7 ms·

> This configuration at $1,600 USD is an incredible value compared to a MacBook and other comparable laptops. I know expensive laptops are the norm in SF, but

by zibzab 5y ago

> This configuration at $1,600 USD is an incredible value compared to a MacBook and other comparable laptops. I know expensive laptops are the norm in SF, but does anyone else pay that much for laptops they may drop or looked at any time? (My current workhorse is a T-series thinkpad I got for free)

Swenrekcah 5y ago
I’ll bet your T-series cost at least $1600 2021 dollars when it was new.
- zibzab 5y ago
  Fair point, those things are expensive when new. But then again, I would never buy those when just released.
- flatiron 5y ago
  3 years later that same laptop is on eBay for $500 with almost perfect Linux compatibility though. It’s tough to beat used thinkpads on eBay. I never buy my personal laptops new.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
markyc 5y ago
- retina screen - great touchpad (and gestures) - all day battery - no noise at all (optional but for me a big plus) - hinge that stands the test of time - aluminum (of very resistant) body i'll buy a laptop that checks these off under $1600, but so far m1 air is the only one I found, and it's cheaper than that
- zibzab 5y ago
  But most of these are meaningless if you don't work full days on the run. Most of us sits in an office with a big monitor and a mouse and keyboard most of the time. And I don't get the "better productivity" talk either. During the most productive period of my life (by a huge margin, now I understand) I only had a $200 laptop. It was literally sold as "the cheapest laptop you will ever find". (I give you the noise though, I hate fan noise) Edit: do hinges ever break? Unless you sit on it, I have never seen this happen even with the cheapest laptops.
  - timeon 5y ago
    I haven't used mouse since I switched to mbp - and I use autocad/rhino a lot. > And I don't get the "better productivity" talk either. Among other reasons some people are concerned with energy use in general.
  - kitsunesoba 5y ago
    Whether you can get away with a cheap laptop really depends on what you’re doing. Like for someone who works in Photoshop/Illustrator/Sketch/Figma even a little will need a great screen and almost without exception you’re not going to be getting that in a $200 laptop. This admittedly can be worked around with a “cheap” $300 IPS external monitor, but at that point you’re spending more on the monitor than your laptop which feels upside-down. (I know this from experience — at one point I had to do PS work on a $500 Gateway laptop and it was miserable because a quarter of the document’s details weren’t even visible). Or if you’re compiling code a lot, you’re going to want more oomph than a $200 laptop can provide, because otherwise you’re going to be twiddling your thumbs and getting distracted and breaking flow waiting for code to compile. For me this is particularly impactful, and any reduction in compile times is easily felt. As for hinges, on even a number of “mid tier” laptops, they tend to get loose and wobbly over time. I’ve seen a number of IdeaPads owned by friends and family suffer this fate.
    - prmoustache 5y ago
      You can still do a lot of great work and have decent screen by just focusing on second hand stuff. I never bought a personnal laptop as new and right now my main laptop is one I bought from my previous company when leaving. The bonus is usually once you get them they are already fully supported and stable on Linux. It only costed me 375 euros. It is not a high end model, but a mid range (Lenovo E580) from a few years ago that was specced with the fastest i7 cpu and with as many ram (32GB) as supported. It is not Macbook M1 whatever fast/nice but for me it is still pretty much current. I cringe when people say they cannot work with 1080p screen but the reality is you are perefectly comfortable on them as long as you don't know better. This is something I have learned with different domains, not just computing but also sport equipment, music hardware. You don't necessarily miss the new tech until you tried it and you are not necessarily less productive, comfortable, creative or competitive on older tech, only expectations changes. But once you tested the new drug sure it is hard to come back.
