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VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

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Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#191

Post by ghaff »

Tharkun wrote: post #185
znpy wrote: post #179

Its just moronic how laptop companies are rushing to make smaller laptops at the cost of basically everything. A ThinkPad-X220-sized laptop would still be absolutely acceptable both in size and weight, and could have all (or at least, most of) the ports that one could need. And swappable battery, keyboard, ram, disk etc.

I don't understand the appeal of anorexic laptops. Sacrificing repairability, cooling, features, and connectivity. All so it can be thinner and lighter? What's the use case for that? Are there really millions of people who walk around with a laptop cradled in their arms every day? Surely these laptops spend the majority of their active time either on a desk or in a lap? Have desks become so flimsy that they can no lo…

Travel. So, yes, shaving weight and bag space is pretty important for some of us.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#192

Post by milkthefat »

cm2187 wrote: post #172

It is great that it has an RJ45 port, something that almost disappeared from every other model of laptop. Unfortunately my experience with the movable plastic thing they use is that it is not durable (it was on the original z series from before the reboot). The plastic bracket bends and/or goes away and the port becomes pretty much unusable.

The Sony z series RJ45 hinge was just a bad design. Having used other brands that have this style port specifically the Dell latitude 7490 they function much better. Dell will likely continue to have a laptops with dedicated rj45 ports for a long time at least on business models.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#193

Post by codingdave »

Tharkun wrote: post #185
znpy wrote: post #179

Its just moronic how laptop companies are rushing to make smaller laptops at the cost of basically everything. A ThinkPad-X220-sized laptop would still be absolutely acceptable both in size and weight, and could have all (or at least, most of) the ports that one could need. And swappable battery, keyboard, ram, disk etc.

I don't understand the appeal of anorexic laptops. Sacrificing repairability, cooling, features, and connectivity. All so it can be thinner and lighter? What's the use case for that? Are there really millions of people who walk around with a laptop cradled in their arms every day? Surely these laptops spend the majority of their active time either on a desk or in a lap? Have desks become so flimsy that they can no lo…

> Are there really millions of people who walk around with a laptop cradled in their arms every day?

Yes. The sales force of almost very company I've worked at can be described this way. And their computing needs are pretty basic. A browser, email, word and excel mostly does it for them. They also need to be able to connect to a variety of I/O for presentations at different sites.

This may not be a coder laptop, but it makes a ton of sense for sales.

> Have people grown so weak they can no longer carry one in their bags?

On this point, the answer is also yes. I got that weak after an bad accident. My wife got that weak after falling 25 feet and shattering herself. Don't assume that all users of laptops are young and strong.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#194

Post by ghaff »

as1mov wrote: post #170
yyyk wrote: post #119

Half the comments seem to be surprised by VGA. But just about every 1080p monitor has the port, and even Steam statistics[0] show that over 60% of their users use 1080p, and about 75 percent use resolutions that are VGA compatible. 4K computer monitors are still uncommon - and Steam is likely tilted towards higher resolutions. In short: Most existing monitors support VGA, and probably a good deal of those actually us…

I've found VGA on literally on the TV's and monitors I've come across until now, regardless of which end of the price spectrum they are on. Plus these ports are durable too, you might get some glitchy tinted picture due to dust/bent pins, but it's better than nothing. Just last week, my team had to attend a meeting where our manager was going to project a presentation on a TV, sadly the HDMI port of the TV was not wo…

It's slowly changing. The last 2 or 3 conferences I was at had HDMI which I could plug directly into my MacBook Pro. But I still always carry a VGA dongle around as well.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#195

Post by gsich »

nfoz wrote: post #95
Causality1 wrote: post #84

God in heaven it actually has separate mouse buttons too. I forgot how sick I am of having to crank my thumb three inches to the right just to make sure I'm going to right click.

It's a requirement I have of any laptop, and they're tragically hard to find. It's the main reason I like these modern VAIOs and will probably get one. I'd buy a Purism in a heartbeat if it had dedicated touchpad buttons. My only other suggestions are some Dell Latitude 7xxx models (e.g. 7390, 7490), or maybe a Fujitsu. None of the Lenovo touchpads count anymore (why are the buttons at the top!?)

