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Ars Technica has an editorial on what they'd want in a laptop in 2017. Inspired by this, I figured to make my own list and ask SN for input. I'm not looking for a laptop, but it's fun to think about specs, right?
Anyway, I do think use case is important. My use case: working and travelling daily with laptop, sometimes to various institutes to give presentations. This already leads to some important requirements:
- Lightweight (I frequently take the laptop somewhere)
- Not needing a plethora of dongles. (I've forgotten the power supply more than once already, I'm sure forgetting a dongle or two will happen more frequently).
Thinking about it more, most of the things the Ars Editor loves are things I honestly don't use, or actively do not want (touch screen).
With that in mind, I'd arrive at:
- No touchscreen - it adds weight while I don't use its features
- 13 inch screen seems to balance portability and screen size well.
- 1920x1080 resolution - higher will drain the battery faster, and is not needed on 13 inch
- VGA port - almost all presentation places I come across need converters (dongles) for anything else.
- USB 2 and 3 ports - again, for compatibility
- 512 GB SDD
- 10GB or more memory
- Dual boot compatible with Ubuntu (I use Ubuntu, but for the occasional gadget that can get updates via your computer, you'll still need Windows or MacOS)
- Preferably with regular ethernet port - there are still hotels where wired is free, but wifi is paid.
Other than that I'd go for modern iterations of specs for things like ethernet, wifi, CPU, etc. So Kaby Lake processor, things like that. GPU is not a big issue, so probably the integrated Intel thing on a modern Intel CPU will be sufficient.
Anything I missed? Anything you'd do radically different? If so: why?
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday December 02 2016, @09:37PM
My newish laptop for work a Lenovo(thinkpad) W541 has VGA and Thunderbolt with no HDMI. Other than that oddity it's decent for ports. 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, Intel Core i7-4710MQ. My only other gripe is the intel HD graphics 4600 paired with the nvidia Quadro K1100M. In theory the integrated intel does lightweight work and the nvidia kicks in for heavy stuff. In reality, shit crashes or has hiccups randomly. Much rather have an AMD APU.
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(Score: 1) by toddestan on Sunday December 04 2016, @06:23AM
I've got the same laptop for work. The W-series has been discontinued however, and the W541 is the last of the line. The replacement is the P50 and P50s, which by all accounts seems to be an improvement. However, the P50 lacks a VGA port, which I don't mind because IMHO the VGA port should have been gone 10 years ago but otherwise meets most of your other requirements except for having a 15" screen. I also can't speak towards Ubuntu, but I would give it a good chance of working just fine. I've not had any crashes/hiccups with my W541, but it has ended up spending almost all its time sitting in its docking station. I know others with same or similar W540 who do use it more as a laptop do experience some crashes, as well as having some problems with the wireless.
If I needed to buy a new laptop for myself, the P50 would be in the running, though like you I'd prefer it with a smaller screen. There is a P40 and while the name suggests it's just like the P50 but smaller, in reality it's one of those convertible tablet/laptop things and really is a completely different kind of machine.
I'm still hoping Lenovo actually puts the Thinkpad Retro into production but the prospects aren't looking too good.