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HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

ifixit.org

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Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#51

Post by pizza234 »

dahauns wrote: post #32

Two models I'd like to add to this as examples that this is actually possible with all form factors: First the The HP Elite X2, a Surface Pro-class tablet. Quite analogous to the EliteBook - sadly the RAM is soldered (IIRC one of their first actually still had a SODIMM slot): https://ifixit.org/blog/8135/hats-off-to-hps-repairable-tabl... https://ifixit.org/blog/9309/hp-elite-x2-1012-g2/ And second, the Fujitsu Lifeb…

> The HP Elite X2, a Surface Pro-class tablet

This tablet is absolutely fascinating; it turns the "cost of repairability" of a pro-tablet into a material measurement : 100g on 700g (14%).

I wonder, all things being equal (which of course, it's not realistic), what's the impact on the attractiveness to the general (not HN) public. It would be significant even it if would conquer a "solid nieche".

To make an interesting comparison, a 12.3" Elite X2 weighs as a 15" Surface Book 2 (though the latter has a different form factor, while stil being in the pro-tablet category).

(~700g is the standard weight of a "pro-tablet": 12.x inches, without (cover) keyboard)

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#52

Post by c256 »

Nullabillity wrote: post #20
koyote wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not just repairing, it's being able to upgrade. I have a 6 year-old Lenovo and it's still performing amazingly. Since buying it I have upgraded the HDD twice (to an SSD and then to a slightly larger and faster SSD), upgraded the RAM once and even upgraded the screen (to a higher resolution IPS display that was backwards compatible). If I had bought an un-upgradable laptop I'd probably already have had to buy…

Yup. It's also surprisingly hard to find a decent new laptop these days. About a week ago I started at a new company, and was asked to find a laptop that I wanted. The cheapest one with a 1TB SSD was ~$2000, and the cheapest one that would be decent out of the box was a $1300 Dell. Instead I ended up getting a $600 gaming laptoo with a decent CPU, and installed the RAM and SSD myself for $450, ending up with a far be…

The only gaming laptops I’ve seen that weren’t vastly inferior to both every Mac currently sold and also the EliteBook line from the OP in terms of battery life and portability costs between 3.5-5 times what you said you paid. Mind sharing what make and model you got? Thanks.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#53

Post by mrtksn »

willtim wrote: post #50
mrtksn wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhone batteries are easy to replace by a shop or by the user. iFixit(the article source) sells batteries and screwdrivers to do it. Your claim doesn’t seem to have grounds.

People have only recently found out that Apple have been slowing down the iPhones in software to lessen the load on older batteries. I also disagree that changing the battery is "easy", I suspect some people may not even realise it is an option.

Well, Apple just recently slowed down the phones with poor battery conditions.

As for the easiness of battery replacement, you can check out iFixit as they literally rate devices on that metric.

Here is the rating for the iPhone 6s: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_6s

As for the uninformed public, that’s not really a future of the iPhone :) The public is misinformed about many things. For example, up until now, you were among those people.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#54

Post by sz4kerto »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #27
sz4kerto wrote: post #22

My refurbished Zbook had problems with the screen (it looked like). I called HP, engineer came to my flat few hours later, replaced the screen for a new one. He tested it and realized that it's still flickering, so he replaced the GPU. Things worked well, so he left. All of this took ~ 45 minutes. Ah, and it happened in CEE, not in the USA, so it's even more surprising.

What kind of special warranty did you get for them to do that for you?

Next business day onsite. It's a normal option for business laptops.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#55

Post by dagw »

Nullabillity wrote: post #41
dagw wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly see doing that if it's your own money. But if I start a new job and the first thing they do is make me cobble together a laptop of spare parts so that they can save a few hundred bucks, then I'm sending out my resume later that afternoon.

They didn't ask me to cobble something together, they asked me to find a good laptop below $1500.

