Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

Regularly we have people in meetings forgetting one of those switches (the physical switch being on the headphones) and trying to talk without being heard.

It's not a physical switch, but it's a good second safeguard. Teams is even polite enough to tell remind you that you're muted because it can detect this.

A slightly folded post-it note also works well as a camera cover that's easy to remove and easy to replace if you lose it. I also find that when I'm about to join a call and my video's dark pink (rather than black), it's a good reminder I have my 'shutter' in place and haven't noticed, despite it being physically in front of my face.

I want a mechanical microphone switch too. Being seen can be embarrassing but being caught saying something can end your career instantly. See that school board that all had to resign after they were caught badmouthing parents.

A piece of tape is a very low technical skill system that you know will cut off a video feed.

It was extremely obvious what they were doing when Google Glass was released without even a glowing video indicator.

Use a web based video conferencing solution. Close the browser and close everything.

1. big monitor, even multiple monitors

2. full size keyboard

3. no trackpad always being accidentally touched

4. terabytes of disk space

5. wired connection for privacy, reliability, and speed

6. separate mike that costs more than 5 cents. Unplug it when not in use

7. ditto for camera

8. pipe the sound through your real stereo

9. lots and lots of memory

10. high performance, don't worry about heat cooking your junk

11. not likely to get stolen

12. no worries about dropping it

I can game on a laptop (with a decent laptop stand and flat surface for a mouse) but I certainly wouldn't want to do 8 hours of work on it. (Or a laptop on a table/desk, which isn't the right height or a good keyboard setup either...)

Long-winded way of saying I agree with you. But I did buy all of my desktop gear - nothing was work supplied.

The ergonomics of a laptop will hurt you little by little.

The screen is low, so you look down, meaning your back and shoulder muscles are used to hold your head in position instead of balancing it on your neck

Generally, a laptop keyboard is positioned at the wrong height. It usually on a table (maybe for eating) which is higher so your arms do not hang down with your elbows at a right angle. You are probably holding your arms in position with muscles.

The keyboard generally has a hard plastic or metal wrist rest which is low and probably cold. It would be much better to have your hands supported by something soft and warm and which puts your wrists and hands in the right relationship with the keys.

Now this all changes (not necessarily for the better) if you say sit on the couch or in bed. I will not cover other rooms in the house. On the other hand, you can take your laptop outside and get some vitamin D.

So yeah, desktop.

But yeah, when I was working in an office, I would specifically request a desktop PC from IT for at-my-desk work. Laptop was just for taking notes in meetings.

I’ve been working remotely for many years now and I started using laptops initially (thinkpad T series ) so my house didn’t get cluttered with work things mostly and I could waltz into the office. Roll on time and I discovered that laptops are a complete nightmare and I am never using one again.

They are expensive, hot, slow, noisy, fragile, have poor connectivity options, needy, unreliable and terrible for your health.

Also there is no office now thanks to covid so I now work from one location always.

The expensive XPS I’ve just been shipped by my company is another one which persists these problems further. It will never be used as a laptop but as a desktop and a wart I can’t get rid of.

I would be happier with a recycled corp i5 desktop with 32gb of ram and 500gb SSD.

Edit to add that my personal computer is a M1 Mac mini. I include MacBooks in my list of criticism, including the M1 units. I have had numerous really bad experiences with Apple laptops.

Sounds like someone who hasn't heard of the M1 Macs. They smoke all but the beefiest of desktops.

I built a desktop computer and never use it. Having to sit in the same desk just to use it is a nearly insurmountable drawback. It’s more of a niche appliance than we admit.

I’d suspect most people with the option would need more than a better deal on components to make it worthwhile to be stuck in the same chair in the same room in the same position every day. I just look around at everyone I know and everyone prefers a laptop, even the homebodies.

If I'm not doing something that requires huge wattage, the only thing a desktop computer does is to force me to sit at a desk 100% of the time I'm using it. Hard pass. Tablets are nearly all toys, and the ones that aren't weigh more and cost more than a good laptop (but with a cumbersome UI). If you want to sit at a desk to work, a laptop still has you covered.

Desktops are a very impractical, niche product these days, they're a Ford F-350 when most people just want a decent hatchback.

No doubt the pandemic has had a permanent effect on how people work. But how big of an effect? When the pandemic no longer forces 100% WFH, will people still do 100%, or will they do (say) 90%?

