Opinion: It’s 2023, so shouldn’t mobile computing be better than this?

[A]

Considering how hard it is to get a top of the line CPU without a GPU it makes up for it

? I am not talking about extremes, i don't say that 4090 card should be paired with the lowest of lowest AMD/Intel offers an i3 or so. But to have a medium level option, a 13500 or 13700 same for AMD equivalent.

And that way Nvidia would sell much more higher GPU's.

I understand, but the point is that it is hard to get an i7 H or HX processor without a dgpu. So while they may be losing sales on no mid tier cpus having their gpus, they make up for it with anyone who wants a powerful cpu being forced into a gpu

[kutor]

Yes. It almost seems like there is a deliberate attack on everything that made computers great (not denying the overall evolution though).

- subscriptions (also things like Adobe saying "hey you remember that software you paid for 10 years ago? Now it's illegal, buy a new one")

- DLCs

- soldered components, killing ports, shortening key travel just to make the new generation 0.1mm slimmer and/or to win the Whose Laptop Looks More Like A Macbook Race

- forced updates - 15 years ago when I had 30 minutes to play, I just clicked on an icon and I could. Now I never know if 20 minutes will be spent on some update I didn't want. Same when just turning my laptop on.

- online services and cloud - so being able to listen to a song or use a file now depends on some server somewhere out there, if it breaks they owe me nothing thanks to the agreement. (Yes, I know that actually Spotify or Google Drive has a hugely lower chance of breaking down than my SSD, but still.) Also if some server is down, I can't do my work in a program that I do have installed on my laptop because verification doesn't work.

- APPS for everything. Every publisher has its app which is mandatory to just run a program. Just for gaming, we have Steam, Epic Games, Ubisoft, Battlenet, Bethesda, whatever. Same for audio plugin developers and probably all other fields as well. The app starts, looks for updates, eats up my RAM, and if I'm a basic user who doesn't know how to disable autostart, I end up with 15 apps running in the background all the time.

- Windows still not being able to decide where to store all the settings. Why does Control Panel still exist??

- Windows somehow getting worse since 7 and completely disregarding usefulness for actual people. For example I use "never combine taskbar buttons" all the time and in 11 they just removed it for no apparent reason.

- assuming that every device is just a different sized mobile phone -- dear developers: no one LIKES to do things on a 6" phone. We only do it because we can't take our PCs with us on a bus or a grocery store. Please let us enjoy a proper desktop experience once we can finally put the phone down and do things on a proper screen we actually enjoy looking at.

[kuro68k]

I'm in a similar position. Just want:

- Ryzen (Intel runs too hot/loud)
- 2x RAM sockets taking up to 64GB
- 2x NVMe slots
- 2x USB4 40Gbps sockets
- Dock with power button
- Reasonable build quality
- Reasonable price

That's it. The Ryzen built in GPU is enough for me. I keep hoping Lenovo will release something in their Thinkpad line up. A Legion might do the job but none of them have dock power button support.

[AwesomeBear]

As someone who happens to be shopping for a laptop to replace my 7 year old desktop right now, this article is brilliantly timed.

Particularly in the £600-£1000 bracket for Windows machines, it feels like there isn't an option at all worth buying at the moment. I don't need an OLED that kills battery life, I do need more than 8GB of RAM and I don't want to buy a middling CPU that is now a generation or even two out of date.

I'm hoping that the Acer Swift range that comes to the UK later in the year is worth a shot. 

[A]

That's it. The Ryzen built in GPU is enough for me. I keep hoping Lenovo will release something in their Thinkpad line up. A Legion might do the job but none of them have dock power button support.

I gave up on Lenovo when they gave up on not soldering ram.

As for your power button on dock, why do you need that? You mean to turn on the computer or to switch off the dock? If it is to turn on and off the computer, you can probably do that with a usb device that wakes the computer from sleep and when pressed another time puts pc to sleep.

[Petar]

I want a proper touchpad with proper click buttons, good travel keyboard with proper keys (stop getting rid of important keys), and yes full sized arrow keys please!

