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How is the Thinkpad X250 trackpad for somebody used to 2012-2015 MBA/MBP trackpads? I'm led to believe that the X230's is bad and X240's is worse. I need a new (secondary) ultramobile and would like to take a step away from the Apple ecosystem for all the obvious reasons. A refurbished X250 looks like might be worth a try, if it doesn't work out I can always repurpose it as a linux homeserver with a built in emergency UPS/keyboard/display and 7W power consumption.
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Feb 3, 2019 19:37
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eames posted:How is the Thinkpad X250 trackpad for somebody used to 2012-2015 MBA/MBP trackpads? I'm led to believe that the X230's is bad and X240's is worse. Ththey are not bad trackpads but if you go in thinking it’s going to feeel like a Mac, you will be disappointed
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Feb 3, 2019 22:14
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I have an x270 and my co-workers are constantly making fun of me for using the trackpad and the trackpoint at the same time. I've been using this machine for the past year and a half and it's been fantastic. It's an odd way to do it, but I wouldn't trade it. I'm not doing anything creative, though. I'm working in a manufacturing environment and have a real mouse for when I'm planted.
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Feb 3, 2019 22:50
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eames posted:How is the Thinkpad X250 trackpad for somebody used to 2012-2015 MBA/MBP trackpads? loving awful. If you don't fall in love with the nub, it's not the machine for you. The nub is great though, all hail the nub. There's nothing like the newer apple trackpads since nobody else does the magical force feedback poo poo, but most things with windows precision drivers come reasonably close these days. The X1 Carbon series and the Yoga 900 series are lenovo's good trackpads, everything else they make is bleh for the most part.
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Feb 4, 2019 01:21
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eames posted:How is the Thinkpad X250 trackpad for somebody used to 2012-2015 MBA/MBP trackpads? I'm led to believe that the X230's is bad and X240's is worse. The x230 trackpad is abysmal, the ...250 is bad but can be upgraded with the 260 trackpad. But challenge you to take the 30 day trackpoint challenge. I think that one you go trackpoint, you'll realize why they haven't gone extinct in 20 years
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Feb 4, 2019 02:24
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Atomizer posted:
I went ahead and decided to get this after trying to make a decision for so long. What’s a good laptop cooling stand to get that will keep everything nice and quiet while gaming?
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Feb 4, 2019 03:01
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SSD, 16 GB RAM, 1060 6 GB. Add HDD and you've got a hell of a gaming laptop.
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nerox posted:I went ahead and decided to get this after trying to make a decision for so long. What’s a good laptop cooling stand to get that will keep everything nice and quiet while gaming? I think any of the cooling pads will circulate enough air to lower the surrounding temperature by at least a few degrees, but I've used: this one, which is padded on the bottom and is best for actual lap use, this is kind of a "deluxe" one for desk use, and this one is similar or identical to one I actually bought to cool external HDDs (I have my external media drive for my Plex server which is running 24/7 on it.) Note that there are many other variants on those listings alone. One with a built-in USB hub might be a good combination device, for example.
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Feb 4, 2019 08:26
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Hadlock posted:The x230 trackpad is abysmal, the ...250 is bad but can be upgraded with the 260 trackpad. Well, if both trackpads are bad I may as well save money and get the older x230, they seem to be really cheap at the moment (~250€ with 8GB RAM). The 450s seems nicer overall but is twice the price. They have a 30 day return policy anyway, I'll think about it.
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Feb 4, 2019 11:39
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I bought a Lenovo T470 last year for work, and now I've managed to get them to pay for a new machine (in addition to the 15" MBP they bought me) so... is this the right thread to price check? T470 i5-7200U 16GB 256GB Intel Pro 5400s SSD 1920x1080
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Feb 4, 2019 21:52
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Hadlock posted:The x230 trackpad is abysmal, the ...250 is bad but can be upgraded with the 260 trackpad. Trackpoints rule. I never used the trackpad on my X230. That said, on my T460p I use the trackpad more than 0% of the time.
