6 ms·

Show HN: LaptopHits.com – see what laptops people are talking about online

254 points by plankton_sb 10y ago

plankton_sb 10y ago
Hi all, I want to find a job as a RoR developer, but as I have ~10 years coding gap in my CV (I played poker, ran poker forum and did other poker related things) I decided to start some real life projects to build my GitHub portfolio. LaptopHits.com is the first one. Idea came to me when two of my friends wanted to buy new laptops and asked me,'the computer guy', for some recommendations. I'm not laptop expert, so I usually ask for price range, display size, brand preferences and check some popular forums for laptop recommendations. To save some time doing this I wrote LaptopHits.com. It should collect all laptop mentions from all online discussions, but for now, as it's just MVP version, online discussion == Reddit comments and laptop mentions == Amazon links. What do you think about it ?
- cstuder 10y ago
  There seems to be at least one major laptop brand missing and there's certainly not a to lack of discussions about their new Pro models.
  - ythn 10y ago
    Perhaps it's because most people buy said laptop at apple.com and not amazon.com
    - woogiewonka 10y ago
      Bingo. No affiliate income. This site is biased not to mention inaccurate. More mentions does not equal better.
      - sean_patel 10y ago
        >More mentions does not equal better. Nailed it.
      - plankton_sb 10y ago
        I took amazon links because: 1. They are most popular links to products on /r/SuggestALaptop and 80%+ mentions of laptops in Reddit comments come from this subreddit (second popular site is Newegg). 2. There is an easy access to product details via Amazon Products API I wanted to ship it fast, so these are the reasons. Affiliate program is a nice addition to it, but even without it I'd still collect laptop mentions this way, as it's the simplest way for me to implement such a tool. >More mentions does not equal better. I totally agree with it, it's only one step in laptop research, but if you don't have time or knowledge to do some more research I think it's quiete safe guess.
- samsnelling 10y ago
  Congratulations on shipping. That's the hardest part. Very clever on Amazon links in reddit being the source of truth. That will obviously leave a lot on the table, but gives you really reliable parsing. Honestly, this is a great site. I'd keep it simple, but you could definitely expand on the styling a little bit. Great work!
  - akerro 10y ago
    I like the styling. Clean, readable, works on hi-res screens and small screens like mobile. What would you want more? 3MB of CSS?
    - onli 10y ago
      Styling the links, giving it a proper header, dividing it more properly into sections, and that will look infinitely better and still work equally well on all screens. The site is a good idea, making it looks like a real project by giving it at least craigslist level of design will take half a day and increase the appeal a lot. And visitors like won't have to check whether the css just did not load before writing a comment like this ;) Op, if you'd like some help with that, shoot me a mail (in profile).
      - CaptSpify 10y ago
        With all respect: I completely disagree. I think this looks great as is. Dividing it up, adding a bunch of extra CSS would make it less usable and readable for me. Of course, that tends to be subjective.
        JonnieCache 10y ago
        All it would really take IMO is picking a nice colour for the links to give the site some kind of recognisable brand/theme/personality. Perhaps move the other text away from pure black to decrease the contrast slightly.
        onli 10y ago
- rihegher 10y ago
  I'd like to be able to filter by comment about laptop used with linux. This feature would be great
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    Great idea, especially as I use linux on my laptop as well. Probably some other keywords like gaming, bussiness, study would be usefull as well.
- shortformblog 10y ago
  Good idea, but needs more Apple. I can't imagine they haven't come up at all.
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    I fixed it, there were only 2 Apple "mentions" in my db, so I put them in Other.
  - smonff 10y ago
    It looks a bit weird that there is not more Apple products. These devices seems to be very popular, why is there so few talks about them?
    - burkaman 10y ago
      Because "mentions" just means Amazon links right now. Most people don't buy them on Amazon, and even if you do, you don't need to link to it. You can just say "MacBook Pro" and everyone knows what you're talking about.
      - ProAm 10y ago
        It's also only links from Reddit to Amazon so probably not the best source of good information
- mistermann 10y ago
  How do you know if a comment/link on reddit is positive or negative?
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    You can't. But looking more into laptop mentions I see that comments with links are usually recommendations. Submissions are a little different, they can be negative, positive, neutral. And usually are just questions 'I narrowed it down to 3 laptops: LINKS. What do you think about them?'. So I thought links in comments are positive opinions is fair enough guess.
- vxNsr 10y ago
  I get those type of questions all the time too, and I also feel at a loss sometimes if it's been a while since the last time I went on the hunt. Another place to scrap/pull from might be Slickdeals.com because my friends are looking to get a good deal not just drop a lot of money on a laptop so after finding out what the best model is I end up creating a bunch of filters to notify when that model shows up there.
- dovyski 10y ago
  I would say you did an impressive first step towards your goal of filling up a coding gap. This is spot on regarding utility! Congrats on shipping and implementing such a useful tool :)
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    Thank you :)
- frozenport 10y ago
  You missed an opportunity to use amazon referral links.
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    No, I didn't :)
- alexmorenodev 10y ago
  A little off topic, but why did you leave poker?
- kuro-kuris 10y ago
  Love the clean readable style, great job!
- downandout 10y ago
  Great site. Did you finally crap out at poker or are you just bored with it? I have a theory that most poker "pros" aren't actually beating the game, but rather are making money from sponsorships and selling pieces of themselves at a premium. There are also probably a few that just happen to run lucky for a statistically unlikely period of time - enough to make them think they are "good".
  - licyeus 10y ago
    I had a similar story to OP, only over just 2 years. I likely was in that run-lucky group, but don't have the volume to know for sure. In my experience, there were clearly, provably good players in the top 1-2%, then a bunch of professional grinders (next 5-20%) with the majority of their winnings coming from rakeback (cash back from the house's cut). OP, congrats on shipping. I'd recommend reading a bit about UX and throwing a CSS framework around your work to make it more palatable to general public. :)
