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First post, by keenmaster486

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I have been searching around to try to find a good laptop for 2020 and beyond.

Currently I have a Dell 17-inch laptop with an i7 Skylake, 8 GB RAM, and SSD from 2015, running Linux Mint, and a 2012 Macbook Pro (the form factor of which I consider far superior to newer MacBooks) that I have upgraded with 8 GB RAM and SSD.

Now, both of my current machines are working excellently right now. I have no complaints about the performance of each of them. The only performance concern that I have is in future-proofing.

I have been gravitating towards the MacBook for things like writing, also it is the laptop I tend to take with me places due to its smaller size and case that feels very indestructible. I am beginning to think that the 17-inch Dell is just too damn large! I am also dubious about the 16:9 screen ratio - I really prefer 4:3 but I don't think anyone makes those any more. I have heard about 3:2 screens. In any case the Dell is the most powerful machine I own, and it is my main Linux machine so it is the one I end up using for any and all serious development, photoshop, desktop publishing, etc.

But I think that sometime in the next year or so, I will be thinking about consolidating and only having one primary laptop. The MacBook I would retain, solely so I can run Apple-only things like Logic Pro X (when I am making music at home, for example).

Here are the requirements I'm tenatively thinking about:

  • CPU: higher-end Intel i7, upgradeable (is this still a thing?)
  • RAM: 8 or 16GB, upgradeable
  • Video: preferably discrete graphics but not absolutely necessary. Are any of these modular these days?
  • Screen: 13 or 15 inch, or thereabouts. resolution is not crucial. But does anyone make a 4:3 laptop screen any more? The answer is no. A 16:10 or 3:2 screen would do ok. Also, matte? They all seem to be glossy nowadays. I do not like reflections very much, although they are very pretty little distractions for when I am trying to work.
  • Audio: not crucial
  • Storage: SATA solid state drive, probably 1 TB. Not crucial as I would be providing drive and/or OS myself.
  • Optical drive: Having an optical drive would be VERY nice. I understand most new laptops do not have one, but still. I have an LG Blu-Ray drive (currently in the Dell) I would be swapping out so I can play Blu-Ray disks.
  • Keyboard: now, this is very important to me. Most keyboards nowadays are what I would call "sufficient". But if I'm going to buy a new laptop, I want to find something more than just that. Also, some modern keyboards are very crappy - case in point, the new MacBook keyboards which feel like typing on little pieces of scotch tape. It would be nice if the keys were taller, closer together, and had a very solid feel.
  • Touchpad: not crucial but a crappy touchpad would also be a minus, obviously. I'd mostly be using an external mouse.
  • Case: This is another important factor for me, I'm looking for something that feels like you could drop it from 6 feet and it would be just fine, or you can quickly lift it up by the side without it bending (many new machines fail the latter test!). The 2012 MacBook fits this description. This rules out new thinner laptops, as that seems to be the trend nowadays - often they feel like you could snap them in half with your bare hands!
  • Ports: USB 3 (3x or more), HDMI, SD card, ethernet, headphone jack
  • Battery: having long battery life, comparable to or better than the 2012 MacBook, would be great. My Dell laptop lasts maybe 2 or 3 hours. The MacBook lasts longer, maybe 4 hours. I see a lot of claims about "9 HOUR BATTERY LIFE" or whatever - not sure how many of these are actually true!

Another thing I am unsure about is whether ANY laptops nowadays have upgradeable CPUs.

As far as the OS goes, I can think of a couple ways to set this up that would work for me:

  • Single partition with some Linux distro, virtual machines for legacy OS's and Windows 7, or possibly macOS
  • Dual boot Linux and macOS ("Hackintosh")? Is this still possible? I have heard of people doing this before, but I don't know how risky/flaky it is. If this were possible, I might not need the MacBook any more.

I am still searching around to figure out what might work. I'd appreciate suggestions from anyone who has experience with laptops that might fit the bill!

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 1 of 79, by Bruninho

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I got a fantastic deal with a Dell insider friend, and bought a Dell G7 7588, i7 16GB, 250GB ssd, 1TB hdd, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 6GB. Powerful enough to play rFactor 2.

