
Ask HN: Best developer laptop for coding on long commutes? - bndr
Hi!<p>I would like to know what kind of netbook&#x2F;notebook you use when coding during long commutes etc.<p>I don&#x27;t really know what to look for in such a notebook (optimal size? battery life? performance? optimal price?), so your advice would be much appreciated.
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VLM
I've done some coding on trains (who am I kidding, playing games mostly) and
my experience is screen and screen hinge are an issue. Unless you're on some
kind of perfectly smooth monorail, you're going to have a bouncy ride. So a
small screen is good, less wobble.

On the other hand, a larger screen makes it easier to see under
stereotypically bad lighting conditions.

I found it much more difficult to concentrate on the train than in my nice
quiet cubicle. Those suffering in open plan most likely would consider the
worst train car ever to be blissful calm compared to "work". Just saying your
needs for calm are hard to predict over the internet. I had to put on earbuds
on the train, but I can see those used to a more abusive workplace might not
be bothered by train and passenger noises at all.

Personally I always locked the thing up and was uncomfortable a couple times
on commuter rail even when just going to the bathroom. So you might want to
think about, if I fold this thing up can it fit in a giant coat pocket or
something. Would you be comfortable taking this device to the bathroom with
you, because you're probably going to have to, sooner or later. So
smaller/lighter would be better.

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loumf
Commuting on what? My long commutes on Amtrak and Buses have access to power
-- which means my MacBook is fine.

It is really a hard tradeoff of screen size to portability if you don't need
to worry about power. If you do need to worry about power then an Air if you
want OSX. This is what I'd be eyeing for other OS's

[http://gigasquidsoftware.com/blog/2013/12/26/guide-to-
leavin...](http://gigasquidsoftware.com/blog/2013/12/26/guide-to-leaving-your-
mac-laptop/)

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maaarghk
I have a 13.3" Zenbook Prime. 256G SSD is plenty but I wish I had more than 4G
ram (newer models do.) Running Windows 8 and Ubuntu dual boot; the problem is
that windows doesn't handle high DPI nicely and Ubuntu is ugly as hell... If I
could choose again I might go with a Macbook Air.

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JacobH
Any laptop you can really get more out of by turning off unneeded background
applications.

Underclocking the CPU is said to improve battery life also.

Newer intel CPUs. DDR4 RAM, and SSDs use way less energy than their
predecessors also. So there really isn't much room to get this wrong when
purchasing a laptop.

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RealGeek
I use MacBook Air, it's light form factor and long battery life is perfect for
long commutes. Best thing about MacBook is great resell value, you can use it
for 1 year and sell it for 80% value and 60% after 2 years.

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wattengard
Air if OSX, Lenovo X1 Carbon if windows...

That's what I've heard...

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allsystemsgo
Macbook Air.