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Feb 5, 2019 01:28
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Any way to get recommendations? I use a PC but my wife needs a new laptop and I have no idea how much I should be spending or what brands or specs I need. For price we'd like to stay on the low end (whatever that may be) but would be happy spending a few hundred more if it meant a significant step up in quality / longevity. Priorities outside of price are: Windows, durable (we have a two year old and she breaks every tech she touches), Used for general day-to-day things (browsing, microsoft office, streaming, etc.) with some video games (think Civilization 6 or Banished) Any suggestions or areas I should focus? I know she had a Lenovo 5 or so years ago so that's where I'm starting. Edit: maybe a 200-300+ on a refurb, 400-600 on something newer that will last a while? Edit 2: looking at specs for more recent games I know she'd like it seems integrated graphics won't cut it which may bump up the price a ton.. Tom Tucker fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Feb 5, 2019 |
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Feb 5, 2019 19:41
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BlackMK4 posted:I bought a Lenovo T470 last year for work, and now I've managed to get them to pay for a new machine (in addition to the 15" MBP they bought me) so... is this the right thread to price check? Like, you're thinking of selling that? I'm thinking of upgrading from my T420, since the battery is starting to be kind of flakey and sometimes drops to 60% capacity as soon as I unplug it. New Lenovo batteries are like $200, so putting that towards something newer probably makes more sense.
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Feb 5, 2019 20:09
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eames posted:Well, if both trackpads are bad I may as well save money and get the older x230, they seem to be really cheap at the moment (~250€ with 8GB RAM). The 450s seems nicer overall but is twice the price. They have a 30 day return policy anyway, I'll think about it. The x250 has a bad trackpad, but the trackpad on the x230 is simply unusable I would not buy anything older than an x260 at this point. Two reasons 1. Battery life increased by more than 50% between 2012 and 2014. You are looking at 6-8 real world hours battery life vs 2.5-3.75 hours on the x230 2. The battery in the x230 is
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Feb 5, 2019 21:16
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Lenovo batteries don't seem to hold up as long as other manufacturers do. I'm still using a cast-off HP 2570p (which is an X230 equivalent) and it'll still do 5 hours on the battery. Not too bad for a 12" Ivybridge machine that has been in use for six years. My personal T430s on the other hand needed two new batteries under warranty and the third one gave less than two hours by the time I got rid of it in 2016.
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Feb 5, 2019 21:42
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Tom Tucker posted:Any way to get recommendations? I use a PC but my wife needs a new laptop and I have no idea how much I should be spending or what brands or specs I need. For price we'd like to stay on the low end (whatever that may be) but would be happy spending a few hundred more if it meant a significant step up in quality / longevity. A dGPU for games will likely put you in the $500-600 range at the absolute lowest, and while ordinary consumer laptops aren't super-fragile, they're also not generally ruggedized (think business/professional models.) I think the best recommendation is to get something reasonably capable but still fairly cheap, likely refurbished, so it'll work for your needs but isn't too big an expense if your kid destroys it. I've been recommending this Acer Nitro which meets all of the criteria, however they just increased the price on it (and other stuff from the Acer store) from $500, which was quite a deal. I'd suggest waiting for the price to drop again, which it has in the past. (It was $550 before that.)
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Feb 5, 2019 23:39
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Tom Tucker posted:with some video games (think Civilization 6 or Banished) My wife is living a double life. Those are the only two games she plays.
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Feb 6, 2019 04:08
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I realized today that if I gathered all of my credit card rewards together in Amazon credit, I would have like $1,100. So, I think that was enough to convince me to take the RTX notebook dive. Now I just have to decide between the GS65, Aero 15, Zephyrus S , or Razer Blade 15. I also need to decide if the RTX2080 Max Q is worth the premium over the RTX2070 Max Q. Aesthetically, I like the Razer the best, it also appears to be the smallest. But there's always Razer support horror stories. The Zephyrus S is the cheapest (if I go 2070MQ), but there are tons of reports of light bleed. The Aero 15 isn't avaliable in 2080 form on amazon right now, but its 2070 version is better speced (with a 1tb SSD) than the 2070 version of the other models. It's a bit bigger though and I'm not in love with it's design. The thermals appear to be decent on it though. The GS65 is has a puny 256gb SSD in the 2080 model, but it's also 200 cheaper. That $200 could buy a 1tb STATA M.2 drive to pop into the 2nd slot, though i would have to fight their upside down design to do so. It'll take me a week or so to gather together all my rewards into Amazon, so I have some time to decide. I think i'm leaning in the GS65 direction since it's closest to the Razer in design and I could get more storage in it. bull3964 fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 04:46
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My personal 2 cents is that with a 144 hz screen it might be nice to have the 2080 to push the higher frames  i like the GS65 with the 2080. i would get it myself if i was in the market for something like that
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Feb 6, 2019 05:29
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If it's within the realm of possibility, go with a higher refresh display. It's nice to have in general, and it's one of those things that you're less likely to be able to upgrade yourself even if it's technically possible (along with the CPU, GPU) as opposed to easy upgrades like RAM and storage (which is why those components almost shouldn't factor into your decision.