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    It's both actually. I've never been a big winner in poker, just made enough to have a good living as a single and with time it was getting more and more difficult to win. Besides that I didn't like the lifestyle anymore and couldn't see myself playing poker in my 50s-60s. It was time to change something. I didn't play single hand since I decided to quit :).
- eriknstr 10y ago
  I think it's a decent site but you should have separate categories for Lenovo ThinkPad and non-ThinkPads because they are very different in terms of quality, the ThinkPads (up to a certain semi-recent point, at least) being very good and the non-ThinkPads not being on the same level.
- dmalvarado 10y ago
  Just curious, have you already made money off of this? Would you mind sharing some stats?
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    $8.60 :), but I hope it's going to change :)
- rplittle 10y ago
  Great idea, and I'm also looking at laptops at the moment so I'm finding this useful. My only feedback would be to add a bit more UI / UX improvements - but I do think the default visited link color is helpful as a user. The ability to search by certain keywords (e.g. Linux, developer) would also be nice. Maybe add some HN mentions as well ;)
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    Thank you for suggestions :)
- danielhooper 10y ago
  I think the UI and design is absolutely superb.
- Dwolb 10y ago
  I believe there's a ton of uncovered value in parsing Reddit threads, especially those centered around buying or discovering things. Subreddits like r/BuyItForLife, r/malefashionadvice, r/rawdenim, and any city subreddit have great suggestions. In fact when I need a new laptop, I'll use Google to search Reddit and change the filter settings to show only recent reviews i.e. ```windows laptop site:reddit.com/r/suggestalaptop```
  - TkTech 10y ago
    It's not really uncovered, it's actively used and exploited. There are thousands of companies doing trend & sentiment analysis that use Reddit as one of the input. I've been paid to do it a couple of times.
  - sean_patel 10y ago
    > I believe there's a ton of uncovered value in parsing Reddit threads, especially those centered around buying or discovering things I'm very interested in doing something like this for an app idea. Can you (or OP or someone else) tell me what the "path of least friction" is, to parse sub-reddits programatically? Is it using their API? Are there PaaS (Parsers as service) available? After that, what would I do? Apply some sort of NLP or AI?
- nqzero 10y ago
  would like to see a sortable matrix with specs, along the lines of how wikipedia does it, eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ultrabook_models https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ultrabook_models
- yarou 10y ago
  I really like its simplicity. I'm thinking of buying the first laptop on the list, so you can consider me your first conversion. Are you using Amazon affiliate links? I'd hate for you to miss out on potential revenue, as you're offering a decent service.
  - sean_patel 10y ago
    Yes. All the links have OP's affiliate tag => ?tag=laptophits-20
- drvdevd 10y ago
  This is great. Useful. Simple. Sharing it. Thanks! [edit: personally I love the fact there's 0 images of the laptops, etc. Just data...] [edit 2: regarding mobile friendly, I had no problem browsing this on mobile. If you do so, try to do it with CSS only and layout, IMO]
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    Yeah, at the beginning it was looking little strange with no images, but I couldn't see any value for user to put them, so I decided to leave just a text links.
- tent 10y ago
  I hate to bring up styling when it's been covered so much, but I think it is critical you make this mobile friendly. There are a few big reasons for this: - Since it's computer shopping, you'll probably have a fair amount of users accessing this site from a mobile device. - Mobile users are more likely to leave your site if it looks even a little frustrating to use. Google offers several mobile friendly sites that recommend laptops. - Google will not rank your site as high if it does not deem it to be mobile friendly. - You said you are looking for a job as a Rails developer. It's a fair bet that any potential employer will expect mobile-compatible sites. Perhaps you don't really intend to do much front end work, but knowing more about it will benefit you regardless. I understand that what your site offers is very special, and probably much better than hand picked recommendations. Many mobile users simply don't care. They don't want to zoom and pan to select options. Why should they stick around on your site, when they can just hit "back" and choose another result from google? All that said, I really like what your site has going on. It seems quite functional, and the minimal design is a breath of fresh air. There are two other things I would change, but these are just personal preference. Feel free to ignore them: 1. I would like the option to view more items per page. 2. The default, bright blue link color hurts my eyes. Something a little darker would be great. Keep up the good work!
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    Thank you very much for this suggestions. I know it doesn't look good on mobile, will try to fix it.
- sean_patel 10y ago
  > I played poker, ran poker forum and did other poker related things) How did that work out? Like seriously (not trolling). Did you make a lot of money? Always wondered about dabbling in Gambling / online games / casinos. Why do you want back in on software development?
  - Benjamin_Dobell 10y ago
    > Why do you want back in on software development? Why play Poker when you can write some AI to do it for you? ;) No, that is against online sites terms, but I do wonder how often it happens. It's certainly not the kind of thing the sites would want to own up to.
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    I had ups and downs, nothing spectacular but I had nice living. With time it got more difficult to win good money for me, and I stop loving it as much as on the beginning. I want to go back to software development because I want regular pay with no variance :), and as I have a lot of ideas for side projects like this I'd love to work with advanced coders to learn more about web development, good practices, tips and tricks :).
thirdsun 10y ago
I absolutely love the clear, fast, no-nonsense and almost Pinboard-like styling and layout.
- mxuribe 10y ago
  Absolutely agreed!
notheguyouthink 10y ago
Good timing for this product! With so many Macbook Pro users upset and looking for Linux (like myself), being able to find a laptop with excellent build quality will be really nice!
- artursapek 10y ago
  I was one of these people. I just got a maxed-out Thinkpad X1 Carbon and run Ubuntu on it. It's a really nice machine, you should look at it.
  - notheguyouthink 10y ago
