Reference: Some Ideas for Best Laptop for Development and Graphics

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Grand Master

adrynalyne

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I really don't like these ULV CPUs for development. You lose two cores and with some development you want CPU power. 

 

On on top of that, QHD on a 14 inch screen has terrible scaling issues in Windows. I had to make a special manifest just to get SSMS to ignore Windows scaling because it would screw up. So instead I got a blurry interface but at least it sized correctly. 

 

I gave my daughter my QHD Spectre x360 and went with a core i7 6700HQ FHD machine and use no scaling. 

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DevTech

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2 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

I really don't like these ULV CPUs for development. You lose two cores and with some development you want CPU power. 

 

On on top of that, QHD on a 14 inch screen has terrible scaling issues in Windows. I had to make a special manifest just to get SSMS to ignore Windows scaling because it would screw up. So instead I got a blurry interface but at least it sized correctly. 

 

I gave my daughter my QHD Spectre x360 and went with a core i7 6700HQ FHD machines and use no scaling. 

Thanks for adding your viewpoint here.

 

I expect there will be a good range of viewpoints on the QHD issue...

 

Whatever device we use for development will have some tradeoffs until we can buy quantum computers surgically implanted in the brain for the ultimate combination of CPU power, mobility and infinite screen scaling direct to the optic nerve!

 

For my experience with QHD, I see two advantages:

 

1. Huge range  of precise mobile touch device emulation. (in potential)

 

2. My eyes were opened to QHD via the Surface Pro 3.

 

I tried to use a really nice Alienware 17" FHD with gorgeous color range as my only computer for about a year and returned to dual 24" 1920x1200 on a desktop computer due to slight eye strain issues.

 

To my surprise, the tiny 12" Surface Pro 3 screen had no eye strain due to QHD. No scaling at all. I don't have perfect vision yet I leave the 100% scaled ultra-tiny text as is and put up with the odd scaling problems as my own personal preference.

 

On the U series Skylakes  they benchmark mind-boggling well for ultra low power dual core but are still about 1/2 the processing power of a 6700HQ. So although I think RAM becomes slightly more of a problem when you are really pushing the development envelope, I would prefer a 6700HQ  as well and in any case really large RAM only comes on the quad code laptops...

 

Interestingly on the laptops that can have a quad core Skylake K series desktop CPU, they only bench about 20% higher than the 6700HQ and have about 1/2 the battery life!

 

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adrynalyne

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1 minute ago, DevTech said:

Thanks for adding your viewpoint here.

 

I expect there will be a good range of viewpoints on the QHD issue...

 

Whatever device we use for development will have some tradeoffs until we can buy quantum computers surgically implanted in the brain for the ultimate combination of CPU power, mobility and infinite screen scaling direct to the optic nerve!

 

For my experience with QHD, I see two advantages:

 

1. Huge range  of precise mobile touch device emulation. (in potential)

 

2. My eyes were opened to QHD via the Surface Pro 3.

 

I tried to use a really nice Alienware 17" FHD with gorgeous color range as my only computer for about a year and returned to dual 24" 1920x1200 on a desktop computer due to slight eye strain issues.

 

To my surprise, the tiny 12" Surface Pro 3 screen had no eye strain due to QHD. No scaling at all. I don't have perfect vision yet I leave the 100% scaled ultra-tiny text as is and put up with the odd scaling problems as my own personal preference.

 

On the U series Skylakes  they benchmark mind-boggling well for ultra low power dual core but are still about 1/2 the processing power of a 6700HQ. So although I think RAM becomes slightly more of a problem when you are really pushing the development envelope, I would prefer a 6700HQ  as well and in any case really large RAM only comes on the quad code laptops...

 

Interestingly on the laptops that can have a quad core Skylake K series desktop CPU, they only bench about 20% higher than the 6700HQ and have about 1/2 the battery life!

 

Yeah that's because the HQ is 45w and those desktop variants are 91. ULVs run 15 so they sip power. 

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goretsky Supervisor

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Hello,

 

According to this review, it weighs 3.9lbs in its lightest configuration.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

On 4/24/2016 at 2:06 PM, DevTech said:

Lenovo ThinkPad P-40 Yoga

 

6600U CPU

 

QHD Touch Screen 14"

 

16 gig RAM

 

512 gig SSD

 

NVIDIA Quadro M500M 2GB

 

About $3,200

 

weight unknown

 

http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/p40-yoga/

 

 

Edited by goretsky
fixed a typo
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DevTech

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1 minute ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

According to this review, it ways 3.9lbs in its lightest configuration.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

 

Thanks for the info - beats me why Lenovo wouldn't have on their product page!

