[GTALUG] ThinkPad P15 -- crap?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: William Park via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| I'm using ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 at work.  The keyboard, touchpad, and trackpoint
| are not what I expected.  They feel cheap.  My old T450 is better.
| 
| Is it just me?  Or, has anyone notice this also?

For generations, fans have said that the ThnkPad line has been going
downhill.

To be honest, I was disappointed by my T530's FullHD display.
And the case has cracked between the edge and the touchpad.
That's the newest I've bought.

The P15 should be top of the line.  It is pretty sad if it really
isn't up to snuff.

Warning: the rest of this post is long and rambling.

To be honest, each person has a different objective function when
acquiring a notebook.  I now lean towards medium-priced notebooks with
features that matter to me.  That's why I haven't bought a ThinkPad
since the T530.

My most serious notebook is a Dell XPS 15.6" notebook from a few years
ago.  I don't love it.  Here are some learnings:

- UltraHD isn't enough better than FullHD to be worth the battery
  drain (I assume) and the price.

- a discrete Nvidia GPU is a liability (1) in power use and (2) for a
  Linux user

- XPS 15.6" is a bit heavy to carry

- I hate fans.  Noisy fans that come on frequently are the worst.

- keyboard feel is very subjective.  Thin computers don't have full
  travel keyboards (if that matters to you).  I don't love the XPS
  keyboard but I can use it.  I wish the keys caps were dished but that 
  seems to be avoided in the quest for thin.

- it's nice to have slotted memory modules (no longer common).
  My XPS came (used) with 2 x 4G.  I replaced them with 2 x 16G (probably 
  not necessary).

For casual use at home (I'm holed up for the duration of the pandemic)
I mostly gravitate to a netbook: inexpensive fanless Atom-based 11.6" IPS
FullHD with a long battery life.  For serious work, I use my desktop.

I use the XPS for video-conferencing.  That's been its main pandemic use.
I don't know if the netbook would be as good for that.

My netbook cost 1/5 of the XPS but I use it much much more often.  
A tablet should be like the netbook, but more so.  But I seem to want a 
conventional Linux desktop, with a keyboard.  Old habits die slowly?