> We've configured the search to disable the prefix search once you press "Enter"

I thought you were joking but it's true. Try removing all characters here: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=china&sort=byPopularity&prefix... and type out "china", look at the bottom results and then press "Enter", now you get different stories.

What awful UX, what was the thinking behind that? People who search for the same thing gets different results, depending on if they actually searched or if they just typed it out.