    Thank you for the comment! I'm always looking to hear opinions of Linux friendly excellently built laptops :)
- ryanSrich 10y ago
  So you're switching your entire operating system because of Apple's lack of creativity with new laptops? Seems like a bit of an overreaction (unless you're planning on building a hackintosh).
  - toyg 10y ago
    I think the frustration has been boiling for a while (the constant nickle&dime approach is hard to bear for long, and traditional Apple desktops are dead in the water). These "Air at Pro prices" are just the last straw for many.
  - notheguyouthink 10y ago
    What "loyalty" do i have to OSX or Apple? Why does it matter? Yes, i can switch an OS when i please, i purposefully don't tie myself to the OS _(where possible)_. Eg, i'm a terminal user and 90% of my workflow is in iTerm. It will be the same on any Linux box. Furthermore, my OSX experience has been absolute shit. When i got my macbook pro ret, it crashed frequently. It became stable after a while, so yay i guess. Lately, after upgrading from Mavericks to Sierra, it went back to shit. Apparently i'm foolish for using Mavericks (came with my laptop) and Sierra when they are fairly new. From many OSX users, it's apparent that Apple releases terrible products, and i am silly for using them in the beginning. This is reason alone enough to switch. Regardless, i'd gladly stick with OSX over Linux, but seeing as Apple only releases one laptop in the tier i want, i don't have much choice do i? I either buy what they dictate, or i switch OSs. Not really my preference to switch to Linux, but it's the only option i have if i don't want to buy the new Macbook Pro Ret.
mxuribe 10y ago
This is great, and perfect timing too (considering proximity to holiday shopping)! Also, the minimal styling keeps things running faster, and in a non-obtrusive manner. One small/tiny recommendation: you may want to add a little more content as to the background on this...so visitors understand where the data comes from (mentions in reddit forums, etc.), and that while this doesn't encompass everything on the internet, it skews toward mentions from tech-centric websites, etc. Again, don;t need to go crazy, just expand a tiny bit more on the data background...and hey, might as well insert something about you (which might help you get more coverage for future jobs! ;-). Otherwise, kudos for shipping this! Cheers!
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Thank you for suggestion. :)
digler999 10y ago
please add option to filter by max ram capacity, and whether the hdd is upgradeable. I just started to look for a ram and HDD upgrade for my 3 yr old ASUS zenbook prime, only to find out neither were upgradeable. I wish I knew that before I paid $1100.
- wyldfire 10y ago
  IIRC the zenbook has a proprietary connector but you can buy adapters for a regular M.2 ssd.
- dyukqu 10y ago
  You can use Crucial Advisor tool for that: https://crucial.com/usa/en/advisor https://crucial.com/usa/en/advisor (& you can visit the home page and download the system scanner too.)
reacharavindh 10y ago
+1 for the minimal styling. Although I am starting to wonder if we could do a better job with the choice of colors and typography alone still living with the minimal CSS/JS trickery. One website that caught my attention made me bookmark for inspiration was http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-pudding http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-puddi... For their use of typography, usage of lines, hexagonal contrasting title bits. I am not a web designer. Just ranting about something I liked as a end-user. I have no relationship whatsoever with the website I linked to.
- arenaninja 10y ago
  Conversely, I prefer OP's styling over the one in the link you provided.
  - mrkgnao 10y ago
    The design has a bit of confectionery about it! :)
- lfx 10y ago
  Very nice page! Thanks for sharing!
krmmalik 10y ago
Would love to see something like this for Photography/video equipment.
netsec_burn 10y ago
Wow, just what I was looking for! Thanks, I just purchased the #1 recommended one since it's exactly the specs I needed and right within the budget. And yes, it included the referrer code :)
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Wow, thank you :)
deleted 10y ago
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choward 10y ago
It would be nice to see which ones are linux friendly and don't come with Windows preinstalled.
- artursapek 10y ago
  Why does having Windows preinstalled matter? You can always install Linux over it.
  - dyukqu 10y ago
    Free-DOS laptop maybe? No extra cost for Windows OS.
  - mixmastamyk 10y ago
    Because you paid for something you don't need, lining pockets in the process.
  - smonff 10y ago
    Why having Windows pre-installed when you are sure you won't use it? More, it is very rarely an option available to not get it: I would find interesting that it could be opted-out so people with low budget could skip it and pay less.
  - ProAm 10y ago
    Cost, and it'd be nice to know if there is linux compatibility for hardware.
Yhippa 10y ago
I know it's an MVP but I miss this old style of faceting. These days selecting or unselecting a facet takes so long. The clean aesthetic really appeals to me also. I guess modern companies need ways to differentiate themselves and big nasty designs are they say to go.
0x1d 10y ago
It looks great despite having very little styling!
heywire 10y ago
Nice work! Reminds me of the old pricewatch days (which, apparently is still a thing!) If you're looking for recommendations, one of the most important specs to me personally is the screen resolution.
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  For me too, thanks for suggestion.
pryelluw 10y ago
Idea: Pivot into ProductHits.com and do this for different categories. Use Amazon affiliate links and promote it on social media by making videos and blog posts about "this weeks top ten products". You owe it to yourself to make this. :) PS. If you dont I will. ;)
- pj_mukh 10y ago
  Seconding this. This would be more useful than Amazon reviews even. When I see something on Amazon, I'm not even sure if there is a forum/subreddit somewhere where this product category is discussed. P.S: On second thought, laptops are a good manageable product to start with, then add Cameras and so on.
- dev1n 10y ago
  It's like PageRank but for product reviews. Can I help you work on this?!
  - pryelluw 10y ago
    Me? Email me. pr@yelluw.com
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Yeah, I was thinking about it. Laptops looked like a good category to start it with.
  - pryelluw 10y ago
    Dont think too much. This is a solid idea that is very marketable.
artursapek 10y ago
Nice. Keep it up. Side projects like this are what has gotten me into this career. I've actually been thinking about hacking together something very much like this, because I found myself manually making spreadsheets for cross-checking specs when shopping for a laptop recently. In addition to the facets you have, I also wanted to have max RAM, CPU, and SSD size to filter by. Might be useful additions.
