Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days? • Hacker News Board

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

#361

Post by dhosek » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

qwerty456127 wrote: post #74

kbob wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you in a crowded office with lots of Bluetooth devices? At my house, Bluetooth is rock solid up to 10 meters. But there are only a handful of devices in the house, and the neighbors are far away.

No, I'm not. I'm mostly alone in the rather big office (although there are neighbor offices above and below obviously) and I've specifically mentioned the woods. I probably just have a too intense aura and may need a new-age guru to get me a magic pyramid to harmonize it :-] Is there a BlueTooth channel scanner by the way? Like the "WiFi analyzer" app but for BlueTooth?

The thing with the woods is actually because of the woods, surprisingly enough. BT often counts on signals bouncing off solid objects of which there aren't really enough in the woods (at least for signal bouncing purposes). You'll encounter the same thing crossing a wide street in the city where your signal might cut out in the middle of the street.

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

#362

Post by dhosek » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

godDLL wrote: post #93

grecy wrote: post #7

I'd at least wait until the 18th to see what Apple is about to announce. Even if you don't get whatever they announce, it might be good to view your options in light of the new products.

Agreed, but I don't have my hopes up. Their keyboards have been atrocious for the last few years. Everything in their current lineup has the stuck-by-dust-particle problem.

Anecdata but: I bought the 16" MBP when it was first released and have never had a problem with it (or with any of the work-issued MBPs I've been issued in the interim as well). I had a butterfly-keyboard MBP from work for a couple years and while I didn't like the feel of the keyboard (I'm happy with the post-butterfly MBPs' keyboards), I never had the dust particle issue with it.

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

#363

Post by tom_ » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

jonwinstanley wrote: post #295

massysett wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been using Macs for over five years now and before that I was all Linux. From reading this it looks like Windows has actually reverted to where Linux was over five years ago: having to fiddle with the machine to get sleep to work. That’s just sad.

Windows wasn't good at this in the past either. Didn't they used to have sleep, hibernate and a load of other options too?

Just sleep/hibernate/restart/shut down, as far as I can remember? - sleep vs hibernate being a distinction you want, in my view, as the battery drain/restart time behaviours are different. I'm sure I don't need to explain why separate restart and shut down options are a good idea.

(Never liked not having the sleep/hibernate choice on macOS. I know better than the computer what my upcoming plans are!)

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

#364

Post by robocat » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

wink wrote: post #50

1. wifi has to be perfect, don't care about BT at all 2. Linux support 3. keyboard needs to be usable. ThinkPad is good, Dell is meh, HP is horrible 4. Noise. And no coil whine. I never even thought about this before my Dell. 5. No headphone jack would be an instant no. I guess I could live with a dongle for USB. 6. battery should not be completely bad. But unless it would be something for travel, not so important 7.…

> no coil whine. I never even thought about this before my Dell.

Fuck Dell for not fixing this for a decade - it is a number 1 complaint on forums.

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

#365

Post by jabroni_salad » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

1. 1920x1200 display at a minimum. 3:2 is even better as long as the width is still there. I don't care if there are black bars on my movies, I want a tall screen. There is no technical reason to require a squinty screen ratio in order to get 2 documents side by side.

2. The things I touch don't suck. decent construction, rubberized plastic or aluminimum, decent keyboard, decent trackpad.

3. Reliable components. No killer wifi. I will check the arch wiki to make sure linux won't be death by a thousand papercuts. I don't mind if there is some setup as long as I can put that entire setup into a single shell script. I don't need a discrete gpu.

4. memory and ssd cannot be soldered.

5. anything else.

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

#366

Post by ajvs » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

schleck8 wrote: post #21

dna_polymerase wrote: post #14

AMD CPU & Repair-ability. Framework looks promising, but I'm not eager to buy an Intel processor.

> I'm not eager to buy an Intel processor May I ask why?

They removed S3 sleep and don't have the performance:battery usage as AMD.

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

#367

Post by Joeri » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:16 PM UTC

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…

I was going to replace my thinkpad with a new thinkpad, but when apple released the M1 macbook air I had to change my mind. I paid the same that I would have paid for a T series, but got something that has the sleek thin and light build quality on par with an X1 with performance of a P series and battery life that hasn't existed on thinkpads ever since they dropped power bridge. Oh, and it is fanless. If my macbook air fell into the abyss I would replace it with another air right away, it is that good.

If lenovo still made thinkpads like they used to: reasonably priced, easy to upgrade and repair, with large external batteries, and with top-notch keyboards, I might have opted for a thinkpad still. But they don't make those. All new thinkpads have so-so keyboards, they all have internal batteries (and often too small), and they're getting harder to upgrade and repair with every generation. Lenovo has chosen to chase after the macbook design, and that makes me less likely to buy thinkpads, because a thinkpad will never be as good a macbook as a macbook.

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

#368

Post by Sanguinaire » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

roland35 wrote: post #321

Sanguinaire wrote: post #266

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…

Sounds like the framework laptop might be a good option for you! I am looking into it myself, plus I like the 3:2 screen ratio.

I was thinking the same, assuming it eventually goes on sale in the UK. Actually the 3:2 screen ratio is one of the new laptop developments I am less keen on; 16:9 or 16:10 feels a bit better for having 2 side-by-side terminals in i3.

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

#369

Post by dividedbyzero » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

donohoe wrote: post #282

macOS I’ve tried going back to Windows and it’s just a terrible OS. macOS has its faults but nothing in that scale.

Seconded, its defaults match my preferences well enough that I don't have to customize it much. It's also great to not have to climb up a huge learning curve and invest a lot of time just to make and keep the OS usable, as I'd have to with Linux.

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

#370

Post by kuschku » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

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.

Well, there is an option.

1. Get a T480 with the i7-8650

2. Get the 95Wh battery option (24Wh internal + 72Wh external)

3. Upgrade RAM to 32GB DDR4-2400

4. Upgrade SSD to 2TB NVMe

5. Upgrade display to the T14 Gen2’s 1080p 100% sRGB 400nits display (available with custom brackets for T470/T480 e.g. here: https://www.xelent-store.de/Innolux-N140HCG-GQ2-400cd-Low-Po...)

Result: A laptop with awesome specs in all regards except CPU, and even the CPU is still respectable, replaceable everything, and a great display. For overall somewhere around 500-700€.

There’s nothing better on the market right now, especially as this gives you powerbridge, so you can keep two external batteries and just replace them when they drop to 0% instead of having to wait for it to charge.

And as the T470/T480 is easy to open up, you just need a small iFixit kit and 30 minutes to do all these replacements.