@MattSpeller Who doesn't love pinkeye?

I ended up ordering an ASUS: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015ZG9D74/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER.

It sounds like the requirements fall into the pick any two scenario. (cheap was not mentioned)
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I've used a few that fit into this category
Asus Zenbook, Samsung Series 9, MacBook 11 & 13

In terms of what lasted, the MacBook was the most resiliant. The others started to fall apart after the constant back and forth, travelling etc. Look for a used MacBook Air would be my recommendation.

@ryanblahnik said:

@BRRABill I worked as a technician at a Ubreakifix repair shop for a short time.

Would that have been maybe an iPhone 4S, where you had to go in through the back cover and take almost everything apart to get at that screen?

From the iPhone 5 forward, the screens got pretty easy to change out pretty quickly after seeing a couple, but it's also definitely an adjustment starting to work with parts and screws that are 10% of the usual size. Once in a while, something like a flex cable could just seem determined to not stay in one piece.

When receiving a bad part means having to wait for another order rather than just going back to the shelf to look for a good one, that's another disincentive for diy too.

Yeah, I had done a few 3Gs, and it was easy. Then the 4 or 4S ... it involved around 30+ screws. It was ridiculous.

As much as I typically help anyone who asks for computer help (I know, I know) for phones and tablets I send them to the mall.

I can report some off and on Bluetooth issues on a Thinkpad from the Lenovo outlet. No wifi issues for me, but after resuming from hibernate I often have to uninstall the monitor to be able to adjust the brightness at all.

The price was pretty right. But yeah that was before Superfish etc. too. I put in more memory and an ssd, reinstalled Windows fresh and we'll see if anything catastrophic keeps it from holding me over for a while.

The display isn't too hot though, and makes me want one of those 1080 Toshiba Chromebooks for some browsing (and playing with Crouton).

If you would happen to need it, the touch screen is available.

http://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/Acer/ASPIRE V5-571P-6649/

I have an account with them from when I used to do a lot of repairs and they have pretty decent service, I can usually get ~ $10 off screens since I used to do a good many.

I had to hack the bios in a Lenovo T410 to change the wifi card.

Here's a how to on windows 8 (I'm assuming it would be similar on Windows 10)

@thecreativeone91 said:

It seems to happen with most expensive laptops. They just aren't worth it.better to keep desktops for performance and laptops for mobility.

I owe you an I told you so. Ditching the ASUS too and back on my workstation. Ordered a new motherboard and GTX 980. Going to pick up a weaker laptop.

Turns out that even on the highest end gaming laptops money can buy ( that aren't $4,000+ w/ SLI and 3 minutes battery life ) you can't develop for Oculus, which is my next little adventure.

Sidenote: God it's good to be back on a desktop
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@creayt said:

specious said:

The entire point of the Mac Platform is to allow you to be more creative because hardware issues are minimized because of standardization and the removal of low end hardware. There is no cheap underperforming barely have enough specs to survive systems that I have to work around.

This is specious at best. Though the MacBook Pro has legit hardware it's the software, OS X, that glitters almost every single action you can take on the laptop w/ latency and sporadic slow. The HiDPI approach is nice, and makes half of everything very beautiful, but OS X and or the graphics drivers just cannot keep up with an expert computer user, unless they tend to interact w/ a computer slowly enough that the rampant latency doesn't frustrate them. I personally just cannot write code on a mac, I find myself almost screaming as I watch the OS flounder and try to keep up with my keystrokes and interactions, and have almost thrown a MacBook Pro out a window before because of it, not exaggerating.

Macs have crashed on me and had "hardware related issues" so, so, so much more than Windows machines that it makes me snicker when people make claims like this.

Agreed. They used to be target at creative professionals now the are consumer. I do have a work macbook air but I simply use it because it's lightweight and it was bought for someone who didn't like it. Even with as big as our accounts are apple is just about the only one who will not let us return anything.

@g.jacobse @thecreativeone91 18650's are Lithium ion, which are plenty freaking dangerous! Batteries and caps are the only things that really scare the poop outta me in electronics.

For the charging/discharging/maintenance/safety stuff you can get cheap LI pack minders on ebay with a full LCD screen and all the goodies. Then you roll your own enclosure (mine will be sheet steel, a project box or wood). I will also integrate a speaker and amp in mine so when I go camping I've got tunes + battery charger for phone.

@scottalanmiller said:

Magic

When it doubt, chalk it up to magic. Lol

http://www.themukt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/toshiba-chromebook-1-700x394.jpg

Pretty basic but about on par with many Chromebooks. Microsoft has been vowing to fight the Chromebooks hard. This appears to be the beginning of a major attack on them. Will be interesting to see how this works out for them. Maybe this is the beginning of Windows being free.

I don't believe it has been out more than a few days. The ship date was far enough out that we think that we might be in the first week of shipments, perhaps.

I think that they remain pretty tough for developers still too. Although a more traditional Linux desktop will be great for that. Mint, OpenSuse or Fedora make awesome development workstations.