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ThinkPad X1 Carbon

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Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#301

Post by scholia »

farresito wrote: post #180
djsumdog wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really cared about the keyboard, they all suck. Get an external mechanical keyboard. I've used one with Cherry MX blue switches at two jobs and no one has threatened to murder and/or fire me yet. Guess I'm lucky. :)

I've actually thought about doing so, but I'm always moving back and forth, so right now I think my best choice is to stick with a laptop. I agree that they all suck, but some (most?) of them suck so much they are out of question. I don't know what happened, really. 10 years ago you bought a laptop, no matter which brand, and you would get a decent keyboard. They have sacrificed quality for aesthetics too much, but m…

> I don't know what happened, really. 10 years ago you bought a laptop, no matter which brand, and you would get a decent keyboard.

THIN became a much more important marketing tool than GOOD, or even FUNCTIONAL.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#302

Post by SomeHacker44 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #22

I want to be excited by a good non-Apple laptop. But they're all just so terribly designed. They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy, have grills and screw holes and uneven surfaces and stickers everywhere. I had a T530 for a few years at my first job and just hated it. It had fantastic specs but it felt awful and unreliable and like I had to babysit it. I got a 2015 MBP to replace it after IT damag…

I've had the new MacBook Pro 15" with Touch Bar for several days now. I'm returning it. The Lenovo is what I really wanted, but it doesn't run MacOS.

This Touch Bar is the worlds worst idea. I literally now have to look at the keyboard to type again, like I'm 10 years old. I haven't looked at a keyboard in decades. The machine is going back this week. What a disaster.

And, don't tell me to learn to use Caps Lock for ESC or to type control-[. I've been using VI since 1988, I'm not about to retrain that length of muscle memory.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#303

Post by FireBeyond »

s_kilk wrote: post #225
techwizrd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dell XPS 13 is great. It runs Linux very well. The WiFi is excellent. It's got an aluminum chassis. The part where your hands rest is carbon-fiber composite so it isn't cold in the morning. The HiDPI touch screen is incredible, and the performance is pretty amazing. There is a single hinge stretching across most of the laptop for the screen (like the Macbook), unlike the flimsy set of two hinges on most laptops.…

> It runs Linux very well. I've been researching into the XPS series, and online there are plenty of reports of problems with Linux. Can anyone here confirm first-hand that they have an XPS 13/15 that's running Linux flawlessly?

I have an XPS 13 (9360) - the Kaby Lake Developer Edition.

With Ubuntu 16.04 (or more specifically kernel With Fedora 25, Ubuntu 16.10? No issues.

Wifi is great. Sound. Performance. Display (I have the QHD version).

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#304

Post by jjtheblunt »

Waterluvian wrote: post #22

I want to be excited by a good non-Apple laptop. But they're all just so terribly designed. They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy, have grills and screw holes and uneven surfaces and stickers everywhere. I had a T530 for a few years at my first job and just hated it. It had fantastic specs but it felt awful and unreliable and like I had to babysit it. I got a 2015 MBP to replace it after IT damag…

microsoft surfacebook is magnesium, no?

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#305

Post by SomeHacker44 »

dchuk wrote: post #200

I desperately want exactly this in a Macbook Pro: "The X1 Carbon delivers up to 15.5 hours of battery life. And if you’re running low, the rapid charging feature provides 80% capacity in just an hour." Specifically the rapid charging. Hell I'd be fine with current battery life (6-10 hrs depending on usage) if it could recharge fast. Same goes for the phones.