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Feb 6, 2019 05:40
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144hz screen is pretty much standard on all the 1080p models at this level. The only way you drop down to 60hz is if you side with the 4k screen. But if I want to play 4k at 60hz, I can just run on my external monitor. No Windows Hello on the GS65 hurts though. bull3964 fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 06:45
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I still use and love an old slow HO DM1z with and AMD e350 processor. I love its small size at 11" but realistically this laptop is kinda thick. By far, the worst limitation is simply that the screen's backlight is kinda broken, one edge doesn't light up evenly and lights up like every other LED. It's slow and crappy, but portable and fast enough for my needs. I briefly tried Windows 10 on this but I think windows 7 ran better, Ubuntu feels a little better than 10 but I think xubuntu (or some other flavor Linux for slow PCs) will feel even better. I use the laptop primarily for web surfing, reading PDFs, and taking notes. I think my options for improving my experience are to either replace the screen for $40 or replace the laptop. I saw a Lenovo x121e at a local computer store for $79.99 and got all excited hoping it had an i3, but I found out it only has an AMD e240. I began my hunt on eBay, I think I can find an x240 for about $120, or an x131 for about a hundred. I think the 240 series would all be 12" and I assume the 121/131 series are 11"? I assume there is actually very little size difference between an 11.6" screen and a 12" screen, but I also have a 13" laptop which I feel is just a little too big sometimes. Is there any good reason to go with a 240 over a 121/131 like performance, max ram, fan noise or build quality? What other Lenovo model numbers should I search for? Can I expect Lenovo build quality from any other brand in the same extremely cheap price range? I think at this price range, size, and usage a Chromebook is the right answer. . . but I just don't want to give up the ability to have Windows installed even it is extremely slow. Every once in a while I like to do dumb poo poo like hook up my usb capture card in my living room which I feel would work better on an incredibly slow windows pc than on a Chromebook. Not Wolverine fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Feb 7, 2019 |
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Feb 7, 2019 00:16
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I want to play 90s PC games and emulate 16-bit systems without ever hearing a fan spin up. Please recommend a fanless laptop. Current-gen CPU is a plus. No GPU is preferable. Ability to force the fan off at the expense of CPU throttling in another machine could be acceptable.
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Feb 7, 2019 00:27
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Heran Bago posted:I want to play 90s PC games and emulate 16-bit systems without ever hearing a fan spin up. That's basically any ultrabook, anything with processor that ends in U. CPUs that end in H are desktop replacements that are hotter, louder, and have more stuff like GPUs in them. XPS 13 and Carbon X1 are the usual ultrabook recommendations around here. They have fans but you probably won't activate them with that workload. AgentCow007 fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Feb 7, 2019 |
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Feb 7, 2019 02:52
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xps13 at least does some dumb rear end poo poo with fans that i find inexplicable otoh, im pretty sure you can control the fans manually too
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Feb 7, 2019 02:53
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Actually the Dell fan control is baked into the bios and it's a nightmare to control with software, don't count on it. But I haven't heard the fan in mine for years. I have an i5 with 1080p though, nothing to get hot.
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Feb 7, 2019 03:06
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Crotch Fruit posted:I still use and love an old slow HO DM1z with and AMD e350 processor. I love its small size at 11" but realistically this laptop is kinda thick. By far, the worst limitation is simply that the screen's backlight is kinda broken, one edge doesn't light up evenly and lights up like every other LED. It's slow and crappy, but portable and fast enough for my needs. I briefly tried Windows 10 on this but I think windows 7 ran better, Ubuntu feels a little better than 10 but I think xubuntu (or some other flavor Linux for slow PCs) will feel even better. I use the laptop primarily for web surfing, reading PDFs, and taking notes. The problem is, these old, really low-end laptops that barely run Windows can't really do anything you'd need Windows for. You're not going to play [modern] games, run any kind of server (e.g. Plex,) or do anything you can't do on ChromeOS. Your best option by far is going to be to spend a few hundred bucks on a decent CB, and it'll perform better than any of those crappy old Win7 laptops will (while being more secure.) Heran Bago posted:I want to play 90s PC games and emulate 16-bit systems without ever hearing a fan spin up. I'm not sure the level of performance you need, but if you sought Intel Atom or Core m stuff that's probably going to do the trick; those CPUs are intended to be able to run with passive cooling. Maybe something like this or this or the Core m-equipped Zenbook/Vivobook models? The first one is definitely fanless but I'm not sure about the others, though.