Aaaaand I lost interest two months later. I had sold my MacBook Air 2014 to get this. And I now regret this. The Dell G7 is great even dual booting macOS and W10, but I have lost the interest in simracing after ten years.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 2 of 79, by cyclone3d

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The Dell G series only has single channel RAM.. bleh.

The Alienware 15 meets all your requirements as far as I can tell EXCEPT for the optical drive.

I am pretty sure that almost no new laptops come with an optical drive. You can always use an external drive though.

Battery life will probably suck when playing games that use the GPU.. but not much you can do about that unless you want an absolutely ginormous laptop with a ginormous battery to go with it.

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Reply 3 of 79, by oeuvre

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Gaming laptops are a waste of money. They really are... they're expensive, poor thermals, usually have either (or both) crappy touchpads or keyboards... and a lot of them throttle. The ones that don't take away the portability factor.

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Reply 4 of 79, by dr_st

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keenmaster486 wrote:

I am still searching around to figure out what might work. I'd appreciate suggestions from anyone who has experience with laptops that might fit the bill!

This is a broad topic (and your requirements are no less broad), and it's not likely that someone will be able to give you the perfect recommendation on the spot. You should listen to various advice and slowly gravitate toward you preferred configuration, after you understand your needs and desires more.

Some points I thought about reading your list:

  • 13" and 15" are two completely different categories these days - almost a world apart. Slimness, weight, expandability, upgradability - all differ greatly between these two screen sizes (for the most part).
  • Upgradable CPUs are only available (maybe) on big thick laptops (and even there - not sure). It's not a matter worth pursuing, as even theoretically, chipsets and sockets change so much, that you may gain an extra generation at best. If you start with a high-end CPU for the platform you buy, you are as future-proof you can be.
  • SATA SSDs are old-tech. All new laptops come with much faster native PCIe NVMe SSDs. Some laptops, even compact ones, may accommodate even two such drives, as their form factor is much smaller than 2.5" SATA.
  • Optical drive - just as rare as socketed CPUs these days.
  • The best keyboards are on Lenovo Thinkpads, hands down.
  • Solid, durable cases are also something you can expect to find on Thinkpads, as well as other business laptops from HP, DELL, Toshiba.
  • Your port requirements necessitate a larger laptop, but there are more options if you are willing to compromise for micro-HDMI, micro-SD or Ethernet via an adapter (USB 3.0 or Proprietary).
  • These days USB-C and Thunderbolt ports have become mainstream (although Thunderbolt is still mostly on high-end models). You cannot consider any laptop future-proof if it does not have at least USB-C, and Thunderbolt opens many interesting opportunities, such as external GPU. USB-C/Thunderbolt can also provider power (up to 95W) and can be used in lieu of a proprietary power sockets (some laptops already don't carry those and only offer USB-C charging ports).
  • Battery life is much better than it used to be. Unless you get a really power-hungry beast or a really small laptop with tiny battery, 6+ hours is standard. Some really can offer 10+ hours.

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Reply 5 of 79, by junglemontana

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+1 for Thinkpads. Or, the real Thinkpads aka the T and P series. Although they have chiclet keyboards nowadays, I can still agree that they have the best laptop keyboards available. And they have the awesome Trackpoint mouse. I haven't used a touchpad for years, really.

You may want to do a clean Windows reinstallation immediately as Lenovo has been caught for including shady software with their computers.

If a non-chiclet keyboard is necessary, your only option besides older second hand equipment might be a Toughbook... but you probably don't want a Toughbook for ordinary indoors computing. 😜

As for 4:3 displays... Again, I think Toughbooks, at least the fully rugged models, might still be made with non-widescreen displays.

I'm not sure about internal optical drives on modern laptops. Are external drives a no-no?

Reply 6 of 79, by Bruninho

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My two cents...

Apart of the Dell G series, I have been only interested in models I can do a Hackintosh on them, because current gen MacBooks are extremely expensive here in Brazil.

