HN Explorer

Ask HN: What laptop computer do you currently use?

26 points by jai_ ↗ HN
Mostly out curiosity for me, but I think it would be interesting to know which laptops Hackernews likes to use for the mobile (or maybe non-mobile) computing.

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:

56 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] thread
jerome-jh
I am not a gamer. I buy all my laptops second hand. Current one is a Lenovo Thinkpad X??, 14" IPS screen, mate of course. Linux support may require you to tinker a bit.

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.

DanBC
I use a Dell Latitude E7440

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.

jai_
To kick this off

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.

pmontra
Laptop model: HP ZBook 15 (2014)

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.

mikro2nd
None. I dislike the form factor enough that I'll stick with an old-school desktop machine at my usual place of work and my phone/tablet anywhere else. If I need to do serious typing-type work somewhere else, the destination (client) will no-doubt provide. I've never noticed the lack, and it makes getting through airports a bit easier.
Washuu
Laptop model: 2015 15" MacBook Pro

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.

MildlySerious
Laptop model: Dell XPS 13 (9380)

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.

CyberFonic
Laptop model: Samsung ChromeBook

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.

ArtWomb
Am with you mate regarding the Samsung Chromebook 3. Terrific portable for coffee shop use. My goal was to use it as a workstation without ever entering developer mode and so far have succeeded. The browser based SSH app and a cloud vm suffice.

The one thing I have not been able to get working is a self hosted Cloud 9 Core IDE instance running in the browser tab. I would be very interested in building or producing an ultra lite weight, kid-friendly, self-hosted cloud IDE specifically for ChromeOS ;)

quaquaqua1
Why not just put Lubuntu on the SSD inside the Chromebook? I'm assuming the application in question runs on Linux but not ChromeOS.

I ask because I am thinking about buying a refurbished chromebook for $80 and throwing Lubuntu straight on it and never looking back :)

danieldk
s/MB/GB/g I hope ;). 4MB may be enough to play DOOM though.
staz
Laptop model: Lenovo Thinkpad T460p

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

ThePhysicist
Interesting, I also use a T460p (32 GB with a second m.2 harddrive), my battery still has 92 % capacity after more than three years. Do you also have a Sanyo battery? I think batteries are often sourced from different companies so you might have gotten a bad one. Did you often completely discharge it? I heard that charge/discharge patterns can have a large influence on the capacity.

I also really like the T460p, three years in it still works great, is easy to upgrade and not too heavy.

staz
> Do you also have a Sanyo battery?

No idea

> Did you often completely discharge it? I heard that charge/discharge patterns can have a large influence on the capacity.

yes. I heard recently that there was also the trick/settings of not recharging it completely but I may be too late for that. Also wondering if the Linux battery management may have something to do with it.

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EnderMB
Laptop Model: Surface Book 1

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.

slipwalker
these specs look great. Which OS are you running on this ?
EnderMB
99% of the time I run Windows 10. Despite the negative press that Windows gets on here, it gets the job done with zero issues, and any time I get a weird issue it's usually to do with permissions.

I used to run Debian alongside Windows 10, but I found myself not needing it as much, so I cleared Debian off and decided to use it as a VM instead.

My main language at the moment is Ruby, which is notoriously bad on Windows, so I use either my VM or WSL for Ruby work. The rest I can comfortably do on Windows.

I've had this laptop for years, and it's still fast and smooth. The trackpad is also a close second best to the fantastic MBP trackpads, with the keyboard being (arguably) better on the SB. My only criticism of it is the unnecessary tablet functionality. If Microsoft were to create a Surface Book equivalent without touch screen and a detachable screen, I'd consider it for work.

bestest
- 2015 MB PRO 16GB 13" i5

- 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.

sellingwebsite
Laptop model: Early 2015 Macbook Pro Retina

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.

kevinherron
Work: 2018 MBP (6-core i9, 32gb ram, 1TB SSD)

Home: X1C6 (4-core i7, 16gb ram, 1TB SSD)

bishalb
Alienware R3 17" i7 6820hk with 980m graphics and 16Gb RAM. I am not a gamer, it's just my work computer.
8fingerlouie
Laptop Model: Eve V

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
* I also have an old 2015 MB Pro Retina 13" that i use on and off.
coffeebean
Laptop model: ASUS Q504U

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.

jononomo
MacBook Pro, Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014

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.

qubex
iPad Pro (2018) 11” with WiFi and Cellular running the latest beta of iPadOS (iOS13) with an Logitech folio keyboard... it’s not a laptop replacement, but it is a laptop alternative
paco3346
Laptop model: Dell XPS 9570

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.

chrisbennet
Laptop Model: Lenovo X1 Extreme 1st Gen

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

dagw
Lenovo P72

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.

chrisbennet
Laptop Model: Lenovo X1 Carbon 6th Gen

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8650U

RAM: 16 GB

Screen: 14.0" HDR WQHD (2560 x 1440)

Personal comments: This is my Linux laptop.

quaquaqua1
Considering buying a passively cooled mini PC case and a mobo with a CPU/integrated graphics, sodimm memory, and lots of USB 3.0 ports.

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

CyberFonic
Good call! If you don't need to do heavy computing on the road, then a smartphone is often all you need. Compared to most notebooks and a mini PC is a far more upgradeable.
statictype
Laptop model: Customized MacBook Pro 2017

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.

Infinitesimus
Laptop model: Huawei Matebook Pro CPU: i7-8550U RAM: 16GB Screen: 3000x2000 13.9 in screen Personal comments

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...