
Show HN: LaptopHits.com – see what laptops people are talking about online - plankton_sb
http://www.laptophits.com/
======
plankton_sb
Hi all, I want to find a job as a RoR developer, but as I have ~10 years
coding gap in my CV (I played poker, ran poker forum and did other poker
related things) I decided to start some real life projects to build my GitHub
portfolio.

LaptopHits.com is the first one. Idea came to me when two of my friends wanted
to buy new laptops and asked me,'the computer guy', for some recommendations.
I'm not laptop expert, so I usually ask for price range, display size, brand
preferences and check some popular forums for laptop recommendations. To save
some time doing this I wrote LaptopHits.com. It should collect all laptop
mentions from all online discussions, but for now, as it's just MVP version,
online discussion == Reddit comments and laptop mentions == Amazon links.

What do you think about it ?

~~~
Dwolb
I believe there's a ton of uncovered value in parsing Reddit threads,
especially those centered around buying or discovering things. Subreddits like
r/BuyItForLife, r/malefashionadvice, r/rawdenim, and any city subreddit have
great suggestions.

In fact when I need a new laptop, I'll use Google to search Reddit and change
the filter settings to show only recent reviews i.e.

```windows laptop site:reddit.com/r/suggestalaptop```

~~~
TkTech
It's not really uncovered, it's actively used and exploited. There are
thousands of companies doing trend & sentiment analysis that use Reddit as one
of the input. I've been paid to do it a couple of times.

------
pryelluw
Idea: Pivot into ProductHits.com and do this for different categories. Use
Amazon affiliate links and promote it on social media by making videos and
blog posts about "this weeks top ten products".

You owe it to yourself to make this. :)

PS. If you dont I will. ;)

~~~
plankton_sb
Yeah, I was thinking about it. Laptops looked like a good category to start it
with.

~~~
pryelluw
Dont think too much. This is a solid idea that is very marketable.

------
gliderShip
Visiting the first link (Dell 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop) on amazon the price i
see is $799.99. Visiting in private browsing
[https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-
Pr...](https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-
Processor/dp/B015PYYDMQ) the price changes to 699$. Is this standard practice
for amazon?

~~~
smonff
If you need to buy plane tickets, it is also recommended.

~~~
eb0la
The time of day is also an important factor in smart pricing.

Usually everything goes up when people is not asleep or at work.

Like if prices were different at the mall when it is full.

------
mxuribe
This is great, and perfect timing too (considering proximity to holiday
shopping)! Also, the minimal styling keeps things running faster, and in a
non-obtrusive manner.

One small/tiny recommendation: you may want to add a little more content as to
the background on this...so visitors understand where the data comes from
(mentions in reddit forums, etc.), and that while this doesn't encompass
everything on the internet, it skews toward mentions from tech-centric
websites, etc. Again, don;t need to go crazy, just expand a tiny bit more on
the data background...and hey, might as well insert something about you (which
might help you get more coverage for future jobs! ;-).

Otherwise, kudos for shipping this! Cheers!

~~~
plankton_sb
Thank you for suggestion. :)

------
reacharavindh
+1 for the minimal styling. Although I am starting to wonder if we could do a
better job with the choice of colors and typography alone still living with
the minimal CSS/JS trickery.

One website that caught my attention made me bookmark for inspiration was
[http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-
puddi...](http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-pudding)

For their use of typography, usage of lines, hexagonal contrasting title bits.
I am not a web designer. Just ranting about something I liked as a end-user.

I have no relationship whatsoever with the website I linked to.

~~~
arenaninja
Conversely, I prefer OP's styling over the one in the link you provided.

~~~
mrkgnao
The design has a bit of confectionery about it! :)

------
notheguyouthink
Good timing for this product! With so many Macbook Pro users upset and looking
for Linux _(like myself)_ , being able to find a laptop with excellent build
quality will be really nice!

~~~
ryanSrich
So you're switching your entire operating system because of Apple's lack of
creativity with new laptops? Seems like a bit of an overreaction (unless
you're planning on building a hackintosh).

~~~
notheguyouthink
What "loyalty" do i have to OSX or Apple? Why does it matter? Yes, i can
switch an OS when i please, i purposefully don't tie myself to the OS _(where
possible)_. Eg, i'm a terminal user and 90% of my workflow is in iTerm. It
will be the same on any Linux box.

Furthermore, my OSX experience has been absolute shit. When i got my macbook
pro ret, it crashed frequently. It became stable after a while, so yay i
guess. Lately, after upgrading from Mavericks to Sierra, it went back to shit.

Apparently i'm foolish for using Mavericks _(came with my laptop)_ and Sierra
when they are fairly new. From many OSX users, it's apparent that Apple
releases terrible products, and i am silly for using them in the beginning.
This is reason _alone_ enough to switch.

Regardless, i'd gladly stick with OSX over Linux, but seeing as Apple only
releases _one laptop_ in the tier i want, i don't have much choice do i? I
either buy what they dictate, or i switch OSs. Not really my preference to
switch to Linux, but it's the only option i have if i don't want to buy the
new Macbook Pro Ret.

------
thirdsun
I absolutely love the clear, fast, no-nonsense and almost Pinboard-like
styling and layout.

~~~
mxuribe
Absolutely agreed!

------
Yhippa
I know it's an MVP but I miss this old style of faceting. These days selecting
or unselecting a facet takes so long. The clean aesthetic really appeals to me
also. I guess modern companies need ways to differentiate themselves and big
nasty designs are they say to go.

------
dyukqu
_Laptops with an ethernet port_ filter would be great. They are going to be
_extinct_.

