Ask HN: What new laptop would you get?

14 points by threadweaver34 2 years ago | 31 comments

My laptop's almost 6 years old. It's starting to have reliability issues, and the battery life isn't very good. The landscape has changed considerably since 2018, and I'm not sure what should get. I use things like IntelliJ and Photoshop, so Chromebooks aren't an option.

Historically, I've used X1 Carbons. I like that they have just enough ports, are light and repairable, but Windows has started to feel more like an ad platform than an OS. I ended up rolling back to 10 after the 11 upgrade because of all the garbage. I'm also not a WSL fan. It's better than nothing, but it's a pain to manage.

I use a Macbook at work. It's ok. It's nice that the OS is actually an OS, and being Unix-like is a plus. I don't like Apple's history of dropping OS support after 5 or so years. They've also unrepairable. I don't buy into the Framework upgrade premise, but being able to recover data from the SSD or replace a damaged trackpad is nice. I also prefer the Thinkpad chassis. Apple's aluminum is feels cold, the edges hurt my wrists, and the metal picks up dings my X1 Carbon never got.

That leaves Linux, but 2024 is not the year of desktop Linux.

LorenDB 2 years ago |

I disagree that 2024 is not the year of Linux on the desktop. You will probably have some trouble with Photoshop, since Adobe seems to hate Linux, but otherwise you will find that Linux is a very smooth experience. If you are happy with your current Thinkpad apart from Windows, maybe get a new Thinkpad and give Linux a whirl. You can always revert to Windows if Linux doesn't work.

My personal hardware recommendation would be a Thinkpad of some sort. I'm using a Thinkpad X1 Yoga right now. It survived a 4 or 5 foot drop onto a tile floor recently; I had to disassemble it to reseat the touchpad and fans that got knocked out of place, and the aluminum chassis now has dents on the corners, but the laptop overall took it like a champ. Even if you don't get a Thinkpad, make sure to go for something with a metal chassis.

I strongly encourage you to avoid Apple hardware as they solder storage. Soldered RAM is common enough that I won't complain about it too much, but in my case, I recently upgraded my Thinkpad from 512 GB to 2 TB storage for a mere $100 (Black Friday deals FTW!). Unless you are really good with a desoldering setup, there is no way you could do that to a Macbook.

threadweaver34 2 years ago | |

Asking honestly, not to troll, but is everything still an ordeal? Last time I tried, I remember having issues with my printer, hidpi display, external USB-C display, configuring the thinkpad trackpoint, not to mention UI inconsistencies worse than than 6 generations of Windows UIs.

nbernard 2 years ago | | |

In my experience, hardware-related issues mostly happens with stuff that was just released. If you don't mind waiting a few months before ordering, there are usually few problems.

As for UI inconsistencies, I believe they depend a lot on your GUI of choice.

tkdev 2 years ago | | |

I just got a 4K OLED P14S Gen 4 AMD and everything worked out of the box in Fedora 39 Workstation (including the trackpoint).

more_corn 2 years ago | | |

Really? When? I rolled a lenovo x1 as my daily driver about 5 years ago. I don’t recall a single thing not working. The Dell xps13 was similarly fine (except for coil whine which I am told is not os specific). The only thing that didn’t work was trackpad smooth scrolling and pointer precision.

sandreas 2 years ago |

I recently considered the following devices (in this order):

  Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7840U
  LG Gram 14"
  HP Elitebook 845 G10
  MacBook Air M2
  Lenovo Thinkpad T14s

The Framework may not be the best device, but I like to repair / upgrade my devices and I also like the idea of supporting a company that is thinking different. However, from a technical point of view I'd probable get an LG Gram. If you really would like to use Photoshop and NO Windows, your only option probably is MacBook Air M2.

tobinfekkes 2 years ago |

I spent months researching my next laptop.

After buying a machine I thought was The One, I returned it after sort of accidentally stumbling upon the LG Gram. I was and still am surprised how difficult it was to come across. It feels like a hidden gem. It is a dream come true, and no one pays me to say that.

In my circle, people come to me looking for laptop advice, and so far 11 other people have picked one up (or I went and got it for them) and they love/loved it.

If you want a basic one, they have them at Costco for like $999. Mine is the $1800 version from LG.com, and I couldn't be happier.

My dad's had a hardware issue after a few months, and after a bit of troubleshooting, they replaced the motherboard promptly.

It checks all my boxes off: 17 inch, backlit keyboard, long battery life, super light (like, scary light), num pad, USB charging and display, and the only Windows trackpad I've found that is better than the Macbook.

I can run 3 monitors (one 4k) with VSCode, Photoshop, postman, Visual Studio (with iisexpress server running), MSSQL studio, Teams, Brave (+ 39 tabs), YouTube, and the thing doesn't skip a beat, or get loud or super hot; it does get warm, but that's expected with that load.

It's also comically easy to open up and upgrade the RAM or SSD, or replace the keyboard or screen.

My only complaint would be the sound; the speakers don't go very loud. But headphones or external speakers fix that, so it's only mildly problematic. Very little bloatware or pre installed LG garbage.

If you don't need a dedicated graphics card, I don't know of a better Windows laptop. But if you're really done with Windows overall.... Ignore all this :)

I find Windows 11 to still be tolerable with some tweaks to the settings/notifications.

solardev 2 years ago |

I grew up with Asus and Acer and then Dells and Alienwares and Surface Books and ThinkPads and Razers, comfortably in the Wintel world. But the Apple Silicon laptops are so far ahead it's not even a comparison. Especially if you want to be able to run Photoshop natively (ie not emulated in Linux).

