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Comment by pimeys | Hacker News Reader

You might want to check the new ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 models with latest Ryzen CPU. You get similar performance and battery life as you'd expect from an M1.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Z13-laptop-rev...

No need to change the CPU architecture.

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I have the system 76 AMD model for work called Pangolin (not available now) it really quite fast and doesn’t get too hot. Battery life is great. I’ve stressed tested doing genetics work which involved maxing out 16 cores across a couple days.

Those new AMDs are great. I went with the system76 because it comes with and they support Linux. It sleeps and wakes ok too

What kind of sleep and wake ? (hibernate / s3, etc ?)

I'm not sure. Its "POPos 22.04 LTS" which is an ubuntu like fork. I use the Suspend on the upper right task bar before closing the lid. I'm pretty sure its not hibernating because it comes right back on lid open. It doesn't make it clear on any system info I can find.

Same question- does it sleep/resume instantly like a Mac?

If you shut the lid and come back in say 8 hours, will the battery be empty or does it really “sleep” like a Mac and retain most battery?

It retains it battery as far as I can tell. I use it daily and haven't had any battery issues day to day. I do tell it to "suspend" before I go home out of habit. Though at work its plugged in.

I used the machine last night on battery a couple hours and this morning I charged for 15 minutes then off to meeting where I used the machine. I'm back and 10 minutes in the battery is now at 85% (In the meeting and using the battery for a little presentation).

The longest time in my bag has been 3-4 days and the battery has not trickled down to zero. its kinda a movable desktop for me mostly.

I have an 7th or 8th gen intel version of the oryx pro. That machine has pretty dismal battery life, but it does game with Nvidia power.

Thanks a lot, not just for the recommendation of the new ThinkPad models, but for the link to that website. I had no idea about it and it seems to be very extensive in their reviews, which I love.

It'll get a lot easier to find a good alternative now! Thanks a lot!

Nice! That website is (at least here in Germany) kind of a standard for laptop reviews. They always go with the same formula, same tests, same report. It's very easy to see how the different models compare.

Sadly they do not test with Linux though...

Looks indeed interesting. But compared to e.g. MacBook Air it can get very loud :)

Compared to a Macbook Air it can also run x86 OSes, Docker and 32-bit software. There's really no comparison :)

and also 2560 × 1600 retina display vs 1920 x 1200 pixel 170 PPI - I don't see myself going back...

It is also available with OLED display, 2880 x 1800 pixel 255 PPI.

> No need to change the CPU architecture.

But you need to relearn the keyboard as it's not a standard ThinkPad keyboard (no PageUp and PageDown above Left and Right)

That detail alone means I won't buy it.

Emulation or recompilation has fewer drawbacks than changing habits.

You didn't see a Mac keyboard then.

> standard ThinkPad keyboard

They're talking about how ThinkPad keyboards have looked and worked since forever. Seems it changed recently.

It hasn't "changed", it's more like a variant that's been introduced for both the gamers and end-users laptops line (Z series)

The professional lines (ex: X series) are still using the standard ThinkPad keyboard.

GP is probably referring to the move away from the classic keyboard, which more resembles the IBM desktop layout (separated F keys in clusters of 4, standard home/end/pgup/pgdown arrangement, etc.).

To fans of that layout, the standard (still typical on desktops) was abandoned on ThinkPads ~10 years ago.

Being constrained to a single keyboard layout all your life sounds awfully limiting. I literally swap between completely different keyboards often (ortholinear/standard staggered/split layouts/etc). It takes some getting used to in the first couple of weeks, but once you're used to swapping layouts often, your brain just adjusts automatically.

There are some gains from being able to adjust, and some other gains for being able to use any computer with the same shortcuts and the key where I expect them to be.

Personally, I prefer the gains from the latter approach: for example, I use ThinkPad bluetooth keyboards with eink tablets and Termux when I want to switch to something easier to my eyes.

Keeping the same environment (ssh + tmux + bash + vim) with similar keyboards layouts means my workflow and habits have become very independent from the hardware: I only have maintain separate shortcut remapping solutions based on the OS (AutoHotKey for windows, sds100 keymapper for Android)

> my workflow and habits have become very independent from the hardware

Isn't being constrained to a particular keyboard layout being _really_ dependent on hardware, to the contrary?

There are various thinkpads laptops, bluetooth keyboards, USB keyboards all from Lenovo so I can mix and match.

There are also non Lenovo keyboard makers following the same layout like the Tex Shinobi.

To me, it seems better than the alternatives of having different layouts and maintaining different set of shortcuts.

Have you tried running linux on those? How is it?

Not yet. I checked that it exists in nixos-hardware already:

https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/tree/master/lenovo/t...

Haven't bought one yet, I'm still quite happy with this X1 from a few years back. You need a quite recent kernel with that laptop, and the wifi is a Qualcomm, not Intel, so check how is the Linux support before buying.

But... I am intrigued, just that I don't really need a fast laptop due to using a beefy desktop for development right now.

Eww, 1200p panel. Looks like it's 60Hz too. Not comparable to the MacBook Pro.

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