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Ask HN: Is there a Market for low-spec laptops with long battery life?

18 points by bananicorn ↗ HN
I could imagine there would be a market for that (maybe there's even already supply, but I don't know of any machines marketed as such) Maybe chromebooks, but they're quite restricted machines out of the box. I'm asking because I'm surprised how long my "new" used laptop (a Fujitsu lifebook) lasts me - with moderately heavy usage it's around 8 hours. And I could even add a second battery, damn. But does anyone know of new, comparable laptops? I won't buy one in the foreseeable future, but I'd be interested if there's anything viable in case this one ever breaks.

19 comments

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The_DaveG
So I'll kick this off by saying yes. I have a gaming desktop I built, a 2016 MBP spec'ed out I use for work (video editing), and down the line tablets/phone. My wife needs something for work processing, Skype, and the internet. I got her a $400-$500 Dell Inspiron laptop a few years ago (I think it's Pentium 4 lol) You can swap batteries, they're solid machines. Basically just a little more than a Chromebook and a little less than a 2in1, which will be her next one as she loves the touch screen.

Love to hear what everyone else is using/thinking as well.

bananicorn
It didn't even come to my mind that people who are not developers could want anything other than a tablet or a phone nowadays do you think the longer battery life would be worth the bigger form-factor for people? (I kinda get mixed signals from people whenever I ask, so I'm not sure at all)
The_DaveG
Yeah, I only hang out with developers, engineers, and designers, most of whom game so it's all pretty much top of the line.

I think it would because everyone wants the options to run all day not plugged in, even if they don't.

As a business guy, I've got to think that the big companies wouldn't make these if they weren't big sellers? Also while and iPad or surface can do what we need, most other people wouldn't feel the difference. I think it might be more of a psychological reason that they think they need a laptop? Haven't really done any market research, so just a guess. Wonder if anyone else who reads this has a spouse/SO that does something non-technical...

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zulln
You can install Linux on many Chromebooks, something to keep in mind. I was looking for an extra computer a while back and it actually seemed to be the best option.
marktangotango
I've been using a dechromed chromebook (xubuntu) as my main dev machine for two years now. I've been very pleased with it. It's light, boots in seconds, fits under my car seat, and the processor is Intel so I can compile whatever.

My main use case is "car coding" side projects; On a good day I can get an hour in before work and an hour in over lunched. I launched one mvp this way, working on a second.

ericmo
What kind of projects you work on? I think I'd have some difficult coding on a machine with 2GB of RAM.
richardknop
You are coding while having a lunch? How does that work? So you have a full time job and you leave at 12 for one hour to have a lunch break. Do you just get a takeaway food and go sit in your car and code? I don't know how you could get any meaningful work done that way. The same with coding while going to work. Although that might be easier if you are not driving.
DanBC
There are plenty of machines like the Asus X205ta.

Small, low specs, 10 hour battery life.

Some of them use weird chipsets or have low ram or 64 bit processers and 32 bit uefi, so installing linux isn't always as simple as it normally is.

bananicorn
For me personally that's a bit of a bummer, but as long as installing linux isn't impossible and there's no malicious firmware blobs which could possibly brick the thing, it's not a complete no-go. I also prefer to test my software on the actual low-end hardware instead of VMs.
kreeWall
I know that this is something that would be very useful to college students and most people's parents. My mother has a chromebook because she just needed something light with a good battery life for word processing and surfing the internet (read: facebook). The chromebook comes with its own series of issues which she has to work around, so it would be nice if it was not a chromebook, but just a normal laptop.
zulln
Care to elaborate these issues?
kreeWall
I apologize for the delayed response: The chromebook confuses my mother because she doesn't really understand how google drive works. She needs to download documents and then send people document links if they want to edit stuff, and that really confuses her because its not what she's used to. My mother is generally pretty tech savvy, but the switch from the microsoft suite to google drive has been confusing for her.

There are certain websites she goes to for school that don't work in google chrome - only firefox. She doesn't have the option to switch to firefox, so this creates other issues for her.

sometimes she needs to make powerpoint presentations and move them to another computer to present. She therefore, needs to send a PDF version. This creates more confusion.

Though there are many benefits to the chromebook (all of your files are online so they can be accessed from anywhere; long battery life; its super light), there are still some user issues for older/less-tech-savvy users.

zabana
I have a question of my own: Given the options posted below. What would you recommend as the best low spec laptop to install linux on and why ? Cheers