What's your deal breaker when buying a new laptop?

[Viri]

1. keyboard
2. ports
3. don't seal it up. I want to do the dusting and replace the battery myself.
4. display
5. build quality

[szabikopy]

what I look for:
- excellent build quality (unibody aluminium or magnesium alloy)
- modern look (Screen to body ratio at least 85%, but should look like the  XMG Fusion 15 or the latest dell xps 13)
- screen brightness at least 300 nit or above
- 144hz IPS screen
- acceptable thermal performance
- dGPU (gtx 1650 would be fine)

- modern I/O (NO USB 2.0, only 3.2 gen 2 maybe gen 1; thunderbolt 3 with PD, HDMI 2.0)

- expandable storage and RAM

- only m.2 slots, no sata/harddrive slot

- decent battery (capable for watchng videos for around 4-5 hours)

- wifi 6


Looks like I have a lot of wishes, but honestly I just wish one of the OEM could make a laptop that looks like a macbook pro with just a tiny bit thicker house. I don't need that amazing screen and that huge trackpad. A macbook pro runs windows 10 and gtx 1650-1660.

[Puppy]

- 16:9 display aspect ratio
- crappy display with sRGB < 95% or contrast ratio <1200:1 or PWM frequency <1000 Hz
- stupid keyboard layout that doesn't have four navigation keys Home/End/PgUp/PgDn clustered (all new ThinkPads for instance)
- power button on the keyboard (no separate button)
- slow SSD (famous Lenovo branded super slow crap used in premium models)
- loud fan

[john doe]

- At least 144Mhz 15" screen with minimal bezels
- CENTERED TRACKPAD
- Arrow keys with no "extra" functions
- Keyboard with "right-click" menu key (a lot of HPs have this)
- Keyboard with Ctrl and Alt keys on both sides of the spacebar
- RJ-45 jack/port
- Backlit/chiclet keyboard
- USB-C with thunderbolt
- Expandable RAM/Storage
- At least 80wHr battery
- Sturdy build

[john doe]

A laptop without these is a deal breaker

- At least 144Mhz 15" screen with minimal bezels
- CENTERED TRACKPAD
- Arrow keys with no "extra" functions
- Keyboard with "right-click" menu key (a lot of HPs have this)
- Keyboard with Ctrl and Alt keys on both sides of the spacebar
- RJ-45 jack/port
- Backlit/chiclet keyboard
- USB-C with thunderbolt
- Expandable RAM/Storage
- At least 80wHr battery
- Sturdy build

[Cooper]

I'm kinda dreamy guy. Maybe this one Will never exist, only in my imagination...so:
- Under 1,8 kg and under 1,8 cm
- Processor: Alder Lake-H
- dGPU: RTX 3050
- WiFi 6+
- the best build quality that ever exist (light but amazingly sturdy) if not MacBook pro is fine
- screen: at least 500 nit; 144hz; 100% DCI-P3; 4 side slim bezels (above 90%)
- next-gen battery technology (watching movies for like 10-12H)
-good thermals; no throttling
- next-gen I/O (HDMI 2.1; Thunderbolt 4 on both side with PD, USB-A 3.2 gen 2 on both side)

[Pauli V.]

A laptop without these is a deal breaker for me:

- AMD Ryzen Mobile 4000 series
- 14-15.6" 1080p screen with IPS panel
- Keyboard with Ctrl and Alt keys on both sides of the spacebar
- RJ-45 port
- A keyboard without numpad
- Expandable RAM, storage and replacable battery
- Sturdy build
- Quiet operation
- Linux compatible

[Will G.]

1. poor connectivity such as usb-c only
2. too slim that it throttles badly
3. garbage keyboard like the Apple butterfly ones
4. small battery

[Mr.Bean]

For me, an ideal laptop must have a LAN (RJ-45) port; especially for using it as desktop replacement or a gaming rig.

+ a bunch of i/o ports, like an USB 1 (Yeah, I'm a old fashion guy), just read Loki's thread:

notebookcheck.net/Have-ThinkPads-gotten-worse-over-the-last-decade-A-ThinkPad-retrospective.447267.0.html

A high quality chassis/material used is also very important.

