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> The better keyboards are a bit pricier Nope, they are just nonexistent in modern laptops. > USB-C Hubs are like $30 and have more than enough bandwidth for

> The better keyboards are a bit pricier Nope, they are just nonexistent in modern laptops. > USB-C Hubs are like $30 and have more than enough bandwidth for most needs. > why isn't USB-C good enough for that? I don't have any USB-C device (not everybody lives in a first-world countries) but at least once per year I actually need at least all 4 of my good old USB2 ports. External USB hub will suck in stability of connect and ability to charge several devices at once. And I do not want to grab a screwdriver for changing battery which becomes common in modern razor-thin laptops, I love long outdoor sessions with a couple of spare batteries in my backpack.

dragontamer 4y ago
> And I do not want to grab a screwdriver for changing battery which becomes common in modern razor-thin laptops, I love long outdoor sessions with a couple of spare batteries in my backpack. With 24+ hours per charge on a lot of these modern laptops, why do you need to carry spare batteries? Instead of spare batteries, you should probably be looking to use equipment more recent than a Thinkpad. You get far, far more "laptop usage per watt" on a modern system than anything 5 years or older. There's just all sorts of power-saving features on a modern system (most importantly: fundamental shrinking of the transistors down to 5nm or smaller, using a small fraction of the power compared to larger 22nm or 24nm transistors) Ex: The new "P vs E" core on Windows 11 devices. The new sleep features on DDR5. NVMe using far less power than a hard drive. Etc. etc. Modern systems use an order of magnitude less power yet offer greater compute power on the go. The drive for better transistors is strongest in the laptop form factor IMO, since smaller transistors hit the "do everything": faster, cheaper, less power usage. On top of that are the software tweaks. I know people are pissed off about Windows 11's new GUI, but the scheduler is solid and the support for Intel's low power "E" cores, plus GPU sleeping / other power saving features, really makes a difference in terms of battery life. > I don't have any USB-C device (not everybody lives in a first-world countries) but at least once per year I actually need at least all 4 of my good old USB2 ports. External USB hub will suck in stability of connect and ability to charge several devices at once. USB-C is something like 4GBps. A singular USB-C hub can support 20x USB 2.0 A devices at full speed (each around 50MBps). You have all the bandwidth you need from USB 3.0 / USB-C connectors. You just need a hub so that the port can be "split" into more physical ports. > External USB hub will suck in stability of connect and ability to charge several devices at once. So right now, you carry a bunch of extra laptop batteries around and USB 2.0 ports that you only use ~once per year (or so). When instead you could be carrying around a Li-ion charging station, using more efficient laptops (to get 24+ hours per charge, negating the need for spare batteries), and using a $30 USB-C port+hub on the rare occasions you need a large number of simultaneous devices on your computer? It sounds like what you really need is a portable Li-ion battery.
- eimrine 4y ago
  > With 24-hours per charge on a lot of these modern laptops, why do you need to carry spare batteries? At least for ability to quickly poweroff my laptop, for example if OS is hanged down or maybe if some water spilled on the device. Also I do not want to carry laptop to a service just to change battery. Last but not least, internal batteries use to be unique per model while external batteries use to be a mass product, good luck finding spare internal battery for really old laptop. > A singular USB-C hub can support 20x USB 2.0 A devices at full speed. The main reason of my hate to all kinds of external hubs is that when your mobile device has a beard of hubs and adapters then some of that connections are going to lose a contact mechanically. Why not just to drill more holes in the side edges of device instead of making side edges empty? And you told nothing about where to get a modern laptop with as comfortable keyboard as in my x220.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    > Why not just to drill more holes in the side edges of device instead of making side edges empty? Because people have largely stopped using physical connectors and instead use Bluetooth and/or WiFi ones today. There are exceptions, but those exceptions are fixed with USB-C hubs, which again are just $30 in my experience and give you all the USB-A ports you need. I personally still prefer wired mouse (no batteries is a big advantage), but even my active digitizer pen is bluetooth, as are my Gamepads (4 players+ support). I still use physical headset (mic/speaker), and so I still try to buy headset jacks. Then HDMI. My Phone is mostly WiFi connections for most relevant tasks. USB is enough for the errant DVD-drive, USB-drive, RJ45 Ethernet. HDMI is all I use aside from that. > Also I do not want to carry laptop to a service just to change battery. If you have a screwdriver, then you can change the batteries yourself on most of these laptops, including the Dell XPS that is being discussed in this topic. See the guide manual I posted earlier, its really not that hard. The key is reading the service manual _BEFORE_ buying a laptop. There's many hundreds of laptop models out there. Many suck, but many others have good service guides and good service design that can be done with just a screwdriver.

