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Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by ConceitedCode on Friday October 11, 2019 @01:56PM (#21226773)
I use a Thinkpad t480s (last years model). This laptop has done a great job "getting out my way". It has one of the best keyboards on any laptop I have used. It runs ubuntu great out of the box. 14in screen happens to be be a very nice size for me. I have the touchscreen model which has been nice for testing mobile sites. The screen could be a little brighter / more vibrant, but I do prefer the matte display for when I setup outside when the weather is nice. A brighter glossy version is available if you prefer that.

It has great port selection:

- 2 usb-c ports (1 thunderbolt)

- 2 usb-b

- 1 hdmi port

- 1 ethernet port

- 1 sd card reader

Overall I'd say it's a very good well rounded laptop that I don't have any major complaints about.

Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by tomknig on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:26PM (#21227022)
I am using the same device and it's also a clear recommendation from my side. Another plus to add is the support: When I called the support because I had these vertical stripes showing up in the panel from time to time, they sent a replacement mainboard and a technician who replaced it at my place in about an hour. I was 0 days without the device which is quite valuable if you are using it professionally, I'd say... This sort of support does of course not only apply to this exact model but I think it is constrained to the T and X series.
Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by 300bps on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:11PM (#21226895)
Did a lot of research on my last purchase and it came down to a Thinkpad T480s or Thinkpad Carbon X1 and I ended up going with the Carbon because it's so much lighter and thinner while still having an i7, 16 GB of RAM and SSD.

And I bought it from Costco which was a great price and doubled the factory warranty for free, gives free tech support for a year and a ridiculous 90 day return policy.

And the battery lasts 10+ hours which is amazing.

Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by ConceitedCode on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:14PM (#21226938)
I came down to the same choice, but went with the t480s for the extra RAM and the ethernet port (only used twice, but been a life safer each time).

Both are great options.

Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by sam_lowry_ on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:42PM (#21227155)
Come on, the Ethernet port is a joke, I have to ask people with long nails or use a knife to get the RJ-45 cable out.
Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by icr0 on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:15PM (#21226946)
Has anybody tried the amd version, the t485? I was considering buying one of the two.
Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by sam_lowry_ on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:44PM (#21227172)
T495 is on par with t490 and ~250€ cheaper
Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by ben174 on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:27PM (#21227035)
1920 x 1080 resolution is very hard to justify at that price point.
Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by orhmeh09 on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:43PM (#21227168)
I disagree. I have had a T480 for some time, the 1440p one. I regret getting th is screen and wish I had gone for the 1080p. While I hear HiDPI may work OK for displays that are scaled up in integer ratios, I basically expect that fractional scaling is never really going to work that well unless all the software you use written in the latest frameworks. (Based on experiences with Arch, Debian 10, Fedora 31 beta)
Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by immnn on Friday October 11, 2019 @07:46PM (#21229421)
I was pretty happy using an HP x360 UHD display on Fedora. It also drove two 4K external displays.

What makes the different is wayland. Fractural scaling is working fine. However, we also were using Airtame for over-the-air desktop mirroring, which supports x.org only. Thus, I needed to switch sometimes, which caused „WTF is not working again?!? Oh forgot to switch x.org session back to wayland.“.

No seriously, if you need HiDPI and could omit proprietary nvidia drivers, give wayland a serious try.

Re:Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developer? by danroc on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:43AM (#21268945)
do you actually use that little red button in the middle of the keyboard? if so, what for?