7 ms·
It sounds to me like you just described the t480s, I'm having a hard time imagining why I would choose the Dell over the Thinkpad. How is the screen on the dell
by earthscienceman 6y ago
It sounds to me like you just described the t480s, I'm having a hard time imagining why I would choose the Dell over the Thinkpad. How is the screen on the dell? The T480s is still a killer daily driver. Is the Dell as serviceable as a thinkpad? Easy disassembly?
- cesarb 6y ago> Is the Dell as serviceable as a thinkpad? Easy disassembly? You can check it for yourself, every Dell model has the full repair instructions posted somewhere on the Dell site (go to the Support page, select the model, and open the manuals tab). For instance, https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/latitude-13-7390-laptop_owners-manual4_en-us.pdf https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/latitude-13-7390-laptop_owne... is the one for the Dell Latitude 7390. I always check these guides before buying a laptop, to make sure I'm not getting something like non-replaceable RAM.
- young_unixer 6y agoThe Dell doesn't have that obnoxious Thinkpad logo.
- fetbaffe 6y agoTalking about Killer, that is the worst Wi-Fi adapter I have ever used, surprisingly used in Dell XPS.
- barbs 6y agoWhy was it so bad?
- fetbaffe 6y agoConstant disconnects and failure to connect to the same network again, usually after sleep. Luckily I have two networks (2.4GHz & 5GHz) so I switch between the two. I also suspect that the Killer adapter was the source of some bluescreens I got, usually after sleep. After some driver updates it has disappeared.
- kevinkeller 6y agoNow owned by Intel: https://www.anandtech.com/show/15809/intel-acquires-rivet-networks-killer-networking-is-all-in-for-team-blue https://www.anandtech.com/show/15809/intel-acquires-rivet-ne...
- psanford 6y agoI've got two T480s (a personal one and a work issued one). I've been really happy with linux on these machines. My previous machine was an XPS 13. The XPS had nicer specs but I've been happier with the T480s. Specifically, the T480s has a better keyboard, no coil whine and more expansion options. It seems like the T480s is more similar to the Latitude line than the XPS line.
- wj 6y agoI have one of them for work and I like it in general. Nice screen. Quite fast. Having the function key in the bottom left gets me (I use control+[ as my vim escape key) is slightly annoying but nothing to do there. There are two issues that seem like there should be a fix for but I can't find: * Having a left and right side of the trackpad. I would prefer to disable that and just use two fingers to right-click anywhere on the track pad. * Cursor doesn't disappear when typing. I'm some apps it does and in others it doesn't. I would prefer it do it all the time.
- pvorb 6y agoI think you can swap the fn and ctrl key in the BIOS under sth like Config -> Keyboard/Mouse -> Fn and Ctrl Key swap. While I don't have the exact model, I think this has been possible for all ThinkPads for some time.
- psanford 6y agoYes! That's something I really appreciate about ThinkPads.
- psanford 6y agoThe trackpad criticism is fair. I switched to using tap-to-click on trackpads a long time ago (because of how bad linux handled MacBook trackpads) so thats not something that I particularly notice. My biggest complaint is the poor quality of the speakers.
- nojito 6y agoI don't understand how anyone can support Lenovo after the spyware incident.
- OJFord 6y agoPerhaps ignorance - link?
- oliveshell 6y ago“Alert (TA15-051A)- Lenovo Superfish Adware Vulnerable to HTTPS Spoofing”: https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA15-051A https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA15-051A
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoIf I recall correctly, this is the (one of) HN threads from the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9072424 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9072424
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoIs there any reason to believe the current line of Lenovo laptops shouldn’t be trusted? I mean, an more or less than any other brand or manufacturer?
- nojito 6y agoWhy would you ever trust a company that did that in the first place?
- nix23 6y agoWhy would you ever trust Hardware and or proprietary Soft/Firmware.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
- kilolima 6y agoIt's much easier to unscrew and take the back off the Latitudes than the Thinkpads and their hidden plastic clips that you risk breaking. For some reason, even recent Thinkpads are way over-valued on EBay, this is not the case for Latitudes which you can pick up cheap from ex-corporate deployments. The 7390 also has a WWAN slot and you can use any $30 card, not a specific one on the Lenovo whitelist. The battery is also bigger, lasts 10-15 hours dependent on radios/screen brightness. I am a recent Thinkpad to Latitude convert, the Dells are just better, less cost, better hardware, maybe less Chinese malware.
- Causality1 6y agoLenovo screens are generally pretty terrible. For example, the T480s has an average screen brightness of 302 cd/m^2 and a miserable contrast ratio of 864:1. In comparison the dell 7390 has an average brightness of 315 cd/m^2 and a contrast ratio of 1316:1. Double the contrast makes a very noticeable improvement in how good the screen looks.
- znpy 6y agoMostly, yes. The Latitude 7390 is a bit smaller than the T480s (13 vs 14 inches). If the latitude 7390 had the trackpoint, i would prefer that to a thinkpad.
- tomtompl 6y agoThe 7490 (14'') model has trackpoint.
- war1025 6y agoI have both a Thinkpad and a Dell. I prefer the Dell hands down. The Thinkpad has multiple compatibility issues on linux where things occasionally just stop working. I have never had similar trouble with a Dell laptop. Everything just works. Always.
- tannhaeuser 6y agoFWIW, my old Dell XPS had a much better monitor and trackpad than my current Thinkpad, and was very easy to open to change the battery. Unfortunately, it also was necessary to change the battery because it swell up :( It's just my anecdata, and the comparison is really bogus since I'm not even using a regular T4xx (just an E495/Ryzen budget Thinkpad I picked up in retail because my XPS was dying), but I personally think still the Dell has a better keyboard as well. The Thinkpad is a solid notebook that is much bulkier and thus has better airflow, and runs Linux OOTB a little bit better than the Dell (and Dell currently doesn't have Ryzen notebooks I believe), but given the choice, overall I'd clearly prefer Dell.