- timeon 5y ago
  - decent speakers
- FearlessNebula 5y ago
  I think you’re underplaying two things: - not just a great touchpad, literally the best one in the game undisputed - all day battery life. And not PC laptops that claim 14 hours of battery but see 5 in reality, I’m talking actually 14 hours of battery in real world use.
akvadrako 5y ago
Yes, since I use it about 8 hours a day for a couple years, the cost per hour is pretty low and the better screen, keyboard and speed is worth it. However getting accidental damage protection, like from Lenovo, does help the peace of mind.
- lawn 5y ago
  I'm still amazed that people prefer to work on a laptop over a desktop. I mean, I still use a laptop in the evenings, but for work a desktop is to me a must.
  - dagw 5y ago
    As someone who shifts between 3 different desks (home, main office, project office) and sometimes as to go and see clients, having a laptop is pretty necessary. However once I plug my laptop into its docking station connected to my monitors, keyboard, mouse etc. I really don't notice much of a difference between a laptop and desktop. But I agree that working all day on a laptop in laptop mode is right out.
    - unionpivo 5y ago
      I have desktops at home and at office that i keep partially in sync (my home desktop is also for gaming (steam linux), no need for that in office). I have a laptop for those rare cases when I need to work where i am not at either of those locations. With so capable phones in pocket, I rarely find myself needing to pull out a laptop to the point that I don't think I'd buy replacement if this one broke. But to each his own.
  - DeWilde 5y ago
    I use a desktop into which I SSH or RDP from my laptop. Giving my flexibility and performance. But I still have an extra monitor in my office and home which I almost always use.
  - kitsunesoba 5y ago
    For my personal machine, I’m fine with a desktop because it’s unlikely I’ll need that power portably, and if I ever do I can set things up to remote into my personal desktop with my personal laptop. For my work machine, a laptop is preferred because then I can do my work anywhere without fuss even without an internet connection. Besides, with an M1 Pro, plugging my work laptop into the Thunderbolt hub at my desk provides a near-desktop experience for the overwhelming majority of its usage. For day to day work the difference between my M1 Pro laptop and 5950X desktop isn’t staggering enough to justify giving up portability.
Toutouxc 5y ago
I live in a country where the average salary is $20k and the M1 MacBook Air STARTS at $1330. Devs here still often use MacBooks or similarly priced higher-end machines. So yeah, good laptops are worth it even in much poorer countries.
harel 5y ago
I'm self employed. The laptop is my main "tool". If I was in construction this would be comparable to a van load of power tools and then some. I spend more time using it than any other tool I have. It's also a taxable expense. So for me the £2000+ I paid for my laptop to max it out to the extreme is money well spent. Did I mention it's a taxable expense?
- 5etho 5y ago
  where you guys are reselling? highly interested!
fastball 5y ago
My last laptop was $3500. I dropped it 4 days after purchase. My next laptop was $2000. I dropped it a few months after purchase. I don't live in SF. So I guess the answer to your question is yes.
- criddell 5y ago
  If you purchased your laptops with a credit card you should check to see if you have accidental damage protection. My credit card has that and I've used it to replace a phone with a cracked screen. It was literally a 5 minute phone call to make the claim and all of my money was refunded the next day.
  - fastball 5y ago