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Feb 7, 2019 09:10
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Hadlock posted:The x250 has a bad trackpad, but the trackpad on the x230 is simply unusable Received a refurbished X250 5300U/8GB/500GB HDD/1080p IPS today. Went with that because the X260 is not readily available and the newer doesn't support mSATA for the little M.2 slots. Everything is about as described in the various reviews, the only thing that stands out to me is the display. Display resolution, sharpness, uniformity, brightness and color reproduction are all way beyond what I expected from a device of this age and form factor. Really good. The keyboard doesn't feel particularly great or bad and neither does the touchpad, though I think I'd use the nub a lot. If anything the touchpad is better and the keyboard is worse than I expected. It only uses 3.0-3.5W idle (wireless and display off, without battery installed, measured at the wall socket) which I thought is kind of impressive but then it is a mobile computer. Overall condition of the machine is ok, no damage but it's clearly been very heavily used. Rubber coating has worn off on the back of the display, on all corners and around all ports, keyboard appears to have been repainted/recoated (didn't know that's a thing), lots of visible grime near the trackpad edges. Battery is a 6 cell with 435 cycles and doesn't seem to have much life left in it. I'll be returning this one because I feel uncomfortable handling it without gloves and feel like 400€ is too much for this condition. I'll almost certainly buy a new X1 Carbon soon!
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Feb 7, 2019 12:24
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Atomizer posted:The problem is, these old, really low-end laptops that barely run Windows can't really do anything you'd need Windows for. You're not going to play [modern] games, run any kind of server (e.g. Plex,) or do anything you can't do on ChromeOS. Your best option by far is going to be to spend a few hundred bucks on a decent CB, and it'll perform better than any of those crappy old Win7 laptops will (while being more secure.) The reasons I don't want a Chromebook are budget, and I'm afraid of the limitations. Spending "a few hundred" is a lot more than $40 to fix my screen or $100 to replace my netbook, I would like the idea of a $100 Chromebook more, budget wise. Except I'm sure a $100 Chromebook would probably have an ARM could or a Celeron, I assume that would be as slow or slower than an old i3. The RAM would probably low, and I suspect the storage would be something like a 32gb embedded memory card, an old x131 would have upgradeable me key and storage. I might be wrong, but I think for a $100 budget, I would be better off with an old laptop instead of a cheap Chromebook. Even if the Chromebook's hardware is equal or better, I worry I would be limited by Chrome OS. I assume installing MS Office is out of the question unless I use cloud based Office 365. If I want to store and listen to MP3s I suspect my selection of music players would be more limited, same for video players. I suspect options for emulation and audio video encoding would also be limited. I am still tempted to try installing Chromium on my DM1z to see what it's like, and for that I would simply swap the hard drive so I could quickly revert back to Ubuntu, I don't believe hard drive swapping would be easy on a Chromebook. Maybe most of that poo poo doesn't matter, but those are my reasons why I feel I would better off with an old laptop instead of a Chromebook. If my budget were higher, I would probably go with a Chromebook, but I can't convince myself to spend more at this time.
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Feb 7, 2019 14:01
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How easy is DIY maintenance on an X1 Yoga? I'd probably prefer a regular T series, but someone local is selling a 3rd gen X1 Yoga for $600 which seems really tempting. Primarily going to be a school machine using Office 365, so long battery life in my primary concern.
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Feb 7, 2019 21:50
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Coxswain Balls posted:How easy is DIY maintenance on an X1 Yoga? I'd probably prefer a regular T series, but someone local is selling a 3rd gen X1 Yoga for $600 which seems really tempting. Primarily going to be a school machine using Office 365, so long battery life in my primary concern. The ram, ssd, and battery are all easy to get to. It's fine hardware, the only caveat is it only supports Modern Sleep. Which means even when it works the battery drains pretty fast in standby, and it often doesn't work (which jumps to Never Works if using not-Windows). They mostly fixed it in the X1 Carbon last fall, but updates for the Yoga are now suspiciously late. It's why I dumped mine despite mostly liking it.
