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posted by on Friday December 02 2016, @08:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the price-is-no-object dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday December 02 2016, @11:36PM

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Friday December 02 2016, @11:36PM (#436313)

    A screen that doesn't double as a mirror.

    What gives with that anyway? Why are so many like that and why do people buy them? Here, let me grab the anti glare screen off of my Apple IIe...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:24AM

    by Pino P (4721) on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:24AM (#436336) Journal

    Glossy allegedly allows deeper blacks than matte, which smears ambient light all over the display.

    • (Score: 1) by ComaVN on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:26PM

      by ComaVN (3722) on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:26PM (#436519)

      Who cares about deeper blacks while seeing their own contorted face while looking at, um, stuff?

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday December 03 2016, @05:15PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Saturday December 03 2016, @05:15PM (#436559)

        The bad jokes write themselves...