by jai_ on 9/2/19, 9:16 AM with 55 comments
I don't aim for this to be recommendation thread but more of quasi-survey.
Maybe follow a template like this?
Laptop model:
CPU:
RAM:
Screen:
Personal comments:
by CyberFonic on 9/2/19, 11:19 AM
CPU: ARM
RAM: 4MB
Screen: 11"
Personal comments: 5-7 hours battery life. Sufficient when out and about to get stuff done without having to lug around a power adaptor. Used to use a 2009 MacBook Pro, but the battery (3rd party replacement) life is only 1.5 hours or so. Not enough to get me through a day.
For getting work done efficiently, I prefer my desktop system with 3 LCDs, 2 landscape and 1 portrait for editing code, etc. I find even the biggest laptops limiting in terms of sufficient screen space to edit code, refer to specifications and test the application. With 3 screens I typically have 5 concurrent windows and a total of around 15-20 windows (not counting browser tabs). Also helps that the desktop has 64MB RAM and quad core CPU. And the best part is that it cost less than the MacBook Pro that I was tempted to buy.
by jerome-jh on 9/2/19, 9:45 AM
I like a lot the Dell Latitude line, they all have a mate screen but not always IPS, and they used to have a real keyboard, not chicklet. Supported by Linux 100% straight out of a normal installation.
My kids have Fujitsu Siemens with Wacom digitizers, 13" screen, lovely keyboard: very sturdy, but hefty by current standards. My wife has the only new laptop of the family, a Dell Inspiron 13", thin and light.
I only buy with Core i5, i7 CPU's, seldom Core i3.
At work, they buy HP and I would not recommend.
You can infer my requirements: real CPU, reliability (pro oriented product lines), mate screen with stable colors, very good keyboard. That last point is getting harder and harder to fullfill.
by likeclockwork on 9/2/19, 3:13 PM
CPU: i7-7600U
RAM: 16 GB
Screen: 2560x1440 14" OLED touchscreen
Personal comments: I usually work on a desktop but I use this when I'm roaming. I run Archlinux on it. I prefer black backgrounds and love the way they look on OLED, very easy on the eyes, especially at night. I did use it docked in tent mode with two external monitors via a thunderbolt dock for several months while I was in need of a desktop upgrade and it kept up with my workload (mostly docker containers).
by K2h on 9/2/19, 2:43 PM
CPU: I7-6820HQ quad core 8MB L3 cache
RAM: 32GB
Screen: 3K matte
Personal comments: has integrated intel 530 and Geforce 940MX 2GB graphics. so far haven't used GeForce but got it just in case. upgraded from 8 to 32GB and added M.2 SSD in first month of ownership. New from Lenovo, paid $200 for 3 year battery coverage, had new battery sent year 2 and nearing end of warrenty, asked for 3rd battery from warranty so paid for itself. purchased dock for $25 off ebay (very good dock). used docked 90% of the time. first machine purchased for personal use at home in about 10 years. excelent keyboard. exact layout I prefer after swap CTRL and FN keys in bios for botttom left of keyboard)
Cons: screen is a tad dark in bright environments, ok otherwise. even with power levels turned way down (CPU, screen, etc) still not a long laster on battery power. No USB3?
final: for $400 used on ebay, I would snap this thing up in an instant and expect to run it for 5 more years. solid workhorse if you arn't hauling it around the world. for world traveler with wimpy arms would have looked harder at the X1 carbon.
by quaquaqua1 on 9/2/19, 2:25 PM
Then I will connect keyboard, headphones, mouse, USB monitor (!), external power all modularly.
Sure it will be a little clunky compared to a laptop, but it will also be supremely upgradable
by staz on 9/2/19, 12:43 PM
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz
RAM: 16GB
Screen: 14" 2560x1440 usually dock it with a secondary screen
Personal comments:
* It's my sole computer so I use it for everything, from working to gaming (it has an integrated Nvida 940MX)
* The battery has gone shitty after 3 years and only hold 1 hours of charge so I need to buy a replacement. A part from that I really like it.
