4 controversial laptop trends that should never have made it mainstream

[Reciever]

I like the AW13 R3 more than this and that laptop sat on a shelf for about a year before I sold it.

 

I still debate getting another one from time to time, but more so the lower end model just for the purpose I tend to put in place for that hypothetical system. I still wish it had no GPU and came with a 7820hk instead.

[VEGGIM]

13 hours ago, Papusan said:

The diseased thin and sllim laptop trend strikes again. It comes with a huge drawback. Design over functionality. Why go for worlds thinnest design over functionality for an gaming laptop? Make it so damn thin that you can't offer better performing graphics cards and on top have to opt for the most castrated version of cards match  the thread topic as hand in glove.  

 

"The new Alienware x14" offers the latest technology and stable gaming performance, but the slim chassis requires some compromises. A thicker chassis would have probably been better for many most customers.

 

Alienware x14 Review - The world's thinnest gaming notebook requires compromises

 

The marketing phrase “world’s thinnest gaming notebook” sounds good, but we are pretty sure a slightly thicker chassis would have resulted in a better product. 

It's oem's can avoid complaints of a laptop being too heavy. or that it doesnt fit in a regular bag. In fact, the x14 motherboard's is small. the majority of the chassis is on a big battery. Reason why the g14/x13/ was popular. And the z13 will be popular too probably. Especially since they also seem to aim at hip teenagers with all those features and stuff. The highest peforming gpu's are like the 0.9-1+ inch thick range. 

 

[Papusan]

On 3/17/2022 at 1:50 AM, Papusan said:

The diseased thin and sllim laptop trend strikes again. It comes with a huge drawback. Design over functionality. Why go for worlds thinnest design over functionality for an gaming laptop? Make it so damn thin that you can't offer better performing graphics cards and on top have to opt for the most castrated version of cards match  the thread topic as hand in glove.  

 

"The new Alienware x14" offers the latest technology and stable gaming performance, but the slim chassis requires some compromises. A thicker chassis would have probably been better for many most customers.

 

Alienware x14 Review - The world's thinnest gaming notebook requires compromises

 

The marketing phrase “world’s thinnest gaming notebook” sounds good, but we are pretty sure a slightly thicker chassis would have resulted in a better product. 

The new Alienware x14 is too thin for a gaming notebook

Ever thinner laptops have been the rage for years, but is this also desirable in a gaming notebook? We don't think so, as the new Alienware x14 shows that a thin chassis means compromising performance......

 

The Apple trend have gone too far. Of course it had to be Dell's gaming brand. The bellwether in the gamingbook industri.

[seanwee]

On 3/17/2022 at 8:50 AM, Papusan said:

The diseased thin and sllim laptop trend strikes again. It comes with a huge drawback. Design over functionality. Why go for worlds thinnest design over functionality for an gaming laptop? Make it so damn thin that you can't offer better performing graphics cards and on top have to opt for the most castrated version of cards match  the thread topic as hand in glove.  

 

"The new Alienware x14" offers the latest technology and stable gaming performance, but the slim chassis requires some compromises. A thicker chassis would have probably been better for many most customers.

 

Alienware x14 Review - The world's thinnest gaming notebook requires compromises

 

The marketing phrase “world’s thinnest gaming notebook” sounds good, but we are pretty sure a slightly thicker chassis would have resulted in a better product. 

It's meant to compete with the zephyrus g14 and stealth 15m i think

[solidus1983]

9 hours ago, Papusan said:

The new Alienware x14 is too thin for a gaming notebook

Ever thinner laptops have been the rage for years, but is this also desirable in a gaming notebook? We don't think so, as the new Alienware x14 shows that a thin chassis means compromising performance......

 

The Apple trend have gone too far. Of course it had to be Dell's gaming brand. The bellwether in the gamingbook industri.

 

Yes there will always be suckers out there buying this crud and complaining after. Bragging they have a RTX30xx GPU or an AMD RX60xx GPU but it only has 15w because the laptop is way to thin, then complaining as the performance wasn't what they expected.