[CoilWhineHater]

• Coil-whine
• Battery life < 6hrs

[AnotherAnon]

Absolute deal breakers for me:

- NVidia. Sorry, I am not dealing with their binary drivers.
- Any other major Linux compatibility issues
- PWM backlight (at least at low frequencies)
- Screens <100 DPI or with narrow viewing angles
- Poor quality builds
- Soldered SSD
- >2kg / >2cm / >15": keep it somewhat portable

Also, preferably not:

- 16:9 (please just go back to 16:10, or 3:2)
- wide gamut: I don't want to have to use colour profiles
- weak CPU power
- poor cooling performance or noisy

[Dice]

If I ever manage to buy one, I want:

a good screen (good colors/contrast, easily dimable, matte)
quiet
not too hot either

So a dealbreaker is a screen that hurts my eyes, a laptop that sounds like a hair dryer or one that can double as a toaster. :x

[Spunjji]

Must haves:
- Simple serviceability - i.e. don't need to remove the entire motherboard to re-paste the cooler, SODIMM memory, more than one M.2 slot.
- Cooling that isn't sacrificed to make the device unnecessarily slim (see the current generation of MacBook).
- Decent keyboard (no spongy mess, no butterfly nonsense either).
- RJ45 and SD card reader (not Micro SD, that's useless).
- *At least* two full-size USB A ports.
- At least 100% sRGB coverage and 1/1000 contrast on a high-DPI display IPS-level - perfection would be 4K 120Hz, but I'd settle for 2.5K 144Hz if such a thing existed.

Would love:
- A modern version of the Asus G73JH - chunky enough to cool high-end hardware quietly, but with slightly more compact dimensions due to the improvements in heatpipe and display technology. The Aero 17 is quite close to this, but I'd like something thicker that could handle a full-fat GTX 2080.

[xpclient]

As of now:

For ANY laptop (must-have):
● No throttling, excellent sustained CPU performance under load, great cooling and heatsink, yet quiet
● Upgradable RAM, storage and M.2 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, multiple storage connectors (M.2 & legacy SATA)
● Thunderbolt 3
● Touchpad buttons and standard keyboard layout, will not tolerate missing keys or reinvented layout
● Easy serviceability/repairability
● Enough USB ports and video outputs

If it's a gaming laptop:
● 45W Intel or AMD CPU, discrete GPU from NVIDIA (NVENC and CUDA are must-have)

For ultrabook:
● Weight ≈ 1-1.5 kg
● Recent CPU, recent GPU from current or last year (that rules out Intel Comet Lake) and with video encoding ASIC (that rules out NVIDIA MX Graphics)

So deal-breakers:
● High temperatures, CPU constantly getting throttled, failed or noisy fans
● Soldered RAM, SSD or Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module
● Lack of Thunderbolt 3
● Lack of touchpad buttons below (not Pointing stick buttons)
● Perverted keyboard with combo keys
● Poor serviceability/repairability

My current machines:
●  Gaming laptop: Lenovo Legion Y740 17 inch, Core i7 9th Gen, GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q, 1 TB NVMe SSD, 1 TB SATA SSD
●  Ultrabook: Looking for one with touchpad buttons and Intel Ice Lake or AMD 4000U Series

[Kyle G]

If it doesnt have any single one of these its immediately a no-go:

• Must have good battery life (9+ hours) because what good is a laptop if it cant hold a decent charge
  Thunderbolt 3 because I run an EGPU for gaming and USB-C charging is a practical must these days
  Good display (FHD, IPS, SRGB 99+) (Waiting for a FHD/QHD OLED display)
  Decent inputs (Trackpad and keyboard)
  More than 2 USB ports (Thunderbolt3 or otherwise)
  Good aftersale support and warranties
  At LEAST a quad core with somewhat adequate cooling (Miss me with that new MacBook Air crap)
  Weight < 2kg if 15", <1.4 if 13"