The state of laptops, as on July 2013

laptop-review-jul-2013.txt

Macbook Air Mid-2012, Chromebook Pixel, and Lenovo X1 Carbon use the
tried-and-tested i5-3427U low-power dual-core Ivybridge.

Some notable exceptions:
- Macbook Air Mid-2013 jumped to a low-power Haswell i5-4250U.
  Optionally, you can get it with i7-4650U.
- Some ultrabooks are experimenting with i7 dual-cores: notably, the
  ASUS Zenbook Prime UX21A uses the 3517U Ivybridge.
- Some laptops like the Lenovo Y410p are running a quad-core i7
  Haswell.  Unfortunately, this means that you can expect absolutely
  terrible battery life and portability.

The future is quite clear: Ultrabooks using a Haswell-ULT i7 (one of
the low-power models: 4500U, 4550U, and 4650U).  I'm especially
excited about the ASUS Zenbook Infinity, which promises to come with
the significantly more powerful 28W i7-4558U [unfortunately, it also
has a touchscreen].

I was looking at getting a new laptop but finding hard to narrow down. I have
been using ThinkPad R51 for the last 7 years and I was really happy. But these
days it is showing its age.

I am a Linux user, so MacBook is ruled out since it is very hard to setup linux
on those machines is what I understand from various online reviews. I almost
compile every software that I use (enlightenment, emacs, ledger, kernel
(sometimes), etc.). The ones that you have listed down are actually ultrabooks.
Is the processing power good enough for doing heavy duty works like compiling source code in
parallel with several other applications loaded? There are lenovo thinkpads
which uses more full processors but has compromised on display. Lately they also
changed the keyboard layout which looks like a deal breaker. I was looking at
X230t since I thought I could use the pen to draw some stuff directly with the
help of a pen.

I do not understand why manufacturer's can't build a laptop that suits
programmers. I was only expecting Lenovo to increase screen resolution and
keeping the famous keyboard intact.

My criteria, keeping in mind that the investment is going to be for next 5 years.

Full voltage CPU
Good resolution
Old ThinkPad like keyboard (I think I should forget about it)
USB 3.0 (At least 3 ports)
Up-gradable components (HDD, RAM, Battery, etc.)

Buy a desktop. Nobody has figured out how to put quad-cores on laptops without compromising battery life or portability (see: "gaming laptops" like Alienware).

This isn't 1995: nothing is going is going to last you five years; hardware and software are moving much faster.

That is a good idea, but how to solve power issues in our country is a question. Why do you hate touchscreen by the way? I thought of getting x230t since I might be able to draw also.