Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

551–560 of 731 posts

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

#551

Post by noahtallen »

gravypod wrote: post #425
bo1024 wrote: post #324

1. FOSS support and free + open + user-controlled, user-repairable, user-upgradable hardware. 2. Webcam and microphone with kill switches. 3. Battery life. 4. (added) Portable: about 13-14" screen, not too heavy. 5. Longevity, durability (sustainability). 6. Other factors: keyboard, touchpad, screen, wifi, quiet. I'm fortunate that I don't need a GPU or extreme power for my daily laptop driver (and if I do, I have a…

Once there's a framework keyboard with a standardized arrow key layout I'd probably buy one. It's an amazing step forward and I want to support the company's effort.

One of the cool things is that you could even buy now, and then replace the keyboard when a version you want comes out. They already sell tons of replacement keyboard types on their marketplaces

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

#552

Post by GordonS »

rzimmerman wrote: post #522
inetknght wrote: post #498

1. Full size keyboard with a numpad. If I can't type on it then I won't buy it. 2. 1080p internal display. I won't buy it if the internal screen resolution isn't at least 1080p. 3. Works with Linux. That's a dealbreaker if I can't put Linux on it. 4. Discrete GPU that can be enabled/disabled without rebooting. Not for games, though that's a bonus. I write software that uses GPU acceleration and I need to test it in t…

I’d add that for most people, you should go higher than 1080p regardless of screen size. UHD/4k/Retina are all a huge improvement just when looking at text and it’s hard to go back.

Doesn't higher resolution really hit battery life though?

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

#553

Post by ajvs »

tendencydriven wrote: post #64
ajvs wrote: post #3

Thunderbolt 4, especially since I use an eGPU to turn my laptop into a gaming machine.

I often wonder about the experience of using an eGPU. What are the tradeoffs? I travel a bit for work now and I'd like to have a more mobile gaming setup.

Tradeoff is that your performance will be bottlenecked by your CPU. I can't wait for AMD's Ryzen 6000 series since that's supposed to support USB4 (which includes TB3).

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

#554

Post by wincy »

I switched employers and am using a PC now instead of a Mac and man, I hate it. I’d get 4 or 5 hours of battery life on my 15” Intel MacBook Pro, and get maybe 45 minutes while doing identical tasks. Even the MacBook literally running Parallels and Visual Studio on the MacBook could last for a few hours. Its absolutely insufferable, the laptop is barely useable unless it’s plugged in, and it has a GPU (but I’m not playing games and a 1080p screen. Why the hell is it using so much power? Is this just what it’s like for Windows laptops, and why?

And Don’t even get me started on how the Bluetooth audio stack constantly messes up and has problems, Slack will randomly tell me it can’t find my audio device. My Mac just never had these issues, aside from a few problems initially on running a dock that supported 3 4K monitors.

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

#556

Post by GordonS »

robocat wrote: post #357
jillesvangurp wrote: post #128

- decent design; no gamer laptops, blinking led monstrosities, etc. for me. - decent performance; I'm an engineer. I actually lose time when things run slowly. Lots of time. Kills my flow and I bill a premium rate. - decent screen. I look at this thing for the better part of a day. Also, I dabble with photography once in a while and occasionally some frontend stuff. So, HDPI/250 dpi or better. - Decent ssd storage. I…

> HDPI/250 dpi or better > Linux compatible I would not recommend getting a 4K. I have the 4K Dell XPS 15” and I wish I got the normal screen instead. Too much time wasted on resolution problems with some apps on Linux, and it only came with a touchscreen gloss finish - bad mistake.

> and it only came with a touchscreen gloss finish

Why do so many laptops only have a 3/4K option with a glossy finish? Personally, I can't stand glossy screens - sure, the colours look good in a showroom, but they're just too reflective in real-world use.

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

#557

Post by [deleted] »

wincy wrote: post #554

I switched employers and am using a PC now instead of a Mac and man, I hate it. I’d get 4 or 5 hours of battery life on my 15” Intel MacBook Pro, and get maybe 45 minutes while doing identical tasks. Even the MacBook literally running Parallels and Visual Studio on the MacBook could last for a few hours. Its absolutely insufferable, the laptop is barely useable unless it’s plugged in, and it has a GPU (but I’m not pl…

[deleted]

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

#558

Post by Oddskar »

harshitaneja wrote: post #529
mustache_kimono wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you feel like you're missing in userspace?

Most of the important ones like package managers, containers, not calling home etc are mentioned by the others. So I will mention things I don't think are discussed enough by linux switchers. The one I didn't think I would yearn for but am really reminded of everyday are- desktop environments and window managers. My friends couldn't stop praising the UX but even after a long time trying to get used to it I still am a…

My friends couldn't stop praising the UX but even after a long time trying to get used to it I still am annoyed by the application switching keyboard shortcuts, lack of ability to set system wide shortcuts for launching basic things like terminal.

Hammerspoon is the answer to all of these. The common solution is to rebind caps lock (using Karabiner Elements) to be “hyper” (cmd + alt + shift + ctrl) and then bind global keyboard shortcuts with that using Hammerspoon.

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

#559

Post by Oddskar »

motoboi wrote: post #545
harshitaneja wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the important ones like package managers, containers, not calling home etc are mentioned by the others. So I will mention things I don't think are discussed enough by linux switchers. The one I didn't think I would yearn for but am really reminded of everyday are- desktop environments and window managers. My friends couldn't stop praising the UX but even after a long time trying to get used to it I still am a…

Command+space t for terminal (at first you’ll have to type “terminal”, but after 10 or so it becomes the first result for “t”). The same for other aplications. You can also, from terminal, do a open -a application_name if you want.

This is a very poor replacement for something that really should be instant and cerebral like app shortcuts.

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

#560

Post by orangecat »

grandpoobah wrote: post #46
hiisukun wrote: post #27

1. S3 Standby/suspend support. If your laptop supports that, you can close the lid and it will power ~everything except the RAM down (sometimes a USB port still charges). In 'new' laptops, including almost everything Tiger lake and Intel, S3 is being phased out for Microsoft's "Modern Standby", known as S0ix (or sometimes InstantGo). This is much more like a mobile phone, where it stays on but attempts to use as litt…

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…

Isn't Microsoft embarrassed about this?

Yeah, I was astounded when I recently found out about the "modern standby" idiocy. I've almost always used Mac laptops, but I just assumed that at some point in the last 20 years the PC world would figure out reliable sleep. And it seems like they mostly did, and then Microsoft broke it for no good reason?

Post reply on HN