dragontamer 4y ago

> And I do not want to grab a screwdriver for changing battery which becomes common in modern razor-thin laptops, I love long outdoor sessions with a couple of spare batteries in my backpack. With 24+ hours per charge on a lot of these modern laptops, why do you need to carry spare batteries? Instead of spare batteries, you should probably be looking to use equipment more recent than a Thinkpad. You get far, far more "laptop usage per watt" on a modern system than anything 5 years or older. There's just all sorts of power-saving features on a modern system (most importantly: fundamental shrinking of the transistors down to 5nm or smaller, using a small fraction of the power compared to larger 22nm or 24nm transistors) Ex: The new "P vs E" core on Windows 11 devices. The new sleep features on DDR5. NVMe using far less power than a hard drive. Etc. etc. Modern systems use an order of magnitude less power yet offer greater compute power on the go. The drive for better transistors is strongest in the laptop form factor IMO, since smaller transistors hit the "do everything": faster, cheaper, less power usage. On top of that are the software tweaks. I know people are pissed off about Windows 11's new GUI, but the scheduler is solid and the support for Intel's low power "E" cores, plus GPU sleeping / other power saving features, really makes a difference in terms of battery life. > I don't have any USB-C device (not everybody lives in a first-world countries) but at least once per year I actually need at least all 4 of my good old USB2 ports. External USB hub will suck in stability of connect and ability to charge several devices at once. USB-C is something like 4GBps. A singular USB-C hub can support 20x USB 2.0 A devices at full speed (each around 50MBps). You have all the bandwidth you need from USB 3.0 / USB-C connectors. You just need a hub so that the port can be "split" into more physical ports. > External USB hub will suck in stability of connect and ability to charge several devices at once. So right now, you carry a bunch of extra laptop batteries around and USB 2.0 ports that you only use ~once per year (or so). When instead you could be carrying around a Li-ion charging station, using more efficient laptops (to get 24+ hours per charge, negating the need for spare batteries), and using a $30 USB-C port+hub on the rare occasions you need a large number of simultaneous devices on your computer? It sounds like what you really need is a portable Li-ion battery.

eimrine 4y ago
> With 24-hours per charge on a lot of these modern laptops, why do you need to carry spare batteries? At least for ability to quickly poweroff my laptop, for example if OS is hanged down or maybe if some water spilled on the device. Also I do not want to carry laptop to a service just to change battery. Last but not least, internal batteries use to be unique per model while external batteries use to be a mass product, good luck finding spare internal battery for really old laptop. > A singular USB-C hub can support 20x USB 2.0 A devices at full speed. The main reason of my hate to all kinds of external hubs is that when your mobile device has a beard of hubs and adapters then some of that connections are going to lose a contact mechanically. Why not just to drill more holes in the side edges of device instead of making side edges empty? And you told nothing about where to get a modern laptop with as comfortable keyboard as in my x220.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  > Why not just to drill more holes in the side edges of device instead of making side edges empty? Because people have largely stopped using physical connectors and instead use Bluetooth and/or WiFi ones today. There are exceptions, but those exceptions are fixed with USB-C hubs, which again are just $30 in my experience and give you all the USB-A ports you need. I personally still prefer wired mouse (no batteries is a big advantage), but even my active digitizer pen is bluetooth, as are my Gamepads (4 players+ support). I still use physical headset (mic/speaker), and so I still try to buy headset jacks. Then HDMI. My Phone is mostly WiFi connections for most relevant tasks. USB is enough for the errant DVD-drive, USB-drive, RJ45 Ethernet. HDMI is all I use aside from that. > Also I do not want to carry laptop to a service just to change battery. If you have a screwdriver, then you can change the batteries yourself on most of these laptops, including the Dell XPS that is being discussed in this topic. See the guide manual I posted earlier, its really not that hard. The key is reading the service manual _BEFORE_ buying a laptop. There's many hundreds of laptop models out there. Many suck, but many others have good service guides and good service design that can be done with just a screwdriver.