I just desperately want a full 88 key keyboard in a top spec MacBook Pro.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#306

Post by bitwize »

Waterluvian wrote: post #22

I want to be excited by a good non-Apple laptop. But they're all just so terribly designed. They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy, have grills and screw holes and uneven surfaces and stickers everywhere. I had a T530 for a few years at my first job and just hated it. It had fantastic specs but it felt awful and unreliable and like I had to babysit it. I got a 2015 MBP to replace it after IT damag…

I like to think of ThinkPads (esp. T and X series) as the Tumbler Batmobiles of laptops: they're big, black, chunky, and ugly, but they take a beating and get the job done.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#307

Post by username223 »

j7ake wrote: post #162
old-gregg wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we got accepted into YCombinator back in 2011 (Mailgun), I remember PG looking at our Thinkpads running Linux and asking something along the lines of "what's wrong with you?" , with almost [1] all YC teams using Macbooks. I wonder if it's the Valley culture? There is no way a Macbook can compete with a proper Thinkpad [2] for programmer productivity: the keyboard, the UltraNav, the swappable batteries (you can f…

You hinted at it in the end: MacBooks have good software that works. No troubles connecting to peripherals like printers and projectors. No worries about laptop sucking battery when I close the lid and forget to sleep. And MacBooks have the best touchpad of all laptops.

> MacBooks have good software that works.

More specifically, the stuff I don't want to mess with just works: peripherals and GUI stuff work without intervention, and the thing goes to sleep when I close the lid. And the stuff I want to mess with is still good old familiar Unix. I haven't tried out desktop Linux in awhile, but the Free Software model only seems to work for things coders like to work on in their spare time, like terminals, text editors, and command-line programs. For the rest, I'm willing to pay my fellow coders so I don't have to deal with it.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#308

Post by Scoundreller »

pyre wrote: post #281
adamweld wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is Hacker news. Since when did having screws accessible to the user become a bad thing?

The screws are accessible on my MBP 2015. They are just not in recessed screw holes, and are flush with the body of the laptop.

Ya, I'm really not sure what they're on about. I took parted-out a Macbook Air, and it was the easiest laptop I've ever disassembled. Having everything built for the specs of one manufacturer means a lot less 'glue' to make it all one piece.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#309

Post by sigil »

My Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2nd gen is still going strong 3 years later, but this 5th gen is pretty tempting.

Main questions:

- Are these "up to 15.5 hours of battery life" numbers purely theoretical? Even brand new, my 2nd gen only got about 6 hours of normal usage. I run Ubuntu so maybe these power saving tweaks are the result of closer hardware integration with Windows?

- The mobile broadband option (Qualcomm Snapdragon X7) is intriguing, it would save me carrying around a separate hotspot. Has this worked for any Linux users? What carrier do you recommend?

- Any reports of the Wigig Dock working on Linux?

Pros that I can see:

- Real function keys! The adaptive touchpad on my 2nd gen is awkward and silly -- can't believe Apple followed their lead on this. Good riddance.

- That the 5th gen is even smaller and lighter boggles the mind. My 2nd gen is already ridiculously thin. After 5 years of hauling 5-8lb T4x models around NYC my back was killing me, and I was probably on the verge of permanent physical injury. The X1 was a godsend.

- Same old Trackpoint I know and love. Not for everyone, but a mouse on the home row + vim is ergonomic heaven for me. Never change, Thinkpads!

Cons that I can see:

- Looks like almost the same display as my 2nd gen, a 2560x1440 WQHD IPS. A small bump up in nits but that's it. Viewing angles are better than on older laptops, but I still can't read my screen in bright environments, and it gets gummed up with debris and smudges way too easily. Apple continues to dominate in this dimension.

- Matter of taste, but the Silver design feels like Lenovo is trying way too hard to look Apple-y.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#310

Post by FireBeyond »

tbrock wrote: post #26

This looks like a very nice computer. I really applaud dell for trying to make the XPS 13 somewhat Linux friendly but they really do feel cheap. Lenovo thinkpads, while not having the quality they had during the IBM era, are still head and shoulders above Dell in this regard. This is the Linux laptop to get in 2017.

As someone who recently got an XPS DE coming from a Mac background, I'm not sure what you mean about feeling cheap. Metal. Sturdy. Single hinged display (which is infinity edge, so is smaller than my MBP 13). The 'rubberized'(?) surrounds of the keyboard actually feel nicer on my wrists than the MBP which was actually sharp-edged. I prefer the keyboard to my 2015 MBP, and my girlfriend's 12" MB. No creaks, flexes, and still lighter than my MBP.
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