Raptrops shopping Christmas 2025

[tp4tissue]

Which Laptops are ya'll lookn'  @  this holiday?

 

[tp4tissue]

Can't find modern laptops , that are not giant g4m3r laptops that have barrel plugs.

It seems all the smaller portable tops have gone USBC.

This is not good. USBC power delivery relies on very complicated controller ICs for logic because it has to deal with different voltages and current restrictions. These burnout and are not very durable.

[ivanh98]

framework laptops.

[tp4tissue]

Wayyyyyyyy overpriced, you can support their philosophy, but their product is cray cray priced.

[Leslieann]

I don't support new laptops except Framework.
Just no point.

[fohat.digs]

new laptops except Framework.

Those are interesting. I have been assembling my desktops piecemeal for 25 years.

Are the Framework keyboards any good?

[Leslieann]

I haven't heard any complaints but I have seen people trying to mod them with stiffeners, Thinkpad keyboards, mechanicals and RGB.

[tp4tissue]

It actually isn't that hard to make a stiff keyboard, they just refuse to put bigger and more screws where it'd be "less pretty" THE MIDDLE. Which is dumb, cuz it's the bottom. 

[Sniping]

gaming laptop still isn't on my list yet. I've actually been considering a steam deck recently though if thats similar. I've been using my friends and I think it's a pretty decent experience.

[tp4tissue]

RDNA 5 hasn't really come to mobile yet, you'll want to wait for that on the next handheld. Might be pretty expensive.

[Sniping]

RDNA 5 hasn't really come to mobile yet, you'll want to wait for that on the next handheld. Might be pretty expensive.

it'll take a while before it gets released, integrated into a new model, and gets sold for cheap on second hand for me to buy.

[Leslieann]

Another note regarding XPS which I only heard about today,  Dell is no longer ensuring that their systems are 100% Linux compatible, particularly XPS.

While this may not have mattered to Windows users in the past the death of Windows 10 and the price crash of non-Win11 compatible systems means that maybe that should be a consideration since it's possible Win12 or 13 may not also be compatible with current XPS models and that means they won't work on Windows or Linux and that will make them worth their weight in scrap metal.  Can't happen? It already has, remember the Surface RT tablet, an ARM based Windows tablet? Linux users were drooling at the idea of a quality ARM tablet they could buy for cheap once MS dropped support for it, unfortunately for everyone they released a Bios update shortly before the end that locked out Linux from being installed.

This also happens to wireless routers, old routers are pretty worthless, but ones that use open source firmware tend to hold value and can be used for far longer. One model actually sold for retail price or higher for probably a decade after it stopped being produced simply because it had so many alternative firmware with support than any other wireless router you could buy and this was long after we had transitioned to much faster wireless bands.

[tp4tissue]

The XPS has this weird ceramic coating on the keyboard now. it's just weird. And it noticeably makes the keys pop up slower because of the extra mass.