[koonsolo]

I switched as a long time Linux user to a MacBook because of the hardware:

- Battery: no other laptop comes even close

- Trackpad: I don't use a mouse anymore, no other laptop comes close

- Audio: No other laptop comes close

"Sharp edges" really don't bother me to be honest, I wouldn't have noticed it if nobody told me.

I have a nano-texture screen, and it works great in daylight.

Just goes to show how opinions can differ.

[onli]

I remember multiple reviews of other laptops that indeed came close in all of those categories. So those statements are objectively wrong.

Problem is that I dont remember which, and if I remembered the model might very well not be in stock anymore. The other vendors with their always changing lineup of models make that impossible by choice.

[albumen]

But the above criteria are mostly subjective, so objectivity largely doesn’t apply.

[koonsolo]

"comes close" in itself is a very relative concept. So how can you claim my statements are "objectively wrong"?. Depends on how close "close" is, right.

If you can provide me an example of a laptop that beats one of those categories, it's objectively wrong. In all other cases, nope.

[necovek]

In reviews, I'd say the closest one can get is either Asus Zephyrus ROG G14 or Asus ProArt PX13, on top of the mentioned HP ZBook.

As I like my laptops not cutting into my palms when typing and being lighter, I am sticking with Thinkpad X1 Carbon for now and enjoying the fact they are less than 1kg as well (also, they run actual Linux well :)).

[ahartmetz]

The HP ZBook G1a comes close in computing power, screen, sound and trackpad quality - but not at all in battery life: about 7 hours. It's also pretty overpriced, but discounts are common.

[dismalaf]

> Trackpad: I don't use a mouse anymore, no other laptop comes close

I always hear this but don't get it. Every time I use a Mac laptop, I hate the touchpad. Maybe it's the defaults but I don't feel it's more accurate or anything... Why do people think it's good? A certain acceleration profile?

I much prefer the commodity Synaptics trackpads I've had on my last 2 laptops, running Linux with Gnome and now Hyprland. I just crank the sensitivity, have all the gestures enabled, tap to click and 2 finger reverse scrolling and am happy.

[koonsolo]

I hate the tap to click, so that's probably our difference. I really want to physically click, and a tap should do nothing. I always get fake clicks in the other case.

Dragging also becomes more natural when you have a real click.

The trackpad is also big enough to easily cover the whole screen.

[dismalaf]

> Dragging also becomes more natural when you have a real click

Agree to disagree. I find tap to click + hold turns into a double tap but hold on the second tap which I find quite intuitive. And two finger tap is "right click".

> The trackpad is also big enough to easily cover the whole screen.

So is mine with the sensitivity up. But I don't have to move my hand at all, only my fingers.

> I hate the tap to click, so that's probably our difference

Ok fair enough. I have noticed most Macs I use for whatever reason don't have tap to click enabled. So larger size + probably a nicer click could be reasons.

[rbanffy]

My only complaint is with the EN-international keyboard my company prefers - there is no way to reverse the tilde key position back to the same place next to 1 on the US keyboard. The OS knows what keyboard the laptop has and refuses to change it.

[zith]

I've created my own keyboard layout plus do some key remapping on my mac. Are you sure this won't work for tilde?

The tilde key exists in the key map here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2450...

You can see how I did mine here if you're interested: https://github.com/bruse/dotfiles/tree/main/macOS (I suspect com.local.KeyRemapping.plist is most interesting, but the key layout file is there too, with some comments on how it was generated).

[rbanffy]

Thank you. I'll check as soon as I can. I remember having asked that in the Ask Different Stack Exchange forum, but I couldn't even find my question.

[necovek]

I am using XKB layouts from Linux recompiled for Macs and loaded with Karabiner: I am sure something as simple as rearranging the tilde key is possible, but maybe management software from your company will prohibit it.

[rbanffy]

The approach from @zith works, but I haven’t found the key codes. I’ll try to cobble up a utility to make that less cruel.