Hey /g/ so I am shopping around for laptops for the first time in forever. Help me pick a laptop.
Are there any laptops that are:
>new
>lightweight
>powerful
>have a long battery
>can be upgraded easily (ability to find compatible parts, not actually installing them)
>portable
>not a mac
Also the uni I am going to has a thing with Dell where I get 10% off on laptops, but that being said I have no limit.
I have been looking at the
It needs to be able last me through 4 years of uni.
I have been looking at the new Dell XPS (no touchscreen), but if you got better ideas tell me.
>Using trip for this thread only
>>47541749
So you want something new, powerful, portable and a long battery life, apparently you need a stranger to tell you what you want and don't mind spending more money then you have to. Seriously just stop wasting your time and head to your nearest apple store.
>>47541749
>not a mac
Get a 2015 Macbook Pro Retina faggot.
>>47541749
Seriously for college. A fucking macbook. 3 years in and macbook has done everything I needed superbly and held up great through all the bangs and backpack trips
read some reviews on real sites, we're all retarded on /g/
2015 rMBP 13
>>47541749
TOTL Dell Latitude, just chose screen size, you probably want something like 14"
>>47541749
>can be upgraded easily
Don't get a fagbook.
>>47542001
If you want something bigger then a Dell Precision
>>47541983
The rMBP13 has the same CPU and Graphics as the Air, just has a different marketed SDP, both will hit 40W at peak usage. So in general use, the rMBP13 is a lot slower.
I'm going to keep reposting this because Intel shouldn't get away with outright deception.
>>47541749
Literally anything with a 4 year accidental damage warranty.
>>47541749
>not a mac
You pleb, does it feel cool to hate on Apple because you're good with tech and know "more" than the average white girl.
Macbook pro retina 13'(or 15')
If you want a pc just install gentoo (or any OS IDGF about this gentoo shit)
Why not a mac? My 15" rMBP has been a solid machine. The only issue I would point to is that it can't power 2 4k monitors at 60Hz (which I'm assuming the 2015 model will be able to do better than my paltry 2012 model could), and the battery life has waned a bit since I bought it (but at ~80% of original capacity it still has reasonable life in it).
Don't be an anti-Apple brand zealot. There's nothing more crippling to your development than zealotry.
>>47542016
It's not just apple I can't upgrade my dell ultrabook either
>>47542254
>13'(or 15')
do it
Please don't get a MacBook, they're so overpriced. Get a Thinkpad t450 or a secondhand t440.
>>47542346
overpriced to you. there are a lot of people who would consider the service of installing *nix to a laptop and making *every* hardware component work smoothly (and provide updates as a service) worth a few hundred bucks right there.
If you really want a *nix environment but don't want to have an Apple logo because of brand zealotry or something, the only viable option that comes to mind is Sputnik by Dell. But I'm not even sure that they support the machines thoroughly, which makes me wary on that basis.
Look at the Lenovo x1 carbon. Glorious keyboard.
>>47542371
>overpriced to you. there are a lot of people who would consider the service of installing *nix to a laptop and making *every* hardware component work smoothly (and provide updates as a service) worth a few hundred bucks right there.
But there's laptops with *nix preinstalled, and pretty much every hardware out there works with most distros
Also, it isn't *nix nowadays, unless you live in the early 2000's
I thought /g/ had a major hardon for the XPS, especially the new 13".
>>47542405
what laptops come with linux pre-installed? what sort of support do you get? I won't believe that it matches Apple's level of support (simply because as a monolith they have complete control and therefore complete responsibility for OS X), but I'll believe it's some fractional level of support (like ____ provides 80% as good service, which is good enough for you).
And "pretty much... with most..." is the problem. In any given sample plucked from the population, you have some edge case of hardware that doesn't work. At the aggregate wifi generally works, and all the USB ports generally work, etc... but on any given unit you lose the always-on USB power option, or bluetooth doesn't work when you come out of sleep, or something else stupid that you wanted when you bought the laptop.
OS X is *nix enough that you can reasonably trust your environment when ssh'ing into a CentOS machine will be pretty much the same as the environment you just came from locally. To operating systems developers, that might not be similar enough, but to the vast vast majority of software programmers, that's enough of a facade on the operating system for them to get work done.
