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Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

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Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#11

Post by dijonman2 »

fetus8 wrote: post #5

I recently was in the market for a laptop for personal use, and wanted to spend around $1200-1400 USD for a Windows based machine. All I wanted was a decently powerful CPU, higher resolution screen, and a thin and light body. I simply couldn't get past the fact that most laptops in that price range are gaming focused, and have non-user replaceable components. They also tend to have plastic bodies and most I saw were…

Entry level Durabooks go for $1500. It’s a little heavy, but it’s serviceable and not made of cheap plastic.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#14

Post by mindcrime »

My recently (ish) purchased System76 box "just worked" right out of the gate. More so than even I expected, as I had thought I would probably replace their PopOS distro with something else. But I gave it a whirl, found that it works just fine, and stuck with it.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#15

Post by xcdzvyn »

smrtinsert wrote: post #12

What about thinkpads again? I think they have the better keyboard anyway compared to other lenovos (or at least used to). personally on 2020 m1 here though.

The keyboards are still good, but getting worse. They're already a significant downgrade from the IBM editions, but still better than pretty much any other laptop. They're clearly ready to sacrifice a lot in the name of size though. Both the cooling solution and battery life are also pretty poor.

Or you could opt for a T-series ThinkPad, but they come with their own host of issues. And you're still missing out on everything a MacBook does better.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#17

Post by Kon-Peki »

xcdzvyn wrote: post #15
smrtinsert wrote: post #12

What about thinkpads again? I think they have the better keyboard anyway compared to other lenovos (or at least used to). personally on 2020 m1 here though.

The keyboards are still good, but getting worse. They're already a significant downgrade from the IBM editions, but still better than pretty much any other laptop. They're clearly ready to sacrifice a lot in the name of size though. Both the cooling solution and battery life are also pretty poor. Or you could opt for a T-series ThinkPad, but they come with their own host of issues. And you're still missing out on eve…

The Thinkpad range has become very broad. You have to buy a really high-end one to get good quality.

But the other problem we've seen over the last few years is that you can order one and have no idea when it will actually arrive. Apple, on the other hand, has been rock solid with their delivery estimates (current China lockdown situation may change that - too early to tell).

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#18

Post by pathartl »

Work just upgraded me to an HP EliteBook 835 G8. It's got a Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U and 24GB of RAM. I do mostly .NET/ASP.NET development and it's seriously fantastic. Form factor is good, repairability is good (granted our company is also an HP authorized service center), I/O is good (really only missing eth), and it has a matte display with a touchscreen.

I really think that Apple devices get so much clout mostly due to advertising.

My issues with my iPhone 7 radio made me switch to Android after they told me it was Qualcomm's fault that it wasn't bonded to the PCB properly.

My 2009 MacBook Pro 13" had some sort of issue where the SATA III part of the controller died and I was forced to either pay $800 for a new logic board because I had upgraded the RAM or use an optical drive HDD caddy which ran at SATA I(?) speeds. I had also had the logic board replaced once and the screen replaced twice less than a year after I got it as the screen had stopped working. Don't remember the actual cause of the issue, but seeing as it was covered I have a feeling there was a known issue with that line.

My girlfriend's 2011 13" MacBook Pro ended up with non-functioning USB ports due to a known but never recalled, even silently, issue with a chip on the logic board. Again, would have been a $500+ logic board replacement "fix".

My 2016 MacBook Air 13" started to develop a crack on the black plastic piece covering the hinge because of heat stress. I paid for the most "performant" SKU and after one major macOS update it was practically unusable.

My mom's 2017 MacBook Air 13" worked fine until this past year where the trackpad and keyboard died. Sure, got 5 years out of it, but this is also a very common issue as far as I can tell from research. Also, who the hell routes the keyboard through the trackpad? That's madness.

This is all anecdotal for sure, but I am staying away from Apple products from now on based on my experience. Especially these days with the machines having non-user-serviceable parts, I just can't take the risk anymore. What happens when my logic board inevitably dies? All of my data on that device is toast with no way to recover it. Ultimately you have to purchase something that's going to work and is serviceable... either by yourself or a service center.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#20

Post by ComradePhil »

cutler wrote: post #19

Stay with the "Mac way". It's far better than Windows. Take disk imaging, for example. As far as I'm aware you need special software to image a Windows system but with Mac OS X it's a feature. OS X is also BSD Unix so you have far superior cli.

Windows has a MUCH superior cli these days because of WSL.
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