Both the above theoretical improvements and availability in desirable laptop chassis's will remain to be seen, but at least we can be optimistic, given the desktop wins we've seen this year.
> the company said that they have rearchitected a good portion of the power delivery in the APU in order to be able to power down and power gate more elements of the SoC than was previously possible
Appears they did reduce the power usage, remains to be seen how much in reality.
I talk about this explicitly here [0]. I think it's important that this be called-out widely and given attention. As I said in the first comment there, it's hard to vote with your wallet when the option you want doesn't exist.
> Screen resolution on the XPS 13 has jumped accordingly, now up to 1,920 x 1,200 on the FHD model, and 3,840 x 2,400 on the 4K model. Dell calls this FHD+ and 4K+ for the added aspect ratio, but it should be noted that touch is still an optional feature and isn’t standard.
[1] https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/dell-xps-13-2020-eve...
Wait, the Dell XPS 15 doesn't work well with Linux? Could you share a bit on why?
(I was actually thinking of getting a XPS 15 myself, and putting Linux on it.)
I use an XPS 13 at home also running Linux (Ubuntu/Manjaro) and have no unusual issues there that I haven't also seen in my desktop.
Saying it doesn't work well in Linux is either bad luck with a particular model or just plain misrepresentation.
It was really aggravating for a brief period, then I decided that I'd just relegate that machine to being "the windows box" and moved on.
You also have to switch RAID to AHCI out of the box (if it came with Windows) but it's otherwise been smooth sailing from there.
As for graphics, Prime/Primus/Optimus (which ever it is, I'm never sure) is an issue with all machines and not a DELL issue, Linux support, in my experience, for switchable graphics is just terrible.
The machine I'm on now (XPS 15 9560) has nvidia always on, I used it plugged in 99% of the time anyway, I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 for work.
Agreed on the switchable graphics issue. I think mine was compounded by a nouveau issue with this particular nvidia part. One fix I'd have been happy with would've been to have intel graphics always on. That matches what I do better anyway. But I could not find a stable way to do that.
We are all in various states of Nvidia/Intel proprietary/nouveau drivers/modes here depending on personal preference but none of us have any real day to day issues (On Ubuntu 18.04 at least, which is our preferred distro).
The wireless and graphics are not stable.
I tried for a brief period to get something working, then decided to designate it as my "windows box" and move on. It's been quite a nice Windows 10 system, to the extent that that's a thing. I'd probably even like it if I could bend telemetry, the auto-installed/advertised store apps and updates completely to my will.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/overview/cp/linuxsystem...
edit: Apparently it's called the windows surface laptop and yes it has a 3:2 aspect ratio
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/surface-laptop-3/8VFGGH1R9...
https://www.arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/dell-updates-xps...
Back then other other cool thing was the 17" MacBook Pro. It was glorious.
and the keyboard is the old "2015 macbook" keyboard.
I.e. making of wider panels is cheaper, and because in advertisement there's diagonal and not area, it still allows advertising in a way that doesn't put the manufacturer or oem to disadvantage.
I hope they'll stuff these into bargain bin laptops with 1080p displays though. I'm in the market, and don't care to pay more to use more resources for higher dpi that I can barely see the difference with and just causes software headaches. :P
With Ryzen 4000 we're finally seeing a truly competitive, perhaps even better (we'll have to see how battery life compares) APU. The premium choices should come along if the chips measure up this time around.
Seems that most monitors nowadays are focusing on high framerates for gaming and colorspace support for visual creatives. The latter are usually very expensive.
I just want some 27"-32" monitors with very high dpi, framerates and color accuracy be damned.
Disregarding the high framerates, I often wondered if someone ever wrote a display application that achieves higher dynamic range by alternating pixel values over frames, sure it would need to be calibrated, say by a photodiode stuck against the screen, lowpass filtering the signal...
It seems like one might "try out HDR" on conventional monitors, to find out if they are worth it... \ which also raises the question if these HDR monitors are not simply storing the last frame(s) to deduce what the appropriate 24bpp (8b per channel) intensities should be such that for static images & static gaze the illusion of HDR is recreated... perhaps this exact trick is what caused ghosting in the first generations of LCD monitors?
You get used to the display, it’s text editing anyways.
When I needed an underpowered cheap laptop in 2016 for text editing I bought an asus X-something that had 8 hours of battery life, some atom anemic cpu and 4GB of RAM for 210€ and even that came with a 1080p screen.
1. Buy a cheap laptop with a replaceable memory and nvme slots and upgrade them for cheaper than you could buy them for. Dells typically have replaceable memory and nvme drives.
