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How and why I stopped buying new laptops

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Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#71

Post by dehrmann »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #13
rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

That word is: lack of market research. I recently finished up shopping for a Windows laptop. It took awhile, as I balanced price with features. You'd be shock how many otherwise decently config'ed offerings lacked a key and basic feature (e.g., backlit KB), or was deficient in some key way (e.g., mid-priced models with only 8 GB RAM soldered, no ability to upgrade). I agree. Some might not need backlit or more than 8…

> That word is: lack of market research.

Market research said the iPhone would be a flop.

Most of the time, it's right, but every once in a while, you'll miss an opportunity if you follow market research too closely.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#72

Post by nuker »

dmichulke wrote: post #35
rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

In German you have verschlimmbessern - making something worse in an attempt to improve it

Germans are cheating a bit, they just concatenate existing words and "hey, we have a word!"

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#73

Post by bryanrasmussen »

amelius wrote: post #68
rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

> We need to actually coin a word to describe "company solved their use-case wonderfully and can't resist fiddling around with it for reasons that don't align with their user-base. Apple can only serve so many people well. Apparently, you are not the "average" customer. I'm in this exact situation every time I go shopping for shoes and find out I'm not within 1-sigma from the mean. It sucks, but it's how mass product…

>Apparently, you are not the "average" customer.

So supposedly the average customer needs USB ports, but only on one side of the computer?

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#74

Post by nuker »

mancerayder wrote: post #64
chiefalchemist wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That word is: lack of market research. I recently finished up shopping for a Windows laptop. It took awhile, as I balanced price with features. You'd be shock how many otherwise decently config'ed offerings lacked a key and basic feature (e.g., backlit KB), or was deficient in some key way (e.g., mid-priced models with only 8 GB RAM soldered, no ability to upgrade). I agree. Some might not need backlit or more than 8…

> (e.g., mid-priced models with only 8 GB RAM soldered, no ability to upgrade). Aw, man, that's been a sticking point for years, that magic 8G. I don't know how they do it, but 8G of RAM has been the ever-soldered / or mid-range / you-need-to-pay-more-for-the-next-model-up thing for at least 5-6 years now. Even a web browser can eat up that 8G if it's hungry enough.

For some CPUs 8G is the maximum amount, makes sense soldering it. J4105 for example on my SBC.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#76

Post by yangikan »

bxparks wrote: post #29

I guess I've been doing something similar. I currently use 9 laptops (2 Windows, 5 Linux, 1 MacBookAir, 1 Chromebook). Only the MBA11 and the Chromebook were purchased new. The rest were bought on eBay for $250-$600. After getting them, I max out the RAM, replace the HDD with SSD, or upgrade the SSD. A few of them needed some parts replaced (e.g. fans). The battery almost always needs replacing at some point. Fortuna…

Where do you get the batteries from? The HP batteries I get from Amazon give up on me after 3 months.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#77

Post by nuker »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #19

I also stopped buying new laptops. The full biological cost is hard to fully imagine, just incredible in size. If you think about it, hundreds and thousands of plant, bacterial, animal, mammal, bird, and other lives are laid down for each of these amazing powerful artefacts. If there are previously used alternatives available, I cannot in good conscience vote for the creation of another one. So I started with a coupl…

> As a coder, working on something older

Have you seen Retina HiDPI displays? You'd never go back.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#78

Post by Traster »

dehrmann wrote: post #71
chiefalchemist wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That word is: lack of market research. I recently finished up shopping for a Windows laptop. It took awhile, as I balanced price with features. You'd be shock how many otherwise decently config'ed offerings lacked a key and basic feature (e.g., backlit KB), or was deficient in some key way (e.g., mid-priced models with only 8 GB RAM soldered, no ability to upgrade). I agree. Some might not need backlit or more than 8…

> That word is: lack of market research. Market research said the iPhone would be a flop. Most of the time, it's right, but every once in a while, you'll miss an opportunity if you follow market research too closely.

Is there actually market research that said the iPhone would be a flop? Becuase I remember the launch, and people went wild.

This just sounds to me like one of those stories people tell but isn't true. People didn't want a bad iPhone, sure, but that's not the same thing.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#79

Post by chrisseaton »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #73
amelius wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We need to actually coin a word to describe "company solved their use-case wonderfully and can't resist fiddling around with it for reasons that don't align with their user-base. Apple can only serve so many people well. Apparently, you are not the "average" customer. I'm in this exact situation every time I go shopping for shoes and find out I'm not within 1-sigma from the mean. It sucks, but it's how mass product…

>Apparently, you are not the "average" customer. So supposedly the average customer needs USB ports, but only on one side of the computer?

I would guess the average customer rarely needs USB ports. Most people use Bluetooth and WiFi. Needing to plug in a physical device seems pretty niche to me these days? The only exception is the charger and monitors. I guess it helps them reduce costs, which customers appreciate, to only have the bus going to one side of the laptop.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#80

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jhoechtl wrote: post #59
chiefalchemist wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps. But more landfill trash? That sounds like a 20th Century business model. But to your point, let's take it a step further. Most people aren't going to bother to upgrade their RAM. It's likely they won't even know. Even so after three years they'll want some new feature. But who do you give that to? At least if the RAM could be upgraded, it could have some added use. I'm not so sure that bonus round is being f…

Economy and ethics is not a partnership made in heaven.

Economy in the purest sense is, but financial profit is not. People seem to confuse economy with financial functions. Companies seem to do most things for financial reasons, particularly profit to owners, not economic reasons. I think this distinction is important as "economics" hides the egregious use of business for financial gain at the cost of much else in society.
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