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Two more downsides I'd like to add to your list: - A laptop will never have greater compute power and heat dissipation than a similar tier desktop. - Current

Two more downsides I'd like to add to your list: - A laptop will never have greater compute power and heat dissipation than a similar tier desktop. - Current laptop models will often consume more power than can be provided by their included power supplies (one culprit is USB-C's 100 watt limit, the other is simply cost). Thus, their compute endurance is hampered by the battery. I see this when merely running Google Meet.

Moru 5y ago
My first run-in with this was a customer that complained that their computer was slow. When I had a look at it, it was an HP laptop about 10 years ago. While booting I noticed a funny message in the direction of "For full capacity please buy this external power supply from HP". Looked at the power lump and it was about 60 W and the computer had a bad battery so could not keep up at all. They sell expensive laptops and expect you to throw away the power supply and buy a new one?
- falcolas 5y ago
  Yeah, I've seen it justified (by users) as "most of the time I don't need the full capacity and I don't want to pay for that extra capacity when the battery can make up for it". A lot of assumptions wrapped up in such statements - one of which is the one you found: Batteries are typically among the first components to die.
  - Moru 5y ago
    I always used to unplug the battery when I'm not traveling so it would last longer. Can't do that any more if you need it the whole time.
    - nyanpasu64 5y ago
      Nowadays batteries are non-removable and sometimes even soldered in. I miss old laptops.
      - Moru 5y ago
        They still exist but you have to look for them specifically. Usually gaming laptops around 4 kg though :-)
Mo3 5y ago
1) My M1 MacBook begs to differ 2) My M1 MacBook begs to differ again I feel like you are talking about laptops that should not have been laptops in the first place here
- falcolas 5y ago
  First off, I will say that yes, M1 chipsets are much more power efficient than intel based chips. However, this does not make intel based laptops "laptops that should not have been laptops", as evidenced by Apple (and everyone else) producing them for well over a decade. 1) Even with the thermal dissipation a M1 macbook has, a desktop could cool a M1 better. There's simply more room for a larger heatsink with more surface area, and fans that don't have to throttle, than a laptop format could ever provide And with the coming M1 desktops, we will see this in action. 2) The M1 MacBook Pro has a measured draw of ~120 watts under load (measured by anandtech; there's still the GPU to power, despite the better performance of the M1 itself). Apple power supplies, until recently, topped out at around 90 watts. Here's where Apple's slightly ahead of the game - they're using the updated PD specs in their latest chargers to get a 140 watts out over USB-C, and packing them with the new 16" macbook pros (though not the 14", they're still topping out at 67/94 watts). So the outlook for M1's in terms of power is better than average, so long as you pay the Apple tax. Worth it? Perhaps. Perfect? Not yet.

Moru 5y ago

My first run-in with this was a customer that complained that their computer was slow. When I had a look at it, it was an HP laptop about 10 years ago. While booting I noticed a funny message in the direction of "For full capacity please buy this external power supply from HP". Looked at the power lump and it was about 60 W and the computer had a bad battery so could not keep up at all. They sell expensive laptops and expect you to throw away the power supply and buy a new one?

falcolas 5y ago
Yeah, I've seen it justified (by users) as "most of the time I don't need the full capacity and I don't want to pay for that extra capacity when the battery can make up for it". A lot of assumptions wrapped up in such statements - one of which is the one you found: Batteries are typically among the first components to die.
- Moru 5y ago
  I always used to unplug the battery when I'm not traveling so it would last longer. Can't do that any more if you need it the whole time.
  - nyanpasu64 5y ago
    Nowadays batteries are non-removable and sometimes even soldered in. I miss old laptops.
    - Moru 5y ago
      They still exist but you have to look for them specifically. Usually gaming laptops around 4 kg though :-)

Mo3 5y ago

1) My M1 MacBook begs to differ 2) My M1 MacBook begs to differ again I feel like you are talking about laptops that should not have been laptops in the first place here

falcolas 5y ago
First off, I will say that yes, M1 chipsets are much more power efficient than intel based chips. However, this does not make intel based laptops "laptops that should not have been laptops", as evidenced by Apple (and everyone else) producing them for well over a decade. 1) Even with the thermal dissipation a M1 macbook has, a desktop could cool a M1 better. There's simply more room for a larger heatsink with more surface area, and fans that don't have to throttle, than a laptop format could ever provide And with the coming M1 desktops, we will see this in action. 2) The M1 MacBook Pro has a measured draw of ~120 watts under load (measured by anandtech; there's still the GPU to power, despite the better performance of the M1 itself). Apple power supplies, until recently, topped out at around 90 watts. Here's where Apple's slightly ahead of the game - they're using the updated PD specs in their latest chargers to get a 140 watts out over USB-C, and packing them with the new 16" macbook pros (though not the 14", they're still topping out at 67/94 watts). So the outlook for M1's in terms of power is better than average, so long as you pay the Apple tax. Worth it? Perhaps. Perfect? Not yet.