5 ms·
A used x1 carbon is a better deal, faster, and weighs about the same with a bigger screen.
by winrid 4mo ago
A used x1 carbon is a better deal, faster, and weighs about the same with a bigger screen.
- derefr 4mo ago"Bigger screen" (i.e. being bigger on the length/width dimension) is a bad thing in this discussion. Some people want a programming/writing laptop that fits in a handbag, so that they don't have to decide to bring it, but can just leave it in their bag the way many people do with an iPad.
- winrid 4mo agoI guess. 14" is about as small as I can use personally, that already hurts my hands
- bee_rider 4mo agoWith laptop sized screens, I’m always tempted to try to have two windows side by side. 10 inch netbooks effectively dissuade that bit of folly.
- bergie 4mo agoAbsolutely. The 11" MacBook Air was the best laptop Apple ever made.
- stefanfisk 4mo agoI yearn for an updated version of the 12” MacBook with modern specs and keyboard. The 13” Air is way too large to be the smallest MacBook ;_;
- djfergus 4mo agoYes, same here. I can’t help but think they had an iPhone SOC planned for it (tiny motherboard, only one usb-c) but the hw/os team weren’t ready.
- rahoulb 4mo agoI really liked the 12" MacBook (although my all time favourite computer was the 12" PowerBook G4 - chunky by today's standards but I just loved it). I saw a review of the MacBook Neo where the reviewer was yearning after the 12" - but suggested that Apple has made UI elements so big with such ridiculous spacing and border radius that it would be almost unusable at anything less than 13". Which would not surprise me in the least - I struggle with my 16" MBP and this crappy UI "framework".
- MrDOS 4mo ago> it would be almost unusable at anything less than 13" Native resolution on a 13" MacBook Air is already pretty unusable. Out of the box, the 13" MacBook Air (physical screen resolution 2560x1664) is configured with display scaling so that the “looks like” resolution is 1470x956 (i.e., macOS renders everything at 2x1470x956 – 2940x1912 – and then scales it down to match the display for output). If you dial the “looks like” resolution down to 1280x832 (so that the rendering resolution matches the output resolution; because, say, you prefer that every UI element not be a little bit blurry from being scaled down), you'll find yourself unbelievably short (ha) on vertical resolution. You basically have to turn dock hiding on. Even then, fixed-position headers are very common on websites these days, so between that and browser chrome, you'll often find that actual webpage content is crammed into the bottom half of the display.
- fouc 4mo agogotta have dock hiding & menu bar hiding & compact toolbar/tab settings for browser. only 80-90px of wasted height. The rest is web view. I can't think of any website I frequent having that fixed-position header either, so I'm gucci.
- MrDOS 4mo agoI often use my laptop for reference while cooking, and I find recipe websites are the most common and egregious offenders.
- rjrjrjrj 4mo ago
- LawnGnome 4mo agoMy partner (who isn't in tech, and isn't generally interested in tech) would probably literally stand in line for an updated version of the 12" MacBook on day one.
- hyperhello 4mo agoIt was nice, but the screen bezel was huge. The latest 13 is about the same size and weight.
- rkomorn 4mo agoI loved mine but I'd be lying if I said it gave me three years of acceptable performance. Sure, I can blame Chrome and JS, but ultimately, the core 2 duo and 8GB RAM did not keep up very long.
- kennywinker 4mo agoThere was an 11” air with an i5/i7 - i splurged for 16gb of ram when i bought it in 2015 and it lasted me 10 years. It still works, but a few specific apps started to really drag on it.
- JessieJanie 4mo agoIt really pays longevity wise to get max ram!
- rkomorn 4mo agoSure, but the 11" MBA I bought was max specs at the time it was released and the point is: it didn't last long.
- kennywinker 4mo agoTiming. The core 2 generation was right before we hit a plateau in processors. An i5/i7 macbook from 2014-2015 felt pretty good for 5-6 years, until the m1 came out, and you can coast for another 2-4 years being annoyed some people have a faster machine before they start baking features into the OS that make your machine feel even slower. That’s 7-9 years of use depending on your tolerance for being behind the curve. Mine’s high, so I got 10 years out of it. Conversely if you bought an i7 macbook in 2019 it would have felt out of date in just 2-4 years, when everyone has an m1 or better and things are starting to slow down from OS changes that expect apple silicon. If you bought an m1 just a year later in 2020, i’d guess you’re feeling fine 6 years on.
- petesergeant 4mo agoPart of that I think was that it was the first SSD laptop many people had had, so the fast boot up times were mind blowing. I had two, a work and a personal one, and I miss them terribly.
- incanus77 4mo agoStill using mine for occasional hacking, running Mint. Gets about two hours of battery. Great keyboard.
- pizza234 4mo agoConfirmed. Minibooks are amazing in cramped locations (for example, airplane seats), or just to always keep in the bag for support. There's nothing in the market like them, which is a shame - I think a slightly better quality Minibook (Chuwis are plain crap) would be a very solid laptop.