    Ah well I had AppleCare+ on both, replaced the first one then bought the current one a year later when the M1 came out because I wanted the battery life for travel. The $3500 computer I sold for a surprisingly large loss even though it was basically in mint condition after Apple replaced everything – turns out that although Apple product resale value is pretty high, the 2nd hand market for a $3500 computer is pretty small. Lesson learned.
FeepingCreature 5y ago
I paid $2000 for my laptop, and not a day goes by that I'm not grateful to past-me for that decision. Having a snappy machine is immensely pleasant.
- monopoledance 5y ago
  I have a ten year old X220 with an SSD upgrade.... I don't have to wait for anything really, either. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a difference, but... is it a 2000$ difference? This is about snappiness only, I have no trouble finding workloads stressing this old i5 (e.g. 2k/4k videos), where an M1 would fly through. Personally, I just think snappiness alone is a bit forced argument to spent 2k$.
  - FearlessNebula 5y ago
    Build quality is probably night and day. An old thinkpad is going to be clunky and made of cheap plastic. A modern $2000 ultra book is going to be slim and made of metal or other high quality materials, it will be pleasant to type on, to look at, and it will have a reasonable trackpad size by modern standards. When this is your main tool, it’s much more pleasant to use something with a nice build quality.
    - cehrlich 5y ago
      In terms of durability, the 10 year old ThinkPad will exceed just about any modern laptop. Size/weight is different story though. Just depends on priorities.
    - contidrift 5y ago
      Clunky sure, but cheap plastic? Old thinkpads can take a beating and keep going. I guess different people just have different needs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      - FearlessNebula 5y ago
        I didn’t mean cheap plastic in terms of durability, but in terms of how it feels quality wise. They can definitely take a beating
throwawayay02 5y ago
I never paid more than $400, but I also use Linux and don't play games or edit video, so I never really felt the need for a modern powerful computer.
- approxim8ion 5y ago
  Same here. My laptop cost $400 in 2016 and still serves my needs perfectly.
NoboruWataya 5y ago
I don't live in SF but paid about that much (bit less) for my current laptop. It's more than I've ever paid for a laptop before but I wanted something that would last a good while both in terms of build quality and specs/upgradability. I got a Dell Latitude but the latest Thinkpad T-series was running about the same price with similar specs. I live in the UK.
Mikeb85 5y ago
All the laptops I've bought have been $1-2k. It's not really that much, sub $1k laptops are pretty shit.
- FearlessNebula 5y ago
  There’s a lot of solid laptops in the $600-1000 range. Sub $600 is generally pretty shit but there’s some sales and exceptions
f6v 5y ago
When you spend so much time in from of the laptop, even 2k doesn’t seem excessive.
- sneak 5y ago
  A $6k laptop seems reasonable if you are using it for earning SWE incomes ($200k+/year).
nicbou 5y ago
My last laptop purchase was 11 years ago. I got recall-upgraded to a new laptop 6 years ago. Once amortised, it's a really small price to pay for something I use this much. Since it's a business expense, it's even cheaper.
Kletiomdm 5y ago
My private laptops are around 1000 to 1500. But I also have my desktop PC. My company laptop is 3k$ and I actually carry that around more often. True I care less about it but I still don't feel like I'm dropping devices while I'm moving. I dropt my Thinkpad primarily at home when it was sitting next to the couch :')
jillesvangurp 5y ago