Forget the metal dings. The new ones have smoother edges, I think. Run an automatic backup to somewhere else.

The hardware is so so so much better than anything else out there there's not really a comparison. I doubt anyone else would catch up within 5 years either.

At the end of the day they're just tools, not some religious argument. At this point in time they're substantially better than anything else, by a large margin, especially for dev and creative work.

I also use IntelliJ and Photoshop side by side, and these crazy machines last the whole day on battery power without the fans ever kicking on or anything getting slow. The poor throttled Thinkpad X1 isn't even remotely close in performance.

Shrug. Sorry, probably not the answer you wanted to hear. But Apple did some serious engineering in those while Microsoft and Intel sat on their butts for a decade.

threadweaver34 2 years ago | |

> Sorry, probably not the answer you wanted to hear

It's validation. Windows has gone downhill, Apple locks you in, you use Linux on principle.

solardev 2 years ago | | |

I admire your dedication to the cause!

foobarbaz33 2 years ago |

Question: Do you like to work unplugged with the laptop on your lap?

Answer-Yes: get a macbook. The apple M chips are the best (only?) way to get desktop power in a battery efficient package.

Answer-No: don't get a laptop at all. Get a big fat juicy desktop, AMD chip, linux.

speedgoose 2 years ago |

I would get a MacBook. Perhaps a Razer Blade if gaming is more important than anything else.

helij 2 years ago |

Bought Thinkpad P52 in 2018. Still going strong almost 6 years later. Running Fedora on it. I've been a Thinkpad user for over 20 years now but also using MB Air alongside for a few years. My next laptop will again be Thinkpad.

dhruvkar 2 years ago | |

I bought my P52s in 2018 also and it's still going strong as well.

The fan was starting to make some unseemly noises, so last week I replaced the fan, upgraded the ram to 32GB and replaced both batteries (under $200 in total).

Would highly recommend a P series Thinkpad, if you like a desktop replacement running Linux.

I ran PopOS, Debian and now Linux Mint. I would have preferred Debian, but it doesn't run seamlessly with my DisplayLink dock + 2 monitors.

aristofun 2 years ago |

There is now real alternative to m1-3 macbooks today.

from UX, devx, and raw cpu performance combined.

There is nothing even there to research. Unless you have some religious intolerance to macos platform for whatever reasons.

But even then you’re way better of $/cpu than most “competitors” if you just buy parallels desktop on top of it.

Except for some specific niche applications like heavy gaming etc.

eb0la 2 years ago |

My company uses MacBooks and I hate it. Second time Mac hardware stopped working the week after warranty ended.

I believe Macs are great if you have sensitive data inside or proprietary source code inside; if your company locks them nobody can get the files that are inside.

uncharted9 2 years ago |

Any suggestions for under $1000 (excluding tax)?

I've looked at Thinkpads and all the good ones are well over that price.

My priority is light weight and at least a 16GB/512GB combination. The only laptop I could find that meets this, based on suggestions in other comments, is the LG Gram.

ungreased0675 2 years ago |

If I bought a laptop today, I’d probably buy a barebones laptop from Eluktronics and put Linux on it.

I don’t think I can trust Microsoft to not turn Windows into a subscription service in the next few years.

KingOfCoders 2 years ago |

Since home office I no longer have a laptop.

quickthrower2 2 years ago | |

Good answer. A refurb Dell desktop tower or smaller form will get ya 10-20 years service vs. the 5 tops of the laptop (excluding battery and screen for generous comparison because they may fail sooner). Also laptops just seem to do sucky stuff like keyboard randomly stops working. Laptops suck.

KingOfCoders 2 years ago | | |

My wife has a MacBook Air, broken touchpad, yellow screen.

gtirloni 2 years ago | |

Same. I kept using laptops for many years after moving to home office but last year decided to go back to a desktop (micro-ATX build).

I get 4-5x the performance of my last work laptop (Dell XPS i9) for the same price. It's dead silent and has a ton of ports.

uncharted9 2 years ago | | |

Can you share specs and places from where you sourced the parts.

meristohm 2 years ago |

Whatever you get, will you consider buying it refurbished?

nicbou 2 years ago |

Macbook Air M2, all over again. Best goddamn laptop I've ever owned.

I had a MacBook Pro Retina from 2012, which was replaced by a 2017 model through a warranty hack (though it worked flawlessly). The 2017 started losing keys on its 3rd keyboard replacement, but was really speedy still.

Then I got a 2017 Macbook 12" which was perfect for backpacking. I didn't like syncing two laptops so I gave the 15" MBP to a friend.

Eventually it struggled with playing YouTube Music while working, so I gave it to another friend.

...so I got the M2. Holy smokes is that thing good. It fixed everything wrong with the 2017 model AND improved things I didn't ask for.

I'm not a diehard Apple fan, but I'm a diehard MacBook convert.

Dracophoenix 2 years ago |

Try the Dell XPS 15 9530, or if you can wait a while, the upcoming Dell Precision 3591.

p1esk 2 years ago |

LG Gram.

tamaharbor 2 years ago | |

Does it make a lot of fan noise?

p1esk 2 years ago | | |

Mine doesn’t, but I bought it 4 years ago. Not sure about newer models. Best to go to Costco and test it if you’re worried.