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VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

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Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#91

Post by jfoster »

userbinator wrote: post #52
owenversteeg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what.…

There are a number of times I've had to present something, and the "non-VGA" laptop crowd was unable to, for various reasons, but a VGA port will cut the crap and get you an image on screen no matter what. It's wet? Stepped on it? Bent pins? It'll still work, dammit. Maybe your slides will have a blue tint, but you'll get em up there. This is also the advantage that analog signals have over digital ones: HDMI is basi…

"All or nothing" isn't necessarily a problem. The problem is when it's "nothing" too often.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#92

Post by mrpippy »

formercoder wrote: post #46
PedroBatista wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most projectors ( the installed base ) only accept VGA. VGA is old it's analogic and works. The target demography for this laptop are the people who actually have to solve problems that people with laptops with one port create. So they have no tolerance for more problems. ( This is a caricature, but.. )

Really? I feel like I haven’t seen a projector with only VGA in years. Could be a biased sample though.

Right, the projectors themselves aren’t VGA-only (because of course they’re not—-when did you last see a VGA-only monitor?). But the room infrastructure often still is, so there’s only a VGA cable coming out of the wall.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#93

Post by NikolaNovak »

na85 wrote: post #51
nine_k wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A ton of upsides. * The hand does not leave the hone row. * It never by mistake registers your hands as a click or a movement. * Your skin can be extremely wet or dry without consequence. * You can continue a motion without being limited by the size of the trackpad, because you don't modulate the position directly, but its first derivative. This removes tension between being precise and having the range. * It separat…

Honestly, I disagree with your last point. There may be some "pros" who prefer the clitmouse but I consider myself a "pro user" in that I use my laptop(s) every day for work and for personal stuff, and I greatly greatly prefer a quality trackpad. Apple in particular ships laptops with excellent trackpads. If all you've used is the garbage trackpads that get shipped with most Dell or Lenovo laptops, then sure I can se…

There certainly are many pros of various kinds who prefer the trackpad; in fact, I would say that in any given group (however we define "pros" and "amaterus" when it comes to laptops:), most people will prefer trackpad. But I am to this day convinced it's simply the learning curve - until the day I see a video or a person using trackpad that doesn't make me cringe in the same way that a two-finger key-hunter does.

I can understand that this seems patronizing, I struggle to put it in a way that doesn't seem personal, but for years I have witnessed colleagues who claim to be excellent with trackpad, they love it, it's great... and then they take 3-5 times longer to get things done as they go swipe... swipe... swipe oh there I am at the other end of the screen... swipe... swipe... oh there's the button:-/

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#94

Post by NikolaNovak »

Ambroos wrote: post #9

It's pretty funny how this has basically the same ports (besides the USB C for charging) as my 2010 VAIO Z. VGA is the most surprising one to still see. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is. I can't really see them targeting the corporate market.

In the corporate world, it's stunning how many portable and built-in projectors, or board-room TVs, have only VGA. Basically I always need to have a VGA dongle in my laptop bag unless the laptop has the VGA port itself.

Outside of corporate world though, it's still frequently the lowest common denominator. Everything else has simply existed less time and been part of fewer machines. If not VGA then what - HDMI? DisplayPort? USB-C? Choices explode and you never quite have the right port / cable / dongle...

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#95

Post by nfoz »

Causality1 wrote: post #84

God in heaven it actually has separate mouse buttons too. I forgot how sick I am of having to crank my thumb three inches to the right just to make sure I'm going to right click.

It's a requirement I have of any laptop, and they're tragically hard to find. It's the main reason I like these modern VAIOs and will probably get one.

I'd buy a Purism in a heartbeat if it had dedicated touchpad buttons.

My only other suggestions are some Dell Latitude 7xxx models (e.g. 7390, 7490), or maybe a Fujitsu. None of the Lenovo touchpads count anymore (why are the buttons at the top!?)

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#96

Post by astura »

isoskeles wrote: post #86
owenversteeg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what.…

> "for the people who actually have to solve problems” Yeah, if you’re not using VGA ports you’re not solving problems...???

No, it's just that VGA ends up as a "good enough" solution to problems way more often than you'd think.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#97

Post by joezydeco »

owenversteeg wrote: post #45
Ambroos wrote: post #9

It's pretty funny how this has basically the same ports (besides the USB C for charging) as my 2010 VAIO Z. VGA is the most surprising one to still see. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is. I can't really see them targeting the corporate market.

VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what.…

it's a real hacker's port, dammit!

Too young to remember the PC parallel port? That was the hacker port.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#99

Post by teamski »

nextos wrote: post #60
teamski wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you taking about recent VAIO machines? If yes name then.

For example, the very recent SX14: "Unfortunately, Vaio commits a huge blunder when it comes to the fan control. Ideally, the fan should not run at all while the device is idling. The opposite is true for the Vaio SX14: The fan always runs with 32.5 dB(a), which is definitely audible. Under load, the fan becomes much louder with 43.9 dB(a), which is annoyingly loud." https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vaio-SX14-i5-8265U-F…

Ok good to know. Fan control is super important, the only one managing this well with different and really working profiles seems to be Dell. Lenovo just started to get better there (with the S940 which is quiet but because of heavy throttling and no options for profiles, however better than the way around).

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#100

Post by alanbernstein »

nine_k wrote: post #44
jjoonathan wrote: post #27

What are the practical and functional use cases that benefit from a clit mouse vs, say, a trackpad? Genuine question, I've seen them on older laptops but I always assumed they were purely vestigial from a time when trackpads were no good. Also, mandatory: in Russia, clit mouse is blue .

A ton of upsides. * The hand does not leave the hone row. * It never by mistake registers your hands as a click or a movement. * Your skin can be extremely wet or dry without consequence. * You can continue a motion without being limited by the size of the trackpad, because you don't modulate the position directly, but its first derivative. This removes tension between being precise and having the range. * It separat…

Kind of off topic, but is there a standard way to emulate a wheel with a track point? I have a desktop keyboard with a track point and the lack of a wheel is a bigger nuisance than I expected.
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