- Zardoz84 4mo agoa Steam deck with a small form factor keyboard?
- ndsipa_pomu 4mo agoA Steam Deck is a bit more lumpy than the Minibook. I find it a lot easier to put my Minibook into a rucksack as it's thin, so it can just slide between stuff. The Steam Deck is quite a lot bigger, though I often take both on holiday as they fill different needs.
- ikurei 4mo agoI so wanted to love the Steam Deck, but it's a device with a 7 inch screen that occupies a massive volume on your bag. Unless you know you're going to play a fair ammount, it's not worth carrying around. It's a fantastic console, but a mediocre general purpose computer.
- wishfish 4mo agoLegion Go (1st Gen with the removable controllers) would be better. Without the controllers, it's basically a 8.8 inch PC tablet. Would be a great portable machine. With an added bonus of the controllers converting to a desktop mouse.
- Eji1700 4mo agoI just responded above, but you might want to look at the GPD Pocket 4. It is NOT cheap ($1300 min spec) but it's also quite a bit more powerful and with better ports (full size HDMI and Ethernet). It's not for everyone, but it blows my mind how little competition it has given how useful its been for me over the years.
- 71bw 4mo agoSwitch to a backpack or just leave the laptop in your car...?
- dspillett 4mo agoOr get what fits your preferred routine if available, instead of changing to match others? Though my experience with this brand is mixed at best so I'd personally give this one a miss, especially given the reviewer's comments on the keyboard.
- dolmen 4mo agoSo I would have to buy a car to carry a laptop?
- LoganDark 4mo agoA "programming" laptop should be powerful enough to run code, no?
- kennywinker 4mo agoIf your code won’t run on this machine, you’re the problem not the machine (outside of niche processor heavy stuff like video editing and ai crap).
- LoganDark 4mo agoCompiling Rust is expensive, for instance.
- dspillett 4mo agoDepends what code you are programming. Unless you are doing significant number crunching, 3D work, or local GenAI, there is an awful lot that spec can do. If you are working on a multi-user system and it is slow processing your actions as a single tester on this, then you have a heck of a lot of optimising ahead unless you want your production users to hate you! Maybe you'd save running a large test suite until back at base with the branch checked out on something beefier, but for on-the-go coding I expect this spec would do just fine for many. The reviewer's comments about the keyboard would be my concern, not the limits if what it can run.
- t-3 4mo agoI was running gentoo on a 2011 Macbook Air for years with no problems. These computers are more than fast enough to compile and run code. They aren't going to by my first choice for reencoding video or running a build server, but for local development you really don't need a lot unless you're working on the type of stuff that really actually requires special or very powerful hardware.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- winrid 4mo ago
- Eji1700 4mo agoAmen. I have a GPD Pocket 4 as my go to because it, a second screen, a 40% keyboard, and the arc mouse all fit in my surprisingly small bag along with chargers, cords, and a bunch of non laptop related stuff (e reader, pens/notebooks, some small tools, a miyoo, etc). It is, however, an expensive fucking device. $2300 maxed out these days (which I think is $800ish more than i paid. Hurray ram...) or $1400 min specs (which are still quite nice). I'm glad to see other options at that size (Pocket 4 is 8.8", but my second screen is 10") but a literal quarter of the cost. 80% of what I do on the pocket could be done something like this Minibook, and I don't give a shit if the keyboard/mouse sucks because I've got my own anyways so long as I can tent it. There will be those days where I might need to do some local heavy lifting and regret not having the Pocket, but I'm also happy to know if it dies on me tomorrow I've got options that aren't shell out another $1k for a tool mostly used for coding.
- soulofmischief 4mo agoMy x1 carbon gave me nothing but trouble from the beginning. I couldn't even move it too fast lest I risked it locking up. Additionally, my wrist strain got considerably better after ditching it for a comparably priced M2 that blows it out of the water in every conceivable category.
- cout 4mo agoSounds like you got a lemon. I also have an X1 carbon, and it's been a great upgrade for me. My biggest complaint is the eraser isn't as easy to use as my old toshiba. The eraser is important to me -- my hand gets numb using a trackpad.
- teleforce 4mo agoPreviously my daily driver was a Thinkpad X1 Gen 6, it's a bit of troublesome. Now it's X1 Gen 10, it has been largely trouble free. Probably my next laptop will be the next Gen X1 with the new upgradeable LPCAMM2 RAM.
- Forgeties79 4mo agoThe whole point is people want to pay extra for superior portability. There is no x1 carbon with this weight and form factor.
- spariev 4mo agoAgreed here, with prices for used x1s its a no brainer. Although I get the appeal of super small and lightweight devices and even had eee pc way back, but started having insane headaches after working with small screens, so guess its just not for me.
- stronglikedan 4mo agoapples to oranges. people that buy minibooks are looking for smaller screens