[KING19]

On 3/20/2022 at 9:49 AM, solidus1983 said:

 

Yes there will always be suckers out there buying this crud and complaining after. Bragging they have a RTX30xx GPU or an AMD RX60xx GPU but it only has 15w because the laptop is way to thin, then complaining as the performance wasn't what they expected.

 

This is why customers always need to do their research before buying. They can easily go on youtube and search for reviews of laptops they want to buy but instead they quickly buy the newest trend and then later be disappointed when its not what they expected.

 

Also the Alienware x14 only goes up to a 60W (75W) RTX 3060 which is a rip off for the price but i bet it'll still sell well.

[Papusan]

Thin and slim over anything else....

 

Yep, laptops is meant for portability and not performance. Hence Razer have started remove cooling fans to increase battery capacity. Next step is most likly to remove another fan for even bigger battery. When will we see next gen slimmer and thinner gaming-laptops with only passive cooling but big fat 99 Wh batteries for on the go? @Ashtrix @Mr. Fox ++++

 

The Razer Blade 17 suddenly has a bigger battery this year. What's the secret?
 

 

The latest 2022 model with 12th gen Intel CPUs has dropped one of the fans for a total of "only" three fans as shown by our images below. It's an unannounced update that Razer decided not to market even though it's a change that enthusiasts might have likely wanted to know before purchasing. By removing a fan, however, the chassis can now house a larger 82 Wh battery instead.

 

So, why not remove the third fan for an even larger 99 Wh battery? As you can probably imagine, overall temperatures are generally warmer on the 2022 model when compared to earlier models as detailed in our review especially since the 2022 model utilizes an even more power-hungry 165 W GPU. Razer probably weighed the benefits and disadvantages of removing the third fan and found that the gains in battery life wouldn't have offset the increases in temperature or even potential decrease in performance.

[Mr. Fox]

I am at the point that I just flat-out don't care anymore. I basically despise mobile computing now because everything left to buy is rubbish that I don't have any desire spend my money on. The goal for me is now exactly that. Spend as little as possible and expect nothing more than rudimentary functionality as device that can do email, web browsing and basic office productivity. When it craps out, toss it into a dumpster and find the next cheapest thing available.

 

For those that haven't noticed, Wheezer is no longer in my signature. My wife needed a new computer. Her XPS 15 is about 10 years old. She started to notice some slowness with the dual core Gen 3 i5, 16GB of DDR3 and GeFarts GT635M, so the TongFang turdbook is hers now. I could not identify anything worth purchasing for her that I felt had a price tag consistent with the product. Everything that would be more powerful than her old turdbook is a poor value, yet still an anemic and pathetic product. Looking made me feel ill. Chintzy crapbooks that sell for ~$1500-$1700 are only worth about $500 in my opinion.

 

I have taken the XPS 15 in case I need to go out of town and need a web browsing device. It beats the hell out of using a cell phone. Otherwise, it sits on a shelf and collects dust like the other turdbook was doing before we traded. This will be the only laptop I own/use until it stops working, then I will buy a used Chromebook on Craiglist for as little as possible... like maybe $150-200. It's all throw-away trash now and it should be priced like throw-away trash. 

 

Like the song says... millions are falling in line... but, I will no longer be their whore. No more, no more.

Spoiler

 

 

[Papusan]

35 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

 

I am at the point that I just flat-out don't care anymore. I basically despise mobile computing now because everything left to buy is rubbish that I don't have any desire spend my money on. The goal for me is now exactly that

 

The trend will also affect desktops. Desktop processors is now reused mobile chips that sip too much power in laptops. Not the opposite. Hence we now see hybrid processors with half of the cores as small wimpy power efficient E-cores. 

[Mr. Fox]

5 minutes ago, Papusan said:

The trend will also affect desktops. Desktop processors is now reused mobile chips that sip too much power in laptops. Not the opposite. Hence we now see hybrid processors with half of the cores as small wimpy power efficient E-cores. 