gliderShip 10y ago
Visiting the first link (Dell 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop) on amazon the price i see is $799.99. Visiting in private browsing https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-Processor/dp/B015PYYDMQ https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-Pr... the price changes to 699$. Is this standard practice for amazon?
- mkonecny 10y ago
  Same here. Interestingly the $799.99 non-incognito version stays the same price if you change the i5 to an i7. Possible bug?
  - gliderShip 10y ago
    the i5 and i7 heaving the same price makes sense because the i5 model comes with a ssd vs the i7 which comes with a hdd (hybrid).
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  Yeah, this has been happening for a while: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2010/12/how_much_is_that_doggie_in_the_browser_window.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2010/12/how_...
- nocman 10y ago
  I wonder if this is just a coincidence of timing between your visits. I went to the link in a normal browser tab, an d it was $699 the first time. Perhaps Amazon just happened to change the price between your visits.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- smonff 10y ago
  If you need to buy plane tickets, it is also recommended.
  - 10y ago
Tepix 10y ago
Nice! A feature request: I'd like to be able to filter by graphics card. Specifically when I'm looking for a gaming notebook I will probably want a GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 1070 or GTX 1080.
- nthot 10y ago
  Totally off topic from the feature request: You might want to include the 1060 in your list of graphics cards if you are willing to include the 970m (laptop version). The newer laptop 1060 is somewhere around 5 to 10% slower than the desktop variant, and the desktop variant is roughly equivalent to the old desktop 970. The 1060 should be a pretty good improvement over the 970m. It might end up saving you money as 1060 laptops start popping up to replace the 960m laptops.
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oneplane 10y ago
Looks like people are talking about poor laptop choices. Currently, only 2 are actually mobile enough for daily trips, and most of them have the kind of build where you know the thing will start falling apart 3 years into use. ;-)
city41 10y ago
This is a good idea, and something I'd use. Curious why Apple is not included in the "all brands" section?
dyukqu 10y ago
Laptops with an ethernet port filter would be great. They are going to be extinct.
- 0xfeba 10y ago
  Business orientated laptops are the last bastion. ThinkPad/Lenovo, Vostro, etc.
  - nandhp 10y ago
    Some budget laptops -- like the Acer E5 series currently at #2 -- seem to still have Ethernet ports, presumably because they are relatively thick.
- nickysielicki 10y ago
  You can get a USB 10/100/1000 adapter for $13 with prime shipping. Why bother?
  - mynewtb 10y ago
    It's not about the money but about not having to carry around a fricking adapter for basic connectivity.
    - wingerlang 10y ago
      Where do you go that uses ethernet ports anyway? If it is at your job, just leave the adapter there, same with at home. Any other place will use WiFi anyway.
wyldfire 10y ago
Is there any semantic analysis? Is there any trend of people talking about these laptops to say "stay away from ..." ?
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  No, but usually in comments people link to products they recommend. It's a little bit different with submissions, as they can be posts like "I narrowed it down to these 3 laptops, what do you think about them ?" which is neutral or something like this. That's why I collect reddit comments only.
lfx 10y ago
Nice job! A feature request: Filter or note showing if laptop has numeric keypad. I can't stand those, no idea why manufacturers add those to every single bigger laptop.
- khedoros1 10y ago
  A lot of people like them. I've always considered it a desirable feature, and though that omitting the numpad was just a compromise for the times that it doesn't reasonably fit into a smaller keyboard layout.
ChristianGeek 10y ago
I'd love to be able to filter it by the type of subreddits they're mentioned in. For example, what are development subreddits mentioning? Gaming subreddits? Otherwise, great start.
toyg 10y ago
Being able to filter by amount of RAM, SSD/HDD and maybe the most common CPU lines, would be nice.
- jon-wood 10y ago
  And don't just go 8GB+ either. I speak coming fresh from an evening looking for a laptop with 16GB RAM, which was hugely frustrating.
PKop 10y ago
$('a').css({'text-decoration': 'none', color: 'navy'}) edit: you're right this is a particularly low quality comment. Just think the site could use some toning down on the styling. More visually pleasing, less distracting. Personal opinion, that is all.
- trevor-e 10y ago
  Can you at least clue us in on why you pasted this seemingly random snippet of code?
- 0x1d 10y ago
  I think this is a good improvement!
  - plankton_sb 10y ago
    Yeah, it looks nice, I'll think about it.
    - PKop 10y ago
      /* native device fonts */ body { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji"; } a { text-decoration: none; color: #444; } a:hover { color: lime !important; } p.item > a { font-size: 17px; color: #00C; } p.item-info { color: #666; }
robertcorey 10y ago
nice job
politician 10y ago
Nice job! I'd love to see an integration with www.specout.com for processor and GPU comparisons (even just links).
macandcheese 10y ago
Please tell me you've got Amazon affiliate links set up on these.
- sean_patel 10y ago
  All you had to do was hover over the links. All the links have OP's affiliate tag => ?tag=laptophits-20
rawfan 10y ago
a) nice project b) people are really not good at recommending laptops. 10 of the first 10 in the top 10 are really not good laptops to buy.
ArlenBales 10y ago
Love the styling, but the idea, I'm not sure how reliable Reddit is. Reddit is overly anti-Apple, due to its PC and PC gamer nature. The exceptions are /r/apple subreddit. There's a lot of karmawhoring and circlejerking on Reddit too, so I don't doubt that the subreddits you're sourcing your mentions from have a lot of repeat commentors who suggest the same laptop over and over again for karma. Non-Redditors would be a truer source. Scour Twitter for suggestions, look for normal people (most Redditors are techies or video gamers) and try best to filter out obvious bots or fake tweets.
rjbwork 10y ago
Dissapointing lack of Clevo/Sager talk, lol. But other than that, seems pretty awesome. Discovered a couple of brands I didn't even know about.
newyearnewyou 10y ago
I did something similar (not for laptops) but Amazon rejected my affiliate application because there was not enough "original content" on the site.
known 10y ago
hackers delight :)
edrobap 10y ago
Cool. Filters for RAM, weight, battery life and other specifications are a must nowadays. Would definitely love something similar for mobile phones as well.

