Slant community chat on Discourse| 9 Recommended Products | Recommendations | RAM | CPU | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition· · · | 5 | 1 | 8 GB | Intel Core i7 | 128GB SSD |
| #2 System76 Lemur· · · | 2 | 0 | 8GB | – | – |
| #3 HP Spectre x360· · · | 0 | 0 | 4GB/6GB/8GB/16GB | 6th gen Intel Core i5 or 7th gen Intel Core i7 | – |
| #4 Lenovo ThinkPad T460s· · · | 0 | 0 | 8GB/16GB | Intel Core i5 | 256GB SSD |
| #5 System76 Oryx Pro· · · | 0 | 0 | 8GB-64GB DDR4 @ 2400 MHz | i7 7th Gen | 250 GB SSD+ |
| #6 HP Envy 13· · · | 0 | 0 | 8GB | 6th gen Intel Core i7 | 256GB SSD |
Pro Plenty of RAM for all programming needs
Building software typically takes more resources than running the final product, having a lot of RAM helps building big complex applications faster.
Pro Latest generation hardware
The XPS 13 was recently updated with all the latest generation hardware which means that it won't become outdated any time soon.
Pro Great keyboard
The keyboard is high quality, feels great to type on and isn't too mushy or too shallow. Even though there's nothing very special about the keyboard, it's as good of a keyboard as you could want.
Con Requires very long and painful configuration after installing Loki
Still some stuff doesn't work, e.g. external screens.
Con Not a great choice for people who use their laptops to game as well
The Dell's integrated graphics are very poor for gaming and you won't be able to play graphics intensive games on it at all. A latest-generation AAA game will run at about 20 FPS with lowest settings. While a less graphics-intensive game such as Dota 2 for example will run at 30 FPS with lo...
Con Phone support from Dell Customer Service could be better
Phone support is very slow. Customers have reported waiting for up to 15 minutes to get connected to someone who will be able to help solve their issue.
Pro Portable
At about 3.6lbs, it's a relatively lightweight laptop that can be easily carried around.
Pro Great performance
The "medium" build of Lemur (8GB of RAM, i7 CPU) can do most activities just fine. Whether that activity is developing Android applications, writing documents, or editing a 4K video with Kdenlive, the Lemur will not have any problems with lag or overheating.
Con Poor build quality
Like with most System76 products, the build quality for the Lemur is rather poor, especially when you compare it with other laptops at this price point. The plastic feels a bit cheap and flimsy and is not as durable as other laptops.
Con Limited hinge angle
The hinge only opens to around 120 degrees. This is suitable for desk work, however on a lap it could be limiting.
Pro Great, colorful display
The Spectre x360 has a great glossy Full-HD screen to complement its amazing design. At 317 nits, the screen is pretty bright and it has a decent color range as well, covering 101.7 percent of the sRGB color spectrum.
Pro Great design
The HP Spectre x360 has an all-aluminum body that gives it a very premium feel. The edges are all smooth and polished which provide a great highlight accent to the laptop.
Con Can easily trap heat and overheat
The extremely thin chassis is a drawback as far as heat management goes. Even a relatively simple activity like streaming HD videos will overheat the laptop and put the internal heat at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit which is 10 degrees higher than the 95 degrees "comfortable" threshold.
Con Has some bloatware
While it's less than HP usually has, there are still apps like Netflix, The Weather Channel, Hearts Deluxe, Connected Photo etc.
Pro Very portable
At 3lbs and at 13 x 8.9 x.74 inches it's a very small, lightweight, and portable laptop.
Pro Great build quality
The body is made of magnesium and the lid is reinforced by carbon fiber which makes it extremely durable as well. Lenovo claims that the laptop has passed MIL-STD 810G durability tests for extreme temperatures, high altitudes, humidity and vibrations.
Con Poor battery life
In order to make this laptop thinner Lenovo have opted to remove the extended and removable batteries which in turn has decreased the overall battery life of this laptop. Simple web surfing using Wi-Fi at a screen brightness of 100 nits caused a full battery to be drained in just 7 hours.
Con Stiff and shallow keyboard
The keys are relatively stiff and require too little actuation force which in turn makes users "bottom out" rather often which can get quite annoying.
