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Ask HN: Should “only taken outside for repairs” laptops be designed differently?
For example, if you will only use a laptop in your home, then maybe you don't care that much about long battery life?
Should there be a separate category for such laptops?
- PaulHoule 3y agoI have owned various “desktop replacement” or “gaming” laptops that had some battery life at first but decline so much in a year that you can just barely count on unplugging the machine at a table from one conference room and making it to the next conference room.
- pmontra 3y agoI never owned or used a laptop with a battery that lasted more than four hours, maybe only three. However that has always been ok because I always used laptops at home or in a office. Only a few times on trains, planes, airports. Battery life is not an important factor for me.
- eternityforest 3y agoI have 2 laptops, one is almost never, but not entirely never taken outside, the other is about $100 and I think from 2013 that I take places. I still care about small size, and a battery is still needed(Not for portable use, but as a builtin UPS), but it could be much smaller, and with the size they saved, they could make it swappable, or even make it into 2 batteries you could swap individually. The speakers could also be smaller and the webcam lower quality. I wouldn't want to get rid of them entirely, but I'd rather save the money towards external speakers.
- gregjor 3y agoShould? I doubt manufacturers would see any reason to make a separate category, presumably with different pricing. Those are called desktop computers and they don't sell very well for home use.