Laptops - what does the industry need to fix?

[JAB Creations]

Just a quick poll to see what people think the industry needs to do in regards to laptops; please share your thoughts!

 

[sam_86314]

I value upgradability and price to performance. So many laptops these days cost way too much for their specs, and their lack of upgradability means they'll be unusable in a few years.

I managed to find a laptop that is easy to upgrade and was a good price. My Eluktronics (Clevo) W650KK1 has an LGA 1151 socket, and everything is extremely easy to access. My only real complaints about it are the crappy chiclet keyboard (Why must all laptop makers copy Apple's shitty design?) and the fact that the GPU is soldered to the board rather than being on an MXM card.

 

[Hyderz]

cheap thermal paste used in laptops , not long when ur whisper quiet lappy turns into an airplane noises,
i know how to reapply thermal paste but most consumers wont know how to and get charged alot for something simple.

 

[Vayra86]

- Limited BIOS/UEFI. Its fine if you create a dumb mode for the laptop to ship with on default, but please. Just give us all the buttons.
- Limited IO. 2 USB ports? If I want a hassle with dongles Ill buy something Apple... This is insta-no buy. needs 4 ports. Needs multiple display out options. And no I don't care if it makes the laptop a half cm thicker.
- Price vs specs. It got a lot better the past years, but the midrange is still that eternal battle between build quality and meh specs, and usually you get a little bit of both... which means both are lacking. Its either that, or you pay through the nose for good specs and a decent build. But even decent builds tend to wear down fast nowadays, especially visually.
- Other: HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. 90% of laptops are form over function and basically go straight to my shitlist.

Realistically the market offers two somewhat sensible choices, depending on your budget:
- low cost 'can do the basics' laptop, which can be light and portable and has a decent panel and even tends to be built right for the usage.
- high end gamer laptop with a fat butt and ditto cooling, you pay 2,5x the cost of a desktop that is probably a lot faster than it... and it lacks the upgrade path too. I struggle to make sense of why this type of lappy is popular. More money than sense comes to mind, OTOH if you want to be gaming everywhere I guess this is it.

The rest is utter junk, as it used to be for many years now, and I don't see much of a change there. If you want a serious performance laptop, you kinda need to look at enterprise/workstations.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

Poor thermals, some laptops are designed to work with thermal throthling, I was repasting friends MSI laptop, and I gained from 30 seconds that was throttling to 60 seconds before it started throttling, using prime 95 to stress test it.

 

[Frick]

Thermal design and how simple a complete dissasembly is. Also I want a convertible that has a rotational design instead of the awful flip design.

Poor thermals, some laptops are designed to work with thermal throthling, I was repasting friends MSI laptop, and I gained from 30 seconds that was throttling to 60 seconds before it started throttling, using prime 95 to stress test it.

Prime95 is an unrealistic load though.

- high end gamer laptop with a fat butt and ditto cooling, you pay 2,5x the cost of a desktop that is probably a lot faster than it... and it lacks the upgrade path too. I struggle to make sense of why this type of lappy is popular. More money than sense comes to mind, OTOH if you want to be gaming everywhere I guess this is it

Or if you like me only game occasionally. I'd love a gaming laptop, becaude then I can put it away when not in use. Also, like many, I don't have a huge home so an entire desk just for something I only occasionally use is such a waste. Now my monitor is on a nice stand so I can swiwel it away when I use the desk as a workshop, but a laptop would be better.

 

[silkstone]

Hinges that don't break

 

[Ramo1203]

I really wish they would make laptops easier to disassemble for upgrades like RAM and SSD. The BIOS options are quite limited, it would be nice to see more complete options like for desktop motherboards. And final thing for me is to use USB-C for power so we can have a universal port like it's supposed to be.

 

[EzioAs]

No more 1366x768 screens

 

[P4-630]

Other (Heat issues) and High prices for the specifications.

 

[enxo218]

Very annoyed by proprietary parts especially connectors that you can no longer get from manufacturers or third parties because they are eol and only option is scavenging a similar dead model to get it.

 

[silentbogo]

Comparing to all the nagging options in a poll there's one ever-present issue in laptops that I have to deal with every day.
The only thing they need to do to fix most issues (and it's also in big part Intel's and AMD's fault), is bring back the modularity. I mean, socketed CPUs, actual RAM slots, non-soldered SSDs, replaceable WiFi cards etc. And no "whitelists" in case of HP/Dell.
I'm tired of telling customers "I'm sorry, your macbook cannot be upgraded. Period.", or "Replacing that dead CPU costs about as much as replacing the entire board, sorry", or "I won't be upgrading your RAM at least until the warranty runs out, cause we have to solder it".

Another big problem is power circuitry and low-quality batteries. Symptoms can range from random reboots/shutdowns, to battery stopped working altogether, but it's more and more frequent. Usually happens on consumer laptops right around the time when warranty expires.... for some reason... Few years ago it was a flood of 3rd and 4th gen mid-range laptops, now it's 6th and 7th gen all the same. What makes matters worse, is that most laptops nowadays have internal, non-detachable batteries. So, the customer no longer has an option to safely store a pre-charged battery pack in a drawer(to preserve health and minimize charge cycles) while using lappy in an office or at home as a small desktop.

 

[5DVX0130]

Screen quality!