>why are the buttons at the top!?

to use it with the trackpoint or the touchpad. You can use your thumb for the touchpad and you'd be surprised how much better it is that way.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#196

Post by yyyk »

y4mi wrote: post #186
yyyk wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VGA can barely do 2K not 4K, so most 2K and all 4K computer monitors don't include it. So it's not exactly that VGA is 'everywhere', rather that 4K computer monitors are a small section of the market, enthusiasts aside. 4K TVs are much more common - but many of those still have a VGA port (I guess TV owners are much more forgiving?).

I got a full HD (vertical, IPS), 2k (IPS) and a 4k (TN) screen on my desk. All have VGA. I also have a 4k tv on my wall. It also has VGA.

You have 4K equipment with a VGA port. But does it actually do 4K when using VGA or does it just downscale? I haven't ever seen any VGA cable which can go above 2048×1536, and that's also the maximum wiki mentions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector#Cable_quality

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#197

Post by gsich »

myself248 wrote: post #57
owenversteeg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what.…

> it's a real hacker's port, dammit! Oh yeah, the i2c interface disguised as DDC is my favorite part. With a few wires, you can interface any i2c eeprom with command-line tools. But projectors, oh yeah, I hear ya. VGA came out in 1987 and rapidly became ubiquitous. I think the Intel Skylake in 2015 finally shipped without integrated VGA, that's as clear a mark as you'll find for the closing of a chapter. And the cool…

>Oh yeah, the i2c interface disguised as DDC is my favorite part. With a few wires, you can interface any i2c eeprom with command-line tools.

You can still do that with HDMI, but VGA makes it very easy with some jumper wires.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#198

Post by marzell »

codingdave wrote: post #193
Tharkun wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the appeal of anorexic laptops. Sacrificing repairability, cooling, features, and connectivity. All so it can be thinner and lighter? What's the use case for that? Are there really millions of people who walk around with a laptop cradled in their arms every day? Surely these laptops spend the majority of their active time either on a desk or in a lap? Have desks become so flimsy that they can no lo…

> Are there really millions of people who walk around with a laptop cradled in their arms every day? Yes. The sales force of almost very company I've worked at can be described this way. And their computing needs are pretty basic. A browser, email, word and excel mostly does it for them. They also need to be able to connect to a variety of I/O for presentations at different sites. This may not be a coder laptop, but…

Coders can and should use remote systems for heavy lifting tasks IMO. A laptop should be setup more like a thin client and not have any ip on it that can be lost/stolen.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#199

Post by SECProto »

Buge wrote: post #70
SECProto wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, to me it just reminds me of a standard laptop from a few years ago. I have a consumer lenovo from a few years back, and it has all those ports except the USB-C.

What laptop is that? Because this laptop has a lot of very weird ports (I'm leaving out USB-C): 2 micro USB-B ports, one with quick charging 3.0, one with USB OTG so the laptop can be used as an external mouse and keyboard for a different computer even when not booted. 2 ethernet ports, one with power over ethernet supporting 3 different standards for POE. 5.5x2.5mm power connector, fullsize SD reader, micro SD reade…

I meant the original post reminds me of a standard laptop from a few years back. the one linked on habr.com is quite unique and interesting. But the Vaio SX12 linked in the original post just has a standard amount of laptop ports (3 usb-a, 1 usb-c, Ethernet, VGA, SD card, HDMI, headphone/mic).

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#200

Post by y4mi »

yyyk wrote: post #196
y4mi wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a full HD (vertical, IPS), 2k (IPS) and a 4k (TN) screen on my desk. All have VGA. I also have a 4k tv on my wall. It also has VGA.

You have 4K equipment with a VGA port. But does it actually do 4K when using VGA or does it just downscale? I haven't ever seen any VGA cable which can go above 2048×1536, and that's also the maximum wiki mentions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector#Cable_quality

it upscales and its refresh rate is quite limited (i think to 25fps).

we're talking about the presence of the connector, which let people actually use these screens - even when its not with the full resolution

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