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Comment by ktallett | Hacker News Reader

Outside of some of the fascinating VAIO laptops with their wild and wacky features, I have never loved a super expensive laptop. I like a laptop that can get the job done when I need to and easily be fixed if I need to when I am on the road. At the moment that is Framework, and previously thinkpad, and a while ago, Powerbooks.

I have learned as I became older that the device is a tool to getting the work done, not something to drool over. I am more proud of the output than the device I do it on.

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When you buy a really nice power tool or hand tool, it's going to last you a very long time. It will remain fit-for-purpose for decades to come. The cost can often be justified because it's an investment in emotional happiness. It feels nice to use an expensive quality tool, and it feels nicer knowing that you'll be able to continue doing so for many years.

One of these expensive laptops? It's going to be as obsolete as a cheaper laptop in a couple of years' time. Hell, it'll probably start feeling old and slow after the next round of Windows updates in less than a year.

> I like a laptop that can get the job done

Of course, but it depends on the job. If you're working on heavy 3D scenes, or doing video work in 4k or 8k, then "gets the job done" will be an expensive laptop. Maybe not $8k expensive, but $4k easily. For this kind of work it's often cheaper to buy a highly specced gaming laptop rather than a workstation laptop.

But there are mobile workstations for that if someone would turn up with a wacky 8k MSI gaming laptop he would certainly get some looks. Not because of the performance but because of no 24h replacement.

I do find a gaming laptop usually has far worse battery life over a dedicated workstation laptop, plus it isn't something you can really carry with you day to day. A Zbook or a thinkpad is both not super heavy and does fit in.

> Outside of some of the fascinating VAIO laptops with their wild and wacky features, I have never loved a super expensive laptop.

Sure, if and only if you put in the word "super". Frameworks are expensive, starting around $1000 or $1500 depending on screen size. Perfectly good models are available for 1/3 the price.

I have the base amd and found it perfectly acceptable for everything I have need and it has 32 gb of ram with a 2tb ssd in, and it cost all in around £1000. It can do 3d work, both lab based in Lumerical and Blender plus Cad. I would say considering workstations and comparable macs would cost around double minimum I am not of the view it is particularly expensive.

A mac would be double the cost purely because of order of magnitude ram/ssd markups, so that comparison is tricky.

For the specs you listed, I don't know how much the integrated GPU matters, but I can find laptops with the same ram and storage and a solid ryzen CPU for $650-750. There are probably sacrifices but framework isn't free of sacrifices either.

It is tricky of course, but that is the state of play. I wish it wasn't that way.

As someone that used to travel weekly, I used to go with Thinkpads or a Zenbook as both I was able to fix whilst away (the former had a keyboard issue, and the latter a HDD issue). I am yet convinced on the long term durability of the Framework but I have had it a year and it is pretty good still. No different in issues than any other laptop I have used in recent times. Overall for the quality I am pretty happy as I have used a lower cost laptop for various reasons and found I was always anxious of breaking it.

The big thing I do feel I am missing when doing 3D work is a dedicated GPU for simulations but then that would reduce the battery life too much day to day.

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