* Previously I had second hand Dell my whole life I don't regret the switch too much even if the XPS 13 is really tempting me. I also hesitate to buy a secondary laptop for my travel abroad which would be smaller and lighter and that I could afford to get stolen but I'm still on the fence.
* I find the dock really nice but wish they were cheaper
by jolmg on 9/4/19, 3:45 PM
CPU: Intel Core i5 3427U
RAM: 4 GB
Screen: 12.5"
Personal comments: It's a toughbook, sturdy enough that I feel comfortable grabbing it by the screen and jiggling it around in the air with one hand. It has a strap on the back which makes me feel comfortable enough to throw a few punches with it in my hand, holding it with my palm facing down. It also has a small internal battery in addition to its removable battery which is meant to hot-swap the battery without turning the computer off or connecting it to the wall. Its HDD/SSD can be changed with no tool besides your bare hands. It has a spring-loaded sliding switch for power that needs you to hold it for a second to activate it, so it can't be accidentally turned on. Its power plug is big and sturdy, not flimsy or likely to break at all. It has a touchscreen and stylus-pen with a slot to hold it. It's also convertible with the screen flipping 180 degrees sideways.
by slow_donkey on 9/2/19, 3:07 PM
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ CPU @ 2.50GHz × 8
RAM: 12GB
Screen: 14" Matte
Personal comments: Debian works well. Wish I upgraded the screen. Battery life is meh ~4hrs and drains while sleeping. Bit thick and takes a lot of space in backpack.
Intermittently, the fan will sound like it's hitting something and make a terrible whirring noise. Gets taken care of by a few spurts of compressed air.
Used as my 'desktop' at home.
---
Laptop model: Mackbook Pro 2015
CPU: i5 - 2.7ghz
RAM: 8GB
Screen: 13"
Personal comments: Decent battery life and works well for travel. Good keyboard like T440p. Not a fan of the OS but hardware-wise works very well.
Used as my personal travel laptop.
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Laptop model: Mackbook Pro 2018
CPU: i7?
RAM: 16GB
Screen: 15"
Personal comments: Very good battery life. 15" is bigger than I'm used to, but I've started to appreciate the screen real estate without external monitor. Probably my least favorite laptop to use simply because the keys consistently double tap and I can't feel for fn keys (fn, volume, brightness). Work-provided laptop.
In summary, I'd lean towards a Thinkpad carbon for the ideal combination of portability, keyboard, and ability to run Linux. Never appreciated quality screens until using Macs - will definitely be upgrading future laptop screens.
by Infinitesimus on 9/2/19, 2:37 PM
I tend to be picky over hardware and prefer windows for personal use (just habit since I've used it for over eons)
I wanted a 4 core chip and until 8th gen, they were mostly 35W+ chips. I had a surface prior and loved the 3:2 aspect ratio so that was a must as well...an option that's severely limited my choices.
It came down to the surface laptop (thicker bezels, no dgpu and Intel still cant make a good dgpu to save their lives) or the Matebook.
I've accepted that windows laptops (and the OS) are still years away from the fluidity of using a touchpad on a macbook with virtual desktops and animation fluidity but overall, it's been a fantastic purchase form the MS store with great battery life and the portability I want in a ... well, portable device.
My ideal device is still 8 cores (15W or less with room to consume 25W across a couple of cores), 13.9 - 16" screen in a 14" laptop form-factor, 8hr + battery life with weighing about 3lbs or less...
by EnderMB on 9/2/19, 1:05 PM
CPU: Intel Skylake dual-core processor 3.4 GHz
RAM: 16GB
Screen: 13.5", 3000×2000 (267 PPI) LCD
Personal Comments: I bought the Surface Book after waiting for years for a new MBP release, and despite owning it for around three years it's as fast and functional as it was back then. It's without a doubt the best laptop I've ever owned, and I couldn't recommend it enough.
by Washuu on 9/2/19, 10:25 AM
CPU: Intel i7-4870HQ 2.5ghz
RAM: 16GB
Screen: 2880x1800 Retina
Personal comments: Has the good keyboard, SD card slot for my camera's cards, plenty of ports, and powerful enough for everything it needs to do. Storage can be upgraded to larger and faster NVMe drives if desired. The recalled bulging battery is a great conversation piece at 35,000 feet.