Pro Very customizable
Before buying the System76 Oryx Pro from the System76 website, you get to customize almost every aspect of the laptop as far as specs go. The price depends on what you choose to put inside your laptop and prices vary from $1475 for the basic version to $7000 for a laptop with a 17.3" Matte IPS...
Pro Amazing overall performance
The default 6th generation i7 Processor coupled with the 16GB of RAM (even better with the versions with 32GB and 64GB) make for an absolutely amazing machine. It has a dedicated SSD for the OS only which massively increases startup time and for anything else you can choose up to two SSDs or HDDs...
Con No 4K option
It lacks the option to have a 4K display. While not a deal breaker, it's a shame that a laptop with a display as good as Oryx Pro's does not have a 4K option which would also be a great plus for gamers.
Con Customer service could be much better
System76's technical support is pretty bad. When there's a problem that should be solved by them, they usually resort to sending replacement parts instead or blaming third-parties (even if those third-parties are not at fault) of something that they should be fixing.
Pro Good performance for the price
The HP Envy 13 offers good performance for its price. It can handle up to 16 Chrome tabs open simultaneously without even a bit of lag. Daily mainstream activities such as web browsing, editing files and even development work can be done on this laptop without any particular issues.
Pro Extremely portable
The HP Envy 13 is one of the thinnest laptops on the market at just 12.9mm thick. This detail, coupled with the fact that it weighs just above 1.3kg make the Envy 13 one of the lightest and most portable laptops on the market.
Con Poor battery life
The Envy 13 has a relatively poor battery life. You may get about 9 hours out of it if you use it for general web browsing and some productivity work, but anything more than that (watching videos, light gaming) and you will start noticing that the battery life is considerably lower.
Con The touchpad may be unreliable
Sometimes while dragging the cursor to select text, the touchpad will not interpret the input correctly and may start zooming in or zooming out.
Pro Great build quality and durability
The chassis is made of magnesium and the lid is plastic reinforced with carbon fiber. Building the body with the same material also means that there's no visible material transitions.
Pro One of the best keyboards that can be found in a laptop
The keyboard for this laptop is one of the best laptop keyboards on the market. It has slightly concave keys which make is easier to hit them. There's a good amount of travel, especially for such a thin laptop. The keyboard is also spill-resistant, which adds to the overall durability of this...
Con Display not suitable for picture editing
The T470s display has a low sRGB color gamut at 95% which is quite low for this category which makes it a poor choice for people that would use it for picture editing.
Pro You can swap the external battery with a second one without shutting down the laptop first
Since the T460 also has an internal 3-cell battery besides the external one, you can hot-swap the external unit once it runs down with another one (because the external battery is drained before the internal one) without shutting down the laptop, effectively adding an addition 10 hours of battery l...
Pro Excellent keyboard
The T460 has an excellent keyboard which provides a very pleasant typing experience. The keys have and overall 2.33mm of vertical travel, which is pretty deep for laptops (1.5mm-2mm is typical). The keyboard is also spill-resistant, which is not surprising, considering the length Lenovo has gone...
Con The display does not have very rich colors
Even though the 1080p display is very accurate and produces a sharp image, it struggles a bit with displaying accurate colors. Tests show that the T460 reproduces only 67 percent of the sRGB color gamut with both touch and non-touch panels.
Pro Upgradable screen
If you choose to, you can upgrade the display to a 14.0" 2560x1440 panel.
Pro Good Linux support
Although not currently available, the Thinkpad X1 did come with Ubuntu pre-installed in some regions and has been given certified pre-install status by Ubuntu. Lenovos have a reputation for being easier than the typical windows ultrabook for getting Linux up and running, and the X1 carbon is no exc...
Con Computers may have man-in-the-middle adware installed
Lenovo is shipping computers preinstalled with man-in-the-middle adware called Superfish. It's a web proxy that can hijack any web session, including encrypted/https sessions. And since the root certificate is the same for everyone with private key present on the machine that's now publicly...
Con 2014 refresh changed trackpoint and keyboard too disruptively
The 2014 model removed the caps-lock key and moved the home/end keys into it's place. It also has an "adaptive" key system that messes with the function keys and changes their function based on what mode the keyboard is in. They also killed off the clickable mouse buttons on the trac...
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