>>47542507
There's a shitton of vendors supplying laptops with some variant of GNU/Linux, with varying degrees of support
Also, how are you measuring support? You seem to measure it arbitrarily
Dell offers superior customer support in it's business lines than Apple, and some of the business laptops they sell ship with Ubuntu
>OS X is *nix enough that you can reasonably trust your environment when ssh'ing into a CentOS machine will be pretty much the same as the environment you just came from locally. To operating systems developers, that might not be similar enough, but to the vast vast majority of software programmers, that's enough of a facade on the operating system for them to get work done.
You can do the same with Windows and Cygwin, doesn't mean it's good, OS X is really badly designed from a technical standpoint
apple is too expensive in Aus.
>>47542570
>You can do the same with Windows and Cygwin
to whatever extent Cygwin emulates a proper shell, it's miles away from OS X. Again if you're absolutely committed to not touching anything made by Apple, fine, but you're tying yourself up for no good reason
>>47542571
Try with student discounts
>>47542596
There's hundreds of reasons to not want OS X, HFS is one of those horrible things as well
There's also critical vulnerabilities that Apple is not going to fix on any OS X release except 10.10
>>47542507
>OS X is *nix enough that you can reasonably trust your environment when ssh'ing into a CentOS machine will be pretty much the same as the environment you just came from locally. To operating systems developers, that might not be similar enough, but to the vast vast majority of software programmers, that's enough of a facade on the operating system for them to get work done.
The undocumented API's on OS X affect any software developer, unless you only do fart apps
>>47542571
Everything is expensive as fuck in aus.
>>47542614
student discount only knocks $70-90 off the price.
13-inch: 2.7GHz rmbp = $1800
15-inch: 2.5GHz rmbp = $3,500
>>47542793
Holy shit
It's probably cheaper to buy one overseas and ship it
>>47541749
The XPS is probably a fine choice. Thinkpads are also sturdy as shit. You could grab a T450 and would probably have no ragrets. I think they have a 10 percent thing on T450's right now on Lenovos site so might get on that.
>>47542793
>what is purchasing power parity?
I don't want an apple because I want to be able to play game without having to partition my hard drive.
i feel like getting an asus laptop.
which model does /g/ recommend?
>>47541749
nope. A toughbook like what I use is all of those things except lightweight
>>47542793
thats still cheap my toughbook was $4000 when I bought mine
>>47541749
And I bet you posted that one, too.
>>47543632
ux305 if it's just for word processing/web browsing/programming
you'll probably need one of their "aggressively designed" GAMURR laptops if you want to do anything intense
Protip: whatever bullshit reasons you've come up with for needing a really good laptop are; they're bullshit.
You don't need a really good laptop for college for four years. You can get exactly the same grades with a shitty laptop. All a good laptop will do is allow you to show it off for one year before it's outdated to pretend friends.
>>47544169
Protip: you're poor and not helping
Protip: whatever reasons you've come up with for why buying cheap garbage laptops is best are just your ego working overtime to make you feel okay with your lot in life
Protip: when you're done crying use visene to get the red out. I like rohto V but you can use store brand too anon, it works almost as well
maxed out macbook pro is the only answer.
Yeah everyone uses macbooks, even the CS/Math professors at my university.
If price isn't an issue I would suggest the XPS 15. Has a great battery life, 16 GB RAM, has a dedicated graphics card so I can do CAD and modeling. The build quality is superb too.
>>47541749
>new
>lightweight
>have a long battery
>portable
>not a mac
>10% Dell discount
The new 2015-model XPS 13 sounds perfect for that, unless you mind:
>intel graphics (they're good enough for just about anything but games and 3D work)
>non-upgradeable RAM
>13" display might be too small for you
Of course, these are all tradeoffs. You can't have a long battery life with more powerful dedicated graphics. You can't have a bigger display without gaining some weight and bulk. Soldered RAM is (sadly) par for the course in small form factors.
>>47541749
im in the same boat as you op
i was deciding between the xps13 HP spectre 360 and lenovo x1 carbon.
i will get the lenovo, i dont know why but it just feels like the safe option to last longer
>>47545034
(>>47544913)
I had a lenovo carbon x1 and a macbook and I much prefer the OS, Build quality, Keyboard and mousepad of the mac.