I charge 1000 Euro per day when I'm consulting. That would be in Berlin. For that money, I need a laptop that is fast and works. I spend most waking hours using it so it also needs to be comfortable to use. So, I value quality and performance. That being said, my expensive 2017 Macbook Pro broke a few weeks ago and I picked up a very nicely discounted Samsung Galaxy book for about 700 Euro because the only macs available were obsolete and the new ones had 4 week delivery times. It's a 16GB, i5 with a surprisingly decent Iris XE graphics system on a chip thing and 512GB ssd. Nothing fancy but good enough for the money and great value at that price actually. I put Manjaro on it and was up and running in a few hours. I only had 4 hours to configure it in the evening as I had a customer meeting the next morning and needed a working development environment. So, I was pretty pleased all of that worked out fine. That means that laptop earned itself back in under a day. I even managed to revive some of my 32 bit Steam library and get playable fps (with that intel XE graphics!). And unlike the mac, it does not have thermal throttling issues. It was always unusable for gaming. I'll probably buy one of the new fancy macs when delivery times improve a bit and when we get some clarity on the inevitable early adopter issues (which bits are going to break this time?). But I'm not in a hurry. This thing works well enough and I'm kind of liking Manjaro so far. Lots of rough edges but nothing I can't deal with. Definitely not for users not comfortable using a command line. I'd totally spend 3000-4000 Euro on a laptop regardless of the OS if it is good value for money. My last mac book pro was 3500 Euro. Money is not the issue for me when I literally spend a lot of my billable time waiting for this thing to do stuff for minutes on end many times a day and interrupting my flow (which is priceless). But I expect performance for that money as well as a decent keyboard (so definitely not my Macbook Pro) and a nice screen. Apple fixed all of those things with their latest iteration but the configuration I'd want puts me close to 4000-5000 Euro this time. I'm actually considering doing that. But it's a lot of money and Apple tax this time. And the build quality of the last one was terrible, which makes me more hesitant. The worst I've ever seen from Apple. Hence, the cheapo emergency replacement. So, this laptop looks like a great deal. Twice the memory (or more if you upgrade), ssd, and better CPU than what I picked up for just 700 Euro a few weeks ago. Close to good enough for me. I'd like a proper screen though. Not having retina/HDPI feels like going back to the stone age a bit. Yes, Linux needs a bit of work on that front but Wayland seems capable of this at least. But other than that, not bad. If they do a more expensive version with a better screen, I'd consider getting one. Finding decent laptops is actually a problem. There are not a lot of premium laptops that are nice enough for my criteria. I don't want a gaming laptop monstrosity that sounds like a vacuum cleaner. I don't care for Thinkpads with a nipple and shitty touchpad. Dell has support issues though their XPS is pretty nice. But I want something premium, with a nice screen, keyboard and touchpad that doesn't feel like a huge compromise. This Samsung is quite nice on this front actually considering the price. The touchpad could be a bit bigger. But it does multi touch and it works (after lots of fiddling with settings). The 1080p screen feels like a huge leap backwards after having used a Retina screen for the last few years. Not loving that.
sneak 5y ago
I have several laptops that are multiple times that. It's common for people earning $200k+ per year to spend 5-10k per year on computing hardware. My desktop was like $14k new. It has been my daily driver for over 4 years, so less than $300/month (and still going down). That's a rounding error in relation to the money I have earned using it.
jjice 5y ago
My laptop is a X1 Carbon Gen 3 (released in 2015). Bought it used on ebay and I'm still fairly happy with it. I will say, the lack of hardware transcoding is the biggest pain point these days. When I was still in school and had zoom calls, those were a nightmare and ramped up to a consistent 90% CPU usage. Other than that, Rust compiles times are slow, but nothing else is a huge issue. Next machine needs to have hardware transcoding though. That's become so important to me. Needing to give up all of my processing power just to be on a video call is awful, but it served well for years for $400.

