171–180 of 215 posts
So I would never recommend that one, but reportedly this is common among the "low-end" ThinkPads (mine was at around a thousand euros).
I personally prefer desktop workstations. They are better.
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Power states are completely broken. Laptop will randomly turn on when it's in my bag and rev up to ten thousand degrees. If it was in sleep - Dell themselves recommend completely switching off a laptop before putting it inside a backpack: https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps/faq-mode... For somebody who has used MacBooks the last 18 years, this is insane.
The laptops waking up in the backpack until the thermal security triggers or the battery is empty is a Microsoft Windows thing.
Now 4.5 years in: cursor moving randomly, with jitter (the same symptom as before), when TouchPad is activated. Plus: barely used trackpoint is defect.
That device was mainly used with an external keyboard and mouse -- no excessive usage of the built-ins.
I was sucked in by the advertising I guess. They looked very good on paper - good battery life for the time, thin, light, powerful, sleek, latest everything. I've built computer systems for most of my professional career. Looking back on it, how I could have possibly thought some fresh shiny new design first off the production line was going to be rock solid work horse is beyond me. Lack of critical thinking skills I guess.
Now, I buy something like a Dell Latitude. It's an enterprise machine. Translation: a plain, boring design with parts that have been trialed by the XPS/X1 suckers, so most of the bugs are ironed out. Enterprise tends to mean expensive. But they lose 75% of their value in 2 years, so second hand prices are very reasonable, and since Dell offers 5 years warranty on them they can effectively come with the same guarantees as a new one.
Enterprise also means well supported. It's almost night and day. Ring Dell about a Inspiron or even an XPS issue, and you are met with a wall of excuses. Contact them about an Latitude issue, you get a fast response. The one time I wasn't happy with the outcome, I said so in their "how did we go" questionnaire, and they rang me back begging me to let them have another go.
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 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.
What are the specs?
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Dell, they are not wonderful. I have one on a book because it can't sit on the carpet. The other one overheats no matter what, and I have to unplug it for a couple minutes every few hours or it angrily flashes at me and stops charging. usb chargers and devices have many different voltages and power, and they don't always work very well together. It helps to have one format, but it doesn't mean no charger bloat. Cable…
Sounds like Dells chargers are garbage. Yet another reason to stay away from Dell in that case. Never had this issue with any charger in my life. Everything USB should still take normal 5 volts, which any charger should provide without needing negotiation, and anything larger that actually needs more juice also should have the appropriate electronics to handle that (i.e. it's a phone or a laptop or a tablet or simila…
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Power states are completely broken. Laptop will randomly turn on when it's in my bag and rev up to ten thousand degrees. If it was in sleep - Dell themselves recommend completely switching off a laptop before putting it inside a backpack: https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps/faq-mode... For somebody who has used MacBooks the last 18 years, this is insane.
I have never understood why some people want to avoid switching off their computers. I have stopped using Apple laptops more than 15 years ago and since then I have used only Linux laptops. I have no idea whether hibernate worked on my laptops, because this is a feature for which I have never felt any need. I always take care to optimize the boot time on my computers with custom built kernels and carefully selected d…
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USB-C ports have so many features that require extra connections, which makes them costly. And then adding extra ports without those features gets confusing to the end user if it can't properly communicated. Imagine having 4 USB-C ports, but 2 of them are USB 2.0 only. Like that but more complicated because it's a feature on a separate controller. Video out, which requires additional connections to the GPU. Power inp…
> Imagine having 4 USB-C ports, but 2 of them are USB 2.0 only To be fair, that's already how PC laptops are - they have USB-A ports with random colors and symbols on them that you need to figure out which is the good one, so I don't see why they aren't doing the same with USB-C.
That's not the case with the other features I've mentioned.
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 ne…
HP Probook or Elitebook models have upgradable ram, SSD, and are generally serviceable. You can usually find the previous generation on ebay for an inexpensive price.
They just didn't have a 15" metal case in the price range so I got a plastic 16". Overall performance is lower than comparably spec'd HP Z-Book Fireflys I was using, when this Thinkpad T16 G4 hits the upper limits of RAM, it feels like it's using swap on a slow platter drive. Even on lower-spec HP Pro & EliteBooks, they slow down at max RAM but don't just freeze. Our staff thrashes the shit out of gear, so finding decently-priced lower-spec metal-bodied laptops is essential.
Even on latest HP laptops I am able to replace RAM, batteries, SSDs without dealing with epoxied sockets. Haven't had to often, but displays and keyboards could be swapped if absolutely needed last time we had to several years ago. That said, the performance of onboard HP Bluetooth sucks compared to others I've used and their stock bloatware is terrible.
Specific to Lenovo, when I was shopping for a bunch of laptops about 3 years ago there were weird gotchas like "I can get every spec I need EXCEPT backlit keyboard, which kicks me up to the next model, at least $300 more/unit" and "Gee, they solder in a low amount of RAM on this one to make you...yup, spend at least $300 more/unit"...