If anything, I would only recommend three brands - LG (gram), Lenovo (the thinkpads), Dell (the XPS series), not necessarily in this order. Also, dr_st has some pretty spot on tips on his post.

Personally, I prefer slim laptops, like MacBook Air or current gen MacBook Pros. keenmaster486 mentioned an example - MacBook Pro 2012. I was assigned one at work - it's pretty good.

The port requirements mean you would be looking for a though, fat laptop. Unless you accept the fact that a slimmer laptop with less ports (TB/USB-C) mean you need external adapters for more ports. Including one for optical drives (Does someone still use them?)

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 7 of 79, by keenmaster486

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Thanks for the advice so far, guys!

To clarify a couple of points:

  • Thickness: Maybe half inch or 3/4"-ish, similar to my 2012 MacBook Pro. Not horribly thick like the old model of Toughbooks, or horribly thin like a (shudder) MacBook Air or a Thinkpad X1. I am also not a fan of case styles that have an extremely shallow taper all the way out to the edge, which ends up sitting a quarter inch or so off the table! A lot of cases are like this these days. I am finding some of the more professional models at Lenovo and Dell that do not, though.
  • USB-C is fine and all, but if it comes at the expense of normal USB ports, it is a minus for me. I don't anticipate using a USB-C port for years from now.
  • Optical drive is a plus, yes, but not absolutely essential. I like having the optical drive option because of Blu-Rays - still, in 2019, the best way to watch uncompressed movies in HD (and especially 4K). An external drive would suffice but that means more expense, whereas I already have an internal Blu-Ray drive I can swap out.
  • Chiclet keyboards are just OK. I agree that the Thinkpad keyboards are better than most.
  • 13" vs 15": I do prefer 13 inch at this point. That might exclude the optical drive altogether.
  • I prefer full HDMI and full USB ports. I would rather not have to use adapters for any common tasks such as hooking up to the TV.

There's more but that will suffice for now.

I found some Dell business machines that might work, essentially the 14 inch, 2019 version of my big 17-incher, with no optical drive. My main complaint about those is the lack of a full keyboard (navigation keys as secondary functions of arrow keys!). But for a full keyboard I might have to go 15 inch.

I looked at the Toughbooks, but those seem to be currently a generation behind on the CPUs.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 8 of 79, by dr_st

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junglemontana wrote:

You may want to do a clean Windows reinstallation immediately as Lenovo has been caught for including shady software with their computers.

Never on Thinkpads, but their 'normal' software bloat is also something one might want to get rid of.

keenmaster486 wrote:

USB-C is fine and all, but if it comes at the expense of normal USB ports, it is a minus for me. I don't anticipate using a USB-C port for years from now.

The typical split on a good laptop is either 1 USB-C and 3 USB-A or 2 USB-C and 2 USB-A. On a bigger workstation you can even get 2 and 3, but I doubt that you can on 13".

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Reply 9 of 79, by CrossBow777

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My wife and I just picked up a Lenovo C930 and it is pretty damn awesome! Super thin and light compared to the larger Toshiba we were lugging around with us before. It wasn't cheap as we got the 4k display version but that was mianly due to it having the most ram and storage options compared to what BB was offering on the 13" model. It has two USB-C one of them being a thuderbolt port and 1 USB-A port on it. I'm not jazzed it doesn't have a dedicated HDMI output port as we do like to use our laptop to stream movies to larger TVs when we stay in Hotels etc..but I know you can get dongles for that.

Also it didn't seem like his latest Yoga has as much bloatware as I was suspecting either which, is a good thing too.

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Reply 10 of 79, by kjliew

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I recently picked up Huawei Matebook D 14 (AMD) with Ryzen 5 2500U. This is the 1st ever AMD Ryzen Mobile that makes sense at the right price. 1080 FHD IPS touch display in 14 inch form factor, 1 USB 3.1 Type-C and 2 Type-A. The Type-C is an all-in-one connection with DP/65W USB-PD/Ethernet (not very common for laptop in this price range), WiFi/BT and no RJ45, 8GB dual-channel DDR4 and 256GB SSD. With the right USB-C docking solution, this would turn into a good desktop companion with just a single USB Type-C cable. It was also a pleasant surprise that it comes with TPM2.0 which is not very common for consumer centrist laptops. Perhaps this is an AMD Ryzen value-added option that TPM2.0 is free on any Ryzen platforms from the built-in AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP).

