Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Best Size of a Laptop

gokmengorgen.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 76 posts

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#4

Post by dragontamer »

17" gives enough room for a numpad (some 15" have it too but it's pretty universal at 17"). It seems to be where screen space is comfortable for long term use

But if I'm going into a small airplane (ex: Spirit Airlines), such a laptop is impossible to use.

It really depends on what your on-the-go space is. 15" seems like the overall standard to me however.

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#5

Post by dv_dt »

dragontamer wrote: post #4

17" gives enough room for a numpad (some 15" have it too but it's pretty universal at 17"). It seems to be where screen space is comfortable for long term use But if I'm going into a small airplane (ex: Spirit Airlines), such a laptop is impossible to use. It really depends on what your on-the-go space is. 15" seems like the overall standard to me however.

I respect the requirement some have for a numpad. However, at this point, I don't even have a numpad for my desktop workstation. I like the shorter reach between the home keys and a mouse on the right.

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#6

Post by cosmic_cheese »

tony-allan wrote: post #2

For me, laptop size is about the screen size that suits what I am doing. For software development I am happy with a 15" MacBook Pro.

It’s task-dependent for me as well. For development I think the current 16” MBPs are really about perfect, but for the use case of studying, web browsing, etc something in the range of 12-14” and as light as reasonably possible without negatively impacting battery life is about right.

For those smaller machines, I think a squarish (5:4, 4:3, 3:2, or 16:10) aspect ratio with a body exactly as wide as a full-size laptop keyboard (as seen in 12” PowerBook G4, 12” MacBook, and ThinkPad X220) is particularly good, but nobody makes those anymore.

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#7

Post by dataflow »

sgarland wrote: post #3

…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.

Agree, but you gotta be careful to measure both the laptop size and the screen size though. Some of them have a lot of passing around the screen.

If there was 14.5" I would prefer it though. Although I wish they focused more on the keyboard than the display.

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#8

Post by zabzonk »

I have recently bought an Asus Zenbook 14 (inch) OLED with Intel 9 Ultra CPU and ARC graphics. It's the best laptop that I've ever had - fast, light and decent battery life (though I'm not so worried about that). And it was quite cheap - less than 900 GBP.

I agree 14" is the best size, unless you want a desktop replacement, to keep the wires out of the way, in which I would go for 16" or 17".

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#9

Post by cosmic_cheese »

dv_dt wrote: post #5
dragontamer wrote: post #4

17" gives enough room for a numpad (some 15" have it too but it's pretty universal at 17"). It seems to be where screen space is comfortable for long term use But if I'm going into a small airplane (ex: Spirit Airlines), such a laptop is impossible to use. It really depends on what your on-the-go space is. 15" seems like the overall standard to me however.

I respect the requirement some have for a numpad. However, at this point, I don't even have a numpad for my desktop workstation. I like the shorter reach between the home keys and a mouse on the right.

Best of both worlds in my opinion is an external numpad, which can be placed to the left of your laptop/keyboard (which if you’re right-handed, also enables simulatanous numpad and mouse usage) and when it isn’t needed, tucked away.

Re: The Best Size of a Laptop

#10

Post by whalesalad »

zabzonk wrote: post #8

I have recently bought an Asus Zenbook 14 (inch) OLED with Intel 9 Ultra CPU and ARC graphics. It's the best laptop that I've ever had - fast, light and decent battery life (though I'm not so worried about that). And it was quite cheap - less than 900 GBP. I agree 14" is the best size, unless you want a desktop replacement, to keep the wires out of the way, in which I would go for 16" or 17".

Notice any burn-in issues with the oled?
Post reply on HN