by zibzab 5y ago

Swenrekcah 5y ago

I’ll bet your T-series cost at least $1600 2021 dollars when it was new.

zibzab 5y ago
Fair point, those things are expensive when new. But then again, I would never buy those when just released.
flatiron 5y ago
3 years later that same laptop is on eBay for $500 with almost perfect Linux compatibility though. It’s tough to beat used thinkpads on eBay. I never buy my personal laptops new.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

markyc 5y ago

- retina screen - great touchpad (and gestures) - all day battery - no noise at all (optional but for me a big plus) - hinge that stands the test of time - aluminum (of very resistant) body i'll buy a laptop that checks these off under $1600, but so far m1 air is the only one I found, and it's cheaper than that

zibzab 5y ago
But most of these are meaningless if you don't work full days on the run. Most of us sits in an office with a big monitor and a mouse and keyboard most of the time. And I don't get the "better productivity" talk either. During the most productive period of my life (by a huge margin, now I understand) I only had a $200 laptop. It was literally sold as "the cheapest laptop you will ever find". (I give you the noise though, I hate fan noise) Edit: do hinges ever break? Unless you sit on it, I have never seen this happen even with the cheapest laptops.
- timeon 5y ago
  I haven't used mouse since I switched to mbp - and I use autocad/rhino a lot. > And I don't get the "better productivity" talk either. Among other reasons some people are concerned with energy use in general.
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  Whether you can get away with a cheap laptop really depends on what you’re doing. Like for someone who works in Photoshop/Illustrator/Sketch/Figma even a little will need a great screen and almost without exception you’re not going to be getting that in a $200 laptop. This admittedly can be worked around with a “cheap” $300 IPS external monitor, but at that point you’re spending more on the monitor than your laptop which feels upside-down. (I know this from experience — at one point I had to do PS work on a $500 Gateway laptop and it was miserable because a quarter of the document’s details weren’t even visible). Or if you’re compiling code a lot, you’re going to want more oomph than a $200 laptop can provide, because otherwise you’re going to be twiddling your thumbs and getting distracted and breaking flow waiting for code to compile. For me this is particularly impactful, and any reduction in compile times is easily felt. As for hinges, on even a number of “mid tier” laptops, they tend to get loose and wobbly over time. I’ve seen a number of IdeaPads owned by friends and family suffer this fate.
  - prmoustache 5y ago
    You can still do a lot of great work and have decent screen by just focusing on second hand stuff. I never bought a personnal laptop as new and right now my main laptop is one I bought from my previous company when leaving. The bonus is usually once you get them they are already fully supported and stable on Linux. It only costed me 375 euros. It is not a high end model, but a mid range (Lenovo E580) from a few years ago that was specced with the fastest i7 cpu and with as many ram (32GB) as supported. It is not Macbook M1 whatever fast/nice but for me it is still pretty much current. I cringe when people say they cannot work with 1080p screen but the reality is you are perefectly comfortable on them as long as you don't know better. This is something I have learned with different domains, not just computing but also sport equipment, music hardware. You don't necessarily miss the new tech until you tried it and you are not necessarily less productive, comfortable, creative or competitive on older tech, only expectations changes. But once you tested the new drug sure it is hard to come back.
timeon 5y ago
- decent speakers
FearlessNebula 5y ago
I think you’re underplaying two things: - not just a great touchpad, literally the best one in the game undisputed - all day battery life. And not PC laptops that claim 14 hours of battery but see 5 in reality, I’m talking actually 14 hours of battery in real world use.

akvadrako 5y ago

Yes, since I use it about 8 hours a day for a couple years, the cost per hour is pretty low and the better screen, keyboard and speed is worth it. However getting accidental damage protection, like from Lenovo, does help the peace of mind.

lawn 5y ago
I'm still amazed that people prefer to work on a laptop over a desktop. I mean, I still use a laptop in the evenings, but for work a desktop is to me a must.
- dagw 5y ago
  As someone who shifts between 3 different desks (home, main office, project office) and sometimes as to go and see clients, having a laptop is pretty necessary. However once I plug my laptop into its docking station connected to my monitors, keyboard, mouse etc. I really don't notice much of a difference between a laptop and desktop. But I agree that working all day on a laptop in laptop mode is right out.
  - unionpivo 5y ago
    I have desktops at home and at office that i keep partially in sync (my home desktop is also for gaming (steam linux), no need for that in office). I have a laptop for those rare cases when I need to work where i am not at either of those locations. With so capable phones in pocket, I rarely find myself needing to pull out a laptop to the point that I don't think I'd buy replacement if this one broke. But to each his own.
- DeWilde 5y ago
  I use a desktop into which I SSH or RDP from my laptop. Giving my flexibility and performance. But I still have an extra monitor in my office and home which I almost always use.
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  For my personal machine, I’m fine with a desktop because it’s unlikely I’ll need that power portably, and if I ever do I can set things up to remote into my personal desktop with my personal laptop. For my work machine, a laptop is preferred because then I can do my work anywhere without fuss even without an internet connection. Besides, with an M1 Pro, plugging my work laptop into the Thunderbolt hub at my desk provides a near-desktop experience for the overwhelming majority of its usage. For day to day work the difference between my M1 Pro laptop and 5950X desktop isn’t staggering enough to justify giving up portability.

Toutouxc 5y ago

I live in a country where the average salary is $20k and the M1 MacBook Air STARTS at $1330. Devs here still often use MacBooks or similarly priced higher-end machines. So yeah, good laptops are worth it even in much poorer countries.

harel 5y ago

I'm self employed. The laptop is my main "tool". If I was in construction this would be comparable to a van load of power tools and then some. I spend more time using it than any other tool I have. It's also a taxable expense. So for me the £2000+ I paid for my laptop to max it out to the extreme is money well spent. Did I mention it's a taxable expense?

