I have a still working 2010 Acer 4810TG upgraded with a SSD and 8GB RAM, I use it to play very old games and a little of Internet browsing, for that it still works.
I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
81–90 of 551 posts
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#82I average 8 years and two batteries for a laptop since I switched to Macbooks, prior it was about 5 years and one battery. MacBooks have a much better lifecycle.
Aren't new models with soldered batteries as well? The lifecycle is a disaster, especially if you would like to change the drive or upgrade the ram, you simply can't
In some countries Apple provides a battery replacement service for the Macbooks at a fixed price, but you have to leave it with them for a little while like any other service.
I think the price is reasonable for the quality of the batteries. The Apple price was much lower than a local Apple reseller store quoted for battery replacement - they pretended not to know about Apple's own service, and when I showed them they said they couldn't match Apple's price as it was too low.
The inability to upgrade storage space is a big problem though. Apple storage is prohibitively expensive up front yet you know you might run out of space during the long life of the device. External drives work and are fast so that's the practical solution but it's not as convenient.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#83“Laptops don’t change” Really? because a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18. And with faster processors, thunderbolt 4 and USB C charging, wifi 6, better screens and lighter. I keep hearing this argument for not buying a new laptop every year and it just doesn’t hold water. I say buy the latest MacBook, expense it, factor it in as a monthly cost. These are expendable and essential tools. The…
> a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18
At what point do battery improvements become completely unnecessary? Who's out here using their laptops for 18 hours continuously? It's like an electric car that can go 2,000 miles on a single charge; YAGNI. The vast majority of people would be perfectly well-served by a smaller, lighter, less expensive laptop that cuts down the battery to just 10 hours.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#84I have a Thinkpad T460p myself, and its battery lasts as long, or longer, than most new laptops I've seen!
I was just searching for a new one for a friend, and noted that most new laptops are absolute garbage, total crap. Most have the same specs as mine, almost a decade later, WTF (yeah, "new gens", whatever)
It's really sad, we are dropping all quality for mere quantity and consumerism...
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#85“Laptops don’t change” Really? because a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18. And with faster processors, thunderbolt 4 and USB C charging, wifi 6, better screens and lighter. I keep hearing this argument for not buying a new laptop every year and it just doesn’t hold water. I say buy the latest MacBook, expense it, factor it in as a monthly cost. These are expendable and essential tools. The…
It is well-known that planar transistors are more reliable than FINFET.
It is usually agreed that the end of planar transistors was the last process node of 28 nanometers. Everything below this (14, 10, 7, 5, 3, and 2 nanometers so far) is less reliable.
The fastest, lowest power, and most reliable CPU in a laptop will be on a 28nm process node. Everything beyond this sacrifices reliability for speed and lower power.
(And if you really care about lower power, then you are on ARM.)
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#86My version: Intel did not do shit for 10 years. That’s it.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#87“Laptops don’t change” Really? because a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18. And with faster processors, thunderbolt 4 and USB C charging, wifi 6, better screens and lighter. I keep hearing this argument for not buying a new laptop every year and it just doesn’t hold water. I say buy the latest MacBook, expense it, factor it in as a monthly cost. These are expendable and essential tools. The…
Do you actually buy a new laptop every year? I feel that's a bit delusional. Year to year most upgrades are pretty minor. An argument can be made maybe every 3 years if you're doing some incredibly resource intense stuff.
> When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Edit out swipes.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#88[deleted]
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you actually buy a new laptop every year? I feel that's a bit delusional. Year to year most upgrades are pretty minor. An argument can be made maybe every 3 years if you're doing some incredibly resource intense stuff.
I do a lot of Android and iOS app compilation (Lots of flavors/schemes of apps). So lately the upgrades in cores has meant a faster upgrade cycle for my work dev machine than for the intel based MacBook Pro era. I’m sure Apple can’t keep up this pace of the last few years though. Back in early 2000s we used distcc for distributed compilation of QT apps and reused old workstations in a server room. But with XCode and…
Why don't you buy an EPYC/Threadripper workstation then? Even best M2 laptops still can't compete with hackintosh on dated 3970x
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#90Typing this from my `MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)` ... Also have two working ThinkPads in use in my household that are older where I've had to replace the CPU fans, at some point they just crumble, but otherwise work OK-ish (but maybe getting to a point where I should really retire them).
The Pre-touchbar Retina Macbook Pros were the perfect laptop for the era. They could run a bit hot (but what didn't, back then?). Excellent hardware quality, and can generally still run well today if you don't do anything demanding. I've got a 2013 13" that doesn't have a single issue other than age.
The touchbar feels to me like a time bomb that explodes when Apple thinks it's time for you to give another stack of cash to them.