254 points by plankton_sb 10y ago

Hi all, I want to find a job as a RoR developer, but as I have ~10 years coding gap in my CV (I played poker, ran poker forum and did other poker related things) I decided to start some real life projects to build my GitHub portfolio. LaptopHits.com is the first one. Idea came to me when two of my friends wanted to buy new laptops and asked me,'the computer guy', for some recommendations. I'm not laptop expert, so I usually ask for price range, display size, brand preferences and check some popular forums for laptop recommendations. To save some time doing this I wrote LaptopHits.com. It should collect all laptop mentions from all online discussions, but for now, as it's just MVP version, online discussion == Reddit comments and laptop mentions == Amazon links. What do you think about it ?

cstuder 10y ago
There seems to be at least one major laptop brand missing and there's certainly not a to lack of discussions about their new Pro models.
- ythn 10y ago
  Perhaps it's because most people buy said laptop at apple.com and not amazon.com
  - woogiewonka 10y ago
    Bingo. No affiliate income. This site is biased not to mention inaccurate. More mentions does not equal better.
    - sean_patel 10y ago
      >More mentions does not equal better. Nailed it.
    - plankton_sb 10y ago
      I took amazon links because: 1. They are most popular links to products on /r/SuggestALaptop and 80%+ mentions of laptops in Reddit comments come from this subreddit (second popular site is Newegg). 2. There is an easy access to product details via Amazon Products API I wanted to ship it fast, so these are the reasons. Affiliate program is a nice addition to it, but even without it I'd still collect laptop mentions this way, as it's the simplest way for me to implement such a tool. >More mentions does not equal better. I totally agree with it, it's only one step in laptop research, but if you don't have time or knowledge to do some more research I think it's quiete safe guess.
samsnelling 10y ago
Congratulations on shipping. That's the hardest part. Very clever on Amazon links in reddit being the source of truth. That will obviously leave a lot on the table, but gives you really reliable parsing. Honestly, this is a great site. I'd keep it simple, but you could definitely expand on the styling a little bit. Great work!
- akerro 10y ago
  I like the styling. Clean, readable, works on hi-res screens and small screens like mobile. What would you want more? 3MB of CSS?
  - onli 10y ago
    Styling the links, giving it a proper header, dividing it more properly into sections, and that will look infinitely better and still work equally well on all screens. The site is a good idea, making it looks like a real project by giving it at least craigslist level of design will take half a day and increase the appeal a lot. And visitors like won't have to check whether the css just did not load before writing a comment like this ;) Op, if you'd like some help with that, shoot me a mail (in profile).
    - CaptSpify 10y ago
      With all respect: I completely disagree. I think this looks great as is. Dividing it up, adding a bunch of extra CSS would make it less usable and readable for me. Of course, that tends to be subjective.
      - JonnieCache 10y ago
        All it would really take IMO is picking a nice colour for the links to give the site some kind of recognisable brand/theme/personality. Perhaps move the other text away from pure black to decrease the contrast slightly.
      - onli 10y ago
rihegher 10y ago
I'd like to be able to filter by comment about laptop used with linux. This feature would be great
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Great idea, especially as I use linux on my laptop as well. Probably some other keywords like gaming, bussiness, study would be usefull as well.
shortformblog 10y ago
Good idea, but needs more Apple. I can't imagine they haven't come up at all.
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  I fixed it, there were only 2 Apple "mentions" in my db, so I put them in Other.
- smonff 10y ago
  It looks a bit weird that there is not more Apple products. These devices seems to be very popular, why is there so few talks about them?
  - burkaman 10y ago
    Because "mentions" just means Amazon links right now. Most people don't buy them on Amazon, and even if you do, you don't need to link to it. You can just say "MacBook Pro" and everyone knows what you're talking about.
    - ProAm 10y ago
      It's also only links from Reddit to Amazon so probably not the best source of good information
mistermann 10y ago
How do you know if a comment/link on reddit is positive or negative?
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  You can't. But looking more into laptop mentions I see that comments with links are usually recommendations. Submissions are a little different, they can be negative, positive, neutral. And usually are just questions 'I narrowed it down to 3 laptops: LINKS. What do you think about them?'. So I thought links in comments are positive opinions is fair enough guess.
vxNsr 10y ago
I get those type of questions all the time too, and I also feel at a loss sometimes if it's been a while since the last time I went on the hunt. Another place to scrap/pull from might be Slickdeals.com because my friends are looking to get a good deal not just drop a lot of money on a laptop so after finding out what the best model is I end up creating a bunch of filters to notify when that model shows up there.
dovyski 10y ago
I would say you did an impressive first step towards your goal of filling up a coding gap. This is spot on regarding utility! Congrats on shipping and implementing such a useful tool :)
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Thank you :)
frozenport 10y ago
You missed an opportunity to use amazon referral links.
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  No, I didn't :)
alexmorenodev 10y ago
A little off topic, but why did you leave poker?
kuro-kuris 10y ago
Love the clean readable style, great job!
downandout 10y ago
Great site. Did you finally crap out at poker or are you just bored with it? I have a theory that most poker "pros" aren't actually beating the game, but rather are making money from sponsorships and selling pieces of themselves at a premium. There are also probably a few that just happen to run lucky for a statistically unlikely period of time - enough to make them think they are "good".
- licyeus 10y ago