2. Buy a cheap laptop and put a 1TB NVME drive in a Thunderbolt 3 / superspeed 10 enclosure. This would be the way to go for a Macbook Pro.
If you're going to do superspeed 10 (~ 1 Gigabyte/sec)
NVME disk: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-1TB-NAND-NVMe-PCIe/dp/B07J2Q4...
SuperSpeed 10 enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Tool-free-Enclosure-Thunderb...
If you want to do something faster (3 to 4 Gigabytes/s) than you should look at the Samsung Evo/Evo Plus/Pro nvme sticks and a proper Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for NVME like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/WAVLINK-Certified-Thunderbolt-Enclosu...
FWIW, I have that pluggable superspeed enclosure above and a Samsung Evo NVME stick, and the superspeed 10 enclosure is the bottleneck. I get 1 Gigabyte/sec in read and writes.
I used a cheap m.2->sata tray in my laptops second slot with the 128gb ssd and macrium reflect* to mirror the old boot disk to the new ssd.
Next up I'm going to get a 4tb data ssd to replace the 128, and swap out the laptops 60hz display for a 144hz display.
Unless the laptops your considering have soldered data drives, are under unusually stringent after care plans (enterprise), or you don't want to mess with hardware these are pretty straightforward tasks. You can probably Google (laptop model) ssd swap site:YouTube.com and watch some one go through the steps. If YouTube doesn't have anything replace YouTube with reddit.
My old eyes really appreciate the significantly sharper text. If you can't see things, well increase the font size!!
If I had a monitor that was twice the size (reasonable on a desktop), I'd be looking for 4K. Or potentially if I wanted 8 pt fonts to be shaped nicely... But of course, I couldn't read them anyway on my display... Anyway, on a mobile platform (what the original article is talking about), 4K is a bit of a loser unless you have super eyes, IMHO.
I should also say that I use Arch Linux with i3, powertop settings and set my backlight down to about 7% to get the longest battery settings. This is fine indoors, but if I'm working outdoors or in a sunny place, I'll have to up the backlight which will cut a couple of hours off the peak performance.
https://us.dynabook.com/computers/laptops/portege/X30/X30-F1...
It's ~1kg, but that's mostly due to additional RAM and the like.
[0] http://uk.dynabook.com/press/releases/dynabook-europe-porteg...
i have a 1tb one. it's pretty tiny. it cost me $70. why is it so hard to put one of these inside a laptop?
Only thing I wish for is a squarer aspect ratio, 16:10, 3:2, etc, which (even more) sadly aren't allowed any more.
I have heard rumors that Microsoft will release a display to compliment the line. I hope it's true.
A serious laptop these days might have 1800 rows or so. 1080 is pretty miserable. Pixels are going to be large and blocky and text (which is what most corporate work and day to day browsing is) is going to be blurry and poorly defined.
especially with windows still sucking at really handling 4k
In terms of usable screen space, 1080p can be either adequate or a little too much depending on display size. I have to zoom my X270 in a bit.
If I had to spec out the same machine today, I would opt for the 1080p display. Not just for the increased battery life, but better overall graphics performance as well. Unless you're doing serious graphics work, it's just not necessary.
4K has its place, but smaller displays where you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference at typical viewing distances is just not it.
Screen: 14 inch, FHD 1920 x 1080 px resolution, IPS-Level, 60 Hz, matte, 100% sRGB, Pantone Validated 14 inch, FHD 1920 x 1080 px resolution, IPS-Level, 120 Hz, matte, 100% sRGB, Pantone Validated 14 inch, WQHD 2560 x 1440 px resolution, IPS-Level, 60 Hz, matte, 100% sRGB, Pantone Validated
But I'm sure there will be many other offerings and possible Apple may well. But who knows, Apple may just license the core and launch a hybrid x86/ARM system. Fun times though.
The AnimeMatrix display looks kind of cool though.
However my next ultrabook (with a 14" or smaller display) will probably feature what you call "a shitty 1080 display". 1080 at 13.3" is 170ppi which is just fine for a laptop because you're not as close to the display as on a smartphone or a watch.
Apple could do wonders in a 14" MBP format with a typing focused keyboard (no Touchbar) and a 1080 panel. Would trade in my existing corporate laptop in a heartbeat. Especially if it had 32GB of RAM (needed for VM/container setup and could actually use 48-64, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon).
> Apple could do wonders in a 14" MBP format with a typing focused > keyboard (no Touchbar) and a 1080 panel.
