I have a laptop not because I want to use my computer on my lap or while unplugged, but because I want to be able to carry my computer between different workplaces.
As an industrial controls engineer, I'm constantly bouncing from my desk to my rolling cart in the shop, to putting it in my toolbag and driving to a local customer's site, to putting it in my carryon and flying to a remote customer's site, to my home office. At each location, I have power available. At some locations, I have external monitors and a keyboard/mouse, so I could easily plug in a Mac Mini or luggable mATX desktop, at others the laptop is often perched on some convenient stack of pallets and peripherals like monitor stands would be highly inconvenient. A 10x15x1.5" slab with a power brick (and a spare power brick can be left at frequently used locations) is just a really nice form factor to carry around, it's superior to separate parts like even a small Mac Mini, SFF, or mATX desktop, an external monitor that probably needs a box of some sort to keep it from being damaged, and a keyboard and mouse.
I use too much Windows-only proprietary software to make the iMac sensible, but I like the idea of the power and legibility of a large display, desktop-grade CPUs, and the larger thermal envelope available by ditching the battery and requiring wall power. Does anyone make an all-in-one or a carrying case for all-in-ones (with probably a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse) that would make jumping between different work locations make sense?
I'm aware that's sort of what a gaming laptop is, and it's pretty similar to the Lenovo Thinkpad, Dell Precision, and HP Elitebooks that I've used in the past...Especially after a couple years of 24/7 charger connections while baking the battery with a Quadro GPU running Solidworks, you barely have enough battery capacity to carry the laptop from one desk to another. Unfortunately, all those workstation laptops make concessions to try to pretend they're a Macbook Air where you can do...something? apparently some people do some kind of work with the laptop running on a battery and balanced on their knees. It's just a foreign concept to me. I'd rather they were 2" thick with a 120V socket, no battery, and 400W of CPU+GPU.
A battery is nice as an integrated UPS, to be able to move the machine between rooms, put it into a bag for hours and resume from suspend in a different place without having to restart every single application, same thing over a night.
About Macs, in my case I never liked their GUI since the very first Mac (the top bar, the menu, etc) and that's an instantaneous show stopper.
> About Macs, in my case I never liked their GUI since the very first Mac (the top bar, the menu, etc) and that's an instantaneous show stopper.
I'm a huge fan of the modern UI seen in Windows and Gnome where the "wasted" space of the title bar can show open tabs in Windows Terminal or Edge: with a minimized taskbar, the browser and the terminal can be used in fullscreen with 0 vertical space lost.
> This is a usually cited concern for so many people and I'm curious to know why because I rarely unplug my laptop, like most people I know.
> Sometimes I need to move, for example while travelling, otherwise I would use a desktop computer.
People travels often. I do everyday.
I have one corp laptop and I don't have charger in my home. I don't want to have one more power brick for my 16 inch M1 macbook so I usually borrow a line from my wife's M1 Macbook Air but that rarely happens like only during weekend.
After switching to M1, I feel very safe to be unplugged. Even if I need to charge it, some 20W level of phone chargers can charge my mac while I'm using it. This guy only uses around 15~20W even with tons of chrome tabs + zoom meeting. It is using 9W ATM.
This mindset is similar to what people with wired headphones think of Airpods et al. It's not an apparent benefit when you're in the bubble of thinking it's normal to have a wire going across your torso all day and hearing the thuds and bumps propagate through the wire to your ears. But when you buy a pair of wireless buds and have them for a week - you don't go back. You've discovered freedom.
Likewise, with battery, you don't think it's an issue now because you know your laptop's limitations and therefore rarely unplug it. But when you get the ability to do so - you'll start to adapt to your new freedoms.
> This mindset is similar to what people with wired headphones think of Airpods et al. It's not an apparent benefit when you're in the bubble of thinking it's normal to have a wire going across your torso all day and hearing the thuds and bumps propagate through the wire to your ears. But when you buy a pair of wireless buds and have them for a week - you don't go back. You've discovered freedom.
What is abnormal is that in 2022 people think it is acceptable to be forced to use wireless headphones and have to constantly have to think and worry about keeping them charged, esp when they are used in a context where you quite possibly have them plugged in your ear all day.
Wireless headphones have their place (primarily in outdoor active settings in audio only contexts for small periods of time). But if you are sitting in front of your computer all day, there are these magical devices called wired headphones with infinite "battery life" and world class sound quality that you don't have to worry about being out of charge in the middle of an important meeting. Unlike wireless ones they also guarantee audio always being insync with video if you are watching a video regardless of the type of device/machine/operating system you are using them on, something I have never been able to get consistently working to my satisfaction with bluetooth headphones.
i mean, as far as wireless headphones/headsets are concerned, my counter-argument is this:
I really don't like having a wire constantly tethering me to my desk.
With my wireless headset, i can get up, walk around my office, throw something away, or walk out to the other room and grab a coke from the refrigerator; all without pausing my music or taking my headset off.
I charge it at night and it is good all day. no worries here.
I don't want to have to keep track of charging yet another device, esp one as important and frequently used as headphones. Heck, some days I forget to plug in my phone to charge let alone headphones. Not worth the headache esp when there is another version of the device available with "infinite battery life". If some people prefer wireless and don't mind having to deal the potential inconvenience of always having it charged then more power to them... my problem is when companies try to push wireless headphones on us by taking away the 3.5mm jack.
