Ask HN: Will you buy a 5kg (11 pounds) 17 inch notebook?

It might get you a higher response rate is you gave the equivalent to 5kg which is 11 pounds.

I've been totally hooked on 17 inch laptops for ten years, sadly fewer and fewer manufacturers make them. I've had them weigh 10 pounds and 6 pounds, I prefer 6 pounds! I don't care much about battery capacity as I keep mine plugged in 99% of the time.

Portability would be there, but since it would be quite uncomfortable (so more for "I need to work from home every now and then" instead of "let's grab the laptop and go sit in the park"), I'd probably have more trust in a NUC style desktop.

If the product category took off in the market, okay, but a single offering from an unknown player? Not for me, I fear.

No.

Can’t take it on a plane due to battery regulations, I’d have to ground ship it to myself if I travel.

Can’t carry it in my backpack without damaging my body.

Can’t power that thing within the 100W USB-C standard. Add more weight for the huge power brick.

Can’t figure out what I can’t do with my 2kg laptop that this machine will be able to do. I’ve already got 8 cores, more RAM than I’ll ever need, and a dedicated graphics card. What is more than doubling the weight going to get me?

I can take a power bank with me if I need more battery. I probably can't leave the 320Wh thick boy at home if I want to get rid of some weight. Around 2.5kg is probably the max I would carry and even then, that's very annoying. Note, that's about how much the Thinkpad P50 weighs. If you want to offer battery life, it should be an option, but you should have a base option that is reasonable, but has the potential for upgrades. Modularity is cool.

How about a 17 inch notebook with a 100Wh battery + 100Wh battery extension and a good display that weighs 3kg~ (with only one of the batteries)?

Dual batteries to allow hot swapping seems like it would be more flexible. One larger for primary power. One smaller to facilitate the swap. Then battery weight is a tunable parameter of the overall loadout.

Yes.

MSI GT-76 laptop with 128GB RAM, 3x1TB Samsung SSDs, i9-9900K CPU, Nvidia GTX 2080, 17” 4K screen.

It comes with 2 power supplies like 2 bricks. Gigantic, heavy and super fast laptop.

Wouldn't you be better off with a lighter notebook for portability, and an additional large display for those times when that is practicable?

Why stop at 17"? Asus makes an 18" https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-GX800VH-7th-Gen-Intel-Co...

I got an Acer Predator 15 inch gaming laptop with a GTX 1070 8GB for deep learning three years ago and it is just a desktop to be fair, only moved with it a couple of times for long gigs away... the latest iPad Mini became my portable device, instead.

I would definitely buy it. Mine (thinkpad p70) already has 3.5Kg I think.

No. I own a Thinkpad p52s (4.4 pounds) and that's already too much weight to carry around.

No chance. 5 lbs is a clunker. 5 kg better come with suitcase roller wheels.

When I was in college, I did enjoy my 17in, 3kg (6.6 pounds) notebook a lot. Was considering buying additional kilo in batteries :-)

I was in lecture-halls all the time, so there usually was power, and having the extra screen real estate was nice.

I don't think I can live with a laptop heavier than 3kg to be honest. My old 15" used to be a little under that and it was a literal pain my back.

I've switched from a desktop to a laptop for my daily computer needs. I would exchange Weight for other benefits. I would have to see the display to decide in this case but I'm open to the situation.

I would definitely switch speed for weight but better display is a maybe.

I do body building. The weight doesn't bother me. I often carry two laptops around plus power supplies, keyboards, mice, sometimes a metal stand. I'd buy a heavier laptop if it had a better screen, better perf.

~8 years ago I had an Acer 21" "laptop", and I loved it. I think it was 7kg-ish, but I always carry a backpack with some water, a small Chinese tea ceremony set, some books etc so this didn't bother me at all. I'm probably in a lower single-digit minority though.

Pros:

* full-size keyboard with proper travel, * bigger battery, * 21" is bigger than 15", * it runs cooler and less noise.

Cons:

* weight, * no more working from Starbucks.

320Wh sounds fun but you can't travel with it. 99Wh is max and some airlines even less.