In my T470 I have 32GB of RAM (user upgradeable) a dual core i7 @ 2.8GHz and an M.2 NVME slot which leaves me the flexibility for upgrade beyond the 500GB drive I bought it with. As it stands right now it's also got an open slot for a 2.5" SATA drive as well. It also has two batteries - a 3 cell 24Wh internal battery (field replaceable) and a 6 cell 72Wh external swappable battery. My one gripe is it only has one USB-C (it is Thunderbolt). I bought it in 2017 and it's still like brand new. Keyboard is still fantastic, screen hinge shows no sign of failing, I've never used a case to protect it and it continues to take a daily beating. If something fails, it's likely I can buy the parts and replace them with little to no fanfare. Honestly, if Apple sold something like this - it would sell like crazy. Lenovo now even supports Linux like a (mostly) first class citizen with regard to firmware and drivers.
For fun I just measured both and was looking at the screens side by side - the T470 has a bit more width, which is probably what I like since I do a lot of side by side comparison, and the additional pixels on the screen are at just the right scaling for how I like to work (which is probably why the higher resolution MBP I have feels jarring when switching).
For reference - what I measured... MBA: 11 5/16w x 7 1/8h (13.3" diag) T470: 12 3/16w x 6 7/8h (14" diag)
The T410 (a brick with a terrible screen and battery jutting out the rear) or the X201 (a nicer brick and a tiny trackpad
I definitely agree with you that the current T470/80/90 is a pretty nice machine, it's wolrds ahead of what the ThinkPad was when the Air was 'new'
Great keyboard, great touchpad, pretty small, stellar battery life. I'm currently typing on the 11 inch variation.
1080 ~ 13/14" isn't quite big enough for me to use native, and not enough DPI to use scaled.
Lenovo's 1440p and Apple's 1600p displays are ideal. 1800p would actually be a little better. The Surface book's 2000p screen is best of all plus it is 3:2....
Which is good as we would have some serious processing power without having to second mortgage a house. At 15" 1080 display is anything but shitty (assuming it has decent gamut and dynamic range). Higher resolutions are much better served by standalone monitors. 40" 4K works just fine for me while on 15" screen 4K either makes fonts too small or if I increase the scale then there is no real difference with 1080
Part of the reason the X1 Carbon is great is because 14" screen @ 1440p. Now give me an AMD version and I would be all over it.
However, since I got a good deal on mine, I'll consider getting an upgrade if the next batch of laptops look good. I hope Lenovo backtracks on soldering on RAM and removing the option for a second battery for the T-series. If I want thin, I'll get an X-series, I got the T-series because it's a work horse that can be configured according to my needs. I'm not satisfied with the solution of having a USB battery bank as a backup.
Or did you mean the 490+10 = 4100 vs 500 naming problem?
And so would I. X1 has been my workhorse for the past 5 years or so. If the native Linux GPU drivers work well, I'd upgrade to a Radeon APU based X1 Carbon. I don't even care if it's expensive.
My next laptop will be a Zen 2, regardless of whether or not Dell steps up to the plate. I hope they do. I prefer the fit and finish of my current XPS13 to my previous X230. Also the XPS 13 developer edition ships with Linux, which I approve of.
But the an AMD X1 would be awesome indeed. The better chassis and 4K screen would make it the ideal machine for me. I'd love it if they did that in the Gen 8 but I'm not holding my breath...
I’m hoping the system integrators have learned their lesson and go out of their way to support and promote AMD for their own sakes.
May I am reading too much into a small thing. But this is the first time I remember any vendors has Apple's product Image and Logo in their presentation. Normally for other brands using their logos and image are simply a request away. Not Apple. Apple has historically distant itself from any vendors using their logo as some sort of endorsement. Since winning the Apple contract is a quality label in itself.
In almost all other cases you can mention, speak, or use the text "Apple" with regards to Apple itself using your component. But I dont ever record product image and Logo being used.
I think the Ryzen 4000s fits MacBook Pro 14" or MacBook Air Retina perfectly. Or even the MacBook Pro 16". Instead of using a Gaming Focused Navi / RDNA GPU, it is bundled with a GPGPU focused Vega, which Apple has already been Optimising for their Metal Compute.
Just waiting until USB 4 / Thunderbolt 3 is fully opened with non-Intel solution I guess Apple will be good to go then.
https://www.amd.com/en/graphics/radeon-apple
I suspect they also allowed them to use the logo.
The first rule about being a vendor of Apple is you dont talk about being a vendor of Apple.
[1]https://images.anandtech.com/doci/15333/IMG_20200106_140421....
1080p might be fine for a phone. There’s nothing ‘sweet’ about blurry text[1] on a lowDPI laptop screen, in my opinion. Especially if you’re buying new. Paying real money for obolete tech makes no sense.
[1] https://webcube-general.s3.amazonaws.com/eizo/media/contenta...
People buy a high resolution laptop and turn the scaling on 200%, effectively nullifying the benefits of a high resolution display.
