Recommendify me a laptop

[Sundayjumper]

For my current role I got a 2018 HP something with a broken charger.

[Beany]

I think my cheap laptop might be newer than yours.

[Beany]

My cheap new laptop lasted 20 mins before I had Manjaro Linux installed and configured on it.

I do need to get that extra RAM though, new I'd forgotten to order something. Unlike windows though, it's currently perfectly usable with 4gb

[Beany]

OK, perfectly usable up to a point. RAM ordered, delivery tomorrow....

And yeah, I've got a touchscreen too - looks like it's only single point, not multitouch, but like I care.

[Beany]

This is actually a bloody good laptop (lack of RAM notwithstanding)

Keyboard is legit good and a cut above most, even though this is meant to be one of the 'bad' lenovo keyboards, screen is fine, weight and size are a very good compromise (and can casually be picked up one handed with zero effort - modern laptops, eh? - has enough kick for what I'm going to use it for (either threads, can run up to 3.6ghz) and lasts at least a few hours on battery. My only real criticism is the Fn key where the CTRL key normally is - I'd really rather they were swapped around, but I'll get used to it.

For the money, I'd say that's legit a damned good machine.

On an unrelated note, I've also dragged out my Raspberry Pi 3B and I'm installing RetroPie on it (as an app, not the image - I couldn't get the wireless to work on the image for some reason) so that I can kill time in the evenings playing Super Metroid and Yoshis Island.

Because I'm a complete fucking child.

On the negative side, I think my Pi Zero W has died, so no more network level adblocking

[drcarlos]

Every T, W or X series keyboard is great, better than anything else on the market.

They are well designed machines (we had reps in from Lenovo showing us the chassis and details of the design internally and they showed us the differences that other makers don't have), they are just a bit functional and not very attractive. So never get the kudos that the Macbooks get. Apples are built better than an Acer but I have a heavily used 12 year old W series and a lightly used 2017 macbook the keyboard is failing on the mackbook and it has a dodgy USB port. The W Series is worn but 100% mechanically and electrically perfect.

[Beany]

I don't know about not attractive, there's a very utilitarian charm to the simple design.

[Ascender]

Nearly finished week two with the new client... and no laptop. They think its been lost. Or maybe not sent.

Oh well, its all billable...

[Beany]

Are you just sending them post it notes via fax for now?

My only gripes for they laptop are:
Touchscreen makes wiping dust off the screen annoying
Fn key being where CTRL should be. Yes, I know your can swap them in the BIOS, but that's likely to just confuse me more.

Otherwise, excellent bit of kit.

[drcarlos]

Are you just sending them post it notes via fax for now?

My only gripes for they laptop are:
Touchscreen makes wiping dust off the screen annoying
Fn key being where CTRL should be. Yes, I know your can swap them in the BIOS, but that's likely to just confuse me more.

Otherwise, excellent bit of kit.

The key caps unclip so if the keys are physically the same size you can swap them too.

My admittedly ancient W series has the FN key in the same place as my work M1 Macbook, will have to check my old HP.

edit - just realised you probably have a chicklet keyboard so the key swap is probably not possible.

[Beany]

Sadly that is the case, and they're different sizes.

Ho hum, I'll get used to it, I'm sure!

[Ascender]

Are you just sending them post it notes via fax for now?

An HP Elitebook 830 G5 (means nothing to me) has arrived in the post today. Took about 10 minutes to find the power button, so all I need now is some logon details...

[Beany]

That's the same platform generation as my Thinkpad so if it's got NVME storage and 8gb or more of RAM it'll at least be pleasantly nippy.

[drcarlos]

Are you just sending them post it notes via fax for now?

An HP Elitebook 830 G5 (means nothing to me) has arrived in the post today. Took about 10 minutes to find the power button, so all I need now is some logon details...

My old work laptop that just got retired, was still OK after it had a new battery. I wish they'd let us keep or buy the old devices as it would be a great disco laptop for me (4 core i5, 16GB and 240GB SSD).
I'm still not convinced by the M1 Mac that replaced it.

[NGRhodes]

I've had half a dozen Thinkpads over the years, my first was a T61, slightly disappointing that my new work laptop will be a Dell.
My current personal laptop is a T460s, case is a step down in build quality from my old X220 (which the kids used for Roblox), but better (especially the screen bezel) than my work x250.

I love Thinkpads for having the `Fn` and `CTRL` keys in the correct place, makes the `CTRL` keys more evenly spaced from the spacebar, which makes it easier to touch-type.a f

With Linux Mint, I get equally as good battery life as Windows 10, I've never got less than 4 hours with new(ish) batteries, and with light use can get a full day of work done.
I have had good luck with generic Chinese brand batteries via Amazon. Just make sure they advertise the correct capacity are the cheapest of the cheap are usually marked as having lower than OE capacities.

[Beany]

The modern dells aren't too bad. I've got a Vostro 5625 for work and it's pretty tasty - nice big 16:10 screen, reasonable weight for what it is, battery lasts well, keyboard is....fine, I guess. Still got USB As, but also supports USB C docks for port expanders etc.
Also has a flipdown ethernet jack and SD card reader, etc.

Pretty decently balanced machine for the cost.

[Ascender]

Laptop is being collected on Monday and I'm getting a replacement. Nobody could work out why their secure client wasn't working so I've not been able to logon yet. Its always interesting being someone who works in technology when you have to interact with a company's IT Helpdesk. I've spent most of the week being told to...

Restart it. Up to three times in a row. Try again.

Ooooh, you're not on wi-fi are you? Yeah, needs to be Ethernet. We can't guarantee wi-fi will work. (That's one straight out of the BT Helpdesk patter.)

You're not in the right AD group to work remotely. We've added you now. I've been added four times apparently.

And the number of times an analyst has come on and asked me to change some settings, on a ticket which says I can't logon to a laptop is wonderful.

Three weeks down, all billable...

In the real world, I've picked up a new MacBook Air in black/dark blue and its lovely.

[Ascender]

I'm now logged on with a new Elitebook.

Laptop screen is nice enough, the design is quite nice, but the trackpad is utter horse-shit. HTF do you PC people live with these things?!

I'd also forgotten what fans in a laptop sound like. I thought my desk fan was malfunctioning for a minute.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll work out how to make the function keys do things like adjust screen brightness, volume etc. FN button does nothing.

[Beany]

I'm now logged on with a new Elitebook.

Laptop screen is nice enough, the design is quite nice, but the trackpad is utter horse-shit. HTF do you PC people live with these things?!

I'd also forgotten what fans in a laptop sound like. I thought my desk fan was malfunctioning for a minute.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll work out how to make the function keys do things like adjust screen brightness, volume etc. FN button does nothing.

It's likely mapped to have the Fn key be the default - IE you press F5 and it doesn't do F5, it increases volume or whatever

[Ascender]

I'm now logged on with a new Elitebook.

Laptop screen is nice enough, the design is quite nice, but the trackpad is utter horse-shit. HTF do you PC people live with these things?!

I'd also forgotten what fans in a laptop sound like. I thought my desk fan was malfunctioning for a minute.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll work out how to make the function keys do things like adjust screen brightness, volume etc. FN button does nothing.

It's likely mapped to have the Fn key be the default - IE you press F5 and it doesn't do F5, it increases volume or whatever

Yeah, no idea what's going on! Will be Google to the rescue tomorrow.