I don't know. In my experience if a company won't buy me the laptop I need on day 1, it's a good sign I'm going to be spending the rest of my time there having to fight every time I need a new screen, or hard drive or mouse or just about anything else.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#56

Post by detaro »

c256 wrote: post #52
Nullabillity wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. It's also surprisingly hard to find a decent new laptop these days. About a week ago I started at a new company, and was asked to find a laptop that I wanted. The cheapest one with a 1TB SSD was ~$2000, and the cheapest one that would be decent out of the box was a $1300 Dell. Instead I ended up getting a $600 gaming laptoo with a decent CPU, and installed the RAM and SSD myself for $450, ending up with a far be…

The only gaming laptops I’ve seen that weren’t vastly inferior to both every Mac currently sold and also the EliteBook line from the OP in terms of battery life and portability costs between 3.5-5 times what you said you paid. Mind sharing what make and model you got? Thanks.

Many developer laptops probably live on a desk most of the time, so these two things are easy to sacrifice for many.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#57

Post by pmlnr »

epanchin wrote: post #30
pmlnr wrote: post #26

That's how all business line laptops are - Latitudes, ThinkPads, Elitebooks. That's how they've been for decades.

Unfortunately Levono has ditched this approach with the x280.

Not even remotely true: the keyboard is again a simple replace, unlike the in the X240-X270 line. Yes, the RAM is soldered, but that's all.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#58

Post by willtim »

mrtksn wrote: post #53
willtim wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have only recently found out that Apple have been slowing down the iPhones in software to lessen the load on older batteries. I also disagree that changing the battery is "easy", I suspect some people may not even realise it is an option.

Well, Apple just recently slowed down the phones with poor battery conditions. As for the easiness of battery replacement, you can check out iFixit as they literally rate devices on that metric. Here is the rating for the iPhone 6s: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_6s As for the uninformed public, that’s not really a future of the iPhone :) The public is misinformed about many things. For example, up until now, y…

None of your ifixit links disprove my claim that "People are upgrading to new iPhones because their glued-in battery is end-of-life".

> The public is misinformed about many things.

No, this is different. There is a conflict of interest here, it is not in Apples interest to promote battery replacement.

> For example, up until now, you were among those people.

Please try to debate with politeness and good manners.

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#59

Post by Xylakant »

willtim wrote: post #44
Xylakant wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The glued-in battery makes fixing it at home harder, but comes with significant weight and space savings. It’s a trade off, like so many things and many people (including me) are willing to accept it. Apple is not the only manufacturer to do this, my Thinkpad has a non-user-serviceable battery as well. It’s not like the battery cannot be replaced, and I’m willing to have my machine serviced at an authorized repair sh…

My Thinkpad Carbon X1 has a user-replaceable battery and is practically the same weight and size as a MacBook Air. So it is certainly not a compromise I agree with. The "disposable" label was a bit harsh, but there are other compromises in the MacBook Pro, for example the SSD, which is more prone to failure than other components, is soldered on to the logic board.

We may have a different notion of "user-replaceable". I'd only consider a battery that can be swapped without opening up the laptop user-replaceable. Soldering the components to the board is the same kind of trade-off: It saves weight, space and increases battery lifetime. You also compare the relatively new X1 with an outdated (though still sold) Macbook that was designed and built at a time when no laptop even got close to the size, weight and battery life of a MacBook Air, especially the 11" version. There were other laptops just as small, but they'd compromise on battery life, others that had the same battery life, but weighted more. Granted, it's certainly an extreme compromise, but I know more than a handful of people that would never trade their 11" Air for anything else. You can, btw., have the SSD changed, it's not soldered to the board for Airs. It's just an uncommon form factor that few vendors sell. See https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook-air/macbook-air-f... for example

Re: HP EliteBook: A friend to the User

#60

Post by Xylakant »

gokhan wrote: post #49
Xylakant wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinkpads might be a good option. Linux support is fairly good, especially the older models and the T-Series does have some models with upgradable RAM and battery. (Not the slim T4x0s)

Got a T450s with upgraded ram to 20GB, 4gb soldered + 16 added by myself. Got two batteries. Internal one can't be changed but the back battery is surely detachable / replaceable with a larger one.

right, I have a T460s and the extra back battery doesn't exist for that model any more.
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