Using a hi-dpi display at native res on a 15'' screen is a recipe to kill your eyes, whereas scaling to 200% gives you butter-smooth text that relaxes them. That is the benefit.
When I was young, I was all for keeping text small and stuff ing as much info on the screen as I could. Nowadays, I just struggle to work on any native-res screen: unscaled low-dpi looks like crap, unscaled hi-dpi is tiring. My world changed with the 2012 retina MBP and I simply cannot go back.
Fractional scaling should be under seven “Are you sure? What you’re doing is stupid.” pop-ups. Instead at least Windows 10 actually makes 150% the default. Boggles my mind.
Here’s a good article series on this topic by Elementary OS dev:
https://medium.com/elementaryos/what-is-hidpi-and-why-does-i...
https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-h...
The benefit is the higher resolution itself. Scaling doesn’t change the resolution. You still get the benefit.
E.g. for text:
https://www.eizoglobal.com/library/basics/pixel_density_4k/t...
Seems like all, or nearly all, of ASUS's laptops this quarter, from premium to value, are Ryzen; shipping with 120Hz+ displays, some of them IPS.
Even among my extremely tech savvy crowd of friends, I only know one guy who runs linux as their desktop environment.
And note that https://fwupd.org/lvfs/firmware/new does not list any AMD laptops. So even if you get a functional laptop, you won't be able to update the bios easily.
But is the BIOS something controlled by AMD or the OEMs? My whole point in this and other threads it that OEMs are handling things poorly, and that's what's affecting AMDs prospects in the mobile market. The BIOS is a highly device-specific firmware, so that's why I'm asking.
Extracting a ZIP on a FAT/NTFS USB key is difficult?
To your point, the method of putting the bios file on a usb stick is also not universal. I don't think any lenovo laptops support that. And while passable, that's also kludgy.
But yea seems that not all machines are supported, you either get lucky or have to do research beforehand.
While apple is a huge manufacturer, MS did choose to use them in their surface laptops. And as much as I wanted the previous mobile ryzen cpus to take off, most of the reviews were against them in the battery life tests while the performance tests weren't enough to make up for it. The same was true for any amd powered laptop, not only for surfaces.
I bet they already have an approximate release date for the MacBook Air that ships with an 64 bit ARM AnX CPU. It’s been brewing for at least 3 years now.
2021, perhaps?
I wonder how many fucks they give about non-App Store apps. I rely on them, but I know Apple is using the App Store to herd developers toward embracing best practices for security like sandboxing and entitlements and userspace drivers, et c.
Also, there is nothing to “bring back” AFAIK; the os x binary format (mach-o, isn’t it?) still supports multiple architectures like it did the last time we all went through this dance. See also: 64 bit iOS/watchOS binaries.
You're going back a bit there. 1900x1200 LCDs have been around for about two decades, and 1600x1200 was achievable on CRTs in the mid 90s.
Well, sure, a very ancient day, in computing terms. The first QXGA (2048×1536) notebook was in 2002.
So? What does that have to do with 20 years later today?
[0] https://www.designcompaniesranked.com/resources/is-this-reti...
> The best solution right now for good desktop resolution is an iMac 27” 5k, which has similar DPI to a modern high end laptop.
These iMacs are by default downscaled to 1440p.
iMacs by default are not downscaled unless you are using fixed resolution applications. Simply put, there is no reason needed for scaling.
And yes, I use matte filters on my high DPI screens, especially my iPad.
Aesthetics matter, for a few hundred dollars more, it feels like I’m almost looking at paper (if it weren’t for the backlighting).
The standard from decades ago is 96. Just wanting to double that, to make the pixels not blatant, is not extravagant.
Ignore the raw resolution here. Talk about DPI.
A modern desk gives you about two feet between you and your monitor, which isn’t overly close, and you’ll still very much notice the difference between 138 and 220 DPI.
I sit 3ft away from my monitors, at that distance I can't notice a difference.
Apple can’t until either: Intel opensources thunderbolt or Apple drops Thunderbolt support.
Years ago Intel said they would but they still haven’t yet.
Edit: I originally stated Lightning and meant to say Thunderbolt.
They did and It is called USB 4. Where the top USB 4 profile provides full TB3 compatibility.
There’s AMD mobo with thunderbolt support but they aren’t certified.
So, it totally depends on the buyer.
The era of shitty 1366x768 displays is finally over.
That being said, the Mac Pro with a 64-core Ryzen chip and 4TB of memory would have been absolutely nuts.
I wish Apple would adopt this at least for some products. It'd give AMD more credibility, and Apple would be able to negotiate pricing more easily with Intel.