It already does. But, it will get worse. The Nazis making the decisions that affect us all have an agenda. The only way to address it is by defunding them... aka, not buying their filth. No money, no more progress on the agenda. If we get lucky, then they all die from starvation and dehydration.

[KING19]

5 hours ago, Papusan said:

Thin and slim over anything else....

 

Yep, laptops is meant for portability and not performance. Hence Razer have started remove cooling fans to increase battery capacity. Next step is most likly to remove another fan for even bigger battery. When will we see next gen slimmer and thinner gaming-laptops with only passive cooling but big fat 99 Wh batteries for on the go? @Ashtrix @Mr. Fox ++++

 

The Razer Blade 17 suddenly has a bigger battery this year. What's the secret?
 

 

The latest 2022 model with 12th gen Intel CPUs has dropped one of the fans for a total of "only" three fans as shown by our images below. It's an unannounced update that Razer decided not to market even though it's a change that enthusiasts might have likely wanted to know before purchasing. By removing a fan, however, the chassis can now house a larger 82 Wh battery instead.

 

So, why not remove the third fan for an even larger 99 Wh battery? As you can probably imagine, overall temperatures are generally warmer on the 2022 model when compared to earlier models as detailed in our review especially since the 2022 model utilizes an even more power-hungry 165 W GPU. Razer probably weighed the benefits and disadvantages of removing the third fan and found that the gains in battery life wouldn't have offset the increases in temperature or even potential decrease in performance.

 

Why they're making it such a big deal?. A small increase of battery size is not going to change anything with battery life with those specs especially with a 12gen Intel CPU. Also a 17-inch laptop is not really portable at all even if its a thin and light laptop, they're called desktop replacements for a reason. If consumers are willing to spend $4000 for a Razor Blade 17 gaming laptop with a 3080ti, portability is the last thing on their minds...

[Hertzian56]

I don't get it either, ok if it's just some non gaming internet/word processing general use system for on the go I can see the battery being important but with a xx60 or above gpu anyone who games would have it plugged in.

 

I guess they've decided that removing a fan would not statistically make much of a difference for the 3 year warranty lifetime all they care about, with all the small print in those warranties it's probably not even more than a year for most things, including a heat related  gaming failure. Customer service is useless and just like trying to get an insurance company to pay out, very hard if impossible. I mean if the margins are high enough they'll care but otherwise nah try to get out of it with any bizarre excuse who cares about 100 bad reviews if there are 1000 good ones, the curated review posting/managing AI will just be instructed to bury the bad reviews for 3 months before posting them anyways etc

[FredSRichardson]

I'm really glad the BGA bashing thread made a comeback! 🤣

 

BGA is an annoyance when it's in the wrong context.  BGA for my phone doesn't bother me so long as the phone can last a few years.  I do own 2 BGA laptops - one is 9 years old and the other is nearly 6 years old and they are doing fine.  I'm honestly hoping I won't have to buy a laptop any time soon, but if I do it will be a tough decision.  Again I'll rely on the folks here to steer me right as I believe you all did back in 2016 for my Clevo! 😄  BGA yes, but they got the cooling right and that makes a difference.  If I'd understood the difference at the time I would have bought a socketed system.

 

But honestly at this point I'd rather build a desktop and sink some money into that, then remote display from one of my old laptops when I need to be remote.

[Papusan]

Proprietary/own homebaked HW design.

 

The beauty with proprietary design ... Lock you into their own sick sick world. Dell can't get enough of own design. Is this Dell’s innovation or vendor-locking? Or meant to help them make the laptop chassis even thinner and slimmer for a more Apple look?

 

Dell Precision 7670 laptop to feature Compression Attached (DDR5) Memory Module videocardz.com

[Aaron44126]

On 4/17/2022 at 4:06 PM, Papusan said:

Proprietary/own homebaked HW design.

