3 ms·

What do you mean by shitty peripherals?

by yafbum 4y ago

LoganDark 4y ago
Low-DPI screens, bad webcams, keyboards with the wrong arrows/numpad layout, off-center trackpads etc. it's different for each person what they consider "shitty", but laptops are always a total package deal (except for Framework) and it can just so happen that nobody makes powerful laptops that also have the exact right permutation of peripherals. You can find all sorts of beautiful 4K ultrabooks with the perfect keyboard and trackpad layout, and great webcams too—if you don't mind putting up with a Celeron and 4GB of RAM... If you want a really modern and powerful CPU with lots of RAM, you'll be looking at the likes of Clevo and AORUS and etc. that put desktop-class parts in a thick chassis, but... that bodes terribly for the peripherals they end up using. Some of the Clevo machines have individual gimmicks like 300Hz displays, but none of them seem to have all of "high DPI, good keyboard layout, good port arrangement, high performance". And this is true for basically all laptop vendors. OEMs think good peripherals always equate to "thin and light" which results in bad performance, either through bad parts or bad thermals. Maybe Frore Systems' new cooling solution will help slightly with ultrabook thermals, but until that happens, laptops are just suck. You may notice that this only matters because I even care. You may also notice that this is exactly what building a desktop is for. I am building a desktop, but I also have to build a laptop from scratch for the desktop so I can operate it from bed. Which would have been avoidable if I could've found a laptop in the first place. The point anyway isn't to say that there aren't any good laptops out there, but rather that if you want high performance (e.g. you are bothered by slowness), you can only get it as a package deal with the rest of the laptop... obviously. But the package deals all suck. The laptop market is so annoying sometimes.
- yafbum 4y ago
  I haven't really been in the market for a non-Apple laptop for a while (previously had to buy MacBook bc of specific software), so this gives me a great idea of what to watch out for when I get my next laptop. Thanks a lot!
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    For what it's worth, the ROG Flow X16 (2022)[0] has some good specs (8-core CPU with 3070 Ti), a great keyboard layout (with correct arrow keys!), and other niceties like a mux switch and upgradeable RAM. It is so close to perfection—but doesn't have a 4K screen, ruining the whole package. Big reason why I dislike the market so much: the existence of that machine with only a single flaw that nonetheless ruins the value of the entire product. There's nothing else like it. It seems to be the absolute best machine the market has to offer... and it just barely misses. :( However, the screen resolution seems to be the only problem with it, so anyone who doesn't require specifically 4K (most people) would probably find it worth considering. [0]: https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-flow/rog-flow-x16-2022-series https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-flow/rog-flow-x16-2022-seri...

What do you mean by shitty peripherals?

by yafbum 4y ago

What do you mean by shitty peripherals?

Low-DPI screens, bad webcams, keyboards with the wrong arrows/numpad layout, off-center trackpads etc. it's different for each person what they consider "shitty", but laptops are always a total package deal (except for Framework) and it can just so happen that nobody makes powerful laptops that also have the exact right permutation of peripherals. You can find all sorts of beautiful 4K ultrabooks with the perfect keyboard and trackpad layout, and great webcams too—if you don't mind putting up with a Celeron and 4GB of RAM... If you want a really modern and powerful CPU with lots of RAM, you'll be looking at the likes of Clevo and AORUS and etc. that put desktop-class parts in a thick chassis, but... that bodes terribly for the peripherals they end up using. Some of the Clevo machines have individual gimmicks like 300Hz displays, but none of them seem to have all of "high DPI, good keyboard layout, good port arrangement, high performance". And this is true for basically all laptop vendors. OEMs think good peripherals always equate to "thin and light" which results in bad performance, either through bad parts or bad thermals. Maybe Frore Systems' new cooling solution will help slightly with ultrabook thermals, but until that happens, laptops are just suck. You may notice that this only matters because I even care. You may also notice that this is exactly what building a desktop is for. I am building a desktop, but I also have to build a laptop from scratch for the desktop so I can operate it from bed. Which would have been avoidable if I could've found a laptop in the first place. The point anyway isn't to say that there aren't any good laptops out there, but rather that if you want high performance (e.g. you are bothered by slowness), you can only get it as a package deal with the rest of the laptop... obviously. But the package deals all suck. The laptop market is so annoying sometimes.

yafbum 4y ago
I haven't really been in the market for a non-Apple laptop for a while (previously had to buy MacBook bc of specific software), so this gives me a great idea of what to watch out for when I get my next laptop. Thanks a lot!
- LoganDark 4y ago
  For what it's worth, the ROG Flow X16 (2022)[0] has some good specs (8-core CPU with 3070 Ti), a great keyboard layout (with correct arrow keys!), and other niceties like a mux switch and upgradeable RAM. It is so close to perfection—but doesn't have a 4K screen, ruining the whole package. Big reason why I dislike the market so much: the existence of that machine with only a single flaw that nonetheless ruins the value of the entire product. There's nothing else like it. It seems to be the absolute best machine the market has to offer... and it just barely misses. :( However, the screen resolution seems to be the only problem with it, so anyone who doesn't require specifically 4K (most people) would probably find it worth considering. [0]: https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-flow/rog-flow-x16-2022-series https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-flow/rog-flow-x16-2022-seri...