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Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

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Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#21

Post by ferguess_k »

Hacker_Yogi wrote: post #12

The quality you get for the money from Mac's is truly unmatched by any other laptop out there - why not use a VM on it for other OS & software?

I don't disagree with you. I really really love the hardware -- and BTW it would be a dream if I get to work with OS/Hardware people in Apple. I don't like the software, especially the OS built-ins, but I guess I can find alternatives in App store.

I might eventually go down this route, if I can't find a reasonable good one. I use VMWare in Windows to access Linux on my 5550, so it's not a far stretch to switch the host.

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#22

Post by juancn »

Using Macbooks spoils you. They're so well made that almost everything else feels shoddy.

There's also the software/hardware integration side.

Power management on Macbooks is unbeatable in my experience, both Windows and Linux have really serious issues dealing with sleep and low power modes.

On the Lenovo side, the only one I'm still reasonably happy with is my Thinkpad, but it pales compared to a Macbook (Air, Pro or whatever).

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#24

Post by xnx »

juancn wrote: post #22

Using Macbooks spoils you. They're so well made that almost everything else feels shoddy. There's also the software/hardware integration side. Power management on Macbooks is unbeatable in my experience, both Windows and Linux have really serious issues dealing with sleep and low power modes. On the Lenovo side, the only one I'm still reasonably happy with is my Thinkpad, but it pales compared to a Macbook (Air, Pro…

Windows via BootCamp was my laptop nirvana. I'm not sure the emulated Windows experience on newer Macs is the same. No Nvidia inside is also a bit of a dealbreaker.

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#25

Post by chaostheory »

ferguess_k wrote: post #13
ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #7

>The other issue is that 5550 uses USB-C ports. I blame on myself not checking it closely before the purchase. I really hate those ports. Why is everyone copying from Mac? It's not copying Apple. It's that every port does everything, including charging. It is standards-compliant. As just one example, you no longer need to lug a laptop charger with you; there are no longer "computer chargers" and "phone chargers", but…

The thing is, everything I bought don't use those ports. I have to buy a new keyboard and a new mouse (wireless mouses also need a driver dongle) for the ports. And what is worse? New laptops have less ports than the older ones. That 5550 only has 3 ports and 1 is for charging. If I want to mount an external hard drive, I need to bring a hub. What again, looks like everyone is doing that, so yeah, better embrace it.

Rapid change and new things are an integral part of tech especially laptops. This is a strange complaint

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#27

Post by mwpmaybe »

Yes, it's a race to the bottom for most. Lots of plastic and soldered, non-upgradeable components, and a lack of ports. The used market is tricky to navigate thanks to the proliferation of model names and numbers, so little to no salvation there either. Spend a bit more for something that will last a bit longer (MacBook) and/or be upgradeable (frame.work), or accept a cheaper model (e.g. Dell Pro) that will likely need to be replaced in a couple years.

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#28

Post by bryanlarsen »

ryandrake wrote: post #9

As someone also trying to get out of (or at least less dependent on) the Apple ecosystem, the laptop market sucks ! Everyone but Apple is making the same garbage-tier, shoddy, plastic laptops with bottom of the barrel components that I'm sure are engineered to just barely work enough to avoid immediate product returns. I'm starting to accept that if I want a development workstation class machine, I need to build a to…

When you walk into a Best Buy, the small majority of non-Apple laptops seem to be made of metal, even the $300 Chromebooks. They look and feel more premium, but probably aren't.

The sad thing is that plastic should be the best material to make laptops from. It's lighter, and it gives when dropped. Think about the cases everybody puts on their phones. They're not made of solid metal, for good reason.

The old Thinkpads had it right, they used a magnesium frame surrounded by high quality plastic.

My MacBook Pro is well made, but it's also a pound heavier than it needs to be.

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#29

Post by WithinReason »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #6

Are you really complaining about old battery packs and USB C ports as bad engineering? I think you should try the framework laptop because then you have no excuses about the trivial things.

George Hotz is unpacking his new Framework right now and he's not happy: https://www.twitch.tv/georgehotz

Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?

#30

Post by dpark »

bluecalm wrote: post #16
renewiltord wrote: post #4

The market is splintered into high-end work laptop, low-end work laptops, gaming laptops. Only Apple has the brand value to be in the first set. Everyone else is in a market for lemons.

I think Apple makes really nice hardware but you can get better specs in as light (or lighter) frame elsewhere. I can compare AMD T14 Thinkpad to a Macbook. Thinkpad is faster, has more RAM (easy to get 64GB now), better keyboard. It's also louder, hotter and the screen is probably worse (mine is low end so it's significantly worse but idk how high end OLED compares). Macbooks have much better sound. Thinkpad runs Li…

“Better specs” is precisely why most laptops are garbage. There is no spec for “months until the screen starts visibly ghosting” or “percentage of the time standby doesn’t happen so your laptop is dead when you need it”. So you end up comparing the stats that are available, like GB/$, when for most people these are not the biggest factors in their day to day experience with the device. (If speed and memory are the biggest factors then a laptop is clearly the wrong device.)
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