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Comment by slantyyz | Hacker News Reader

I've been planning for my next laptop purchase next year, and for some reason, I can't pull the Alienware 13R3 off the top of my short list. It's big (for a 13"), heavy, ugly and adorned with hideous gamer bling (WHY, WHY, WHY??), but it also has all the ports and features (discrete trackpad buttons!) I want in my work machine. Right now, it's basically between the new XPS 15 and the 13R3 (or R4 if it's out by the time I am ready).

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the gamer bling thing is so funny. why does nobody in the laptop business understand that people are buying those laptops despite the bling, not because of it? every ad that i see for a gaming laptop emphasizes the competitive advantages that these laptops offer, letting "gamers" "dominate" and so on. how could they be so disconnected that they don't realize that what everyone wants is to enjoy their crispy, high definition graphics on a sleek master race machine? what the world needs is a merging of gaming laptops with xps-like pro machines. utilitarian, powerful, well made and visually inconspicuous.

In fairness, I think ASUS gets it - they make non gamer versions of their thin gamer machines. My main problem with ASUS - they make nice machines - is that for a work machine, I want to buy a decent extended warranty where I know I'll get OK service, so that narrows it down to the bigger vendors like Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc.

AFAIK Asus doesn't yet have the Kaby Lake - Pascal combo out but they are coming https://www.nextpowerup.com/news/32428/list-of-asus-laptops-... in droves and soon. Some Belgian retailer already has some of them listed http://www.2compute.org/Product_Detail.aspx?prod=ASUS694149 http://www.2compute.org/Product_Detail.aspx?prod=ASUS695109 etc

Yep, when work asked what laptop I wanted a while back, I was embarrassed to send them a list of these "gamer" laptops, because they were the most powerful and adequate for what I need. Hate the bling and gamer tag.

And it's not just on laptops/desktops. I use a gamer keyboard (because of the 22 macro keys it has) and a gamer mouse (I like the ergonomics and tracking) for work. And of course, they have the obligatory fugly LED lighting and garish stylings.

If macros and ergonomics is your thing, and you don't mind a high cost, I recommend the kinesis advantage. No bling, all function and hardware-programmable, which is very nice to remap keys independent of the OS.

I use a SteelSeries Apex keyboard. It's pretty fantastic, but it has dome keys instead of mechanical switches.

I grew up on mechanical keyboards but after testing a bunch in a computer store, I realized I no longer care what kind of keys I use. It could be that I just got used to the Apple chiclet keyboards, but who knows.

My keyboard has four switchable profiles and 22 programmable keys, which means I can have 88 combinations. I mostly use the keys for launching apps and Sublime Text shortcuts though.

Not bad for around $100.

Razer figured it out.

Razer makes nice stuff, but I'd be concerned about support for a machine used for work when comparing to Dell, HP and Lenovo.

Razers new 17" is incredible. I'd never buy a 17" laptop but what they crammed into it is genius.

Hideous gamer bling or as I like to call it "Lambo vents".

I think you'd like the upgraded Razer Pro (announced just a few months ago) if cost is not a very big issue.

I like Razer's product line, but I also like the safety of an extended warranty backed by a very large company like Dell, Lenovo or HP.

I had one of those dodgy early 2011 15" MBPs, and if I didn't have AppleCare, I would have been stuck with a costly motherboard replacement when my GPU croaked the first time. Granted, my MBP did eventually die after my AppleCare lapsed, but knowing you can get decent support in a major North American city on your warranty is something I value. I'm not sure that Razer (or ASUS, MSI or Gigabyte, for that matter) is well equipped to provide that level of service.

Hey have you considered a third party warranty like BestBuy? Or buying insurance? I've never done that and I'm curious about the pros and cons

I have bought a third party warranty once but it was never put to the test.

The only laptop I ever had that needed warranty service was my Macbook Pro. Good thing I got it, the logic board replacement cost more than the AppleCare did. Not that it helped though, my model of MBP had a design defect related to the GPU overheating and my laptop died after the AppleCare lapsed. Apple "recalled" it and fixed it, but not until after I bought a new laptop.

I've never had any issues with my non Mac laptops... None that required a major repair under warranty, at least.

The thing with third party warranties is the "put to the test" part. You never know how it's going to turn out until you need it. The thing with AppleCare and warranties from Dell/HP/Lenovo is that they are lower risk in my opinion.

That's not to say that third party warranties are bad, I just don't have much interest in trying them.

have you given the lenovo x1 carbon a look? the x1 yoga is currently at the top of my short list, mostly due to lenovo's amazing keyboards, followed by the dell xps13 developer edition for the significantly longer battery life.

I generally don't consider anything that has an ultrabook processor for a work related laptop, which is also why the XPS 13 isn't on my radar.

I generally look for a quad core i7/HQ and a discrete GPU. I guess I could probably live without the discrete GPU, but if I'm going to buy a good laptop, I may as well spend a little extra to get it.

Battery life isn't a big consideration for me - I'm plugged in most of the time and I consider any battery life >3h to be gravy.

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