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I've replaced my aging and failing 2013 XPS with a Ryzen 5 IdeaPad S540, cheap and slightly bigger but has a second internal M.2 slot, SD card slot, RAM upgrade
by wazoox 6y ago
I've replaced my aging and failing 2013 XPS with a Ryzen 5 IdeaPad S540, cheap and slightly bigger but has a second internal M.2 slot, SD card slot, RAM upgraded to 32GB, and full size HDMI and USB A connectors for less than 900€. I'm happy with the upgrade, even if this machine won't last as long as the XPS (though its full metal case is sturdy enough).
- ChuckNorris89 6y ago>Ryzen 5 IdeaPad S540 Too bad that, like most Ryzen laptops, it only has a HDMI 1.4 port just like every Lidl/Aldi discount bin laptop from 2012, so you can't get 60Hz at 4K on your external monitor, which is laughable for a device that costs almost a thousand bucks. HDMI 2.0 devices have been on the market since like 2016 already. I don't know why all OEMs gimp the Ryzen variants like this. It's either they have slower USB/HDMI, or worse screens, or outdated wireless or less RAM/storage than the Intel version of the same device. One theory I heard, is Intel requires OEMs to sell a certain percentage of their chips on premium machines if they want to stay on their nice partners list and get their chips at good prices, so OEMs, in order to stay in Intel's good graces, just gimp the Ryzen ones to force your hand to buy Intel if you want no compromises, other than an outdated CPU. My aging laptop is in dire need of replacement and I would also want to replace it with a Ryzen one but the very few ones that have no major compromises have been sold out for months and show no signs of being restocked(in the EU at least) whereas Intel's outdated 9th and 10th gen based laptops are in stock everywhere but I wouldn't touch tose with a 10ft(3,048m) pole.
- war1025 6y ago> so you can't get 60Hz at 4K on your external monitor Maybe my eyes just aren't that good, but I really can't see why I would need 4k over standard HD, which gives me plenty of screen real estate and a perfectly fine picture.
- leoedin 6y ago4K is 4x the pixels of standard HD. You can fit 4 HD windows next to each other. That's a huge difference! Any work with spreadsheets or multiple window code comparison benefits tremendously.
- ChuckNorris89 6y agoI don't see why your preferences should have an impact on my needs for 4k screens or vice-versa.
- leetcrew 6y agohow big is your monitor? to me, 4K is noticeably better than 1440p on a 27" monitor, especially for rendering text. 1440p is certainly acceptable at that size, but my guess is it would look quite bad on anything >30".
- war1025 6y agoI have a 24" monitor. Could be that people just have larger monitors than me. I always get the impression that people are just coding off their laptops all the time. 4k on a laptop seems like overkill.
- leetcrew 6y ago1080p is fine for a 24" display imo, though I'd want 1440p for a 25". the current trend in laptop displays is baffling to me too. why anyone would sacrifice hours of battery life to have a 4K panel on something like an xps 13 is beyond me.
- bserge 6y agoI mean, sure, but if you have a 4K display, you want your machine to output 4K at a decent refresh rate.
- leaveyou 6y agoMany IT companies provide their employees with a two screen setup and more recently with the availability of Ultrawide screens you can replace 2 screens (1920 x 1080) with one ultrawide (3440 x 1440) and the first thing you notice is that HDMI 1.4 can't feed the ultrawide at 60Hz and to make it work you need to make some ugly hacks and downstep the refresh rate to 30Hz even though the monitor supports 75hz native refresh rate.
- hackerfromthefu 6y agoI think you can hit 50hz not 30 on hdmi 1.4
- alanfranz 6y agoMaybe your monitor isn't good enough. If you've got a 32" inch monitor, FullHD is pixelated. I've got a 43" monitor, it's 4K and it couldn't work at FullHD resolution.
- nicoburns 6y agoIt's all about text rendering fidelity for me. I can fit a lot more code on my 4k screen.
- katsura 6y agoI noticed that as well. Either the build quality is questionable, some hardware elements, or the screen itself. Somehow it seems like there isn't any real AMD option that a self-respecting dev could buy. By the time AMD laptops catch up, M1 will leave everybody in the dust.
- fmajid 6y agoThe Huawei Mate 14 2020 AMD is an outstanding machine, with a 3:2 display that has the same vertical space as a 16" 16:9, and a 4800H, and a solid all-metal chassis (only 16GB RAM, though). It's available in the UK, unfortunately with their god-awful UK QWERTY layout. The big problem is 4800H availability. I gave up waiting for the Tuxedo Pulse 14 with it, and got a M1 Macbook Air instead.
- ChuckNorris89 6y ago>god-awful UK QWERTY layout Mate, zou havenät seen the German lazout.
- fmajid 6y agoThe UK keyboard sits in the uncanny valley where it superficially looks like US-ANSI, then you realize the tilde (essential character for a UNIX-er) has been replaced by the negation sign ¬ (who even uses that?) and the @ and # signs relegated to Outer Mongolia.
