Ask HN: What is the most valuable factor of your laptop?

[thangnguyennhu]

I value the 15.6" 4K the most.

My ThinkPad gives me enough juice (battery life) to substain with ease (even with 15.6" 4K). Plus, using i3wm gives me best performance, biggest screen-estate to work with.

What is your experience with your favourite laptop?

[gaspoweredcat]

i think its the weight, size and durability of my x1 carbon, its old but has served me very well and is lugged everywhere with me, its been dropped, had beer, coffee and cola spilled on it but it still soldiers on!

sadly though after some five years its time has come, while its still very much usable (im typing this on it now) several keys are dodgy and the casing has seen better days to name but a few issues.

id been researching for some time to find something that could replace it but also had a discreet GPU, i eventually decided on the dell XPS as nothing much else seemed to fit the bill but just before i hit the button on it lenovo went and announced my dream laptop, the X1 extreme.

i also once had a very nice sony vaio laptop with some unique features (before i became a fan of thinkpads vaios were my goto laptops) not only did it have a full socketed desktop P4 cpu but also the cpu fan was magnetic, you could just lift out the piece with the blades to clean the fins out

[thangnguyennhu → gaspoweredcat]

That's awesome! ThinkPads are built to last. And yeah, ThinkPad X1 Extreme looks extremely promising. My previous laptop is Sony Vaio too, with Intel Iron Lake 2010. It was my main machine till I bought my ThinkPad last month.

[gaspoweredcat → thangnguyennhu]

my path was toshiba > 3 vaios > 2 thinkpads, sure premium laptops are pricey new but they last well, most of my laptops have managed at least 4 years of useful life, im hoping the x1 extreme will last me the next five years (notice i typed five as the five key died this morning)

my only current questions are of the screen and cpu, i was thinking of getting the i7 model but there are 2 on offer the higher model is only 30 quid more, its slightly faster but im unsure if its a better bet to go with the lower tier one for thermal reasons

then theres the screen, sure a 4k HDR screen could be nice but itll also hammer battery life compared to the fhd model and as capable as the gpu is its not likely to be pumping out games in 4k so the fhd is seeming like the better option for me.

which machine did you go with? an X or a T?

[thangnguyennhu → gaspoweredcat]

I have to admit 4K is battery-hog, especially portable laptop that doesn’t have a good battery life. I got a T series ThinkPad T580, it has front and rear batteries, built like tank with nuclear powerplant. That’s why I am not so worried about my 4K screen.

[gaspoweredcat → thangnguyennhu]

i looked at the T580 as a possibility myself before the x1 extreme was announced but id pretty much settled on the dell as it was a fair amount smaller and lighter.

i thought long and hard about the 4k screen but i think ill just get myself a separate 4k screen as really the only thing id need 4k for is movies, i dont really have a need for a high resolution for anything else

thankfully they have now added the x1 extreme to the UK website and its not quite as pricey as i was expecting, i fully expected a 1:1 $ to £ conversion but the base model comes in at just over 1400, bumping the cpu up to i7 brings it up to just over 1600 but thankfully my sister works for the NHS so i can get a 10% discount, im keeping the rest of the specs at base, i can add extra ram and a second ssd at a later date

[nivertech]

I own Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Its best feature is a built-in broadband modem. No more dealing with USB modem, searching for WiFi or tethering with the phone.

[thangnguyennhu → nivertech]

I haven’t thought of this before. That’s fantastic! I have always been concerned with securities of public wifis.

[nivertech → thangnguyennhu]

Not only security (which is obviously very important), but also frictionless experience. You open the laptop and it automatically connects to the mobile network, just like your phone or tablet.

Before that, I had to not forget to take with me my USB modem, I had to search for it in my bag, insert it into USB port and then to dial. I frequently had problems with dialing.

With the phone, you need to make sure, you have enough battery. Also sometimes it's hard to connect to personal hotspot, b/c it piggybacks on external WiFi signals or something like this.

[thangnguyennhu → nivertech]

Awesome! I will get that on my next ThinkPad. And what data plan do you use?

[Findeton]

I really don't want it to overheat at any point.

[thangnguyennhu → Findeton]

I think current laptops are still struggling with thermal management at some point.