It's neat that you can program logic on most any computer that boots nowadays. Maybe not crazy UI libraries, but wrap properly factored middleware logic in a console interface or just write some unit tests and you can get a lot done without much compute at all.

What's important in a working laptop?

I used to look for stuff like replaceable batteries, but with USB-C power packs, that's not an issue if it has a USB-C port that allows power. Now my list is, give or take...

1. Power & input in, video out via one port
2. Expandable RAM
3. Replaceable M.2 SSD
4. Fingerprint reader (so I'm not typing PINs and passwords in public)
5. Fits in my laptop bag (a nebulous requirement for the reader, I realize)
6. A backlight for the keyboard (any color is fine)

Nice to haves:

• A good keyboard (usually I'm plugged to a dock, but sometimes laptops on the lap (or coffeeshop table) are nice)
• Better than 1920x1080 screen
• Enough nits to see the screen outside
• A TrackPoint nubbin'

My old ThinkPad P51, a serious monster that had a high-def screen and USB-C video output, finally gave up the Windows 11 ghost. The version I'd gotten (used) was, at one point, good enough to run Windows 11, but then was taken off the list! At some point, that was actually enforced and it stopped updating, no security updates, nothing.

I got a few more months out of Insider Preview, but then my keyboard and mouse died due to drivers, I spent hours debugging, and I finally gave up.

So back in the market. In the meanwhile, I've been using a gaming laptop from 2021 as my dedicated workstation in the home office (and at coworking a little), a super cheap ThinkPad E490s for mobile dev (coffeehouses, trips, and coworking), and my M1 MacBook Air when I need to macOS.

These museum pieces do well, and I've never regretted buying gaming laptops, as their CPUs alone give them years of headroom as development boxes.

But as it's time to replace both the high-end (gaming laptop is old) and the mobile workstation (P51 is dead), I am stressing too much about processors. I usually check out PassMark scores to get an idea of how fast they are. I don't know if it's accurate or useful at all, but it seems to give a pretty good relative number.

Unfortunately I keep forgetting what my current boxes' scores are for comparison. So hard right on this post's topic as we swerve into "note to self" land and record them. (I have a vague recollection I've done this before. Apologies.)

The last two are ones I'm looking at now. LOQ is for sale now for $850, and the E14 as I'd want it is $823.65.

Getting back on topic, the neat part is that the E590s I got off of eBay for under $100 a while back and inserted some extra RAM into has been my mobile box for a few months. It's occasionally a little slow, but for logic work it's... just fine.

If you've got $100, internet, and someplace to plug in with the ability and drive to learn to develop software, you've got a livelihood.

That's kind of amazing.

Labels: hardware, laptop, noteToSelf