 

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DevTech

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I double checked the Lenovo P50 and P70.

 

They have updated their LCD selection to clearly indicate QHD is "No Touch" so they must be getting a lot of questions on this.

 

Hopefully, they take a hint...

 

(i'd like to give Lenovo a special award for "Most Developer Friendly Manufacturer" but given the P50 and P70 situation, I think the large number of Lenovos on the list is just an accident of necessicity arising from their Yoga branding)

 

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zhangm Supervisor

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33 minutes ago, DevTech said:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga

 

6600U CPU

 

QHD Touch Screen 14"

 

16 gig RAM

 

512 gig SSD NVMe

 

Integrated Intel 520 GPU

 

About $3,800

 

About 2.8 lbs

 

http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-yoga/

 

Yo! We have hit Microsoft Surface Book pricing levels but no NVIDIA 940 to compensate for the pain!

There are many shared components - CPU, RAM, SSD, though Lenovo's choice of displays has almost never impressed me. Looks to me like they chopped the GPU, cooling, and whatever battery capacity those ate in order to drop the weight by 15% over the SB. These devices are all more or less functioning at the edge of what can be done in a given volume or mass - don't look for the high-end 2-in-ones to one-up one another. The only differentiation that they can get is to add one perk while dropping something else.

 

Someday, someone is going to figure out that they can do an external GPU through the SB's docking connector...seems like that's how it works already.

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DevTech

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12 minutes ago, zhangm said:

There are many shared components - CPU, RAM, SSD, though Lenovo's choice of displays has almost never impressed me. Looks to me like they chopped the GPU, cooling, and whatever battery capacity those ate in order to drop the weight by 15% over the SB. These devices are all more or less functioning at the edge of what can be done in a given volume or mass - don't look for the high-end 2-in-ones to one-up one another. The only differentiation that they can get is to add one perk while dropping something else.

 

Someday, someone is going to figure out that they can do an external GPU through the SB's docking connector...seems like that's how it works already.

I think I have a list of every QHD Touch Skylake 16 gig device in existance here!

 

If I was Microsoft I would make a "Surface Book Pro" by doubling the base thickness and probably bumping the weight 50% or so and do the following:

 

1. Change the 6600U CPU in the "Tablet" part to a 6560 to bump GPU from 520 to 540

 

2. Add another CPU in the base -  6700HQ or second 6560

 

3. Bump the NVIDIA 940 to a 960 or 970 (or Pascal equivalent)

 

4. Increase the base battery with whatever is left of the current giant empty space in the base.

 

5. Take advantage of the thicker Pro base to add a Thunderbolt port and more USB 3

 

6. Invent a new marketing term "MIPS per battery hour" to redefine battery life into "usefully doing things battery life" so we don't have to keep thinning down our hardware every year so we can check Facebook for more hours before recharging.

 

 

 

 

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Grand Master

DevTech

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I went with a Dell XPS 15 to strike a balance between power and portability.

 

So far:

 

Pros:

 

- meets all dev specs.

 

- LCD is as good as my old Alienware 17 RGB LCD

 

- keyboard is almost as good as the Acer

 

 

Cons:

 

- ZERO fan noise is really irritating because it means there is throttling under full load and although a 6700 HQ is still very powerful with a 10 or 20% throttle, the user should have this choice.

 

- lack of a LAN connector sucks. Who wants a freakin dongle for for something so basic? Way more annoying than I thought it would be.

 

 

Cons not related to the actual model or brand:

 

- lack of Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market. Even the Dell model seems to have a troubled history so that I need to hold off on this important purchase until I can figure out exact revision numbers. And it does not even have 2 full size DisplayPort connectors. All modern laptops will have this issue as Thunderbolt 3 takes over.

 

- I am having a lot of trouble adjusting my eyes to the tiny 15" screen size but 17" laptops with QHD Touch Screens are still very rare.

 

- 512 SSD  is way too small for a dev machine. And it slows down when full. Plan to upgrade to a 1 tb Samsung Pro 950 when budget permits. Nobody anywhere is providing a 1tb 950 in a laptop so not really a model specific Con.

 

- not really a Con, but it will be annoying to discard 16 gigs of RAM to upgrade to 32 gig which needs to happen soon.

 

 

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