).

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

#267

Post by zweifuss »

bloggie wrote: post #246
tomp wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not REPLs and Jupyter notebooks.

nor Windows Explorer.

For the File Explorer it's HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Value PersistBrowsers set to 1.

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

#268

Post by tentacleuno »

michalf6 wrote: post #73
deepdmistry wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why no money for apple ?

Anti-consumer behaviour. Multiple hardware design faults in macbooks. Actively working against repair, against software freedom, against the user (see recent CSAM fiasco). Non-removable storage. Preference of thin&light vs upgradeability/cooling. I wouldn't mind that as I'm not their customer, but all the crap they introduce gets mindlessly copied by all their competition.

> Preference of thin&light vs upgradeability/cooling.

I recently watched something[0] about the Macbook cooling (Intel, at least) and you seem to be right.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlOPPuNv4Ec&t=0

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

#270

Post by christophilus »

distances wrote: post #191
chx wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thunderbolt is Intel's proprietary technology, I don't think AMD will ever have that. I think you'll have to wait for USB-4 if the current speeds really aren't enough.

The M1 Apple lineup has thunderbolt support, so I don’t see why an AMD laptop couldn’t do the same?
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