~~~
0xfeba
Business orientated laptops are the last bastion. ThinkPad/Lenovo, Vostro,
etc.

~~~
nandhp
Some budget laptops -- like the Acer E5 series currently at #2 -- seem to
still have Ethernet ports, presumably because they are relatively thick.

------
wyldfire
Is there any semantic analysis? Is there any trend of people talking about
these laptops to say "stay away from ..." ?

~~~
plankton_sb
No, but usually in comments people link to products they recommend. It's a
little bit different with submissions, as they can be posts like "I narrowed
it down to these 3 laptops, what do you think about them ?" which is neutral
or something like this. That's why I collect reddit comments only.

------
Tepix
Nice! A feature request: I'd like to be able to filter by graphics card.
Specifically when I'm looking for a gaming notebook I will probably want a GTX
970, GTX 980, GTX 1070 or GTX 1080.

~~~
nthot
Totally off topic from the feature request: You might want to include the 1060
in your list of graphics cards if you are willing to include the 970m (laptop
version). The newer laptop 1060 is somewhere around 5 to 10% slower than the
desktop variant, and the desktop variant is roughly equivalent to the old
desktop 970. The 1060 should be a pretty good improvement over the 970m. It
might end up saving you money as 1060 laptops start popping up to replace the
960m laptops.

------
lfx
Nice job! A feature request: Filter or note showing if laptop has numeric
keypad. I can't stand those, no idea why manufacturers add those to every
single bigger laptop.

~~~
khedoros1
A lot of people like them. I've always considered it a desirable feature, and
though that omitting the numpad was just a compromise for the times that it
doesn't reasonably fit into a smaller keyboard layout.

------
digler999
please add option to filter by max ram capacity, and whether the hdd is
upgradeable. I just started to look for a ram and HDD upgrade for my 3 yr old
ASUS zenbook prime, only to find out neither were upgradeable. I wish I knew
that before I paid $1100.

~~~
dyukqu
You can use Crucial Advisor tool for that:
[https://crucial.com/usa/en/advisor](https://crucial.com/usa/en/advisor)

(& you can visit the home page and download the system scanner too.)

------
oneplane
Looks like people are talking about poor laptop choices. Currently, only 2 are
actually mobile enough for daily trips, and most of them have the kind of
build where you know the thing will start falling apart 3 years into use. ;-)

------
ChristianGeek
I'd love to be able to filter it by the type of subreddits they're mentioned
in. For example, what are development subreddits mentioning? Gaming
subreddits?

Otherwise, great start.

------
artursapek
Nice. Keep it up. Side projects like this are what has gotten me into this
career.

I've actually been thinking about hacking together something very much like
this, because I found myself manually making spreadsheets for cross-checking
specs when shopping for a laptop recently. In addition to the facets you have,
I also wanted to have max RAM, CPU, and SSD size to filter by. Might be useful
additions.

------
choward
It would be nice to see which ones are linux friendly and don't come with
Windows preinstalled.

~~~
artursapek
Why does having Windows preinstalled matter? You can always install Linux over
it.

~~~
smonff
Why having Windows pre-installed when you are sure you won't use it? More, it
is very rarely an option available to not get it: I would find interesting
that it could be opted-out so people with low budget could skip it and pay
less.

------
netsec_burn
Wow, just what I was looking for! Thanks, I just purchased the #1 recommended
one since it's exactly the specs I needed and right within the budget. And
yes, it included the referrer code :)

~~~
plankton_sb
Wow, thank you :)

------
macandcheese
Please tell me you've got Amazon affiliate links set up on these.

~~~
sean_patel
All you had to do was hover over the links. All the links have OP's affiliate
tag => ?tag=laptophits-20

------
heywire
Nice work! Reminds me of the old pricewatch days (which, apparently is still a
thing!)

If you're looking for recommendations, one of the most important specs to me
personally is the screen resolution.

~~~
plankton_sb
For me too, thanks for suggestion.

------
newyearnewyou
I did something similar (not for laptops) but Amazon rejected my affiliate
application because there was not enough "original content" on the site.

------
rjbwork
Dissapointing lack of Clevo/Sager talk, lol. But other than that, seems pretty
awesome. Discovered a couple of brands I didn't even know about.

------
politician
Nice job! I'd love to see an integration with www.specout.com for processor
and GPU comparisons (even just links).

------
city41
This is a good idea, and something I'd use. Curious why Apple is not included
in the "all brands" section?

------
toyg
Being able to filter by amount of RAM, SSD/HDD and maybe the most common CPU
lines, would be nice.

~~~
jon-wood
And don't just go 8GB+ either. I speak coming fresh from an evening looking
for a laptop with 16GB RAM, which was hugely frustrating.

------
krmmalik
Would love to see something like this for Photography/video equipment.

------
0x1d
It looks great despite having very little styling!

------
rawfan
a) nice project

b) people are really not good at recommending laptops. 10 of the first 10 in
the top 10 are really not good laptops to buy.

------
known
hackers delight :)

------
robertcorey
nice job

------
PKop

      $('a').css({'text-decoration': 'none', color: 'navy'})
    

edit: you're right this is a particularly low quality comment.

Just think the site could use some toning down on the styling. More visually
pleasing, less distracting. Personal opinion, that is all.

~~~
0x1d
I think this is a good improvement!

~~~
plankton_sb
Yeah, it looks nice, I'll think about it.

~~~
PKop

      /* native device fonts */
      body { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji"; }
      
      a { text-decoration: none; color: #444; }
      a:hover { color: lime !important; }
      
      p.item > a { font-size: 17px; color: #00C; }
      p.item-info { color: #666; }

