I have had many issues with laptops over the years. Too slow, not good keyboard, general nonesuch as all of that would be. The best laptop keybeard ever that I would legitimately replace a desktop keyboard with is the one off of my HP NW8000. Best tracking, spacing, over all feel is amazing... In short the only thing that beats it for me is MX clears. But I have always had thi- other issue with screens. I like 5:4 screens; tall, clear, normally ips of some sort so the colors are great, but the things just don't exist anymore!
Recently I came across this:
A great little talk about a guy who wants the best laptop he can make. He is a fan of the IBM/Lenovo laptops where as I am a fan of the old desktop replacement HP type laptops. So I have been thinking recently about how I could make a laptop for myself to my specifications. I really only like the business class holy shit machines, the Y40-70 in my lap feels like it could snap at any moment if I'm honest, but I have still been thinking about what I would need in a laptop...
I could build a pi-top, except I couldn't work on code very well, do much in the way of gaming and video editing, but the idea i nice. If anything dies, 30 bucks, unit is up again. My only solution I think is to find a dead HP NW8000 and wire a system inside of it gargantuan case. The mobo inside is rather tall as it has almost full size caps in there. Plus bits can be pulled out as they need to be. The screen is great, an early IPS screen @1600x1200 (the perfect screen in my opinion and is why the NW8000 holds value today) and the laptop I have now is what I normally write and draft on, code stories or otherwise. Its great if you don't mind a few hiccups once in a while.
Well, maybe I'll just have to make something, whether its with the screen and keyboard of my dreams or I just take a 10 keyless mechanical and make a pi-top... Maybe I'll draft something for myself to work on in the next few days or weeks... Dunno yet. Going to the recycling center in the next few days so I'll dig around. Should I post pictures / a video of what I look at? I'll mostly be there to turn in a job app and a resume but also to see what resources I'll have available to me for about a week and a half as I prepare some more things for testing AROS builds I throw together. Dunno, but having some thought over stuff. :3
16:10 screen, amazing battery life, solid keyboard, and there is a program to get a super heavy click on the trackpad that makes it feel much more tactile than the stock options.
It also has enough power to replace everything else you have. So sell all your older stuff. Upgrade. Make your life easy. Move on.
As a general rule, no. The most generic rule, no. 1: Hate dell. They really annoy we. What products I have from them have fallen apart expediantly. There doesn't really appear to be QA.
I would love to but I'm not phil of the future. Also I would want some actual firepower so the unit itself would be 3000 bucks to get something I expect out of a 4 year old MSI gaming laptop.
it was just an example of a particular model that may not disappoint. Knowing you though, it won't check all the boxes unless it's a sparcstation hot glued into a shoebox with a typewriter electrically retrofitted to serve double duty as a keyboard, running off of a bank of lead acid batteries recharged with a solar array
when it comes to laptops, brands don't matter. particular models matter.
No but I have had problems with dells a lot. I have thought about getting into modding thinkpads though. Seems to be a way bigger community than I realized behind that.
I mean if we are being honest, if apple keeps up with their current trend of alienating customers and making shitty phones, their company won't make it past 2030 let alone 2105
thinkpads are fine, as long as yo don't want to do anything useful with it.
They retain value far beyond their window of relevancy because of that rebuilding community, and the models that are built well are getting really long in the tooth.
Digging up this old thread because I just finished a blog post about the Framework. I had a Dell Inspiron that died and repairing it was a fools errand.
In the post, I do talk about switching to a Lenovo briefly, and although I do have a good AMD Lenovo, the X1 Carbon I got for work was total garbage. I’d still purchase a Lenovo over a tell, but after putting together a Framework, I never want to buy another brand again … although we’ll see if I still feel that way when it comes time to repair it.