Why Lenovo Is the Best Laptop Brand and Apple Fell Off a Cliff | Hacker News Reader

Why Lenovo Is the Best Laptop Brand and Apple Fell Off a Cliff

tomshardware.com

20 pointskimsk11218 comments

I completely disagree with this 'Op-Ed'! I've recently used 3 of the latest ThinkPads, including X1 Carbon for 1 month - alongside my primary machine i.e MacBook - and I don't think there is ANY comparison between the two in any way!

Yes, If MacBook did not existed and I had to buy one, I'd probably may be buy X1. It is good in that sense, better than many others.

Thanks for chiming in!

I completely wrote Lenovo off after the malware fiasco. Did they quit that nonsense?

This. Their hardware is great, from my point of view. But the bios or hardware backdoor fiasco is unforgivable.

I was a hardcore Windows user for nearly 20 years (all the way back to Windows/386), but Mac laptops are the best I've ever used, period. I don't need "innovation" or a design refresh as long as they continue to just work. Which they do. I've got a 12" Macbook now, and while it's not perfect, it's faster than my 13" Air, with a better screen, more storage, and it's a full pound lighter. All in all, I love it. (I'd prefer a smidge more key travel, the full-size left and right arrow keys break the tactile usefulness of the inverted-T, and why oh why does it not support Thunderbolt 2?)

how are their trackpads nowadays? I take it Lenovo’s screens are now at least on par with MBP, not just in resolution but color reproduction, contrast, viewing angle, brightness? how about their hinges - still good like in the IBM thinkpad days? serviceability? this article is unfortunately very light on information and seems to be written by a thinkpad fanboy (highlighting the knob which I always found strange - why would you want that over a thumb on a very precise touchpad?).

I don't think it's so easy to get Thinkpad with stunning screen. X1 models have had more options, but it feels the other lineup is built with corporate bean counter in mind.

There are nice things in some models like 32GB mem, dual swappable battery, built in LTE and warranty with on-site repairs. On the other hand there's no direct replacement for 15" MacBook Pro. No such slim machine with more powerful CPU and 15" great screen.

The X1 Yoga is what you're looking for. Has a 4K OLED touchscreen that looks amazing

Again, how about touchpad? On par with Surface Book? In that case I could live with it I think. But only on Linux, the Windows 10 settings mess still gives me headaches.

There are nice features in the various Thinkpad laptops, problem is that you would need to get few machines to have them all. For example T480 gives you dual battery and 32GB. The X1 lineup gives the nice screens. Head to the P series and you get powerful CPU.

I can understand that it's not possible to put all those in a slim machine such as X1, but I don't see technical reasons why you could not have high-end screens for example in the T4x0(p) or T5x0 machines.

Lenovo is missing a proper MacBook Pro 15" replacement. For example Dell is at least trying with XPS 15 (i9, probably 32GB max etc). Lenovo has not yet introduced their i9 machines. There's some rumors about new P model coming out. Hopefully this is something similar and not just a new revision of their workstation class laptops.

I'm someone who actually needs to type on my laptop. Including when I'm not at a "height/posture-optimized workspace".

I hear and see so much attention focused on the trackpad.

Well, along with these newer trackpads came very large palm rests. And the front edges of those -- often no longer even beveled -- reach far enough to press against my wrists. Especially when I need to work at "random table/desk".

Makes the darned thing unusable, for me.

P.S. I should add that a couple of decades working on crappy corporate furniture didn't help. My wrists no longer want to put up with such irritants.

just to clarify, the keyboard is just as important to me, but lenovo has always had ones that are at least as good as Apple‘s - and the latst MBP ones are not hard to beat. That‘s why my comment focused on trackpad instead, which IMO always was a weak point of Lenovo. All I‘d like to know is if they are comparable to Surface Book, then I‘m fine.

That makes sense.

I occasionally pipe up about these "giant" palm rests, and how they impact a user's wrists, basically to agitate for some designs that don't do this.

I got some positive feedback when I did so re the T25 design, and while I don't yet have a T25 (that cost, combined with an expensive winter for me), I gather my concern was at least considered at some level.

I'd better grab a T25 before they dry up. I wish Lenovo would keep one T25-type model for each generation, going forward.

Has the quality of Lenovo laptops really improved that much, or perhaps the quality of the competition has degraded so much that Lenovo is now king of the hill (according to the author)? Thinkpads were great under IBM, but deteriorated in quality quite a bit once Lenovo spun off.. Granted it has been 3 years since I've used one that was new (and it was crap), I've not heard of their quality improving that much since then.

Which series are you using? I have nothing but positive things to say about the T-series. I think the E-series is just a garden variety commodity laptop with the ThinkPad branding, though.

Seriously? They are recommending the company known for repeatedly including hidden, malicious software on their computers?

Even at 24" 16x10 is noticeably better than 16x9, and at 15" or smaller makes all the difference.

How did they fuck up the 720s so badly ? OK, I'm just bitter at waiting for a decent ryzen laptop for 6 months and that not being it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com