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The best laptop ever made

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Re: The best laptop ever made

#91

Post by yoodenvranx »

sAvi0r wrote: post #83
O1111OOO wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me it's the Lenovo T61 with a 14.4" 4:3 display (or any of the older 4:3 IBMs). Which is why I thought it was odd that he didn't even mention aspect ratio. 16:9, for example, is a deal-breaker for me personally. This limits the kind of devices I have available (and sadly, increases the price point) but I simply can't do 16:9 as I find it too constraining. My options today are 16:10 and 3:2. From a hardware stan…

What do you find constraining with 16:9? It's got more wasted space than 4:3 when you're working with a single window I guess, but who seriously works with just one open window? Maybe I'm having trouble envisioning a modern 4:3 screen, since the only ones I have for reference are a couple old 19" ones I've got lying around but I can't imagine I would comfortably be able to have 3 vertically split files open on a scre…

The main advantage (at least for me) is the physical height of the display. If I sit in front of a laptop I don't want to look _down_, I want to look forward as much as possible. The taller the screen, the more comfortable I can sit. And the T61 with a 4:3 ratio has a higher display than all modern laptops while keeping the size down. I could get a 17" gaming laptop for a similar height but those machines are massive.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#92

Post by Certhas »

pan69 wrote: post #60
mrtksn wrote: post #44

I don't know, I kind of think that the best ever is Macbook Air 2015. I would also argue that Macbook Air was the first laptop ever since it was the first truly portable - not just transportable personal computer ever. For the first time a notebook was light, performant and run long enough on battery to be actually usable out of your office or home. Yep, the screen is not retina but it's also significantly lighter, t…

I agree. I have the 2012 model, bought new in 2013 for cheap. 8 gigs of ram with an i7. I recently had the battery replaced. I has some blemishes on the screen. Every ones in a while I'm looking at upgrading to a Mac Pro, but then again, this little laptop is still going strong, so why should I?

Exactly my experience, except I just spilled coffee on it and now the keyboard needs replacing. That's expensive and a bit hard to justify on a 5 year old machine, so I'm going to break out the screwdrivers soon and give it a go.

With every previous laptop I would have just taken it as a good moment to buy a new device, but I honestly don't see the point right now.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#93

Post by yoodenvranx »

platinumrad wrote: post #89
yoodenvranx wrote: post #56

For me it's the Lenovo T61 with a 14.4" 4:3 display (or any of the older 4:3 IBMs). Yes, compared to modern laptops it is heavy, slow, bulky and has a shitty display but: i) I can replace every single piece of it with a simple screwdriver and ii) 4:3 is still the best aspect ratio for reading and developing. If I am doing the latter I prefer a screen with a lot of height. A 4:3 aspect ratio gives me a tall screen whi…

Seconding 4:3 being the absolutely best aspect ratio for working with text. My X220 is amazing in a lot of ways but 16:9 is borderline unusable on any display under ~17 inches in my experience. Even 16:10 feels so much better. You may be interested in making a "T70", which is a 15.4" T61 shell with a contemporary motherboard made by a group of Chinese ThinkPad enthusiasts. I've been considering an "X62" (same concept…

Yep, I am thinking about one of those, but my main problem is not so much the CPU/RAM but the display itself. The 4:3 display in the T61 is just not up to date anymore (e.g. it is utter garbage in every single category). I'd rather have a modern IPS display in 4:3 than a new motherboard but this does not exist.

If there would be a modern "IBM" with a 1600x1200 IPS display in a 14"-ish chassis I would be first in line to buy it.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#94

Post by dzhiurgis »

petercooper wrote: post #63

I feel like the odd one out. I buy a new MBP every 12-18 months (have owned all Intel generations), use my MBP for hours every day, and think the latest is by far the best. Being able to charge on either side is a big deal for me as I move around a lot, plus being able to use 30W USB-C power packs and third party chargers (e.g. Anker) without fear of fire.. a massive boon for me, especially as my phone and Nintendo S…

To me, the only downside is trackpad - it's too large and palm rejection ain't working perfectly.

Keyboard is better, screen is better, ports and touchbar - neutral.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#95

Post by 59nadir »

blhack wrote: post #79
stillkicking wrote: post #33

The current MacBook Pro should've been a separate product line, like the MacBook Air was. Those who are happy with the sacrifices it makes could switch over, but they wouldn't have to leave everyone else out in the cold.