  I had a similar story to OP, only over just 2 years. I likely was in that run-lucky group, but don't have the volume to know for sure. In my experience, there were clearly, provably good players in the top 1-2%, then a bunch of professional grinders (next 5-20%) with the majority of their winnings coming from rakeback (cash back from the house's cut). OP, congrats on shipping. I'd recommend reading a bit about UX and throwing a CSS framework around your work to make it more palatable to general public. :)
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  It's both actually. I've never been a big winner in poker, just made enough to have a good living as a single and with time it was getting more and more difficult to win. Besides that I didn't like the lifestyle anymore and couldn't see myself playing poker in my 50s-60s. It was time to change something. I didn't play single hand since I decided to quit :).
eriknstr 10y ago
I think it's a decent site but you should have separate categories for Lenovo ThinkPad and non-ThinkPads because they are very different in terms of quality, the ThinkPads (up to a certain semi-recent point, at least) being very good and the non-ThinkPads not being on the same level.
dmalvarado 10y ago
Just curious, have you already made money off of this? Would you mind sharing some stats?
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  $8.60 :), but I hope it's going to change :)
rplittle 10y ago
Great idea, and I'm also looking at laptops at the moment so I'm finding this useful. My only feedback would be to add a bit more UI / UX improvements - but I do think the default visited link color is helpful as a user. The ability to search by certain keywords (e.g. Linux, developer) would also be nice. Maybe add some HN mentions as well ;)
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Thank you for suggestions :)
danielhooper 10y ago
I think the UI and design is absolutely superb.
Dwolb 10y ago
I believe there's a ton of uncovered value in parsing Reddit threads, especially those centered around buying or discovering things. Subreddits like r/BuyItForLife, r/malefashionadvice, r/rawdenim, and any city subreddit have great suggestions. In fact when I need a new laptop, I'll use Google to search Reddit and change the filter settings to show only recent reviews i.e. ```windows laptop site:reddit.com/r/suggestalaptop```
- TkTech 10y ago
  It's not really uncovered, it's actively used and exploited. There are thousands of companies doing trend & sentiment analysis that use Reddit as one of the input. I've been paid to do it a couple of times.
- sean_patel 10y ago
  > I believe there's a ton of uncovered value in parsing Reddit threads, especially those centered around buying or discovering things I'm very interested in doing something like this for an app idea. Can you (or OP or someone else) tell me what the "path of least friction" is, to parse sub-reddits programatically? Is it using their API? Are there PaaS (Parsers as service) available? After that, what would I do? Apply some sort of NLP or AI?
nqzero 10y ago
would like to see a sortable matrix with specs, along the lines of how wikipedia does it, eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ultrabook_models https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ultrabook_models
yarou 10y ago
I really like its simplicity. I'm thinking of buying the first laptop on the list, so you can consider me your first conversion. Are you using Amazon affiliate links? I'd hate for you to miss out on potential revenue, as you're offering a decent service.
- sean_patel 10y ago
  Yes. All the links have OP's affiliate tag => ?tag=laptophits-20
drvdevd 10y ago
This is great. Useful. Simple. Sharing it. Thanks! [edit: personally I love the fact there's 0 images of the laptops, etc. Just data...] [edit 2: regarding mobile friendly, I had no problem browsing this on mobile. If you do so, try to do it with CSS only and layout, IMO]
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Yeah, at the beginning it was looking little strange with no images, but I couldn't see any value for user to put them, so I decided to leave just a text links.
tent 10y ago
I hate to bring up styling when it's been covered so much, but I think it is critical you make this mobile friendly. There are a few big reasons for this: - Since it's computer shopping, you'll probably have a fair amount of users accessing this site from a mobile device. - Mobile users are more likely to leave your site if it looks even a little frustrating to use. Google offers several mobile friendly sites that recommend laptops. - Google will not rank your site as high if it does not deem it to be mobile friendly. - You said you are looking for a job as a Rails developer. It's a fair bet that any potential employer will expect mobile-compatible sites. Perhaps you don't really intend to do much front end work, but knowing more about it will benefit you regardless. I understand that what your site offers is very special, and probably much better than hand picked recommendations. Many mobile users simply don't care. They don't want to zoom and pan to select options. Why should they stick around on your site, when they can just hit "back" and choose another result from google? All that said, I really like what your site has going on. It seems quite functional, and the minimal design is a breath of fresh air. There are two other things I would change, but these are just personal preference. Feel free to ignore them: 1. I would like the option to view more items per page. 2. The default, bright blue link color hurts my eyes. Something a little darker would be great. Keep up the good work!
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Thank you very much for this suggestions. I know it doesn't look good on mobile, will try to fix it.
sean_patel 10y ago
> I played poker, ran poker forum and did other poker related things) How did that work out? Like seriously (not trolling). Did you make a lot of money? Always wondered about dabbling in Gambling / online games / casinos. Why do you want back in on software development?
- Benjamin_Dobell 10y ago
  > Why do you want back in on software development? Why play Poker when you can write some AI to do it for you? ;) No, that is against online sites terms, but I do wonder how often it happens. It's certainly not the kind of thing the sites would want to own up to.
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  I had ups and downs, nothing spectacular but I had nice living. With time it got more difficult to win good money for me, and I stop loving it as much as on the beginning. I want to go back to software development because I want regular pay with no variance :), and as I have a lot of ideas for side projects like this I'd love to work with advanced coders to learn more about web development, good practices, tips and tricks :).

