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Comment by grumpyprole | Hacker News Reader

If you buy a laptop with good Linux support, e.g. a ThinkPad. It should be fine for well over a decade in my experience. That is better value than Apple offer.

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Thinkpads are solid devices but they’re really falling behind in screen and trackpads.

Most higher end Thinkpad models have 1080p screens with 300-400 nits of brightness at most.

The base M2 Macbook Air is 2560x1664 with 500 nits brightness. And it’s cheaper than a Gen2 Thinkpad T14.

And of course, all Thinkpads can’t hold a candle to Macbook trackpads

This has been discussed ad nauseum, trying to find objective truth to subjective device is a bit silly, isn't it?

Slightly higher resolution and brightness doesn't matter if you can't see anything because of Macbooks's glary screen. And of course, Macbook's trackpads can't hold a candle to Thinkpad's trackpoint.

The only objective truth here is that open software makes devices age better.

If you buy customized from Lenovo instead of a retailer you can almost always choose to upgrade the screen to something like 2560x1660. You have to wait longer for production and delivery though.

I don't need 500 nits when instead I can have a non glossy screen

That is just wrong? Most of them have "3k" or "4k+" displays, aka more than macs. Heck, my 5year old Thinkpad has a 2560x1440 500 nit display. You can get 1080p as an option, but why do you want to?

It also has a very nice glass track pad, which as far as hardware is concerned is arguably better than the mac one. The difference is software support, which is better on Mac.

Well, at least in my country, the Lenovo website has 53 Thinkpad models for sale. 23 of these 53 are 1920x1080. 27 are 1920x1200.

https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/dg/LAPTOPS?from=splitter&visibl...

No, they aren't. They are models, which among other resolutions also offer these options. E.g. the first one on your list offers 3840x2400 or 1920x1200 screens.

You should check out what Lenovo is doing currently; I just picked up a X1 Carbon 6th gen for £340 and loaded Ubuntu on it. The machine runs incredibly well, the trackpad is fantastic and it's a very quiet machine. Literally blew me away with the value for money, coming from my experience with Dell / Huawei laptops they're great.

I currently use a Thinkpad T14 :)

Don't get me wrong - I like this laptop, especially it's keyboard.

But it simply doesn't offer enough value compared to the newer Macbooks.

I have a T14s Gen 3 and whilst it's a fine laptop it has minor quirks which make it a compromised experience vs a Macbook Air.

Screen resolution caps out at 1920x1200 which feels blurry coming from the 2560x1600 a Macbook provides.

Its speakers are awful - they use EQ under Windows (provided by the Lenovo Vantage software) to sound vaguely reasonable. Under Linux no such EQ exists (even though Linux is supported by Lenovo on this laptop) so the speakers sound like a smartphone (not exaggerating).

The trackpad is so-so, to get a trackpad in Lenovo's lineup comparable to a Macbook Air you'd have to buy their Z13 which costs £700 more.

Pluses are the AMD CPU and graphics are good enough to actually play games, like Flight Simulator 2020 at 30 fps on low settings, or older titles like Witcher 3 or Arkham Knight on high settings also at a constant 30fps.

The laptop itself is good value, I picked it up on sale for £1200 with 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM for £1200. A comparable Macbook Air (M1) is £1600.

> caps out at 1920x1200.

No? Just opened the lenovo website and it says

Up to 35,6 cm (14") 2,8K OLED (2.880 x 1.800) IPS, 16:10, DisplayHDR™ True Black 500, Dolby® Vision™

So higher res and oled.

> 1tb ssd, 32gb ram. Comparable macbook air m1 is 1600.

Can you even get an air with 32gb of ram? Or what do you mean by "comparable"?

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