5etho 5y ago
where you guys are reselling? highly interested!

fastball 5y ago

My last laptop was $3500. I dropped it 4 days after purchase. My next laptop was $2000. I dropped it a few months after purchase. I don't live in SF. So I guess the answer to your question is yes.

criddell 5y ago
If you purchased your laptops with a credit card you should check to see if you have accidental damage protection. My credit card has that and I've used it to replace a phone with a cracked screen. It was literally a 5 minute phone call to make the claim and all of my money was refunded the next day.
- fastball 5y ago
  Ah well I had AppleCare+ on both, replaced the first one then bought the current one a year later when the M1 came out because I wanted the battery life for travel. The $3500 computer I sold for a surprisingly large loss even though it was basically in mint condition after Apple replaced everything – turns out that although Apple product resale value is pretty high, the 2nd hand market for a $3500 computer is pretty small. Lesson learned.

FeepingCreature 5y ago

I paid $2000 for my laptop, and not a day goes by that I'm not grateful to past-me for that decision. Having a snappy machine is immensely pleasant.

monopoledance 5y ago
I have a ten year old X220 with an SSD upgrade.... I don't have to wait for anything really, either. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a difference, but... is it a 2000$ difference? This is about snappiness only, I have no trouble finding workloads stressing this old i5 (e.g. 2k/4k videos), where an M1 would fly through. Personally, I just think snappiness alone is a bit forced argument to spent 2k$.
- FearlessNebula 5y ago
  Build quality is probably night and day. An old thinkpad is going to be clunky and made of cheap plastic. A modern $2000 ultra book is going to be slim and made of metal or other high quality materials, it will be pleasant to type on, to look at, and it will have a reasonable trackpad size by modern standards. When this is your main tool, it’s much more pleasant to use something with a nice build quality.
  - cehrlich 5y ago
    In terms of durability, the 10 year old ThinkPad will exceed just about any modern laptop. Size/weight is different story though. Just depends on priorities.
  - contidrift 5y ago
    Clunky sure, but cheap plastic? Old thinkpads can take a beating and keep going. I guess different people just have different needs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    - FearlessNebula 5y ago
      I didn’t mean cheap plastic in terms of durability, but in terms of how it feels quality wise. They can definitely take a beating

throwawayay02 5y ago

I never paid more than $400, but I also use Linux and don't play games or edit video, so I never really felt the need for a modern powerful computer.

approxim8ion 5y ago
Same here. My laptop cost $400 in 2016 and still serves my needs perfectly.

NoboruWataya 5y ago

I don't live in SF but paid about that much (bit less) for my current laptop. It's more than I've ever paid for a laptop before but I wanted something that would last a good while both in terms of build quality and specs/upgradability. I got a Dell Latitude but the latest Thinkpad T-series was running about the same price with similar specs. I live in the UK.

Mikeb85 5y ago

All the laptops I've bought have been $1-2k. It's not really that much, sub $1k laptops are pretty shit.

FearlessNebula 5y ago
There’s a lot of solid laptops in the $600-1000 range. Sub $600 is generally pretty shit but there’s some sales and exceptions

f6v 5y ago

When you spend so much time in from of the laptop, even 2k doesn’t seem excessive.

sneak 5y ago
A $6k laptop seems reasonable if you are using it for earning SWE incomes ($200k+/year).

nicbou 5y ago

My last laptop purchase was 11 years ago. I got recall-upgraded to a new laptop 6 years ago. Once amortised, it's a really small price to pay for something I use this much. Since it's a business expense, it's even cheaper.

