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The Best Size of a Laptop
31–40 of 76 posts
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#32…is 14”. It is the perfect balance between portability, weight, and screen real estate. I’ve tried 13”, 14”, 15”, and 16”. 14” is where it’s at.
I've got an LG Gram 17-inch laptop that weighs about the same as a 13-inch macbook air.
Having a huge screen on a super-light, super skinny laptop is so handy for portability and all the extra screen real-estate is great for a developer. Its difficult to go back to a 14-inch.
I wish more laptop manufacturers would make ultra-lights with large screens.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#33Tengentially: Since a lot of us are hybrid workers now, can't we have a better solution than having to constantly schlep our laptops to work and back? I want an easily pluggable SSD that doesn't dangle precariously out of the side of my laptop. Something like the old PCMCIA form factor. Then I could have a work laptop and a home laptop.
At that point, why not have a home desktop and a work desktop? You've been able to have external hot-swap SSDs in a relatively small form factor for years. They make m.2 hot swappable frames[0]. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/j4ilsa/m2_ssd_in_a...
I would not be able to move a desktop between offices easily, and also it would not be comfortable on my lap.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#34I had a Lenovo S10 netbook too back in the day. I have fond memories of it, but I definitely don't 'miss that tiny size'. It was so tiny that they had to shrink the key size on the keyboard to make it fit, and the trackpad was also so tiny as to be barely usable. Nowadays, I'd say 14" is the sweet spot. Compact enough to easily fit in a bag and be taken basically anywhere, without having to sacrifice much if anything…
i really think iPad nailed the perfect combination of screen size and aspect ratio. i just wish they'd still make it in a proper laptop version, i don't want iPad OS.
i had a netbook back in the day, and it was okay but the 16:9 aspect ratio really let it down. on a screen that small, 4:3 makes a big difference.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#35Laptop size doesn't matter. Laptop weight is what matters.
Weight is probably more important overall, but size can make or break usability in specific situations. A 16” laptop is not fun to try to use in an economy airplane seat for example, but a 12”/13” (especially if it has a trackpoint to cut down necessary arm movement) works great in the same circumstance.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#36Back in the day, I had a Fujitsu Lifebook P-1120 with an 8.9" screen. It was perfect, but eventually fell behind the times. Even then, I kept using it for writing until it completely died.
I replaced it with a X200 and then X220 Thinkpad, which is still what I use for everyday computing needs. At 12.5" it works well for me, and even that is a tad bit large. I would happily go with a laptop with the same performance specs with a 9" screen. (Although, I doubt anything else would support the same onboard storage options my current X220 has: mSATA, SATA, SD card, and NVme in the ExpressCard slot are a very convenient mix for me.)
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#37Tengentially: Since a lot of us are hybrid workers now, can't we have a better solution than having to constantly schlep our laptops to work and back? I want an easily pluggable SSD that doesn't dangle precariously out of the side of my laptop. Something like the old PCMCIA form factor. Then I could have a work laptop and a home laptop.
You mean like the Framework laptop modules?
I don't know, maybe! I just did a half-arsed google and got an M.2 adaptor that doesn't look like it's designed for daily swappage? But maybe you're talking about something else.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#38The MacBook air 11" in 2012 was my favorite laptop by far. Maxed out with an i7 and 8GB RAM it handled everything I needed to including multiple InteliJ projects. The resolution today seems obscenely low, but it was completely usable and the compactness was of great utility, practical for use while traveling. I've bought tablets multiple times thinking it could replace it, it just isn't the same. It's a real shame th…
Really was a brilliant machine. I still have one on a desk paired with a Cinema Display. Weighed nothing when out and about and turns into an iMac at home. Mine is in its dotage now because the battery only lasts about an hour so it never leaves the house or does much heavy lifting, and it’s been replaced with a 14 inch MacBook Pro M3 alongside an 11 inch iPad Air. So pleased that Apple got rid of that pointless Touch Bar and returned to function keys. My M3 is like a platonically good laptop even though I wish it was a touch lighter. I managed to type out a 140,000 word book on my iPad when travelling. Having started on 8-bit home computers I’ll never stop being amazed by the world of computing hardware perfection we now live in.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#39Laptop size doesn't matter. Laptop weight is what matters.
> Laptop size doesn't matter. Laptop weight is what matters.
Depends what you do with them. For years I have used laptops in development simply to avoid all the wiring associated with desktops, and for doing things like running the JetBrains tools, screensize and CPU does matter.
I don't do dev anymore, so my priorities have changed.
Re: The Best Size of a Laptop
#40The MacBook air 11" in 2012 was my favorite laptop by far. Maxed out with an i7 and 8GB RAM it handled everything I needed to including multiple InteliJ projects. The resolution today seems obscenely low, but it was completely usable and the compactness was of great utility, practical for use while traveling. I've bought tablets multiple times thinking it could replace it, it just isn't the same. It's a real shame th…
I had one, and I really liked it, but the 13" MBA just edged it out for me due to the added comfort and visibility. I've had various MBPs, but I continue to prefer a 13" MBA over a decade later. Any other laptop I try just feels inferior.
The bezel size on the 2011 11" air vs the current 13" air with its Retina display makes that upgrade a no-brainer. 2011 11" was my prior fav, but 2024 13" air is the new king.
I recently spent 2 hours working on an airplane in economy class on a 16" pro, and all those extra specs didn't help me ssh to a cloud instance, and that large size made it extra tough. Air is the best.