by danieldk on 9/2/19, 2:47 PM
CPU: 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 (8259U)
RAM: 8GB
Screen: 13"
Personal comments: The hardware is great. Haven't had problems with the keyboard of this generation. Touch ID is awesome. The touch bar is annoying. Would have liked more non-USB-C port. macOS is in a downward spiral, so I am mostly using my NUC8i5BEH desktop machine with NixOS.
by MildlySerious on 9/2/19, 11:07 AM
CPU: Intel i7-8565U 4.6GHz
RAM: 16GB LPDDR3, 2.133 MHz
Screen: 1920x1080
Personal comments: I'm not 100% satisfied with the Ubuntu x Thunderbolt Dock combo yet, but it generally works without problems now. Other than that it feels very high quality and I'm happy with the device.
by danbolt on 9/4/19, 4:43 AM
The disk has been replaced with an SSD and I’ve replaced the RAM with 16GB. The battery will likely need to be replaced next as well. I’m hoping to use it as long as possible.
by 8fingerlouie on 9/2/19, 1:31 PM
CPU: Intel 7th Gen Core i5-7Y54
RAM: 8GB
Screen: 12.3 inch IGZO LCD 2880x1920 resolution
Personal comments:
* I do most of my CPU intensive work on a regular old box, or a mainframe, and both can be used via remote access, so for travel i like to keep it light.
* My travel requirements are pretty much VPN, web, mail, pdf/epub, SSH, Sublime Text/Merge, and the odd Python script.
* The EVE V was not my first choice, but it has surprised me by being a great little performer that is easy to stow away, and it has lots and lots of ports:
2x USB-A 3.0
1x USB 3.0 USB-C
1x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C
1x 3.5mm audio
1x Micro SDXC reader
by sellingwebsite on 9/2/19, 1:30 PM
CPU: 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM: 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Storage: 128GB SSD
Screen: 13" Retina
Personal comments: Purchased a few weeks ago for $850 (110 charge cycles). My first Apple computer and it has been great so far. Great screen, plethora of ports, long-lasting battery (6-8 hrs), usable keyboard, speedy SSD, and there is a Magsafe! Screen flickers, especially in Safari and iTerm2 are really annoying tho. Firefox is draining my battery like there is no tomorrow, so don't use it much for now (it was my daily driver on Ubuntu). I couldn't get Airdrop to work, however hard I tried, even though Bluetooth is working fine.
by pmlnr on 9/2/19, 3:14 PM
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-5200U Processor (3M Cache, Up to 2.70 GHz)
RAM: 8GB
Screen: 12.5" matte* FHD ( 00HN899 I believe)
Personal comments: LTE replaced with 128GB SSD + 1 TB HDD. Debian 10, everything happy. Had to change both batteries since having it (~3 years). Battery life could be better, but I gave up tuning for it. New keyboards, ended up loving it. The low profile TrackPoint is much worse, than the old ones (compared to X200, T400, X60s). Quiet, but can get a bit warm. Tiny enough, still has space for a full 2.5" drive.
* note that modern "matte" is not oldschool matte.
by jai_ on 9/2/19, 9:58 AM
Laptop model: Lenovo S20-30
CPU: Intel Celeron, dual core @ 2.16GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR3
Screen: 11.6" Matte black 1366x768
Personal comments:
Bought this laptop in my second year of university only to use for light browsing and text editing. It's held up quite well over the years and despite being very underpowered I ended up completing all my programming coursework on it. I guess it would be classified as a netbook type and it seems they don't make them anymore, which is a shame. Has been happily running the same install of Arch Linux since 2015.
by davidgerard on 9/2/19, 3:12 PM
It's a work laptop, and I have an X390 with 32GB on order to replace it ... which might arrive one day!
Increasingly fond of my Samsung Tab A 2016 as a book reader, very good for comics.
by dagw on 9/2/19, 1:59 PM
CPU: 6 core Xeon
RAM: 64 GB
Screen: Honestly not sure.
