I've used a Dell Precision 5530 professionally and got a 5570 refurb this year from ebay for ~$800. The fit and finish of the Precision 5000 series is great as far as I'm concerned, though I'm happy the camera is back on top of the screen and would appreciate a 10 key. The work model I used for 3 years and basically the only issue I had was on the Windows side with sleep states (waking up from sleep while commuting). I rarely work long off ac power, but <40% is always kind of a danger zone, especially when doing intensive tasks like CAD modeling. Again, worked connected to Dell workstation dock 90% of the time, so ports are not an issue, but the state of unpowered usbc dongles/micro-docks with hdmi/usba/usbc/++ makes stationary use a non-issue. I also had a 2016 XPS13 I only stopped using as a primary due to lack of ram expansion.
Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
51–60 of 215 posts
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#52Top of the line laptops from e.g. 2019 are very cheap and still competitive with current hardware for realistic use. You can find one with an i9 and 64gb of ram for $5-600, you'll just need to plug it in after a few hours!
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#53I've used a Dell Precision 5530 professionally and got a 5570 refurb this year from ebay for ~$800. The fit and finish of the Precision 5000 series is great as far as I'm concerned, though I'm happy the camera is back on top of the screen and would appreciate a 10 key. The work model I used for 3 years and basically the only issue I had was on the Windows side with sleep states (waking up from sleep while commuting).…
I got a used Precision 5540 from my work. I prefer it to my husband's 2024 Dell. The Linux battery life's even quite good, ~10 hours.
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#54The 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 h…
Mac hardware with *true* Linux support would be heaven. I really hope that Framework can keep improving and get to that level eventually (please Framework, release and ARM chip, please)
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#55The move to USB-C is actually great for compatibility across machines. Europe has a directive for companies to implement USB-C to reduce e-waste from chargers.
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#56I bought a Dell XPS M1210 laptop in 2007. About a year later the laptop died. From what I could gather, the soldering on the NVIDIA 7400 graphics card had failed. Some people were apparently able to reflow it but I had no such luck. In my opinion Dell laptops have never been good. But I never bought another one since that happened, so maybe I've missed out.
Had the same thing with an HP DV7 (IIRC) and nvidia 7600go. Baked it in the oven, and it booted up a handful more times, but ultimately died long before it should have. And I LOVED the more squarish form factor it had.. I got some $$ back from a credit card company (it died before 2 years were up), but I could only find 16:9 replacements..
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#57Top of the line laptops from e.g. 2019 are very cheap and still competitive with current hardware for realistic use. You can find one with an i9 and 64gb of ram for $5-600, you'll just need to plug it in after a few hours!
For laptops specifically, opening them up and blowing all the dust out can be a huge difference. After that, if the fan is making noise, it's not worth attempting recovery. If attempting this, consider whether your source is cheap enough in the case your test exposes this.
Blowing the dust out does run into the problem of some laptops being designed to only open with use of a chainsaw. I've ruined a couple laptops that way.
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#58As 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…
I've been considering Framework or System 76 when my Macbook Pro finally dies.
But that means spending ~$1600-2000 (though, about how much my MBP cost).
It seems to take some good research or a clutch recommendation to spend less than that while getting what I want. And I don't understand how 1080p is still such a common resolution.
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#59I recently got a new Thinkpad for work, can't recall which model. I think L series?
The build quality is nicer than my T530. The bottom cover doesn't have access panels anymore, but it's got just a few captive(!!) screws and the whole bottom comes off. Everything is neatly exposed and you don't need to access the top of the board at all. The bottom cover has plastic clips along with the screws, but they're spring loaded! They aren't simply molded in and cannot snap off. It's some incredible attention to detail.
I've noticed that most recent laptops have the vent behind the screen hinge where it's completely blocked if the screen is closed. Thinkpad has the vent fully exposed. In fact, it exposes more vent when the screen is closed.
Too bad the CPU is a lemon. One of the new AMD chips with a built in NPU. The NPU is slower than the integrated graphics for inference. Not a discrete card, just the GPU baked into the chip.
In contrast, I got a hand-me-down Dell XPS-something from 2020 when I first started this job. It idles IDLES! at 100°C. I tried to re-paste the CPU, but the heat pipes were so small and thin that I crushed one between my fingers. Even with massive airflow through the case from external fans, it never drops below 100C. Absolutely inexcusable.
Looks to me like Lenovo still has it. At least if you're paying real money for a professional level machine. This new Thinkpad is now my #1 most repairable and maintainable machine. T530 is a close second. Absolutely every other laptop I've ever used is tied for last place in the garbage.
Re: Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?
#60I got a Lenovo Legion 7i with a i9-13 and a rtx gpu for work and I have been very happy with it. Build quality is solid imo, it is very upgradable, and the battery size is generous with easily configurable charge limiting. Lenovo also seems to have good support so far. All in all, a professional experience for a consumer device from my point of view.