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Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#181

Post by mort96 »

NorwegianDude wrote: post #174

You don't say where you are located, but unless you are in one of the few places where Dell doesn't offer on-site next business day support then XPS 13 is a great laptop. Their support is amazing: "We're not sure what is causing it, but we'll send someone to replace the whole motherboard tomorrow." "OH, your currently halfway across the world on a island? No problem, we'll be there tomorrow" I really don't understand…

I've had a couple XPS laptops over the years, one XPS 13 and one XPS 15. Both have had issues with their trackpads getting wonky. They would just increasingly ignore inputs and react incorrectly to my finger. The XPS 15 (the 2-in-1 model) would also sometimes just not go to sleep and cook itself in my bag, and its keyboard has keys which just break over time under normal use, and that's not covered under warranty. You can't just replace the keyboard, you have to pay out of pocket to replace the whole top case of the laptop.

Your experience might differ, but I'm not getting a Dell again.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#184

Post by blurrybird »

NorwegianDude wrote: post #174

You don't say where you are located, but unless you are in one of the few places where Dell doesn't offer on-site next business day support then XPS 13 is a great laptop. Their support is amazing: "We're not sure what is causing it, but we'll send someone to replace the whole motherboard tomorrow." "OH, your currently halfway across the world on a island? No problem, we'll be there tomorrow" I really don't understand…

You should see their 4 hour 24x7 ProSupport option.

We managed to bundle it in with a 1600-device order one year and I was (un)fortunate enough to get to experience it.

“So if I understand correctly, You’ve just spilt a red bull on your work laptop at a LAN party you’re facilitating just now, and it’s 1AM, and you need your laptop tomorrow morning for bump out…?

Ok does 3:30am work for you?”

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#185

Post by [deleted] »

ur-whale wrote: post #157
selfmodruntime wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious dev work is not done mostly on a small screen. Your laptop is a moveable computer that will be connected to your workstation monitor. I own a 14 inch macbook and rarely use it without a display.

If you use it hitched to a monitor, then why not have a proper workstation? The whole point of having a laptop is being able to use it on the go. I travel by train and plane extensively and I write code on it during the trips. 14 inches is unusable.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#186

Post by tymm »

jgb1984 wrote: post #162

Laptops are all together awful. I can't imagine working on one for more than a few hours. My self built desktop blows any laptop out of the water in speed, comfort, reliability, upgrade / repair potential and ergonomics (obviously ignoring portability).

In terms of speed, at least when we look at mostly single-threaded work load (like most dev work is), a M2 Macbook Air is faster than every Desktop PC. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#187

Post by mopsi »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #147
ur-whale wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 14inch display. Yeah, but for serious dev work, 14 inches is just a flat out no. 16 inch is the bare minimum and already feels cramped.

Serious dev work is not done mostly on a small screen. Your laptop is a moveable computer that will be connected to your workstation monitor. I own a 14 inch macbook and rarely use it without a display.

Why drag around a laptop, if you have monitors everywhere anyway, and I assume you could easily add a full PC too?

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#189

Post by weberer »

NorwegianDude wrote: post #174

You don't say where you are located, but unless you are in one of the few places where Dell doesn't offer on-site next business day support then XPS 13 is a great laptop. Their support is amazing: "We're not sure what is causing it, but we'll send someone to replace the whole motherboard tomorrow." "OH, your currently halfway across the world on a island? No problem, we'll be there tomorrow" I really don't understand…

Just make sure the model you're getting supports S3 sleep mode (AKA real sleep mode) before hand. A lot of the newer Dells don't. Its something the OEM needs to support in the BIOS, so you can't just fix it by installing a new distro.
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