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Feb 7, 2019 22:37
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The Milkman posted:The ram, ssd, and battery are all easy to get to. It's fine hardware, the only caveat is it only supports Modern Sleep. Which means even when it works the battery drains pretty fast in standby, and it often doesn't work (which jumps to Never Works if using not-Windows). They mostly fixed it in the X1 Carbon last fall, but updates for the Yoga are now suspiciously late. It's why I dumped mine despite mostly liking it. Oh lame, this definitely seems like a common complaint on top of the battery not being that great in the first place. Might have to give it a pass, even at that price.
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Feb 7, 2019 22:39
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nerox posted:
It came in and I made a huge mistake. The 144hz screen is so silky smooth, now my computer monitors on my desktop at home and work look like poo poo at 60hz. Laptop itself is aces though.
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Feb 8, 2019 14:20
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Coxswain Balls posted:Oh lame, this definitely seems like a common complaint on top of the battery not being that great in the first place. Might have to give it a pass, even at that price. At that price, buy it, flip it and buy the nicest T series ever. Or buy it and wait for Lenovo to patch the stupid sleep issue. Either way, if it isn't a scam at that price, go get it.
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Feb 8, 2019 18:06
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Hello laptop savants! I'm currently rocking an HP2570p with a 128gb SSD that's served me well for many, many years. I love the keyboard when it's in laptop mode and when I dock it, it's adequate enough to pull two 27" screens, as long as I stick to my usual business activities (webmail, Google docs, slack and whatsapp). It's getting a little long in the tooth, and the more tabs I have open, the more the fan spins. The screen and its limited viewing angles are also starting to annoy me a bit, as it has to be positioned just so to not distort the colours. I'm also getting the Civ 5/6 itch - I have a PS4 for other games. I'm looking at replacing it with either the T480 with an i5 and an IPS panel or an XPS13 with an i5. Both with 256gb. The Matebook X Pro was also in the picture for a while, but I've had enough uncomfortably hot laps from my ancient Macbook Pro to say "never again" - I also tried the keyboard and didn't much like it. Portability is important, but not absolutely essential. I'll be using it 60% docked at the office, 20% at home and 20% on the road. It *will* get bumped and scraped, but not an ungodly amount. The T480 appeals to me because of its sturdiness and because it's the first thing that came to mind when I started thinking about a new laptop, but if the XPS13 could also last me 4-5 years of (ab)use, I'd seriously consider it. The last time I bought a computer, Dell was known for shoddy workmanship, but things move fast, I guess. I guess I could go for a cheaper option, but I'd prefer to pay extra for durability, a good screen and a better-than-good keyboard that will last me for 4+ years. Are there any realistic alternatives? E: I could also maybe go for a used 4th or 5th gen X1 Carbon, maybe. Mzuri fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Feb 9, 2019 |
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Feb 9, 2019 16:40
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We’ve broke a couple XPS13’s at work. A T-series is going to be way more durable and the latest ones are pretty dang small. Thought about a 280 at all?
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Feb 9, 2019 18:16
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Bob Morales posted:We’ve broke a couple XPS13’s at work. A T-series is going to be way more durable and the latest ones are pretty dang small. Thought about a 280 at all? No, I was scared away by the trackpad horror stories earlier in this thread. I'll look into it now!
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Feb 9, 2019 18:35
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Mzuri posted:No, I was scared away by the trackpad horror stories earlier in this thread. I'll look into it now! Costs more than the T480S, and has a smaller screen but it's another option. I think they're both equally not-that-upgradeable other than RAM and M.2 SSD now.
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Feb 9, 2019 18:51
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Yeah, I've been reading some reviews and I think I'd like to move up from the 12"-ish screen size, but not all the way up to my old 15" Macbook. How did the XPS13s break? The chassis/case, or plain malfunctions?
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Feb 9, 2019 19:08
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Mzuri posted:Yeah, I've been reading some reviews and I think I'd like to move up from the 12"-ish screen size, but not all the way up to my old 15" Macbook.
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Feb 9, 2019 19:12
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Mzuri posted:Hello laptop savants! If you want to stick with HP I have no real complaints with my work 830 G5. A little bulky compared to the competition but coming from and old Elitebook you won’t notice it.
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Feb 9, 2019 19:51
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