Personal comments: Terrible laptop with useless battery life, perfectly fine (if very overpriced) workstation. It basically never leaves my desk and docking station. The only reason I have it is because my company introduced a laptop only policy last upgrade cycle, and this was the only laptop they offered at the time with 64 GB of RAM and 1 TB HDD. Would trade it tomorrow for a P52.
by DanBC on 9/2/19, 9:52 AM
Intel Core i5-4300U
8 GB ram
1366 x 768 matte screen
Running Windows 10 pro. I bought it second hand for £200.
I like it. It's robust enough for my use. It has a trackpoint which I like. The battery life isn't great, especially compared to the new netbook-like machines which can have 10 hour battery lives.
The only demanding use it gets is WWW which feels weird to say but there you go. I mostly use it for torrenting films and tv shows.
by mikro2nd on 9/2/19, 10:08 AM
by statictype on 9/2/19, 2:35 PM
CPU: i5
RAM: 16 GB
Screen:13” retina
Personal comments: Ample RAM and CPU. Nice screen. Passably good battery life.
Shitty keyboard.
Randomly heats up and fan randomly gets noisy.
Needing a dongle for everything is annoying and feels like a practical joke being played on us.
If you are unwilling to use Windows - I guess this is the least crappy laptop you can get.
I didn’t get a touch bar model so I can’t really comment on how useless it may be.
by sysrpl on 9/2/19, 2:51 PM
CPU: 2.4Ghz Intel T8300 Core2Duo
RAM: 4GB
Screen: 1280x800
Personal comments: It has a 60GB SSD, and is absolutely silent and doesn't even get warm. Runs Linux Mint 19.01 Cinnamon just fine. I use Chrome, Lazarus, VSCode, DBeaver, Gimp, Audacity, Terminal all just fine. Everything runs fast and I see no reason to upgrade to a newer laptop.
by paco3346 on 9/2/19, 1:51 PM
CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H (4.5 GHz)
RAM: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz
Screen: 1920x1080 (I almost always use an external monitor)
Storage: 1 TB Intel 970 Pro self encrypting NVMe
Personal comments: Running Arch Linux. Use with 3 Dell U2715H 2560x1440 monitors (2 via TB, 1 via HDMI). I do a lot of work with VM and container automation hence the crazy amount of memory.
by sebst on 9/2/19, 2:58 PM
CPU: 2,5GHz i7
RAM: 16 GB
Screen: Retina 15"
Personal comments: Waiting for the rumored 16" MBP to upgrade. Works still like a charm, in spite of being 5 years old now. The screen loses its reflection layer a little bit and I'm out of the replacement program.
by qzx_pierri on 9/5/19, 5:11 PM
by chrisbennet on 9/2/19, 1:55 PM
CPU: Intel Core i7-8850H CPU @ 2.60 2.59 GHz
RAM: 32.0 GB
Screen: 3840x2160 15.6"
Personal comments: I keep the laptop closed at home and use it with a couple of monitors: Dell UltraSharp 38" Curved Monitor 3840x1600 and a Dell 27" U2718Q 3840x2160 Windows 10
by bestest on 9/2/19, 1:16 PM
- 2018 MB PRO 16GB 15" i7
Love them. The latter took some time to getting used to keyboard-and-topbar-wise, but it's all a blast now.
No external mice and keyboards. Apple touchpads are simply amazing — can't find no competition for them.
by mister_hn on 9/3/19, 8:29 AM
CPU: Intel Core i5 4th Gen
RAM: 8 GB RAM DDR3
Screen: 14" - 1366x768
Personal Notes: Works perfectly with Linux (ArchLinux, Ubuntu). GPU is mixed (NVidia Optimus, Intel + Nvidia 730M 2G), works fine with bumblebee and Steam
by pmontra on 9/2/19, 10:07 AM
CPU: i7 4800MQ
RAM: 32 GB
Screen: 1920 x 1080 matte
Storage: 2x1 TB SSD
Personal comments: Very upgradeable and serviceable. Good keyboard but it seems to last two years for me. Heavy power brick. Unfortunately with a numberpad. Ubuntu 16.04 runs well on it.