thirdsun 10y ago

I absolutely love the clear, fast, no-nonsense and almost Pinboard-like styling and layout.

mxuribe 10y ago
Absolutely agreed!

notheguyouthink 10y ago

Good timing for this product! With so many Macbook Pro users upset and looking for Linux (like myself), being able to find a laptop with excellent build quality will be really nice!

artursapek 10y ago
I was one of these people. I just got a maxed-out Thinkpad X1 Carbon and run Ubuntu on it. It's a really nice machine, you should look at it.
- notheguyouthink 10y ago
  Thank you for the comment! I'm always looking to hear opinions of Linux friendly excellently built laptops :)
ryanSrich 10y ago
So you're switching your entire operating system because of Apple's lack of creativity with new laptops? Seems like a bit of an overreaction (unless you're planning on building a hackintosh).
- toyg 10y ago
  I think the frustration has been boiling for a while (the constant nickle&dime approach is hard to bear for long, and traditional Apple desktops are dead in the water). These "Air at Pro prices" are just the last straw for many.
- notheguyouthink 10y ago
  What "loyalty" do i have to OSX or Apple? Why does it matter? Yes, i can switch an OS when i please, i purposefully don't tie myself to the OS _(where possible)_. Eg, i'm a terminal user and 90% of my workflow is in iTerm. It will be the same on any Linux box. Furthermore, my OSX experience has been absolute shit. When i got my macbook pro ret, it crashed frequently. It became stable after a while, so yay i guess. Lately, after upgrading from Mavericks to Sierra, it went back to shit. Apparently i'm foolish for using Mavericks (came with my laptop) and Sierra when they are fairly new. From many OSX users, it's apparent that Apple releases terrible products, and i am silly for using them in the beginning. This is reason alone enough to switch. Regardless, i'd gladly stick with OSX over Linux, but seeing as Apple only releases one laptop in the tier i want, i don't have much choice do i? I either buy what they dictate, or i switch OSs. Not really my preference to switch to Linux, but it's the only option i have if i don't want to buy the new Macbook Pro Ret.

mxuribe 10y ago

This is great, and perfect timing too (considering proximity to holiday shopping)! Also, the minimal styling keeps things running faster, and in a non-obtrusive manner. One small/tiny recommendation: you may want to add a little more content as to the background on this...so visitors understand where the data comes from (mentions in reddit forums, etc.), and that while this doesn't encompass everything on the internet, it skews toward mentions from tech-centric websites, etc. Again, don;t need to go crazy, just expand a tiny bit more on the data background...and hey, might as well insert something about you (which might help you get more coverage for future jobs! ;-). Otherwise, kudos for shipping this! Cheers!

plankton_sb 10y ago
Thank you for suggestion. :)

digler999 10y ago

please add option to filter by max ram capacity, and whether the hdd is upgradeable. I just started to look for a ram and HDD upgrade for my 3 yr old ASUS zenbook prime, only to find out neither were upgradeable. I wish I knew that before I paid $1100.

wyldfire 10y ago
IIRC the zenbook has a proprietary connector but you can buy adapters for a regular M.2 ssd.
dyukqu 10y ago
You can use Crucial Advisor tool for that: https://crucial.com/usa/en/advisor https://crucial.com/usa/en/advisor (& you can visit the home page and download the system scanner too.)

reacharavindh 10y ago

+1 for the minimal styling. Although I am starting to wonder if we could do a better job with the choice of colors and typography alone still living with the minimal CSS/JS trickery. One website that caught my attention made me bookmark for inspiration was http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-pudding http://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-puddi... For their use of typography, usage of lines, hexagonal contrasting title bits. I am not a web designer. Just ranting about something I liked as a end-user. I have no relationship whatsoever with the website I linked to.

arenaninja 10y ago
Conversely, I prefer OP's styling over the one in the link you provided.
- mrkgnao 10y ago
  The design has a bit of confectionery about it! :)
lfx 10y ago
Very nice page! Thanks for sharing!

krmmalik 10y ago

Would love to see something like this for Photography/video equipment.

netsec_burn 10y ago

Wow, just what I was looking for! Thanks, I just purchased the #1 recommended one since it's exactly the specs I needed and right within the budget. And yes, it included the referrer code :)

plankton_sb 10y ago
Wow, thank you :)

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choward 10y ago

It would be nice to see which ones are linux friendly and don't come with Windows preinstalled.

artursapek 10y ago
Why does having Windows preinstalled matter? You can always install Linux over it.
- dyukqu 10y ago
  Free-DOS laptop maybe? No extra cost for Windows OS.
- mixmastamyk 10y ago
  Because you paid for something you don't need, lining pockets in the process.
- smonff 10y ago
  Why having Windows pre-installed when you are sure you won't use it? More, it is very rarely an option available to not get it: I would find interesting that it could be opted-out so people with low budget could skip it and pay less.
- ProAm 10y ago
  Cost, and it'd be nice to know if there is linux compatibility for hardware.

Yhippa 10y ago

I know it's an MVP but I miss this old style of faceting. These days selecting or unselecting a facet takes so long. The clean aesthetic really appeals to me also. I guess modern companies need ways to differentiate themselves and big nasty designs are they say to go.

0x1d 10y ago

It looks great despite having very little styling!

heywire 10y ago

Nice work! Reminds me of the old pricewatch days (which, apparently is still a thing!) If you're looking for recommendations, one of the most important specs to me personally is the screen resolution.

plankton_sb 10y ago
For me too, thanks for suggestion.

pryelluw 10y ago

Idea: Pivot into ProductHits.com and do this for different categories. Use Amazon affiliate links and promote it on social media by making videos and blog posts about "this weeks top ten products". You owe it to yourself to make this. :) PS. If you dont I will. ;)

pj_mukh 10y ago
Seconding this. This would be more useful than Amazon reviews even. When I see something on Amazon, I'm not even sure if there is a forum/subreddit somewhere where this product category is discussed. P.S: On second thought, laptops are a good manageable product to start with, then add Cameras and so on.
dev1n 10y ago
It's like PageRank but for product reviews. Can I help you work on this?!
- pryelluw 10y ago
  Me? Email me. pr@yelluw.com
plankton_sb 10y ago
Yeah, I was thinking about it. Laptops looked like a good category to start it with.
- pryelluw 10y ago
  Dont think too much. This is a solid idea that is very marketable.

artursapek 10y ago

Nice. Keep it up. Side projects like this are what has gotten me into this career. I've actually been thinking about hacking together something very much like this, because I found myself manually making spreadsheets for cross-checking specs when shopping for a laptop recently. In addition to the facets you have, I also wanted to have max RAM, CPU, and SSD size to filter by. Might be useful additions.

gliderShip 10y ago

Visiting the first link (Dell 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop) on amazon the price i see is $799.99. Visiting in private browsing https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-Processor/dp/B015PYYDMQ https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-Pr... the price changes to 699$. Is this standard practice for amazon?