 

The beauty with proprietary design ... Lock you into their own sick sick world. Dell can't get enough of own design. Is this Dell’s innovation or vendor-locking? Or meant to help them make the laptop chassis even thinner and slimmer for a more Apple look?

 

Dell Precision 7670 laptop to feature Compression Attached (DDR5) Memory Module videocardz.com

 

Full details out on this today.  There are a lot of issues with modern laptops, including vendor lock-in... but this has been notably mishandled by the press jumping on a leak.

• CAMM was designed with input from a number of companies, including Dell, Intel, and memory manufacturers.
• CAMM is not intended to be a proprietary standard.  (Maybe other manufacturers will pick it up?  It needs to be approved by JEDEC and that's something they're working on.)
• Dell is not manufacturing the CAMM modules going into the new Precision laptops.
• Dell has committed to supporting both CAMM and SODIMM in Precision systems moving forward.  SODIMM modules can be installed into a CAMM slot with an interposer/adapter.
• (Dell does hold some patents on CAMM.)

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/693366/dell-defends-its-controversial-new-laptop-memory.html

https://videocardz.com/newz/dell-introduces-camm-ddr5-memory-for-its-new-precision-laptops-up-to-128gb-per-module

[FredSRichardson]

Yeah, I've started to resign myself to the idea that any future laptops I own are essentially going to be big smartphones.  At that point I'd only put money towards a nice keyboard and monitor and (if possible) a robust build (FWIW, the BGA laptops I currently own have held up well).  I'm even thinking a lapdock connected to my smartphone might be enough when I need a big screen and keyboard on the go.

 

But "gaming laptop" feels more and more like an oxymoron to me.  "Performance" just doesn't mean anything in the ultra-thin and light world.  Not until there's some breakthrough on the microelectronics and material science side (like room temperature super conductors or something).

[Reciever]

43 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Full details out on this today.  There are a lot of issues with modern laptops, including vendor lock-in... but this has been notably mishandled by the press jumping on a leak.

• CAMM was designed with input from a number of companies, including Dell, Intel, and memory manufacturers.
• CAMM is not intended to be a proprietary standard.  (Maybe other manufacturers will pick it up?  It needs to be approved by JEDEC and that's something they're working on.)
• Dell is not manufacturing the CAMM modules going into the new Precision laptops.
• Dell has committed to supporting both CAMM and SODIMM in Precision systems moving forward.  SODIMM modules can be installed into a CAMM slot with an interposer/adapter.
• (Dell does hold some patents on CAMM.)

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/693366/dell-defends-its-controversial-new-laptop-memory.html

https://videocardz.com/newz/dell-introduces-camm-ddr5-memory-for-its-new-precision-laptops-up-to-128gb-per-module

While they may hope it becomes standard, until it is, its not. Dell + Intel = same mentality + "other manufacturers" = those who are likely to be strung along for the ride. I dont personally care either way to be honest but its irritating that Dell wants it both ways. Its not proprietary and also no one else makes it* (*yet, pending potential approval)and hasnt been standardized* (yet, pending potential approval). 

 

Dell sadly, has amongst the worst track records for supporting their own designs especially on top dollar items.

I hope for the sake of the consumers I am proven incorrect.

[solidus1983]

In regards to the CAMM, it looks like a great idea, however i can see flaws already, its a compression fitting just like LGA, we are already having bent pin issues on LGA i just hate to think how many pins would be mashed on the CAMM.

 

Not only that you have the other issue i see in the pictures two PMIC's if one fails your replacing the whole module no like the current SO-DIMM slot where it would be one stick.

 

Then as @Reciever has so rightly pointed out dell has already got a rep about supporting their designs anyone remember DGFF's.

 

Yes having CAMM's will allow for a thinner laptop with the idea of being able to upgrade memory, but we all know its not going to be like that.

[Papusan]

On 4/27/2022 at 1:19 AM, solidus1983 said:

In regards to the CAMM, it looks like a great idea, however i can see flaws already, its a compression fitting just like LGA, we are already having bent pin issues on LGA i just hate to think how many pins would be mashed on the CAMM.