Those should be the new "macbook"s. The pro line should carry pro features.

Pro features like being incompatible with Apple's own products, having shorter battery time, often running hotter than the previous iterations, not having magsafe, etc..

Bringing a new meaning to "tortured artist", opening up for tortured software devs to join in a more literal sense.

Why don't we look for other cool ways to make excuses for things getting worse or being bad, like saying "It's a bad craftsman that blames his tools" and other platitudes to excuse away technology that is legitimately worse than its alternatives? It's so meaningful to everyone around us when we refuse to engage in any kind of discussion about how good things are and why some things could be considered worse than others.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#96

Post by sdfh238 »

I have two issues with the 2017 MacBook Pro work gave me, versus my 2015 at home.

USB-C

Touchbar

Otherwise, I dig the keyboard and larger touchscreen, and the rest is the same.

My guess is the Touchbar is a UX experiment

I'd prefer they just ditch the UI they're moving and enable keyboard shortcuts to respond to notifactions

Re: The best laptop ever made

#97

Post by dzhiurgis »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #56

For me it's the Lenovo T61 with a 14.4" 4:3 display (or any of the older 4:3 IBMs). Yes, compared to modern laptops it is heavy, slow, bulky and has a shitty display but: i) I can replace every single piece of it with a simple screwdriver and ii) 4:3 is still the best aspect ratio for reading and developing. If I am doing the latter I prefer a screen with a lot of height. A 4:3 aspect ratio gives me a tall screen whi…

With high resolution screen and 19:10 (or whatever format macbook has) you can do side-by-side work reasonably well. IDE on side, app on another.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#98

Post by madengr »

sAvi0r wrote: post #83
O1111OOO wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me it's the Lenovo T61 with a 14.4" 4:3 display (or any of the older 4:3 IBMs). Which is why I thought it was odd that he didn't even mention aspect ratio. 16:9, for example, is a deal-breaker for me personally. This limits the kind of devices I have available (and sadly, increases the price point) but I simply can't do 16:9 as I find it too constraining. My options today are 16:10 and 3:2. From a hardware stan…

What do you find constraining with 16:9? It's got more wasted space than 4:3 when you're working with a single window I guess, but who seriously works with just one open window? Maybe I'm having trouble envisioning a modern 4:3 screen, since the only ones I have for reference are a couple old 19" ones I've got lying around but I can't imagine I would comfortably be able to have 3 vertically split files open on a scre…

I miss 16:10. Probably will never have those in a 4k resolution.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#99

Post by thinkythought »

afinno wrote: post #54

It's odd that this was posted as I was thinking along these lines the other day. I have a 2012 Retina 15". The first generation. I spec'd it out at the time hoping for it to last me at least a few years. From 2015 I've been eyeing off every new release of Macbook Pro thinking "yeah this time I'll upgrade" but then I realise there is actually nothing wrong with my current one. Like, nothing at all. I realise the batte…

I'm on the same machine and i feel exactly the same way. It's been used hard for years and actually works BETTER now than when i bought it, with software updates(mountain lion was... questionable). The battery is still healthy, and it still tackles anything i throw at it.

Why would i upgrade to in many ways a crappier computer?

I'm hoping with the new mac pro we get a real macbook pro again. And i'm coming at this from the same place, i've used all different platforms. But this is the best laptop i've ever owned, and my favorite since my old T60. It was the first one that really felt like it not just checked every box, but filled out every corner.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#100

Post by thinkythought »

shalmanese wrote: post #75
afinno wrote: post #54

It's odd that this was posted as I was thinking along these lines the other day. I have a 2012 Retina 15". The first generation. I spec'd it out at the time hoping for it to last me at least a few years. From 2015 I've been eyeing off every new release of Macbook Pro thinking "yeah this time I'll upgrade" but then I realise there is actually nothing wrong with my current one. Like, nothing at all. I realise the batte…

Were the issues with mouse lag on the 2012 model hardware or software related? I tried a 2012 right when it first came out and got physically nauseous from the extreme degree of mouse lag when scrolling. The 2013 never had any problems and I've been using that for the last 4 years.

This was completely corrected in software in the next big OS release. It was HORRENDOUS at launch though. It's smooth as butter on the latest version, with the same hardware. Machine runs cooler too
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