It baffles me, that I can get a crisp 27'' 144Hz screen for around 250 bucks.
But when I’m buying a 15’’ laptop in the 800-1200 range, it comes with a terrible washed out screen worth shit.
At least 1366x768 is finally retiring in the mid-range, and viewing angles are becoming okay thanks to IPS becoming the norm.
That said, 1366x768 should finally die off, and 1920x1080 become the minimum standard even in low end laptops.

 

[erixx]

I got myself an formerly called ultrabook or ultraflat portable "lap"top... and so far so good, but it is more fragile than a mobile phone! Need to fix that.

 

[trog100]

allowing for all the inbuilt problems laptop design incurs i recon the manufactures do a reasonable job.. a laptop is what it is and maybe folks expect too much from them..

just my thoughts on the subject.. i have an asus gaming laptop and a lenovo yoga.. they both have their ups and downs but i dont see any practical way to do much about them..

one final thought.. you really need more than one laptop..

another final thought.. i dont use ether of them very much.. only when i have to..

trog

 

[silentbogo]

allowing for all the inbuilt problems laptop design incurs i recon the manufactures do a reasonable job.. a laptop is what it is and maybe folks expect too much from them..

I expect $1000 laptop to gave all the bare necessities, which include proper battery which can live as long as it's rated for, I want OCP, OVP, SCP on all rails, I want proper USB power switching, I want ESD protection, and I want a little overhead on CPU/GPU VRMs. That's a given, and that's what we had in all, even the cheapest laptops only 6-8 years ago. Now I'm not even surprised when eDP ribbon rips in half or touchscreen starts to bubble-up and detach on "top of the line" Zenbook, or when Lenovo Legion requires hinge/bottom chassis replacement every 12-15months, or when ASUS ROG loses USB connectivity after a single port failure when used as intended, or when mid-range laptop dies beyond repair after a low-quality USB port breaks and shorts on itself while killing everything on its way(SoC, 5V rail, input FETs and a dozen caps). I'm not even gonna start on Lenovo Ideapad keyboards, cause that's been my biggest headache and probably the biggest moneymaker for the past 8 or so years. Some customers are already used to routine visits, where replacing the keyboard is as frequent (and as cheap), as regular maintenance and dust cleaning.
"Everything is fine", is just an opinion. There's lots of factual evidence that manufacturers cut corners across the entire market, cause we let them. And the further it goes - the worse it gets.

 

[robal]

Hinges that don't break

Amen to that !

Also: Stop sacrificing everything for thinness. I'd take a slightly thicker laptop with better battery and thermals any day.

 

[Jetster]

Honestly I see laptops going away completely. Tablets are getting more powerful and full featured with many advantages. Battery life for one

 

[FordGT90Concept]

A standardized form factor. They're expensive and not very serviceable because a form factor was never agreed to and implemented. Every laptop model is effectively a brand new product from scratch. It's always been that way...tablets and phones have followed suit. These products fill landfills much faster than they should because they aren't thinking right to repair when they design them.

 

[lmille16]

Surprised no one has mentioned this: Trackpads.

Over all the years of using various laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Clevo, Apple and a few others only Apple really offers a good trackpad experience (force touch can be seen a negative and I won't argue). Aside from the MacBook I use for work only the Dell XPS 13 which I also use for work even comes close in comparison. Give me a smooth, responsive surface that doesn't get jumpy (looking at you HP) and is accurate to gestures. Still not sure why most PC based manufacturers can't get this right.

 

[matthewmatics]

I still need full function mobility with a 17" screen and a full size keyboard.....a lot of people do.

I would like to see a 22" for $500.00.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I still need full function mobility with a 17" screen and a full size keyboard.....a lot of people do.

I would like to see a 22" for $500.00.

I dont really understand this logic.... A laptop is supposed to be mobile. A desktop replacement is HEAVY because it might pack some desktop grade hardware and performance so needs a tonne of copper to cool. But if youre gonna strap a 22" monitor on then that just really goes against what it means to be mobile and a 'laptop'

Even desktop replacements are cutting it close as they are quite heavy and get really hot so arent laptops by any means but they are still quite mobile.

I carry an old 11.6" laptop thats packin an Intel 1073U - Its a little chunky but its fairly light and wont kill me if i needed to carry it all day on my back.... Performance leaves a lot to be desired but once its up its up. I can watch YT. reply to emails. watch movies and do a lot of stuff on it while away from home. Its a bit of a pain but im rarely away from home for months at a time so theres no real need to invest loads of money into something that sits on the shelf most of the time.

22" laptops are going to be hugely cumbersome and $500 means you want it to be cheap which means the performance is either gonna suck or its going to me quite middling so its not gonna be great for gaming.

It might make watching movies on the go more enjoyable though and make things and maybe improve things when it comes to productivity or web browsing. but i still stand by the fact that a laptop is supposed to be mobile and having a laptop the size of a dustbin lid defeats that purpose.

 

[matthewmatics]

I just need it for word, excel, internet and 22" slim with a dual core is enough. 17" thins are not cumbersome so a 22" wouldn't bother me.

Backlit oversize letters would be cool too!

I only buy refurbed grade A laptops anyways so just get some 22's in here and I'm good to go!

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[newtekie1]

My biggest issue is heat and how most laptop manufacturers are perfectly fine with throttling.

 

[27MaD]

They need to fix those tiny keyboards, fix their cooling and batteries.
And become fully upgradeable.