SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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 bryan on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:13AM
Do fans on laptops still suck? I haven't updated my laptop in years, but the one thing I remember above all is the annoyingly loud fan needed to cool the CPU. These things are tiny and normally suck air from the bottom of the device (thus suck up any carpet lint or dirt and then get clogged) Plus, they are super proprietary and not something that can be easily replaced.
The one thing I was really expecting Apple to update on it's latest model was the removal of active cooling fans. They seem to be big fans (har har) of making everything razor thin, and I expected that they would have used their aluminum construction as a giant passive heat sink and just nixed the mechanical fans.
Surely, we should be getting close to having perfectly silent laptops with the latest generation of lower wattage CPUs, right? Tablets don't have fans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @02:07AM
some tablets do have fans.
but it seems most people are willing to accept a fan to have the fastest cpus
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @06:12AM
"Do fans on laptops still suck?"
I'd think so, the intake is on the bottom and there's not enough vertical space to turn them sideways so they could blow instead.
... what?
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Sunday December 04 2016, @06:49AM
The main improvements really are with idle power. When the processor is under load, you're still producing similar amounts of heat as the processors of several years ago, at least for any high-performance processor. So basically you either have to deal with the fans - though at least now when the laptop is at idle they barely have to spin. Or accept a laptop that can't run at 100% CPU for extended periods of time without throttling (the Apple solution, even on their "Pro" line). Well, I guess third solution is to get one of the low power, low performance chips like the Atom that barely use any power even under load.