To me these are fundamental, and the main reason laptops are moving in the wrong direction - the keyboard and the touchpad. While I certainly agree about the other points in the article and the forum posts, I can probably live with some of them. But if I have to connect an external keyboard and mouse because the laptop keyboard and touchpad are unusable, what exactly is the point of a laptop???

Regarding the keyboard, while luckily there are still few companies (Clevo, Gigabyte and Lenovo on some models) that provide proper layout (with dedicated HOME/END/PGUP/PGDN and full-sized cursor keys), there are practically no companies that provide a touchpad with dedicated buttons anymore.

[Douglas Black]

Author here. Enjoyed reading the comments, and I realize that I forgot the absence of physical click buttons completely! That is a great example of things going in the wrong direction.

The new Framework laptop is indeed just about perfect for me, but it's not shipping until Q3 2023. I will look into it later, especially if they add a glossy/full gorilla glass screen option.

Spoiler about how my laptop search ended: While I originally wanted an XPS 15 7590 and I tried to buy one on eBay, it turned out to be out of stock. I ended up getting an i7-10850 XPS 15 9500 FHD/GTX 1650Ti/1TB SSD for $560 on eBay, which was a steal. The battery life is indeed great, and it runs Linux Mint without a hitch, but the fact that there is no USB A and there are still no USB-C dongles from logitech is frustrating. For the price, though, I can't complain.

[RobertJasiek]

To me these are fundamental, and the main reason laptops are moving in the wrong direction - the keyboard and the touchpad. [...] if I have to connect an external keyboard and mouse because the laptop keyboard and touchpad are unusable, what exactly is the point of a laptop???

Precisely, and the reason why I am buying a desktop instead of a notebook this time.

Regarding the keyboard, while luckily there are still few companies (Clevo, Gigabyte and Lenovo on some models) that provide proper layout (with dedicated HOME/END/PGUP/PGDN and full-sized cursor keys)

About right, but Clevo and clones get the arithmetic keys' layout wrong.

[ildon]

What disqualifies any laptop for me:
-not centered  (moved to the left) trackpad (Lenovo, Acer and many more);
-loudness (HP, Acer, MSI, Gigabyte);
-less then 90% sRGB, PWM;
-soldered RAM;
-no numeric keys (if a space allows);
-and of course, unjustified price.

[RobertJasiek]

Since January 2023, I have considered every of 47 notebook series with RTX 4000, except 4050. Initially, speeds were unclear but now I know that 4070 would be too slow for me and I would need at least 4080 in a notebook. Each series has failed for some of these reasons:

- Excessive greed of the manufacturer (especially Alienware outside the USA, Scar, Zephyrus, Titan and XMG).
- At most 4070 instead of also offering 4080 at medium TDP (altogether 16 series often including so called creator series).
- Too loud under GPU load in a balanced fan mode (at least 16 series and counting). Some models also have coil whine.
- 16:9 instead of at most 16:10 (6 series, of which I would have strongly considered 4 series).
- No mechanical keyboard (38 series, and their keyboards are too weak being weaker than the barely acceptable non-mechanical keyboard of Medion Akoya).
- Small arrow keys (19 series, of which I would have strongly considered 11 series).
- No numpad (15 series) or small numpad (another 15 series).
- Fewer than 4 page navigation keys (42 series).
- Missing keys or secondary key functions (especially Razer).
- Suboptimal keyboard layout in the details (badly arranged keys, mutually touching keys, small keys).
- Very hard maintenance (especially fan cleaning of Alienwares).
- Severe or frequent bugs of the system software (especially Gigabyte and Alienwares).
- Improper build quality (such as CPU pasting of Alienwares).
- Partially selling old, too heavy power bricks (especially Alienware in the USA it seems).
- Annoying permanent lights or logos (such as Alienware and Strix).
- Only OLED models with flickering (those series carrying OLED in their names for worse PR).
- Only overkill CPUs (expensive, hot, bad for battery life).
- No German keyboard ever or yet.
- Camera bump.
- Only 32GB RAM possible.
- No liquid metal on the GPU (although some is on the CPU).

