Stuff like a pretty case with slots for optical drives, a laptop with a shitton of ports and all-day battery life or anything else that seems to go against the trends.
This thread is for complaining about how you can’t find it and (maybe) finding it thanks to someone else.
A IP68 e-ink Linux phone with both wireless charging and induction charging (to charge other devices), no cameras at all, solar panel on the back, usb-4 and headphone jack, 1TB storage , 15’000 mAh battery, two separate WiFi cards (to allow simultaneous hotspot and client use), and finally a radio transiever for both short range comms and long range AM and FM radio.
Technically possible with current technology, but as far as I can tell, completely unavailable in the consumer market.
Price, size and weight are irrelevant for all usecasses of such a product, as far as I’m concerned.
A proper non-Apple Macbook Air equivalent. Because imo for the average user that just browses the internet and does some light office work it seems perfect. And with that I mean:
- fanless
- good screen preferably 3:2 or 16:10
- long battery life
- unlike the air expandable storage and ideally non soldered ram
- solid build quality
- priced at maybe 600-800€?
- doesn’t have to have the greatest performance
Tbh i thought we would get it with Intels lunar lake processors, but so far no luck.
Honestly this sounds like a Chromebook to me.
Haven’t looked at Chromebooks in a while, but you are right that the use case would be similar.
However I was under the impression that they are mostly competing at a lower price point. So I assume you wouldn’t find nice build quality or screens.
Beyond that I am not really familiar with how chromeOS stacks up nowadays or if it would be trivial to install Linux/windows on them. Especially if they still have EOL dates after which they aren’t updated with software anymore.
A quick search tells me that Google seems to work on a laptop and plans to merge (?) android and chromeOS more.
So overall again products that share some aspects of what the MacBook Air makes attractive, but doesn’t offer the full package.
I have installed Linux on a Chromebook, actually. There’s a really good guide on MrChromeBox.tech
The screen on my Chromebook was fine, at least by my (admittedly somewhat low) standards.
And yes, the have EOL dates, which sucks. It’s why I installed Linux on mine.
I wonder if there is a Linux distro targeted at the average user who just browses the web and needs office software. I guess Mint comes a bit close, but it also has many other apps preinstalled.
Does your average non technical user who wants a device like this care if it’s not the highest quality screen?
The demographic that is just Apple fanboys and they weren’t giving up their overpriced garbage no matter what.
I didn’t specify “non technical” as I’d actually like one like it myself and would consider myself at least moderately tech-savvy. I meant average in what many people actually end up doing on their laptop, which is browsing, writing, watching videos and maybe doing some very minor productivity tasks.
That said i would say that yes, even non technical users would appreciate a high quality screen. They admittedly probably wouldn’t know to look out for it at purchase or what to look out for on a spec sheet, but in my opinion they would appreciate it during use (more so than some extra unneeded performance)
The demographic that is just Apple fanboys and they weren’t giving up their overpriced garbage no matter what.
Yes, apple fanboys will be fanboys, but the M-series Macbook Airs are imo are just a really great piece of hardware. Particularly the M1 when it came out and even nowadays imo is even priced decently for what it offers.
So far i don’t know a good non-Apple alternative that manages to fully match the M1 Macbook Air features (sans the non-upgradable storage that Apple charges way to much for and that destroys most of the value proposition).
My DBA has had the same two monitors for a decade and most of the devs just use whatever monitor was on sale.
Technical people are not the people buying Macs. Mac has its place and it hasn’t been technical folks since TPM chips and WSL.
If like to see what you think the “features” are that can’t be replaced. Literally every single feature of a Mac is implemented better with Windows or Windows with WSL. “It’s closer to Linux” No, Linux is closer to Linux and I can’t dual boot or WSL on Apple silicone. “Muh security” TPM is 10x more practical and slightly beats out Enclave in performance. “Muh hardware” if you spend that much money on any laptop it’ll perform well. If you spend that much on a Windows laptop you’d get even better hardware. You could build multiple Linux machines that each outperform the Mac for the same price. “It just works” I have had multiple hours long troubleshooting call with a Jr Engineer that proves otherwise. “Muh package manager” if you struggle with this, you’re not technical. “Muh iOS dev” iOS/Android apps can be tested in a pipeline or through the myriad of tools like Device Farm. Ship it with Fastlane and call it a day. You can handle both app stores this way.
