VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports • Hacker News Board

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#161

Post by lucb1e » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 9:37 AM UTC

Droobfest wrote: post #109

microdrum wrote: post #68

How cool. I wonder if I’m the only one: I just placed an order for my first Windows laptop in 11 years. The Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 7. Apple’s overthin design, heavy aluminum, bad thermals, throttled chip, soldered parts scam is over for me. Love macOS but fact is Windows is nice now and I’m back to the fun days of weird and wild hardware. Feels great.

I generally agree with you, but what's wrong with aluminum?

Not OP, but for me I hate it whenever anything metal touches it. Jacket zipper, wristwatch band and/or clip, perhaps a ring for married people, it's awful. Yay for plastic.

Same for phones. My previous one was a Samsung Note 2: plastic, slightly bent back. Then I tried a Xiaomi MI A1 and (after sending that one back) a Huawei P10 Lite, metal and glass respectively. I hated metal more, but both are awful. It's flush with any table, hard to pick up, even harder if the screen is on and you don't want to touch anything, and it slides out of your hand if you want to use it one-handed in anything other than a near laying down flat position while still operating the screen.

People say (about plastic, both in laptops and in phones) that it gives a premium feeling. It doesn't to me, but it's also just terrible UX wise, so they can keep it.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#162

Post by daddylonglegs » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 9:43 AM UTC

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.

As well as the large number of existing installations that others have mentioned, VGA has a couple of advantages: You can send VGA signals over long cable runs (I installed a 50m run 20 years ago for example) and it's simpler than modern interfaces.

An HDMI connection has to be negotiated (including HDCP) and - for more than ~5m of cable - you will need to convert it to some other standard for the long run (and negotiate HDCP at each end). The conversion will probably be a proprietary system running over ethernet cables and will be a black box when it comes to trouble shooting.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#163

Post by ThatPlayer » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 9:52 AM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #139

patrick5415 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m glad they haven’t. That ginormous trackpad is a huge turnoff to me.

It's the one thing that makes me think I have to stick to a MacBook. All the small touchpads are too fiddly for my liking. Does it turn you off because you feel that you would touch it whilst typing, or is it something else?

I prefer using the keyboard nub on my ThinkPad myself, and have the touchpad disabled. If I'm typing, it's easier to use a nub. If I'm not typing, then I'd probably prefer a touchscreen for more accuracy.

As long whatever I'm doing doesn't require precise movements, then a touchscreen is good enough, and easier to use. If it's something harder to touch with big fingers (say position in code), then I'd probably rather use arrow keys anyways.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#164

Post by pedrocr » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 9:52 AM UTC

kelnage wrote: post #129

yyyk wrote: post #119

Half the comments seem to be surprised by VGA. But just about every 1080p monitor has the port, and even Steam statistics[0] show that over 60% of their users use 1080p, and about 75 percent use resolutions that are VGA compatible. 4K computer monitors are still uncommon - and Steam is likely tilted towards higher resolutions. In short: Most existing monitors support VGA, and probably a good deal of those actually us…

And of course there are still a lot of VGA-only projectors out there (especially the ceiling mounted ones in meeting rooms) - having a VGA port is a godsend when you come across them!

I don't think you've been able to buy a VGA-only projector for a long time now. What I tend to find is projectors that have HDMI and DP ports left unused and connected to VGA only. And then everyone carries around a HDMI or DP to VGA adapter for them...

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#165

Post by tinus_hn » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 9:54 AM UTC

spockz wrote: post #132

tinus_hn wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A TV without an HDMI connector? That has to be ancient.

Sometimes the tv is mounted and only a vga cable is left around to interface with. Good luck plugging in the hdmi cable into the tv mounted in a cabinet.

Clearly the laptop is to blame for that.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#166

Post by buboard » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 10:06 AM UTC

microdrum wrote: post #68

How cool. I wonder if I’m the only one: I just placed an order for my first Windows laptop in 11 years. The Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 7. Apple’s overthin design, heavy aluminum, bad thermals, throttled chip, soldered parts scam is over for me. Love macOS but fact is Windows is nice now and I’m back to the fun days of weird and wild hardware. Feels great.

I would like X1 to be a little thicker actualy, perhaps have the same ports as the X series. Or maybe i would like a 13.3 inch X series. lenovo could expand in that region

And i wouldn't oppose to an aluminum design, as someone who is not very careful with the things.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#167

Post by alluro2 » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 10:11 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #33

userbinator wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of (very, very expensive) projectors still use it, and a good VGA cable will work well beyond 1080p resolutions, so why not. The connector is also more robust than the effete HDMI/DisplayPort/etc. ones that have tiny pins, purely by being bigger.

I have spent a good amount of time working with 10 and 12k DLP projectors and they all support HDMI just fine.

So, "I have seen the examples of opposite, so what you're saying is never true"?

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#168

Post by mulmen » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 10:11 AM UTC

tinus_hn wrote: post #128

mulmen wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just last week I presented a project on a TV from my 2017 MacBook Pro. I used a USB-C to HDMI adapter to connect to the HDMI to VGA connector to the VGA cable to the TV. I had to reconnect it three times and open and close the laptop to get it to work properly. A paperclip would have been much easier.

A TV without an HDMI connector? That has to be ancient.

The TV is new, it might actually be a huge monitor. There just was no HDMI cable in the room. The TV still has a VGA connector (and cable!) on it though.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#169

Post by carlsborg » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 10:12 AM UTC

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.

Fedora 30 defaults to two finger tap as right click. Your os might allow you to configure the same. Try it - there is no going back.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#170

Post by as1mov » Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 10:15 AM UTC

yyyk wrote: post #119

Half the comments seem to be surprised by VGA. But just about every 1080p monitor has the port, and even Steam statistics[0] show that over 60% of their users use 1080p, and about 75 percent use resolutions that are VGA compatible. 4K computer monitors are still uncommon - and Steam is likely tilted towards higher resolutions. In short: Most existing monitors support VGA, and probably a good deal of those actually us…

I've found VGA on literally on the TV's and monitors I've come across until now, regardless of which end of the price spectrum they are on. Plus these ports are durable too, you might get some glitchy tinted picture due to dust/bent pins, but it's better than nothing.

Just last week, my team had to attend a meeting where our manager was going to project a presentation on a TV, sadly the HDMI port of the TV was not working so everybody's Macbook and it's dongles were useless. My manager had to resort to transferring the presentation file to my HP Probook and using it to present, which thankfully still sports a good set of ports (the only gripe I have is the lack on DP/mini DP).