If you go in to an office for an occasional day or half day, you'll want your computer while you're there. Though I guess this could also be solved by borrowing a loaner laptop at the office to use to remote desktop into your main computer at home. (Maybe we can call this reverse telecommuting?)

My setup is pretty good, with an external monitor, webcam, keyboard and mouse. The only thing crappy is the processor and thermal performance. Not much I can do about that.

Considering that use case I would love a system no larger than my phone with some apps to give me use of mail and such while not docked. Then while docked it is my Windows/OS X desktop

Ages ago, with Teleport, I used by MBP to drive my iMac. If Apple sold just the lower half of a macbook, bring your own monitor, I'd be in heaven.

Just the keys and trackpad would be great too. I've held onto my dead 2015 MBP, with hopes of salvaging just the input devices.

Aha! Teleport has been resurrected, now works with Big Sur. https://github.com/johndbritton/teleport

sometimes i need to work in another room so i can watch the kids. sometimes i need to go to the office too.

for all these a portable device is needed. i still can use a laptop with an external monitor and keyboard. but i can't carry a desktop around.

I've accidentally bumped into r/cyberdeck today (not ergonomic at all but provided some inspiration), and now this thread.

How would you go about designing a portable computer that's also more ergonomic to use? How would you raise the screen? How would you split/tent the keyboard? What steps would you take to reduce wear / risk of damage on moving parts?

I bought one and it glares off of mine a lot so I stopped using it. Other angles where the glare stops makes me look like a sociopath.

As far as a second monitor is concerned, in the Apple universe you're better off buying an iPad and using that as a second monitor.

Your computer will be slower. Depending on the task that may or may not be welcome. Some video conferencing can eat all available CPU/GPU cycles and generate fan noise; this is probably a good time to manually disable Turbo Boost. Unless you want more sword fighting time, disabling during compilation tasks is probably not a great time.

Better battery life and less fan noise are benefits, though!

One other tip for the MacBook Pro: If you haven't opened the case and blown out the dust elephants in the last year, you might want to do that. The fans and fins tend to get really crusted up and it makes a big difference.

This is the one I got: https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rwnb17b-laptop-cooler/p/N82E...

The trend of the last two decades has been smaller form factors, which puts a hard limit on the battery, the hard drive, the number of ports you can support, and even how much thermal energy you can radiate.

That was important largely because you were going to be lugging the thing around everywhere, and a pound or two could make a real difference.

Now that I travel with my laptop once a month, not once a day, I think that equation changes. I still want portability - I still need portability - but using the machine on my desk is the more common, more important scenario.

What issues? I'm literally writing this answer on LG CX connected through USB-C -> HDMI on TV.

    -> % swaymsg -t get_outputs
    Output DP-1 'Goldstar Company Ltd LG TV SSCR 0x00000101' (focused)
      Current mode: 3840x2160 @ 60.000000 Hz

No one is asking for a Blue Snowball mic and Logitech webcam in their laptop. People are rightfully wondering why in world a ubiquous small competent cameras (see every iPhone from the past decades) and mic, the ones laptops are using are so poor. The answer is most likely because no one cared so I fully expect that to change but it makes sense to list as a complain with laptops.

Talking about desktops is also entirely missing the point. People are issued work laptops. They don't choose their computers and most of them do want the portability anyway. It's extremely useful when you are doing a presentation of visiting customers.

Can't wait until paywalling what amounts to less than an A4 page of content finally dies.

1. It's oblong with few safe surfaces to touch. To carry it with one hand forces you to hold it from one edge at least for awhile each time you pick it up and put it down. That feels heavy because of the leverage it pulls against that little edge you get to hold.

2. By opening frontwards/away from you, opening feels bad. Compare with opening a tablet that folds horizontally like a book.

3. It's often hard to find a clear spot to fit your laptop footprint at home. Corollary: when most people are not using it, it takes up a lot of desk or counter space. Very few people store it vertically. I store mine vertically under my desk and it gets kicked a lot.

4. It's really hard to just keep it closed and use it as a desktop replacement. Most have power buttons on the inside only, so when you have to wake it up or reboot, you've got to open it a crack and wedge your finger in there.

5. You can't tell how much battery is left, or what time it is, or when your next appointment is, without opening up the lid. Often you have to do one of those things while walking. Opening the lid and checking something on the inside while walking feels terrible.