I always prefer integrated graphics over hybrid options for laptops, and Radeon Vega is light-years ahead of Intel UHD, and roughy half the price of Lenovo C930 lowest SKU with Core i7-8250U

Reply 11 of 79, by keenmaster486

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UPDATE:

Thanks for all the advice guys!

I ended up compromising my original requirements a little bit, for now - in favor of overall design and form factor, which I think is probably the most important single thing to me.

I started looking at older Lenovo Thinkpads, because the newer ones don't seem as modular or nice to use. Also the issue of keyboards - they are all chiclet these days!

I found out about being able to mod the xx30 line (first to have chiclet) from several years back to use keyboards from the xx20 line. So I got myself a cheap used Thinkpad X230, the better to switch to the older keyboard while still having a usably modern CPU.

This should tide me over on the laptop situation for a while. I've given up (for now) on the Hackintosh idea, but that might happen in the future.

So here are the specs of the one I got:

CPU: i5-3320M (benchmarks about the same as my Dell... which goes to show how so-so the Core "U" series is)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Storage: 500 GB Samsung EVO SSD (harvested from the Dell)
Screen: 12.5-inch 1366x768 matte (very nice! I like the resolution - a lot of people would prefer FHD but for this screen size, I like less resolution so the pixels aren't ridiculously small.)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 (acceptable for my purposes, I never do any serious gaming. The most demanding game I'd run would be something like Portal 2 on low or medium settings.)
Battery: 60 WH 6-cell (Linux Mint power manager claims 4-5 hours on max brightness and max CPU power settings. Battery health reads as 96%, and seems to last as it should. In the limited "testing" I've done it discharges to ~85% in 45 minutes.)
Ports: 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 (always on), Ethernet, headphone/mic/line jack, SD card slot, VGA (nice!), mini DisplayPort (eh. I have all the adapters anyway so it's fine)

I like how small this laptop is without sacrificing functionality to the gods of paper-thinness and extreme lightness. So far after installing Linux Mint XFCE Edition on the SSD, it is blazing fast and has no trouble with all of the apps I habitually use (and of course DOSBox runs great on it. What kind of a computer is it if you can't run DOS programs?). True to the benchmarks, I'm noticing that it's just about as fast as my Dell, which I was always very happy with speed-wise.

The keyboard is going to be a ton of fun to work on. I have an X220 keyboard (last one that wasn't chiclet) coming in the mail, which, if I am not mistaken, with minimal modification of the case, cable, and firmware I can simply swap out. The chiclet keyboard currently in it is honestly pretty good, but I'm not looking for pretty good here if I can go better for $20 and some leisurely screwdrivering! Already I am starting to dislike the layout of the chiclet keyboard if not the touch-and-feel of it, so I'm glad I'm planning to do the mod.

The TrackPoint works about the same as the ones on the vintage Thinkpads I have (trivia point: it is still internally branded as "IBM TrackPoint"). The touchpad is okay - I had to apply a hack I found on the internet to make it work with the correct resolution (apparently this is a common problem if you're not running Win7 with the manufacturer drivers). It is also multitouch so I can use two-finger scrolling.

Also, I think using a Mac has caused the "tinkering" part of my brain to atrophy. It feels great to use a machine that is easier to work on, and have Linux to mess around with.

I might get an 8GB stick of ram, and pair it with one of the 4GB sticks currently in there, to give me 12GB. Then at some later date I would have the flexibility to go to 16GB if I wanted to. (note: RAM usage seems great with Mint XFCE... can even use <1000 MB with Google Chrome running!)

I will post pictures later - and about the keyboard mod when I start it!

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 12 of 79, by dr_st

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Congrats on this cute little machine. I am an absolute die-hard fan of the classic 7-row keyboard myself. I have an X220 (purchased as the last classic keyboard model before the keyboard EC mod was discovered), and T430s with the classic keyboard mod.