Why do you want a Mac? The only valid choices are aesthetics, brand loyalty or ignorance.
Why do you want a Mac? The only valid choices are aesthetics, brand loyalty or ignorance.
I feel like something got lost in the discussion here. I don’t want a Mac, that’s the whole point.
I want a device that is like the Macbook air, but without the crap Apple pulls. So with easily expandable storage, ideally expandable RAM and an easy way to run another OS than MacOS on it (i am aware that in theory Ashai Linux is an option for Aplle silicon macs).
Because i do think in this case there are more valid reasons than “aesthetics, brand loyalty or ignorance”, simply because the Macbook air to me in many ways seems like a very well rounded, nice package (with the caveat of Apple doing Apple things) and the rest of the market doesn’t offer an equivalent. With the Macbook Air M1 being 4 years old by now and options like Intels Lunar Lake existing, it really would be possible to make.
There’s no advantage to being Mac like.
You can’t pick the most expensive brands and claim they’re “well rounded”. It’s like buying a luxury car and saying it’s your reliable little daily commuter.
The point is there is no valid reason besides the three reasons I stated for someone to want to buy a Mac. Either you like the looks, the brand or you just don’t know any better and you refuse to learn. Each of those options is valid, but you do have to pick one of them.
What is it about the MacBook Air that makes you feel it is well rounded? Why do you need the compute? Is it for video editing or 3D modeling? Because those run fantastic on midrange hardware now. Are you a developer? Because Mac hasn’t been the developer choice in over two decades. You know what’s better than being Linux like? Being Linux. WSL and the TPM chip removed anything else that might draw a rational consumer to Apple. Do a little gaming? I’ve got bad news about Macs. Lol. There’s no real reason anymore.
Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon seems like it’s trying to compete with the Air.
Sadly doesn’t seem to be fanless, which imo is a really nice feature when you dont care about high performance. Not sure if in the real world you can find good deals on the snapdragon laptops, but list price is also quite high and that keyboard with touch function keys doesn’t seem great either.
So in my book that’s still no match for what a macbook air m1/2 offers, which by now are a few years old and can be found for decent prices. They might be aiming at the same market, but aren’t equal.
Ah, good point!
Good luck finding anything fanless without being SOC. Though it looks like a Framework would make you happy: https://frame.work/
3:2 sounds horrible. What’s the application when most videos are 16:9?
Anything other than watching fullscreen video? 3:2 is so much better for reading, drawing, anything even vaguely productive. It’s very close to the ratio of metric paper.
Yea, I can see that. I mostly use my PC for games, but for work, I have multiple windows across the screen at different ratios.
As someone else already answered it is of course not ideal for movie consumption, since it gives you black bars top/bottom, but for productivity it is really nice. Everything from writing, spreadsheets or reading on the Internet benefits from it. Reading long horizontal sentences isn’t that comfortable and often times task bars at the top and/or bottom take away some extra space. So a typical 16:9 display ends up offering very little useful working space. The taller aspect ratio isn’t a massive shift, but a nice quality of life improvement.
It also means that you have slightly more space for the keyboard or a larger track pad.
If you are ever in a retail shop that carries Microsoft 's surface laptops you could check them out, as they are one of the few laptops that use a 3:2 aspect ratio display.
A power efficient e-ink laptop.
A laptop with a colossal battery life, I don’t care how chonky it is.
A smart watch that can do much more than the simple crap they do now. Larger is fine, maybe a smart bracer.
Multitools that are specifically designed for trades. It’s not tech, I would just love to have a multitool with specific tools for welding.
