

Ask HN: Laptop similar to MacBook Pro in term of design - eswiac

I use a MBP 13' as my everyday laptop. Now It's been 3 years and I've been very happy with it, but now I would like to come back to Linux. It's not MacOS that keeps me from doing that, but the MacBook as a laptop, and its features/design.<p>Aluminium case, neat finition, robust case, backlit keyboard, multi-touch trackpad (that I heavily use), magsafe power port ... are the features that I will miss the most. Are you aware of a non-Apple robust laptop that could offer features somewhat similar ?<p>Note : I don't want to bootcamp with linux or refit on a MB.<p>Thank you for your insights.
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qx24b
I have a Samsung qx410 which is somewhat similarly built and has a great
keyboard but absolutely sucks for linux in the touchpad department.

I think you should look at thinkpads, even though they might not meet your
specifications they usually work much better with linux than other brands and
are usually well built.

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lstrope
I second the thinkpad.

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michaelpinto
I don't know if they'll be around for long — but what about the HP Envy
laptop? The industrial design is very similar: [http://www.hp.com/united-
states/campaigns/envy/index.html?ju...](http://www.hp.com/united-
states/campaigns/envy/index.html?jumpid=ex_r11260_go/envy)

PS I'm pretty sure that Apple has a patent on magsafe, so nobody else will
have that: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe>

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haesken
I'm in a similar situation, I'm replacing a Macbook4,1. I don't want to deal
with EFI/refit/GPT/etc anymore. As far as 13' laptops go the ASUS U36SD-A1 is
the most attractive to me, but I think I'm going to end up getting a SAGER
NP5165 because I can get more power for the same price. The HP Envy series
also looks pretty good, if you can find them for a decent price.

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pavel_lishin
Can't answer your question, but why don't you want to install Linux directly
onto the MBP?

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angryasian
well outside of these design features that op mentioned the hardware specs you
can purchase a comparable laptop with hardware specs for half the price.

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dpark
What laptop can you buy for half the price of MacBook Pro that has the same
feature set? Especially the giant multitouch pad?

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angryasian
well "giant" wasn't specified, but most new laptops have multi touch now. The
difference is newer laptops by different vendors usually get heavily
discounted or goes on sale much faster than mbp's. Just watch any deals site
and you'll see. A nicely configured mbp will go for around 2k, you can easily
get the same configuration for 1k, possibly much less with deals, coupons and
discounts.

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27182818284
Maybe something from System76, but that is the best I can think of.

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eswiac
Thanks ! I didn't know that brand.

