Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s delusional is highly paid engineers not investing money in essential tools to get their work done. A new laptop is 1-2% of the annual salary of many people here.
I think there is nothing wrong with investing in equipment. I think there is something wasteful with replacing a laptop every year. Unless its some crazy jump in hardware between cpu/gpu generations that you weren't in sync for.
I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
151–160 of 551 posts
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#152I just bought a new Macbook Pro and have been using it for ~1 week. Even compared to my previous 2019 Macbook Pro, it's a huge step up in build quality and speed. If you spend any time waiting for code to compile, web pages to load, or dependencies install, I'd say buy the fastest laptop you can find. I'd guess this new machine has already saved me around 20 minutes of waiting. At that rate it will pay for itself in…
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#153I got tired of laptops being: non-upgradable, poorly designed, overheating, having cheap components, cheap materials, so I'm switching to a backpackable mini-ITX build. For a journalist, even a first gen iPad should do the trick, but for quick compilation and development in general with all those heavy apps and daemons even a relatively fresh laptop CPU just doesn't keep up. The only two downsides are: no battery, sp…
Also they probably take up the whole backpack instead of being "backpackable". And they might be built like laptops (proprietary form factor, mobile/ultrabook CPU, etc.) depending on the model.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#154I often buy a ~one generation old phone for this same reason. It's just so much better value to buy someone else's phone. The folks who keep buying the newest generation tech often seem to take really good care of their gear - perhaps because they plan to resell it later. I haven't done this as much with laptops because I do tend to keep those for such a long time that I can reasonably amortize a bigger investment ov…
But the biggest reason (for me) to replace phone is to get security updates; buying used is counter-productive to that end
Apple supports their phones for a very long time. They updated iOS 12 this year with security fixes, so that covers iPhone 6 and up.
https://www.macworld.com/article/675021/how-long-does-apple-...
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#155“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…
So you buy a new laptop every year? What do you do with your old one? Throw it away? Or sell it? If you're selling it who do you think is buying it? You do realise most people don't need the fastest processor, an 18 hour battery life, thunderbolt 4 or WiFi 6 And better screens and lighter weight are relative. If I upgrade my 10 year old laptop to a 5 year old laptop I'm still realising those gains. Next year a better…
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#156Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
18 hours advertised is usually running a locally stored video file on loop at medium to low screen brightness and some light web browsing. My 18-hour laptop is more like 8-10 hours of real work usage, which is still fantastic compared to the 2-3 hours I would get at similar tasks 6-7 years ago. Another big change is improvements to sleep and standby time. I can use half the battery, close the lid, and be reasonably c…
Ans in which context do you find yourself needing to be even 8 hours in a row on your computer without being close to a power plug? You can even charge your computer in planes now!
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#158I got tired of laptops being: non-upgradable, poorly designed, overheating, having cheap components, cheap materials, so I'm switching to a backpackable mini-ITX build. For a journalist, even a first gen iPad should do the trick, but for quick compilation and development in general with all those heavy apps and daemons even a relatively fresh laptop CPU just doesn't keep up. The only two downsides are: no battery, sp…
And not being able to use it on the couch, on the toilet, outdoors in your backyard, on a plane, on a train and so on.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
18 hours advertised is usually running a locally stored video file on loop at medium to low screen brightness and some light web browsing. My 18-hour laptop is more like 8-10 hours of real work usage, which is still fantastic compared to the 2-3 hours I would get at similar tasks 6-7 years ago. Another big change is improvements to sleep and standby time. I can use half the battery, close the lid, and be reasonably c…
I want my EV to last a month on a single charge and yet some people are arguing against battery improvements. Crazy.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
So… you can do more, faster, for longer, then? Sounds like a good argument for upgrading
The article author is a journalist, I bet his speed depends on his speed of typing and not the speed of his laptop. He could to more, faster and longer but if he doesn't the extra costs are useless.