by qubex on 9/2/19, 1:49 PM
by gargravarr on 9/2/19, 3:11 PM
Laptop model: Dell Precision M3520
CPU: i7 7820HQ 2.9GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR4 (upgradeable)
Screen: 15" 1920x1080 matte
Comments: If you want something fast to get work done on, I cannot fault this machine. The keyboard is great, the chassis is a good size, shape and weight (I like "traditional" laptop designs), screen is very readable, touchpad works well, hardware is expandable (HDD, SSD, RAM and wifi card), has lots of ports (3x USB3 A, HDMI, Thunderbolt 3 USB-C, ethernet, even has a VGA port!). Battery life on the Intel GPU is 4-5 hours, which is good for the power it packs, and drastically lower on the nVidia Quadro card (I keep it set on the Intel since I don't need graphics performance). I run Ubuntu 18.04 on it with the Cinnamon desktop environment. I use almost every feature of this laptop on a daily basis. The only thing I dislike is the pointing stick, which is oversensitive and not adjustable, so I ignore it.
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Personal:
Laptop model: Clevo P641RE
CPU: i7 6700HQ 2.6GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR4 (upgradeable)
Screen: 14" 1920x1080 matte
Comments: powerful, compact and extremely expandable, but perhaps too far down the 'power is everything' route. Battery lasts 1 hour on the nVidia Geforce 970m GPU even at idle, and 2 days in sleep mode. Doesn't work on planes (fires up and clicks off, even with the battery charged). 4x USB3.0 ports, HDMI, ethernet, 2x DisplayPort. Awful keyboard (requires very firm presses), passable trackpad. Good screen. Spec'd to be powerful enough to last me ~5 years. Also runs Ubuntu 18.04 with Cinnamon. Has a SATA SSD for primary and smaller NVMe disk for Steam. 10/10 performance, 5/10 usability.
Laptop model: MacBook Pro Retina 2014 15"
CPU: i7 4870HQ 2.5GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3 (soldered)
Screen: Retina 15" glossy (2880x1800)
Comments: Extremely portable, sturdy and usable. Great keyboard, touchpad and extremely nice screen. Fantastic battery life for its age. Decent ports (2 USB3.0, HDMI, 2 Thunderbolt 2). Lightweight, portable and fast. Has MagSafe power. Gets very hot in use and the metal case is not suitable as a laptop. MacOS GPU switching works very well. Runs Mac OS 10.14. Crippled by Mac OS restrictions and inability to upgrade parts (RAM, SSD is proprietary, battery is glued in) plus limited expansion (nobody got behind Thunderbolt 2, did they?). Probably Apple's most balanced and usable offering ever.
by jononomo on 9/2/19, 1:47 PM
2.6 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel Iris 1536 MB
Ports: HDMI, USB3 x 2, SDXC, Thunderbolt x 2, headphones -- and I use all of them!
I really like this laptop.
by coffeebean on 9/2/19, 1:45 PM
CPU: i5
RAM: 12 GB
Screen: 15.6
Personal comments: Purchased because I needed the extra ram to run VMs. It's thin and light, and gets about 4 hours on the battery.
by bishalb on 9/2/19, 1:31 PM
by chrisbennet on 9/2/19, 2:02 PM
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8650U
RAM: 16 GB
Screen: 14.0" HDR WQHD (2560 x 1440)
Personal comments: This is my Linux laptop.
by jdmg94 on 9/2/19, 2:46 PM
CPU: 8th Gen i7
RAM: 16Gb
Screen: 13" 4k
Personal comments: 4k screens are a double-edged sword, wish linux support was better.
by arcewut on 9/2/19, 3:07 PM
CPU: 2,3GHz i5
RAM: 8GB
Screen: 13"
Personal comments: best machine ever created.
by kevinherron on 9/2/19, 1:31 PM
Home: X1C6 (4-core i7, 16gb ram, 1TB SSD)
by karmakaze on 9/2/19, 4:22 PM
Personal: Surface Go 8GB (black type cover)