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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?

#371

Post by browningstreet »

t_von_doom wrote: post #276
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…

As a Mac user with the same gripe of the ctrl key placement: Remapping it to the caps lock works wonders :)

I use so many keyboards, not all of which are under my control.. I wish I could, but it would bring chaos to my typing world.

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

#372

Post by cainxinth »

1. Excellent thermal management (i.e. temps under 90C at max load and fans that don’t sound like a turboprop)

2. Backlit keyboard with more than a bare minimum of key travel

3. IPS display with at least 300 nits of brightness and 100% (or close to it) sRGB coverage

4. Six core or better CPU

5. Dedicated GPU with at least 8GB of RAM

6. NVMe M.2 SSD (at least 512GB)

7. 32GB of 3200 MHz or faster RAM

8. From a major brand with decent reported reliability (e.g. Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo)

Willing to spend ~$2k, but I am very patient and good at deal hunting so I expect to get it for a little less.

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

#373

Post by noisy_boy »

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.

I set it via tlp[0]:

    sudo tlp setcharge $start_precent $stop_percent BAT0
[0]: https://linrunner.de/tlp/

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

#374

Post by dividedbyzero »

tom_ wrote: post #363
jonwinstanley wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!)

You could make Macs hibernate via the CLI until a few versions back at least, maybe you still can? I used that occasionally, but at some point sleep got so good I stopped bothering. If I disable the waking up to fetch mail and the like thingy in Settings, mine will hardly lose any battery even when sleeping for extended periods.

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

#376

Post by azalemeth »

Out of curiosity, has any HN customer bought a KDE Slimbook [1] or similar?

I want to buy a linux-first laptop, and I like the fact that they have configurable keyboards (i.e. those in layouts other than en-us, unlike System76!) a lot of configuration options, and linux-first support.

The "default" slimbook is aluminium, €899, comes with a Ryzen 4800 H, a 92 WH battery, actual physical ports, and relatively modest other specs. They offer much more "beefy" machines with linux as an OS option.

I've never used them. It's getting to the point where I want to replace my rMBP-2018 "Heatmonster" laptop and after Apple's latest directions, it'll be KDE as a daily driver for me.

[1] https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-kde/kde-slimbook-15-co...

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

#377

Post by analog31 »

dade_ wrote: post #47

Also consider warranty, repair, and accidental damage protection: My Surface Pro 3 had extended warranty, and there used to be stores to drop into. I had many problems with the machine, but the horrible part was that they could only be swapped out, so I had to restore my data (easy) and setup windows all over again (kill me now). This has been addressed with their ‘for business’ series with removable SSD. My mother,…

I admit that I'm probably kind of a contrarian here. I tend to buy cheap refurbished laptops from NewEgg, something reasonably recent but not utterly leading-edge.

I've told people: My warranty consists of being able to throw it away and buy another one with the money I've saved over the years from following this strategy.

I'm also fortunate that for me, a lot of "development" time is spent sitting and scratching my head, so my laptop doesn't really need awesome computing power. My computer is more or less a half-smart terminal. That's just related to the kind of work I do of course.

These days, same strategy for desktops and cellphones.

An amusing story: I was checking out of Best Buy one time, and the cashier offered me an extended warranty. I told her: "I have a plan through my bank that covers everything I own." Of course she took the bait and asked me what the plan consisted of, and I told her: "The contents of my bank account." Fortunately she had a sense of humor about it.

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

#378

Post by mcculley »

nottaylorswift wrote: post #123

If it has the Apple logo you'll be fine. Seriously though, the Intel 16 inch MBP or the M1X 16 inch due to be released in a few days are the best choice hands down, if you can afford it. Sounds like you could also benefit from an iPad Pro M1 plus pencil and LTE, which I can't recommend enough. I would say since 2015, the premium laptops have improved further still, the display and battery life specs are outstanding a…

Will the new MBP get an LTE modem?

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

#380

Post by rodolphoarruda »

1. Open source hardware, preferably audited and not leaking data

2. Linux compatibility

3. Easy to remove/replace battery from the outside (like it was in the past)

4. A battery that lasts for a day with a quick recharge

5. Physical knobs to turn on/off the mic and camera

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