And you have similar problems to the Dell graphics cards. The proprietary bridge connector between the DGFF (Dell Graphics Form Factor) card and the MB is a very weak and flimsy constrution. A lot people had to swap it with a new one after they took out the graphics card for replacing the thermal pads. Proprietary design sucks. And it is more dificult to find used. 

 

 

[solidus1983]

2 hours ago, Papusan said:

And you have similar problems to the Dell graphics cards. The proprietary bridge connector between the DGFF (Dell Graphics Form Factor) card and the MB is a very weak and flimsy constrution. A lot people had to swap it with a new one after they took out the graphics card for replacing the thermal pads. Proprietary design sucks. And it is more dificult to find used. 

 

 

 

So true on finding used proprietary designed parts. Still don't personally see why they are trying to reinvent the wheel to be honest SO-DIMM has been around since the age of the square wheel and has been working perfectly fine, but then again the are after a laptop thats like 0.1nm thick because thinner always means better not!.

[Papusan]

49 minutes ago, solidus1983 said:

 

So true on finding used proprietary designed parts. Still don't personally see why they are trying to reinvent the wheel to be honest SO-DIMM has been around since the age of the square wheel and has been working perfectly fine, but then again the are after a laptop thats like 0.1nm thick because thinner always means better not!.

Plus it will we easier for Dell to sell parts to the average Joe when they need parts. Of course within the obligatory/extended Premium support warranty periode. Outside that window, you are pretty screwed if you need Dell parts for you pc/laptop that have an expired warranty. This is worst of both worlds. Screwed + forced to pay premium. Can't beat that combo... Can it?

[Papusan]

What a failure. 250W distributed between Cpu and Gpu is a tragedy. In the older days the GPU by itself could get 200W TDP and the Cpu got what it needed. Yep, Ultra High end ain't as before.

 

MSI is going to reintroduce the Titan lineup with a new GT77 model. MSI claims that this is the first model to feature 250 W total CPU+GPU power where dynamic boosting for the CPU can go up to 160 W. This means the 3080 Ti GPU is left out with a wimpy 90W, LOOL @Mr. Fox @Ashtrix

 

"By default, the CPU can operate at 75 W and the GPU at 175 W, but when the GPU is not used at its fullest, the system can allocate up to 160 W for the CPU".

 

Yep, the fantastic modern feature as Dynamic boost help the OEMs to keep their goal as etc reduce/keep same thin chassis thickness/or use cheaper cooling. Just cripple the Graphics TDP with nasty feature to let the Cpu stretch its legs. Or just do the opposite. 

 

MSI claims that this is the first model to feature 250 W total CPU+GPU power where dynamic boosting for the CPU can go up to 160 W

 

All the OEMs have lost the grip on what High end should be. Even Apple call their tablets (iPads)  high end, soooo. This is all what you'll get nowadays if you wrap up your wallets and pay for #High End#. 

[Mr. Fox]

It is really sad to see what has happened with laptops... very unfortunate.

[KING19]

Personally i dont see it as a a big deal because no application is going to make the CPU/GPU run at their maximum wattage at the same time besides stress tests. Laptop's power bricks are already limited to 330w i think, anymore wattage it'll require having a second power brick like in the past. At that point you mind well buy a desktop instead and save money.

 

I still dont like MSI's false advertising about it like its a new thing......

[jaybee83]

38 minutes ago, KING19 said:

Personally i dont see it as a a big deal because no application is going to make the CPU/GPU run at their maximum wattage at the same time besides stress tests. Laptop's power bricks are already limited to 330w i think, anymore wattage it'll require having a second power brick like in the past. At that point you mind well buy a desktop instead and save money.

 

I still dont like MSI's false advertising about it like its a new thing......

 

https://eurocom.com/configure(2,404,0)ec

 

 

you were saying....? 🤠