I'm with the parent. Driving a 4K display is really power hungry and the advantages are basically zero if you are using a 16 point font anyway. I'm 1980x1080 on a 13" laptop display. If I've got my math right, that's 169 dpi. A point is 1/72", which gives me 2.35 dots per point, or about 37 pixels of height for a 16 point font. With anti-aliasing, that's absolutely fine for readability.

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.

13" is tiny for getting work done, I suppose it hd makes sense there. I have a 15 and 20", and 4k makes it tolerable.

13" laptop fits in a handbag (it's A4 sized) and mine weighs 800 grams. I get 8-10 hours of real web development (with Docker, emacs, Firefox) on a single charge (I'm often without power for the entire day). Again... mobile :-) If you just want a luggable, then 4K can be a reasonable option -- especially if work is paying for it. However, for the extremely nomadic work style that I have 1080p, big battery is way better.

may I ask which model laptop you use? 8-10hrs at 1080p is very good. I get 6-8hrs on an Intel N3060 at 720p, but that's not great for development.

I posted this in the sibling post, but I'll copy it here: It's a GZ73/NL-NRA https://dynabook.com/direct/onyx-blue-pgz73nl-nra.html Actually, I was mistaken. It's 859 grams :-) That includes the battery. This particular model has only a 256 gig drive on it, though. I should also point out that it's an Intel box. I'm impatiently waiting for an AMD box with similar battery performance.

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.

many thanks, impressive stuff

Is that 800g with a battery in it?! What laptop is this?

It's a GZ73/NL-NRA https://dynabook.com/direct/onyx-blue-pgz73nl-nra.html Actually, I was mistaken. It's 859 grams :-) That includes the battery. This particular model has only a 256 gig drive on it, though. I should also point out that it's an Intel box. I'm impatiently waiting for an AMD box with similar battery performance.

thanks, very impressive. if only it were available to buy ><

ditto! I'm off to Japan in a couple of months, I'll try and come back ~859g heavier!

I don't understand why they don't sell it elsewhere. It was the same with the previous model I bought. You've got a full power, A4 sized, < 1kg laptop that gives you a full day's work on a charge. How can they not sell that? And eventually Toshiba decided they had to exit the laptop market because they couldn't make any money at it... It's baffling.

The do sell it here, it's just under a different brand name and model number:

https://us.dynabook.com/computers/laptops/portege/X30/X30-F1...

It's ~1kg, but that's mostly due to additional RAM and the like.

That's not actually the same machine. There is a similar model on the Japanese side. It's missing some extra USB-A connectors and an actual network connector. I think the extra weight is actually because battery technology is different. It is possible that they can't sell the lighter / longer life battery in the US. But, you are right anyway. It's close enough :-) I'm glad they are finally realising that this is a useful configuration for some people.

Hot off the press there's this[0] guy weighing in at 870g.

[0] http://uk.dynabook.com/press/releases/dynabook-europe-porteg...

it's rare enough to find an i7-8th gen in anything without a >=15" screen and keyboard with numpad. Dell Ultrabooks perhaps but they start at 1.2kg AFAICS