Kletiomdm 5y ago

My private laptops are around 1000 to 1500. But I also have my desktop PC. My company laptop is 3k$ and I actually carry that around more often. True I care less about it but I still don't feel like I'm dropping devices while I'm moving. I dropt my Thinkpad primarily at home when it was sitting next to the couch :')

jillesvangurp 5y ago

I charge 1000 Euro per day when I'm consulting. That would be in Berlin. For that money, I need a laptop that is fast and works. I spend most waking hours using it so it also needs to be comfortable to use. So, I value quality and performance. That being said, my expensive 2017 Macbook Pro broke a few weeks ago and I picked up a very nicely discounted Samsung Galaxy book for about 700 Euro because the only macs available were obsolete and the new ones had 4 week delivery times. It's a 16GB, i5 with a surprisingly decent Iris XE graphics system on a chip thing and 512GB ssd. Nothing fancy but good enough for the money and great value at that price actually. I put Manjaro on it and was up and running in a few hours. I only had 4 hours to configure it in the evening as I had a customer meeting the next morning and needed a working development environment. So, I was pretty pleased all of that worked out fine. That means that laptop earned itself back in under a day. I even managed to revive some of my 32 bit Steam library and get playable fps (with that intel XE graphics!). And unlike the mac, it does not have thermal throttling issues. It was always unusable for gaming. I'll probably buy one of the new fancy macs when delivery times improve a bit and when we get some clarity on the inevitable early adopter issues (which bits are going to break this time?). But I'm not in a hurry. This thing works well enough and I'm kind of liking Manjaro so far. Lots of rough edges but nothing I can't deal with. Definitely not for users not comfortable using a command line. I'd totally spend 3000-4000 Euro on a laptop regardless of the OS if it is good value for money. My last mac book pro was 3500 Euro. Money is not the issue for me when I literally spend a lot of my billable time waiting for this thing to do stuff for minutes on end many times a day and interrupting my flow (which is priceless). But I expect performance for that money as well as a decent keyboard (so definitely not my Macbook Pro) and a nice screen. Apple fixed all of those things with their latest iteration but the configuration I'd want puts me close to 4000-5000 Euro this time. I'm actually considering doing that. But it's a lot of money and Apple tax this time. And the build quality of the last one was terrible, which makes me more hesitant. The worst I've ever seen from Apple. Hence, the cheapo emergency replacement. So, this laptop looks like a great deal. Twice the memory (or more if you upgrade), ssd, and better CPU than what I picked up for just 700 Euro a few weeks ago. Close to good enough for me. I'd like a proper screen though. Not having retina/HDPI feels like going back to the stone age a bit. Yes, Linux needs a bit of work on that front but Wayland seems capable of this at least. But other than that, not bad. If they do a more expensive version with a better screen, I'd consider getting one. Finding decent laptops is actually a problem. There are not a lot of premium laptops that are nice enough for my criteria. I don't want a gaming laptop monstrosity that sounds like a vacuum cleaner. I don't care for Thinkpads with a nipple and shitty touchpad. Dell has support issues though their XPS is pretty nice. But I want something premium, with a nice screen, keyboard and touchpad that doesn't feel like a huge compromise. This Samsung is quite nice on this front actually considering the price. The touchpad could be a bit bigger. But it does multi touch and it works (after lots of fiddling with settings). The 1080p screen feels like a huge leap backwards after having used a Retina screen for the last few years. Not loving that.

sneak 5y ago

I have several laptops that are multiple times that. It's common for people earning $200k+ per year to spend 5-10k per year on computing hardware. My desktop was like $14k new. It has been my daily driver for over 4 years, so less than $300/month (and still going down). That's a rounding error in relation to the money I have earned using it.

jjice 5y ago

My laptop is a X1 Carbon Gen 3 (released in 2015). Bought it used on ebay and I'm still fairly happy with it. I will say, the lack of hardware transcoding is the biggest pain point these days. When I was still in school and had zoom calls, those were a nightmare and ramped up to a consistent 90% CPU usage. Other than that, Rust compiles times are slow, but nothing else is a huge issue. Next machine needs to have hardware transcoding though. That's become so important to me. Needing to give up all of my processing power just to be on a video call is awful, but it served well for years for $400.