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Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#381

Post by joshvm »

jwalton wrote: post #223

Lenovo has some pretty good sales on thinkpad X1s (at least they do in Canada - didn't check the US site). But, if you're in Canada, I just bought this: https://www.newegg.ca/p/N82E16834233446?Description=gigabyte... It's got a gorgeous 4K OLED screen, a quite decent CPU and GPU, and it's currently $350 off + a $300 mail in rebate (there was an additional $350 off over the easter weekend, too). The track pad is not m…

I used an X1 for a year, though with Windows. I'm not sure I'd recommend it at the price Lenovo want, but it has some nice points. Price is really the main downside for me. It's in the same ballpark as a Macbook Pro (the model I have was $2500 off the shelf) and the hardware just isn't quite there. Fine if someone else is paying for it!

Upgradeability is decent, though RAM is soldered in. You can swap in hard drives, upgrade the antenna and Lenovo has a decent manual for replacing parts.

It's a very light laptop, which is nice. It's also extremely sturdy. No problems with flex or whatever when it's thrown in a full backpack.

It works well with an eGPU, but the main USB-C power port is quite wobbly even after a thorough clean out.

It has a stupid proprietary Ethernet adapter that also blocks the USB-C port. I assume this is for use with the official dock, but why not just have two USB-C ports?

The speakers are awful. Yes we're going to compare to a Macbook as the gold standard, but for a $2k laptop I really want better.

Thermals aren't great and it dumps exhaust heat on your mouse hand.

Keyboard is good, trackpad is mediocre.

The display is good, and it's bright. There are some funny graphics driver issues with Intel. The display flickers when switching between power/battery and often the backlight settings mess up. It also suffers from screen burn if you forget to use a screensaver or leave it on for a while.

Battery performance tanked pretty fast for me. I barely get a few hours these days. If you run on low power mode, it's not usable because CPU throttling is so severe.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#382

Post by kitsunesoba »

haspok wrote: post #98

> "battery life" vs "Optimized for intensive computing usage" These are contradicting conditions. (Unless maybe on an M1?) If you do use the CPU then battery life will drop even for the best laptops to a few hours max, while the fans will spin like crazy emulating a helicopter taking off. All the above mentioned laptops will behave like that. At my last place I had a Thinkpad P1 which is supposedly for the above ment…

Yeah, it’s an unfortunate reality with your bog standard x86 laptop. Choose performance or portability, silence, and battery life, but not both.

And sometimes even when you pick your trade-off, it still doesn’t work out. See my Thinkpad X1 Nano I selected as a silent ultraportable with decent battery life — it spins its fan up to surpassingly loud levels when plugging in a 2560x1440 60hz display or whenever it’s doing anything even remotely strenuous. If my needs for that machine didn’t include Windows, I would have been so much better served by an M1 MacBook Air it’s not even funny (and even then, I sometimes wonder if a bodge of Windows on ARM in a VM on an M1 Air wouldn’t work better).

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#383

Post by banal00 »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

These posts are annoying, IMO. Reviews and blogs posts about them are everywhere by like minded readers, and this is the discourse such posts bubble up every time here.

Guys. I mean. Seriously. It’s a laptop. It’s not worth a request for comments every week.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#385

Post by raxxorraxor »

swozey wrote: post #356
raxxorraxor wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Mac Book from time to time and the keyboard alone is special... I don't think Mac is a good universal machine for development to be honest. The devices overall are nice, out of the question, but a Linux machine is ultimately more powerful.

"Ultimately more powerful" As a previous BSD engineer please explain further, this entire thread is just horrendous and should be downvoted to oblivion. Nobody cares what laptop you decide to use, nor are you incapable of doing your own research. My grandmother calls me for laptop recommendations. My M1 Max 14" MBP has 64gb ram, mucho cores and is the fastest machine I've used. My gaming/dev desktop is a 12core ryzen…

Well, you might be able to make it work, but the OS simply leaves you less freedom compared to a Linux machine.

And you would need to jump through hoops. I am an embedded dev and I have tried. Theoretically it is possible, but you would miss a lot of tooling on the way.

I don't really care about performance that much. I have an MB Air with M1 and I like it because the battery and display is very good. But it isn't really used for productivity. I also work in industry and everything here is Windows and maybe Linux. MacOS doesn't exist here.

Good luck attaching your Mac to a reflow soldering machine (I have tried too). It just doesn't play well with others and is rather exclusionary itself.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#386

Post by icharters »

ta_456235602 wrote: post #349
icharters wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Random freezes, slowdowns and crashes? Care to elaborate? What languages and tooling are you using that is giving that sort of grief? That is completely counter my experience.

I normally don't participate in these type of discussions on this one I will make an exception. Macs are extremely bad in terms of thermal management in the long run. Yes sure, they will work absolutely fine in the store but they will slow down with your dev environment installed. 1. The Apple store is cooler and has better airflow than your cubicle/desk/room. 2. The vanilla operating system runs fast on any computer…

I owned an Intel Mac and now own an M1 Max. The Intel and M1 are completely different beasts. My Intel would die in an hour and was always hot with the fan running. The battery life on my M1 is ridiculous. Hours and hours. I don't even know if it has a fan. It's silent and runs cool.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#387

Post by ho_schi »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #258
c0mptonFP wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, operating system is one of the most fundamental things to consider when getting a dev machine. MacOS is literally useless for me, because I depend on the Linux kernel.

You can still install Linux on a mac (which is what I did) and still get a powerful and beautiful machine, if you so desire.

This will come with a lot of problems and requires extra work. Apple Hardware is not intended by the manufacturer to be used as general purpose computer but to run MacOS.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#388

Post by [deleted] »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#389

Post by jobigoud »

alkonaut wrote: post #319

I have the same question but I'll tweak the parameters somewhat: I want a movable developer workstation. I'll never (or almost never) be using these components of the laptop: battery, screen, touchpad, keyboard. I also don't care much about size weight since I'll be 99% sitting still. On the contrary I'd like it to be large and heavy, if it would help with noise and thermals. Are there good "movable" laptops that run…

Do you use a portable screen? I'm also looking for a "movable" workstation. I have considered a mini PC like Intel NUC coupled with an external GPU, but between the screen and the GPU case I fear it would start to be inconvenient for plane travel.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#390

Post by FrozenSynapse »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

Macbook Pro sucks, I cannot remember a laptop that is hotter (and throttles) than my current mac, and it's expensive
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