Some kind of wrist device where I can copy a file from one electronic device and paste it onto another device with hand gestures.
A Clockwork uConsole device that’s a bit more powerful and can use m.2. Those things are neat little kits, but they’re alway always always sold out of the good version. I wouldn’t mind a laptop in this format.
A low power 17 inch or larger laptop in a sub $1K price point. I have big hands (and crap vision) and I use the fuck out of numpad, but i really dont need a gaming GPU or a higher end cpu in a laptop.
If you don’t need much power, you could probably look for something used and get a good deal on a 17" laptop.
A cheap ARM laptop.
Pinebooks have been sold out for ages, and then it’s a massive leap up to MNT Reform or Copilot+.
I just started watching eBay for used Pinebooks, but nothing has popped yet.
Edit: Actually, there are some decent options for Snapdragon 7/8 refurbs on Amazon. Mass market brands can be so hit or miss by model, so this’ll take some research, but it looks like there are 20-30 results to consider.
This is adjacent, but it’s worth pointing out that framework has recently started selling risc-v motherboards for their laptops for adventurous folks.
Direct replacement for the wonderful Facebook PortalTV unit. Its digital pan and zoom to follow a speaker is excellent. It could start and end calls completely hands-free before meta killed the service to which voice control was tethered. It sits on top of the TV, it does its job, and does it well.
Now that it’s abandonware by Facebook, I need something else before its hardware dies. I have 4 of these in the field and some of them are with remote geriatrics who have no tech support, and it has to work.
I’m gonna miss it.
My unicorn phone would be one that is both small enough to use with one hand (currently have a Zenfone 10 largely for this reason) and has a secondary camera lens that’s a telephoto rather than an ultra ultra wide.
It bugs me that phones with a long lens are so comparatively rare, it’s always just wide (verging on ultrawide) as default and when a second lens is added it’s even wider again because people love distortions or taking photos in tiny rooms or something. Sometimes I just want to take a photo of something further away than a few metres and actually have it visible without zooming in, I’d even take a normal lens FoV as an improvement over ultrawide. Those phones that do have one tend to have it as a third lens and also tend to be huge, so get disqualified by the ‘usable with one hand’ criteria even before I reach the massively expensive part.
I’d also like an Instax back for the Hasselblad V series that was cheap enough that I could actually justify the cost of buying (say ~$200 AUD or less) though I will admit that’s a pretty niche thing to be after.
I’ll join the ranks asking for a perfect phone.
Mine would have:
- Unlocked bootloader
- All week battery (or at least 3 days) I don’t care if it’s super thick.
- User replaceable battery
- Headphone jack
- Very high specs (like at least 16 GB RAM and 1TB storage)
- SD card slot
- Probably more I’m not thinking of right now.
I’d like to add some strength too. I don’t give a shit about the latest AI fuzzy on any phone, but if it would please last at least a year without cracking the screen or the back that would be amazing. And a record for me. Doesn’t have to be razor thin either. Just make it beefy.
Excuse me, waitress… I’ll have what SHE’S having.
i don’t even need good specs or sd card, just a good camera, foss rom and good battery
the pixel line is what you’re looking for. Sounds odd but they’re the easiest to degoogle.
i know, but i in my right mind can’t give any money to google
Then buy second hand
And then install graphene OS
Payment with NFC without google play services.
Only thing I could figure out (except maybe looking into Chinese payments systems which… No. Just no) is Garmin Pay.
Once set up, works with the smartwatch and does not use the phone, or the internet, at all.
I know it’s not exactly what you asked, but its what I managed to do. Garmin watches also work pretty great with Gadgetbridge :-)
I don’t wear a watch but if it fixes the problem, might be worth looking in to.
Do bear in mind that not all banks and/or cards are supported. Out of my 6 payment cards, over 3 banks (I know, ridiculous), only 3 are compatible. One bank is not compatible at all, the other one supports the debit card on Garmin Pay but not the credit card.
