08-31-2022, 10:17 AM
(08-31-2022, 09:19 AM)commiecam Wrote: Right now I'm cursing this 17" HP Elitebook because its SD socket, audio socket and ethernet socket are all either intermittent or dead and a few of the others feel physically loose.. A hundred or more bucks to get them replaced made no sense at all, so I bought a USB2 dock that does it all, and if it should die, I'll chuck it and buy another one. Some stuff belongs in the box, but with numerous high speed ports on most laptops these days, even cheap ones, I'd rather keep the main box simple.
I sympathize with your HP experience. I have been shopping for a new laptop for 2 years. Much of what has been available during the pandemic and before it has been of dubious quality.
I'd check the specs and they look wonderful but then I check the reviews and it's "this broke, that broke."
For me though, the big problem is that newer CPUs generate so much heat that many laptops now sound like a jet engine. I've bought and returned several for this reason.
Quiet operation is one appeal of the Macbook air which has no fan. However without Linux it was not possible.
My computer during the past 2 years has actually been the Raspberry pi4b 8GB, which one might assume is too slow, but actually for most of what I do it is fine, and it's been reliable. But it's not a laptop.