mkonecny 10y ago
Same here. Interestingly the $799.99 non-incognito version stays the same price if you change the i5 to an i7. Possible bug?
- gliderShip 10y ago
  the i5 and i7 heaving the same price makes sense because the i5 model comes with a ssd vs the i7 which comes with a hdd (hybrid).
CaptSpify 10y ago
Yeah, this has been happening for a while: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2010/12/how_much_is_that_doggie_in_the_browser_window.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2010/12/how_...
nocman 10y ago
I wonder if this is just a coincidence of timing between your visits. I went to the link in a normal browser tab, an d it was $699 the first time. Perhaps Amazon just happened to change the price between your visits.
deleted 10y ago
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smonff 10y ago
If you need to buy plane tickets, it is also recommended.
- 10y ago

Tepix 10y ago

Nice! A feature request: I'd like to be able to filter by graphics card. Specifically when I'm looking for a gaming notebook I will probably want a GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 1070 or GTX 1080.

nthot 10y ago
Totally off topic from the feature request: You might want to include the 1060 in your list of graphics cards if you are willing to include the 970m (laptop version). The newer laptop 1060 is somewhere around 5 to 10% slower than the desktop variant, and the desktop variant is roughly equivalent to the old desktop 970. The 1060 should be a pretty good improvement over the 970m. It might end up saving you money as 1060 laptops start popping up to replace the 960m laptops.

deleted 10y ago

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oneplane 10y ago

Looks like people are talking about poor laptop choices. Currently, only 2 are actually mobile enough for daily trips, and most of them have the kind of build where you know the thing will start falling apart 3 years into use. ;-)

city41 10y ago

This is a good idea, and something I'd use. Curious why Apple is not included in the "all brands" section?

dyukqu 10y ago

Laptops with an ethernet port filter would be great. They are going to be extinct.

0xfeba 10y ago
Business orientated laptops are the last bastion. ThinkPad/Lenovo, Vostro, etc.
- nandhp 10y ago
  Some budget laptops -- like the Acer E5 series currently at #2 -- seem to still have Ethernet ports, presumably because they are relatively thick.
nickysielicki 10y ago
You can get a USB 10/100/1000 adapter for $13 with prime shipping. Why bother?
- mynewtb 10y ago
  It's not about the money but about not having to carry around a fricking adapter for basic connectivity.
  - wingerlang 10y ago
    Where do you go that uses ethernet ports anyway? If it is at your job, just leave the adapter there, same with at home. Any other place will use WiFi anyway.

wyldfire 10y ago

Is there any semantic analysis? Is there any trend of people talking about these laptops to say "stay away from ..." ?

plankton_sb 10y ago
No, but usually in comments people link to products they recommend. It's a little bit different with submissions, as they can be posts like "I narrowed it down to these 3 laptops, what do you think about them ?" which is neutral or something like this. That's why I collect reddit comments only.

lfx 10y ago

Nice job! A feature request: Filter or note showing if laptop has numeric keypad. I can't stand those, no idea why manufacturers add those to every single bigger laptop.

khedoros1 10y ago
A lot of people like them. I've always considered it a desirable feature, and though that omitting the numpad was just a compromise for the times that it doesn't reasonably fit into a smaller keyboard layout.

ChristianGeek 10y ago

I'd love to be able to filter it by the type of subreddits they're mentioned in. For example, what are development subreddits mentioning? Gaming subreddits? Otherwise, great start.

toyg 10y ago

Being able to filter by amount of RAM, SSD/HDD and maybe the most common CPU lines, would be nice.

jon-wood 10y ago
And don't just go 8GB+ either. I speak coming fresh from an evening looking for a laptop with 16GB RAM, which was hugely frustrating.

PKop 10y ago

$('a').css({'text-decoration': 'none', color: 'navy'}) edit: you're right this is a particularly low quality comment. Just think the site could use some toning down on the styling. More visually pleasing, less distracting. Personal opinion, that is all.

trevor-e 10y ago
Can you at least clue us in on why you pasted this seemingly random snippet of code?
0x1d 10y ago
I think this is a good improvement!
- plankton_sb 10y ago
  Yeah, it looks nice, I'll think about it.
  - PKop 10y ago
    /* native device fonts */ body { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji"; } a { text-decoration: none; color: #444; } a:hover { color: lime !important; } p.item > a { font-size: 17px; color: #00C; } p.item-info { color: #666; }

robertcorey 10y ago

nice job

politician 10y ago

Nice job! I'd love to see an integration with www.specout.com for processor and GPU comparisons (even just links).

macandcheese 10y ago

Please tell me you've got Amazon affiliate links set up on these.

sean_patel 10y ago
All you had to do was hover over the links. All the links have OP's affiliate tag => ?tag=laptophits-20

rawfan 10y ago

a) nice project b) people are really not good at recommending laptops. 10 of the first 10 in the top 10 are really not good laptops to buy.

ArlenBales 10y ago

Love the styling, but the idea, I'm not sure how reliable Reddit is. Reddit is overly anti-Apple, due to its PC and PC gamer nature. The exceptions are /r/apple subreddit. There's a lot of karmawhoring and circlejerking on Reddit too, so I don't doubt that the subreddits you're sourcing your mentions from have a lot of repeat commentors who suggest the same laptop over and over again for karma. Non-Redditors would be a truer source. Scour Twitter for suggestions, look for normal people (most Redditors are techies or video gamers) and try best to filter out obvious bots or fake tweets.

rjbwork 10y ago

Dissapointing lack of Clevo/Sager talk, lol. But other than that, seems pretty awesome. Discovered a couple of brands I didn't even know about.

newyearnewyou 10y ago

I did something similar (not for laptops) but Amazon rejected my affiliate application because there was not enough "original content" on the site.

known 10y ago

hackers delight :)

edrobap 10y ago

Cool. Filters for RAM, weight, battery life and other specifications are a must nowadays. Would definitely love something similar for mobile phones as well.