
Ask HN: What laptop to choose now? - hartator
I agree with all the articles saying Apple let us down. I&#x27;ve been a fierce Apple user for more than 8 years, bought MacBook Pro 17&quot;, MacBook Air Original, MacBook Pro retina 15&quot;, MacBook 12&quot;, 5 iMacs (for my startup) and a Mac Pro.<p>I am exploring alternatives now, I am typing on a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga X1 with an Oled screen. It&#x27;s nice machine, but Windows 10 is still lagging behind in term of OS integration. An example, to change a setting about the screen, you have 4 different places you can look. Windows settings, Lenovo setttings, Intel HD settings and the bios! Plus the Windows registry! Probably a Microsoft Surface Book will have less issues like this.<p>I am wondering what are the best laptop option now if we are leaving the Apple ship?
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rmason
I am just beginning to look. Two machines that I've been impressed with are
the Acer Predator 17 and the Asus Republic of Gamers GL702VM.

Sadly no one offers desktop replacement machines anymore. If you want to get a
high end machine, especially one with a high resolution 17 inch screen, you
must look at machines built for gamers which means you have to deal with
garish color combinations.

When will it dawn on PC makers that there is a profitable niche in catering to
programmers with tasteful high performance laptops?

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aflaisler
Hi there, I have been back and forth Apple for the past 10years (mainly
because of Excel). I felt in love with the Thinkpad x200 back in the days,
same story with the x240. I'm now working on a Thinkpad t440 (8gb, i5 2.26ghz,
ssd) and I must admit it never let me down. It is super strong and extremely
fast. Also the after sale for Thinkpad is amazing. The Gpu is crap though. If
I had to buy a new one I'd not hesitate but probably use Linux. Hope it helps.

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dredmorbius
Laptops are tools. What you want depends on what you do.

I'm also unhappy with modern offerings, though I come from the Linux side.
Whilst I use Macs, I've never been a fan of either the hardware (keyboard and
touchpad aren't my thing). I've been exceptionally disappointed by Lenovo's
products and behaviour of the past few years.

My druthers would be a lightweight, portalble, Linux-friendly system with a
trackpoint-type pointer control.

I've been using an Android 9" tablet which is mostly good hardware, and an
absolute obscenity in terms of the OS, vendor (Samsung) lockdown, and apps.

This with a folio-type self-supporting laptopable keyboard case is close to
the perfect form-factor system, most especially for reading printed material
(many many many ebooks and articles, most in PDF form).

But nothing about this system is built for privacy, creation, complex
interaction, or organising and managing large quantities of content. As a
Linux box it might work.

Laptops fail to offer the flexibility of keyboardless operation (and bending
keyboards back ... tends to break them), and stink for reading online content
generally.

I've also noticed that large-format tablets (9" \- 10") don't seem to be
offered by anyone.

A decent userland, rootable / ROMable system (Samsung's BDSM lockdown
basically means I'm fucked in terms of Rowhammer), and sane hardware (the
Logitech keyboard's also been sheer failure mostly due to the company's
failure to honour its warranty in any meaningful fashion, and the tightly-
coupled HW binding of tablet and keyboard).

I've about had it with hardware, period.

~~~
dubhrosa
A trackpoint is an absolutely non-negotiable requirement for me, so I bought
several lenovo bluetooth keyboards, set them up for all the desktops I use,
and kept a few spare in case they are discontinued.

~~~
sytelus
What do you use trackpoint for? I' always had trackpoint but never found any
need for it when you already have nice touchpad.

~~~
dredmorbius
Not leaving home row is hugely useful.

Trackpads on laptops have _always_ for me attracted stray an unwanted
interactions. Trackpoints not.

I find using a mouse far less distracting. The fact that it can be placed
_well away_ from the keyboard helps.

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holografix
I use a Surface Book at home mainly because I was seduced by the dGPU and a
real keyboard. However if I was in the market right now for a laptop I can't
see how I'd pass on a Surface Pro 4. Much cheaper than the book and pretty
much as good, type cover is not too bad at all.

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stephenr
PSA: if you're going to post a "Wah Apple has jumped the shark, what laptop
should I buy now" at least have the common decency to highlight the specific
issues that make you want to look elsewhere.

~~~
hartator
I think my main grief if that the Touch Bar is just ridiculous. Watch the
Keynote demo about people trying to use it for DJ or Photoshop. It just
doesn't make sense.

If it's where Apple is heading, I am not sure I want to be part of this. It's
like they are forcing me to not buy it. But, I might be wrong and, in person,
it might be awesome.

~~~
stephenr
some of the demos seemed a little weird, sure, but most software demos do to
me, because they over explain things.

That doesn't make the thing not amazing IMO. The most use I get from my f-keys
right now is media/display brightness/volume. I _cant_ use it for eg debug
step though or refactor symbol in my IDE without holding down function.

Hopefully with the new hardware Jetbrains apps will show the context
appropriate buttons automatically.

Do _you_ use the f-keys a lot, without looking at them? (Ie find them by touch
alone)

~~~
hartator
It's not really about the fn keys, we can get rid of them completely. I will
just miss the esc. It's more about the Touch Bar itself. I would rather see
engineering time spent elsewhere. They just added a huge burden for developer
to morph their application is a smart way while not adding anything that it's
not just a shortcut. Apple is not even able to commit completely to it with
one the new MacBook 13" that doesn't feature it.

It's a gimmick and will probably more an annoyance than anything. My main
thoughts about it is "I hope it won't be too distracting.".

~~~
stephenr
Apps don't _have_ to support the ToucbBar, and if they do, they're not meant
to come up with brand new functionality for it, they simply make functionality
available through an additional method (multitouch).

So while that may take some dev time away from other things, it's not like all
developers must spend 50% of their time dedicated to developing awesome touch-
bar only functionality. Apple specifically tells them NOT to do that.

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gjvc
well, this question is rather "how long is a piece of string", but if you've
got the cash, this looks nifty [http://www.razerzone.com/gb-en/gaming-
systems/razer-blade](http://www.razerzone.com/gb-en/gaming-systems/razer-
blade)

or, at the other end of the spectrum, you could always get a ThinkPad T60 from
eBay with 1600x1200 display -- at least that one has a TrackPoint.

~~~
dredmorbius
To quote Linus: "Nvidia: Fuck you."