I like the new dell but for now macs are the undisputed kings of productivity so OP should probably play it safe.
Go with the XPS 13 if they're selling the 1080p/8GB version again, but a word of warning:
Dell has a significant battery shortage right now. I ordered mine in March and despite mine being (apparently) expedited it's still not due now until at LEAST the start of May.
I live in Australia, for reference.
College student 4 years deep here. Get a tablet for following slides in class, build a desktop for your everything else.
I got tired of lugging my laptop around, and how weak it was. Building a desktop was the best decision I made here. putting it on a dig desk that takes up half my room, but gives me tons of room for books and other shit for homework was the second. Finally ditching the laptop altogether and getting a tablet was the third.
Seriously, unless you are in programming classes where you need a personal machine to work on while in a classroom or something, a tablet will do everything a laptop would do while not taking up your whole seat in class
>>47545185
he said not a mac tho
>>47545242
it says 11-17 business days for dell to configure the xps13, the "expedited" was probably bullshit to make you buy it because fuck waiting that long
>>47545534
XPS, Latitude, Precision series from dell, HP elitebooks/probooks, T/X series from lelnovo.
Considering one of those 2-in-1 convertibles for handwriting notes. Something like a Thinkpad Yoga 12 or Asus Transformer T300. Any positive experience using those with GNU/Linux?
>>47545534
>and how weak it was
You should get a non-shit laptop.
Probably Surface Pro 3 just for the pen and OneNote depending on what you're studying.
>>47545708
ubuntu has pretty much full support for surface pros
I use a Dell Latitude E6530 at work and it's been really solid so far.
No idea about the battery life on this thing as it sits in a docking station 24/7.
>>47541937
>>47541929
>>47542101
>>47542254
>>47542256
>>47544673
He said 4 years, not 6 months.
>no limit
>upgradable parts
Just buy the better hardware now and fuck upgradable design.
Not for school, but I picked up a Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140, along with travel keyboard.
Pros:
>10.1" convertible, so can be both tablet carry, laptop-like carry, or mounted on holder for desktop-like at home
>small, will fit in most any bag, weighs only ~1.5kg with keyboard
>battery lasts like 15 hours for normal work-work use
>semi upgradeable parts (RAM can't, but it has m.2 and mpcie for extending, and relatively accessible internals)
>not too expensive, even for topped-out ones with 8GB of RAM etc
Cons:
>keyboard is shit compared to glorious thinkpads
>you can't game anything from past 2010 unless it's some indie shit not needing muh graphics
>it's a dell
>hurr durr
>>47546415
>keyboard is shit
Wha?? It's a tablet right? Don't you choose your own keyboard?
>>47541749
get one of the mbp's from about 2009, install either leopard or snow leopard and iWork '09, and you'll be golden well into post-grad
>>47546441
It has an addon where you attach a matching keyboard to it and turn it into sorta like a laptop, pic related (one in middle).
>>47546487
Ah got it. But you can go with a Bluetooth KB if you prefer right?
>>47546505
Sure, you can do that.
Thing about using the Dell matching one is it has a battery inside to extend battery life to ~15 hours; tablet only is like 8 hours.
>>47541983
>>47541949
>>47541937
>>47541929
You guys are obviously complete fuckin idiots.
>>47542254
> You pleb, does it feel cool to hate on Apple because you're good with tech and know "more" than the average white girl.
Can't you fuckin faggots accept that people don't want to look like a homofag that got all his money from his mom? Apple is the last company on earth I would give my money too. Not because it's cool, it's because they treat their customers like shit and they are so stupid they don't even notice.
>>47543669
Are you retarded?
Are you in military service in the jungle? This must be bait.
>>47541749
Do you care about ?
>MUH PPI, MUH RESOLUTION
If not, look at the lenovo U330 touch or the M30.
We give those to our technicians that need mobility and battery life for configuring stuff.
If it is outdated once just throw it in the bin and buy a new one, but I doubt that will be some time soon.
Spending 3000 $ on a device that is outdated a month after buying is totally dumb.
Macfags won't get how much they gimp themselves by not using the latest of technology.
>>47546328
I've had mine for 3 years and there's nothing indicating I'm going to need a new one in the foreseeable future (which is usually around a year for me).
>>47542571
>tfw get discount at Apple online because I work at maccas
Feels good man