You should be careful with modifications of the keyboard cable. To this day I'm unsure whether it's necessary or not. Some say you must tape the backlight pins, while others say that it's not needed - the keyboard trace will just burn and self-fuse. The T430s I purchased came with the keyboard preinstalled without any cable mods, and works fine, but X230 may be different. So better err on the safe side.

Is your X230 with the IPS screen or not? If not, you can get a drop-in IPS screen replacement (installation is real easy too) to improve colors and contrast.

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Reply 13 of 79, by Bruninho

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Congrats on your new acquisition!

I’ve tried the newer macbooks and the new keyboards are really a pain in the ass.

I work on a macbook pro 15” from 2012, and the keyboard is quite decent to work on.

As for the operating system, I’d recommend to dual boot win/linux, if you need linux for something. I am a Mac enthusiast, well, a fanboy really, but I do recognize how good Linux is. Unless you need something from Apple ecosystem (iCloud, iTunes...) no need to go the hackintosh route.

I run a hackintosh on a Dell G7, mainly because I needed windows for a racing game. Turns out I don’t play it as much as I wanted, so I regretted selling my MacBook Air 2014 for it. Instead, the macOS is my daily OS, although not very stable because it’s a hackintosh. Anyway, it is much more stable than it was in 2013, when I began doing hackintoshes. Now I want to go back to a macbook and quit sim racing...

Looking forward to your pictures of the new laptop and to see how you will swap the keyboard!

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 14 of 79, by Intel486dx33

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Save your money !
The best computer on earth is the Apple iPad.
Way too many reasons to lists.
And it is Apples least expensive.
Amazon has them on sale for as low as $250 for 32gb. and $325 for 128gb. ( 9.7 inch regular iPad ).
The more you use it the more you get attached to it and other notebooks and laptops and desktop feel like Dinosaurs.
I have a Mac Pro I never use anymore, A Macbook Pro I never use anymore.
Forget about MS-Windows. Who wants to to deal with all the problem in Windows OS.
OSX is a good OS and you can Dual boot a Macbook too with OSX and MS-Windows but why ?
No one needs MS-Windows anymore.
With an Apple computer you get two FREE complete Office suites. iWork and MS-Office for FREE.
Even on the iPad.
But once you get use to Apple OSX and IOS and iWork suite you realize just how good it is and
you wont want MS-Windows anymore. Apple has figured out everything and there computers work great together.
Apple computer are of the best quality in hardware and software.
Even the internet comes alive with an Apple computer. You miss allot of stuff when you surf the internet on a Windows computer.
It's like the internet was written for the Apple computers.

Just get a standard 2019 ( 9.7 inch ) iPad 32gb. with Logitech Ultra thin keyboard.
That's all you need. It can do almost anything.
What the Macbook does not have is a rear camera and touch screen.
For basic everyday tasks the iPad can do most of it.
And it's small and portable.

For $250 you can't build a better computer than the iPad with retina display.
Need more storage ? Just buy more iCloud storage. It's really cheap.
everything on the iPad gets backed up. All your files and photos and docs and notes.
It's never lost.
And you can retrieve your files from any device. Just login to the http://www.icloud.com
No one wants to deal with MS-Windows I.E. explorer memory problems and viruses.
Paying for MS-Office, updates and reboots constantly. Computer crashes.
MS-Windows is a Mess !
Microsoft's best OS was DOS.

Don't forget to get your AppleTV and Bluetooth speaker.
All these things work great together.

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Reply 15 of 79, by keenmaster486

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Yeah, and I'm sure I'd also love to use a Sharpie marker as a screwdriver.

Meanwhile in realville, I, as a developer and tinkerer who does real work, am just loving the X230 with Linux Mint.

dr_st wrote:

You should be careful with modifications of the keyboard cable. To this day I'm unsure whether it's necessary or not. Some say you must tape the backlight pins, while others say that it's not needed - the keyboard trace will just burn and self-fuse. The T430s I purchased came with the keyboard preinstalled without any cable mods, and works fine, but X230 may be different. So better err on the safe side.