I knew that before hand. Garmin has a list… Somewhere.
but that depends on the vendor. highest chance to do it is with Monero, even considering that basically no one knows it
Global Xperias (Xperia 1 VI [XQ-EC72]) fits most of this.
A smaller phone with flagship-level cameras and a headphone jack. I know I’ll have to charge it more often or it’ll be thicker. I’m willing to make that trade-off.
And not a slimmer phone. Make it as thick as a wallet full of business cards. I don’t give a shit. I use my phone for reading text, listening to music, and taking pictures. Just make the fucking camera top of the line and let me use my good headphones. If it’s several millimeters thicker, so be it.
rip Asus Zenfone line :( It was almost exactly what you wanted.
Perhaps an Xperia 5 V? Depends on where you are, and just keep in mind no telephoto but it has a pixel-binned 2x (48mm) zoom :)
Phones with smaller screens
A media player that isn’t just a modified android tablet in a box with an HDMI output. (And loaded with spyware). And doesn’t require an always-on internet connection.
What about an Android tablet running a custom ROM without GApps flashed, and an adapter for HDMI? There’s a handful of widely sold tablets that also have a decent development scene and are cheap second hand. Check XDA forums for various models before deciding which one to get
Pc with an asrock mobo
I’d like some PC support for HDMI CEC
My use case is a bit niche, my PC is hooked up to my TV and AV receiver.
My tv, av receiver, and even certain game consoles all talk to each other well enough through CEC controls that I can do a lot from a single remote, and not even a fancy pants universal remote, just the one that came out of the box with my tv. It was a little mind-blowing when I realized I can more or less navigate the menus on my PS4 with my TV remote. The TV remote turns up the volume on the AV receiver, most of the inputs on the receiver, depending on what’s hooked up to them, will come up on my TVs input menu, the TV will wake up the PlayStation when I go to that input, etc.
I’m aware that CEC is a bit of a mess with how different companies implement it, but personally I’ve been lucky and a lot of it has worked pretty much out of the box for me.
Mostly I just want the volume controls on my keyboard to control the volume on my AV receiver.
I recently got a pulse eight dongle that I think in theory will let me do that, but it’s not exactly the most intuitive thing to configure.
A high-quality laptop without any branding.
I’m currently using a 9-year-old, woefully underpowered laptop made by Xiaomi. Full aluminium unibody, and NO logo. Not printed on, not etched in, not glistening only in the right light. NO LOGO.
I’m not a billboard. I’m not responsible for your brand recognition. Ironically though, far more people have come up to me and asked “hey, what laptop is that” than ever would have cared if there was a logo on it.
It also just looks and feels fantastic, all-aluminium-no-logo just looks so sleek.
So yeah. I will not be upgrading until I find another laptop of the same build quality, with no logo. Tuxedo has that option for most of their laptops, but for some reason not for their only current full-aluminium body -.-
Oh, and don’t come at me with stickers.
Fully agree with the sentiment, and at the same time I think it’s a lost battle. Even more so with more niche tech like cameras (where one is usually invested into an ecosystem instead of having just one piece of gear that can be sold on its own 5 years in - like a laptop).
I’ll extend that to every product as well. I hate branding specially in clothing.
Oh, and don’t come at me with stickers.
Well then. Maybe you could wrap your heart in duc-ta-a-ape! *runs away sobbing*
the battery thing is real. I basically can not find a laptop with weak/low power cpu and igpu, but a huge battery. I get that we can not do more than 99whr, but for weak stuff, I can not find anything above 50 practically.
well, if you carry around a bag anyways a battery bank could alleviate that
yes, but that is a separate investment
A modern, power-efficient replacement motherboard for the Thinkpad X220/230
Would be absolutely fine if it were just a low-profile SBC that sat in the SATA compartment with some barebones connections out to the ports, keyboard, display, speakers, and battery. It can’t be that crazy of a product. There’s already million super-niche SBCs out there, literally the only hurdles would be interfacing with the proprietary keyboard (a solved problem) and the battery.