- eikenberry 6y agoLenovo has several AMD options in the Thinkpad lineup. Personally I'm eyeing an T14 but am really putting it off as I'm hoping System76 actually gets their in-house designed laptops available as I'd like to see those before pulling the trigger on yet another Lenovo.
- hackerfromthefu 6y agoScreen quality on these is pretty bad
- mikepurvis 6y agoI can't find it listed on the website, but does it really not have a USB-C/Thunderbolt port? My XPS connects out to a dock via USB-C that then goes to two displays, one on HDMI and the other on displayport. I assumed this kind of setup was fairly standard, but that's awful if Intel is using their muscle to prevent it on non-Intel HW.
- vvillena 6y agoI'm writing this from a Ryzen-powered Thinkpad connected to a 4K display via USB-C. That Ideapad doesn't seem to support USB-C video output, so the probable reason is market segmentation. They probably want to make the people who want external displays buy a Thinkpad or a Legion.
- hackerfromthefu 6y agoI think that has usb 3.2 gen 1 so only 5Gbs, but that can still support 4k @ 60hz with the right usb hub, maybe via displaylink compression
- wazoox 6y agoUnfortunately the USB-C is only USB 3.2, not Thunderbolt capable. It's not a thinkpad, it's sold as a "gaming laptop" that's why it's cheaper.
- distances 6y agoThunderbolt isn't available on AMD laptops. You do get USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) which is enough for 4K 60Hz, but I can't say about two high-res monitors.
- bserge 6y ago"AMD is for budget devices"... Sadly, that's what marketing says. I don't understand how these people have a job at big companies, or anywhere really lol XMG (Clevo/Schenker/Sager/Eurocom/etc) has the best Ryzen laptop I've seen yet, although I don't really like their quality: https://www.xmg.gg/en/xmg-apex-15 https://www.xmg.gg/en/xmg-apex-15
- wazoox 6y agoYes I've looked at these ones first, but they were more expensive and I went the safe and cheap route with Lenovo.
- leetcrew 6y ago> One theory I heard is Intel requires them to sell a certain number of their chips on premium machines if they want to stay on their nice partners list and get their chips at good prices so they just gimp the Ryzen ones to force your hand to buy Intel if you want no other compromises other than an outdated CPU. I wouldn't put this past intel, but I doubt it's even necessary. most people that buy laptops don't know that amd is currently beating intel on price/performance in the high-end parts. to most people that have even heard of amd, it's the "budget" cpu brand. looking at typical home user desktop/laptop configurations, it's obvious that they aren't even trying to choose optimal sets of parts for the price with most of their skus. they just slap together whatever sounds good to the median consumer.
- alanfranz 6y ago> One theory I heard is Intel requires them to sell a certain number of their chips on premium machines if they want to stay on their nice partners list I think this has happened in the past already (https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/12/5803442/intel-nearly-1-and-a-half-billion-fine-upheld-anticompetitive-practices https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/12/5803442/intel-nearly-1-an...). If they're really doing it again... good luck.
- toyg 6y agoSome of that bad rep is earned. My ex-wife got a Lenovo with a cheap amd a few years ago and it was the worst buy of her life.
- wazoox 6y agoI have no much use for a 4K display, I don't own any (I'm both myopic and old anyway). in fact for me the worst point is that it could have a 1920x1200 panel, but carries a FHD one instead, with a large useless black band below, too bad.
- oblio 6y agoIf you have bad eyesight, you actually want a high DPI display. You crank up the scaling to 200% and have images that are the same size but much sharper.
- ssakamoto 6y agohow does the battery fare ?
- wazoox 6y agoSupposedly 8 hours running Windows but removing Windows was my first action; about 5 hours under Linux (running Pop_OS 20.10 with 5.8 kernel). Everything works great under Linux but the driverless fingerprint reader. Also you need to install manually a dkms for the Wifi, but everything's fine and fast afterwards (actually reaching 600 Mbps with Wifi).
- xxpor 6y agoAm I the only one who still prefers doing dev work on a desktop? I'm on a laptop right now because of WFH, but even with a full "desktop" setup (dock, 2 external monitors, external keyboard/mouse, etc), it's not as pleasant as using a desktop. Crappy graphics, a low power CPU (and only 2 cores), not as much drive space, etc. Even if I get the highest spec laptop available, for the same money a desktop will blow it out of the water. Maybe if you're traveling a LOT it'd make sense but I have to imagine for the vast majority of people, they're in one spot most of the time. That could be a desk in an office or a fixed spot somewhere at home.
- wazoox 6y agoI have a desktop at work and use the laptop for working from home or elsewhere. Though my new laptop (4 cores, 8 threads, 32 GB of RAM, Vega graphics) is markedly faster than my desktop now :)