Yes, I heard about this! I fiddled with that cable for a long time trying to get it out of its socket without damaging it, but I couldn't get it out. I just installed the keyboard as-is, and I have had no issues. Pretty sure it's self-fused by this time.

dr_st wrote:

Is your X230 with the IPS screen or not? If not, you can get a drop-in IPS screen replacement (installation is real easy too) to improve colors and contrast.

Hmmmmm, I may consider this. I don't think it's IPS. Not sure how important it is to me. The screen angle does change the colors/contrast more than I'd like, but it's a very minor annoyance.

bfcastello wrote:

As for the operating system, I’d recommend to dual boot win/linux, if you need linux for something. I am a Mac enthusiast, well, a fanboy really, but I do recognize how good Linux is. Unless you need something from Apple ecosystem (iCloud, iTunes...) no need to go the hackintosh route.

I could see dual booting Windows/Linux if I had more disk space. As it stands, I don't think I'll be needing to do that any time soon. My entire workflow runs on Linux... if I was doing more graphic design or something like that, I could see needing a natively-running Windows install. But right now I haven't even needed a Windows VM, except for vintage-related stuff.

So, I did the keyboard mod! I had to modify the nubs on it in order to make it fit, but it did work. Re-flashing the embedded controller with the modified firmware caused the keys to be correctly mapped again... and even made the media buttons work! Nice, no keyboard shortcuts necessary to change the volume. Next best thing to a real analog slider.

The feel of the keyboard is very nice. When I get to typing on it, it feels much better than the chiclet keyboards I'm used to. The layout is a big plus. Also, it looks amazing. Way sexier than the chiclet.

One issue that I have had so far is TrackPoint drift. It will begin drifting within seconds or minutes of turning it on, and it will not stop. I know it's supposed to auto-calibrate if you leave it alone for a while, but it does not do this - it just stays moving, pixel by pixel, quite annoyingly. Hours of searching on the Internet to try to find people that have had the same problem yielded a greater knowledge of how to configure the TrackPoint deep in the xinput config files, but to no avail - none of the settings had any effect whatsoever. For now, I have disabled it, and I'm just using the touchpad and an external mouse.

Pictures to come later today!

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 16 of 79, by dr_st

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

Save your money !
The best computer on earth is the Apple iPad.

The best troll on Vogons is Intel486dx33. 😀

keenmaster486 wrote:

One issue that I have had so far is TrackPoint drift. It will begin drifting within seconds or minutes of turning it on, and it will not stop. I know it's supposed to auto-calibrate if you leave it alone for a while, but it does not do this - it just stays moving, pixel by pixel, quite annoyingly.

Trackpoint drift is usually a hardware issue. Perhaps some dirt is caught on the joystick, applying pressure. I would take off the cap and mess with the joystick itself a bit, making sure that it's as clean and aligned as can be. But if you are fine with just leaving it disabled, maybe you don't want to bother.

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Reply 17 of 79, by oeuvre

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Except his thinkpad was most likely cheaper than even the newest cheapest iPad... and can do an infinite amount more.

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Reply 19 of 79, by Intel486dx33

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Okay, then try a mid-2012 13-inch Macbook Pro. You can find them today for about $300 used.
Just add 16mb. ram ( $80 )
New battery ( $50 )
and 500gb SSD ( $75 )
So for about $600 you can have a very good laptop that can dual boot OSX and Win-10.

I have this same setup but I don't even use it anymore as I use my iPad.
But when I was using the Macbook, I found myself slowly getting off of MS-Windows and just booting into Mac OSX.
You can do everything on a Mac and No need for MS-Windows.
I ran bench marks on both OS's on this macbook pro and they where almost identical.
Execpt for the fact that MS-Windows constantly updates and reboots I prefer MacOSX.
Thats why I got into macs because you can have both OS's on the same computer.
Only if your work or school requires you to use both OS's.
But after a while you realize you don’t need MS-Windows and all you really need is an iPhone and iPad to do almost anything.
The mid-2012 MacBook Pro is really easy to repair too any many parts still available.

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