The closest candidate only has 2 disadvantages (somewhat wobbly, non-mechanical keys) but I cannot stand them. I have tried - after more than a few minutes, I would want to return such a notebook. What is the purpose of a €3000 device if the manufacturer has saved €50 too much during production? Let me pay €3050 including a proper keyboard and I buy it. They won't but their greed prevails and their devices may rot.

[RobertJasiek]

I forgot:
- data theft by system control software (such as Gigabyte's AI mode).

[Dorby]

You are asking for 13-14" ultrabooks to be like 15-16" ultrabooks which is simply unreasonable. Thinkpad T16 would easily settle all the gripes you found in HP Dragonfly and Asus ZenBook S 13.
Of course you will be disapointed searching for upgradable components, variety ports, cool temps, tactile keyboard, and big battery - all in a "trendy and hip" flagship 13-inch ultrabook market.

Honestly, what did you expect Douglas?

[RobertJasiek]

For a mobile device, I would accept every display size. Ultrabooks together with eGPU I have reflected but eventually excluded because dGPU would be my main usage so a desktop replacement should be a single device. Others may have different preferences. The ultrabooks with dGPU I have considered as described.

Without need for a fast dGPU, I would find some suitable notebook easily because then my hardware requirements are rather moderate.

[A]

Regarding the keyboard, while luckily there are still few companies (Clevo, Gigabyte and Lenovo on some models) that provide proper layout (with dedicated HOME/END/PGUP/PGDN and full-sized cursor keys), there are practically no companies that provide a touchpad with dedicated buttons anymore.

Doesn't lenovo do those tiny arrow keys with tiny pg up keys? I am hoping maybe the stars align and Framework offers a touchpad with clicky buttons. But no luck so far.

Spoiler about how my laptop search ended: While I originally wanted an XPS 15 7590 and I tried to buy one on eBay, it turned out to be out of stock. I ended up getting an i7-10850 XPS 15 9500 FHD/GTX 1650Ti/1TB SSD for $560 on eBay, which was a steal. The battery life is indeed great, and it runs Linux Mint without a hitch, but the fact that there is no USB A and there are still no USB-C dongles from logitech is frustrating. For the price, though, I can't complain.

Is that really such a steal? It sounds slightly better in specs over the laptop I bought for a family member for $680 about 3-4 years ago. Just slightly worse cpu but better gpu. Though its battery life is probably worse but they use it on wire so it isn't a big deal. Point being 3 year old computers should cost a lot less. I'd hardly call it a steal.

Precisely, and the reason why I am buying a desktop instead of a notebook this time.

I did that during covid, gave up on laptops and bought a tiny pc, loaded up 64gb ram in it and it worked well.

[Mark0]

LOL!

My sentiments exactly!!

I'm typing this on a well used MacBookPro13 (2013) running High Sierra. Don't get me wrong - I have a 2019 version of it (NIB) however the newer model has a keyboard+trackpad that really really suck and Apple along the way decided that "32bits" was taboo so it and newer versions of their OS no longer support software I paid good hard earned cash for.

My windows boxes are of a similar vintage, many have GTX1050-1070 chips in them. I have a couple copies of the smallest Razor Blade because the 1st one I bought had a fugly 1080P screen and while the replacement has a beautiful 4K screen the Nvidia GPU is to weak to do much with. At least both have ports where I could hook up a EGPU.

While Microsoft keeps doing its part of making perfectly good computers to slow and useless with its constantly changing+updating bloatware OEM's keep tossing "more power" into these devices (to run the bloatware) while having less and less space for battery capacity.

OEM's fail to understand that portable/remote/on-the-go users want the best: screen, keyboard and battery life possible.

It seemed like 10-16hrs of use on a laptop was about "standard" but it seems that the industry has been having difficulty getting even 8hrs use of late.