I have wireless headphones. They were cheaper than AirPods (they're Jabra) and have pretty good sound. They're full-size, not earbuds.
The battery lasts for a couple days of fairly heavy use, and they degrade to... wired headphones, essentially, since I can use them while they're charging. Also they have a 3.5mm jack if I want to use that. And they've got a microphone, so I can walk around while on calls.
same. mine are HyperX Cloud Stingers for work, and they are fantastic. Range is so-so, but I believe that is due to it being plugged into a docking station.
My headphones (Sony WH-710n) have ~35 hours of battery life. That's a bit over 4 workdays of battery life. They seem to recharge from very low to full in less than an hour. So every few days I'll plug them in at my desk for about an hour, and I'm good for another few days. Its not too difficult for me to find up to an hour every four days to charge them. Its not like I'm having to micromanage charging them, needing to plug them in every night or else I don't have headphones at all the next day. And they charge off the same cable as a lot of the stuff in my bag already, USB-C.
Yea I find them a huge PIA for anything other than gym sessions or running. For that, however, they are amazing.
Then again the battery has just died in one of my wireless headphones (luckily not the primary) which means I can now only exercise with one side. Not a crappy brand either. I have wired headphones going on 10+ years that work flawlessly.
my wireless headset can be used while charging. not really a headache. at worst, my wireless headset just becomes wired for the time period that i am using it while charging.
I don't think this is true for a large majority of us. Use cases and therefore priorities differ, its not that we just haven't "seen the light".
My laptop lasts a good 6-7 hours doing normal tasks, but I hardly ever use more than an hour or two at most as that is as much time as I usually spend in meetings. Anything above that is wasted on me as I prefer my dual monitor and keyboard setup too much and subsequently can keep it connected pretty much 24/7.
It's much similar in the case of wired headphones. I bought a wireless headset many years ago. As the battery has deteriorated a bit since then I feel that I too often had to stop listening to music during work hours because they needed to charge. If I forgot to charge them when not at work, they would have to charge during work hours when I would much rather use them. I decided that this annoyance was greater than having a cable that I didn't notice was there. The sound is better too so yay
As an audio guy I tried, but I don't like the sound. My Sennheiser HD-25 cans are perfect for the road. The cable and the cups are propperly decoupled from the headpart, the cable comes as a plug and play replacement should it fail after 3 years of rough (including sports) use.
I have had one pair of these headphones for 16 years now. I wonder how airpods would compare in terms of pure surviveability.
I have the 1st gen and the Pros. The 1st gen lasted 2 years on the mark until they started switching off without warning. I used them for music/audiobooks/calls. Now, i cannot really count on them for anything so i use them when i get (rare) gsm calls. I got a pair of 40€ airbuds from amazon wirh great battery life and sound(although i use them just for calls - i am in calls 10h per day and use just one at a time) but i cannot pair them to more than 1 machine. For other cases i use the pros.
The hd-25 are not noise cancelling, but they have such a good attenuation that I can easily use them as a hearing protection when I forget mine when at band practise with a loud drummer.
This might also be the reason why they are quite popular with DJs
Funny, people accept limited (I don't use Bluetooth headsets, but I assume battery life isn't an issue in real life) battery life for fancy headsets but complain about it with laptops. I'm the opposite, I embrace the limited battery life of my laptop (running purely on the nVidia GPU and sporting a i9, on Linux, the most I get out of it are 6 hours, less when playing games), but use wired headphones. Not judging neither side, just a funny when you think about it.
Both wireless headphones and laptops have downsides that you pay for the convenience of portability/ease of use. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not.
I use laptop only when I don't have any other option (traveling, meetings) and there is no way in hell that I'm going to work on a unplugged laptop for more that few hours simply because I don't like the ergonomics, performance and lack of "monitor space". This means that "battery life" after certain treshold (few hours) is useless for me and not something I would consider while buying one.
I understand that different people have different workflows and battery life is crucial for some of them, but it's not something everybody needs.
I actually have wireless keyboard, mouse and earphones, both for work and for sport.
But like other commenter says I need nevertheless an space for a 27" monitor, keyboard/mouse and a comfortable office chair. I don't think I have a "mindset", I'm all about improving my day to day, I spend an insane amount of hours in front of my computer. I have been told that my next work computer is going to be a MacBook Pro so I will get a taste of the Apple experience.
While I do share the general idea and I do enjoy the battery life of my M1, I can't relate about earbuds, at least not those I tried. Until then, I'm happy to keep my DT-770 wired.
i had wireless headphones and true-wireless ones later on and i still went back. i mostly use my wired headset now and have a fiio bluetooth receiver for the times i would prefer to be more mobile.
i switch between two computers, a phone and a tablet quite a bit during the day, so having to fiddle with bluetooth settings every time i switch is more of a deal-breaker for me than some microphonic noises from the cable
You can just get up and go and not even think about power. You can even take an overnight trip and not bother to bring the power brick. It's very nice.
... plus, crazy, excessive-seeming battery life at purchase means you still have "all-day" battery when the device is 5 years old and the battery has significantly degraded.
When I got laptops with more battery life, the charger is now used to charge the laptop overnight so I can use it throughout the next day.
If you never use your battery, why own a laptop at all? Why not buy a Mac mini or an iMac?