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Why can't anyone make the perfect laptop?

Ok - before you lose your nut. I'm specifically talking about a thin and light, like XPS 13 or MBP 13, etc.

All the top tier laptops have gotchas. And sure, I see that compromises need to be made, but the things I'd like to see in one laptop seem perfectly doable to me. It's a combination of what already exists in other laptops:

 

MBP's screen but with touch

MBP or Surface speakers

Surface Laptop webcam/mics

Surface Laptop's keyboard (subjective)

XPS slim bezels

Windows Hello (face unlock)

Thunderbolt 3

WiFi 6

Non-soldered rapid storage

Good software support.

Apple/Microsoft's QC and support.

 

It doesn't exist, and I feel like it could do.

 

Some come close.

I have the XPS 13 2-in-1.

It's almost all of those things, but I'm not happy with it. QC on this thing feels like a naked mole rat built it. And their Support is a joke.

Tighten up the QC, make the speakers not sound like trash at low volume. Remove the terrible audio software. Give the keyboard a little more travel and remove the pg up/dn by the arrow keys. Plus a couple of other bits, then it's about as good as it gets.

 

Other laptops have 16:9 displays, which are too wide, imo. I'm looking at you, Razer.

The Macbook Pro would be soooo good if it ran at a good temps, had a touchscreen and WiFi 6 (and Windows lol).

 

The Surface Laptop 3's screen is sub-par in many ways. Too much glare, not bright enough, needs more colour accuracy, thick bezels. Has no TB3. Storage also seems to be on the slower side, though forgivable as you can upgrade it yourself.

 

...the list goes on. Why? I'm sure it can be done. And when someone does it, I'll be first in line to buy.

 

Just my 2 pennies.

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5 minutes ago, peddles said:

Other laptops have 16:9 displays, which are too wide, imo. I'm looking at you, Razer.

Me sitting here infront of a 21:9 can only think one thing :c

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3 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

Me sitting here infront of a 21:9 can only think one thing :c

That's not a laptop though :)

It's important for laptop ergonomics for where the palm of your hands rest. Also more of an issue with 13" panels, taller screens just make way more sense at that size

 

On a desktop, yeah. Ultrawide all the way.

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Because your idea of perfect and my idea of perfect are imperfect in comparison.

 

I love my workstation laptop.  Its perfect for my needs.

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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9 minutes ago, peddles said:

Ok - before you lose your nut. I'm specifically talking about a thin and light, like XPS 13 or MBP 13, etc.

All the top tier laptops have gotchas. And sure, I see that compromises need to be made, but the things I'd like to see in one laptop seem perfectly doable to me. It's a combination of what already exists in other laptops:

 

MBP's screen but with touch

MBP or Surface speakers

Surface Laptop webcam/mics

Surface Laptop's keyboard (subjective)

XPS slim bezels

Windows Hello (face unlock)

Thunderbolt 3

WiFi 6

Non-soldered rapid storage

Good software support.

Apple/Microsoft's QC and support.

 

It doesn't exist, and I feel like it could do.

 

Some come close.

I have the XPS 13 2-in-1.

It's almost all of those things, but I'm not happy with it. QC on this thing feels like a naked mole rat built it. And their Support is a joke.

Tighten up the QC, make the speakers not sound like trash at low volume. Remove the terrible audio software. Give the keyboard a little more travel and remove the pg up/dn by the arrow keys. Plus a couple of other bits, then it's about as good as it gets.

 

Other laptops have 16:9 displays, which are too wide, imo. I'm looking at you, Razer.

The Macbook Pro would be soooo good if it ran at a good temps, had a touchscreen and WiFi 6 (and Windows lol).

 

The Surface Laptop 3's screen is sub-par in many ways. Too much glare, not bright enough, needs more colour accuracy, thick bezels. Has no TB3. Storage also seems to be on the slower side, though forgivable as you can upgrade it yourself.

 

...the list goes on. Why? I'm sure it can be done. And when someone does it, I'll be first in line to buy.

 

Just my 2 pennies.

I agree with you but companies won't collab with each other to make the "perfect laptop" Also thunderbolt and wifi 6 should start to be more common in the next few years

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Just now, peddles said:

That's not a laptop though :)

It's important for laptop ergonomics for where the palm of your hands rest, as well as being more of an issue with 13" screen, taller screens just make way more sense.

 

On a desktop, yeah. Ultrawide all the way.

my macbook are 16:10 and i cant lie im not really a fan of them they just look wierd to me lol. Also when carrying them they aren't as thin. I much prefer my 16:9 dell. I guess the perfect laptop doesnt exist because its too much based on preference.

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1 minute ago, Tristerin said:

Because your idea of perfect and my idea of perfect are imperfect in comparison.

 

I love my workstation laptop.  Its perfect for my needs.

I get that. But like I said, I'm talking about 13" ultra portables. Not workstations.

 

And while yeah, everyone's idea of perfect is different, I'm not asking for things which are really controversial in this category. Just the best bits from all other laptops.

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All that you've suggested increases cost... Macbooks I understand, but others dont cost remotely enough to do everything you want.

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

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Alienware 13R3 gets most of them. Just has fat bezels, and a shitty webcam/mic. The 1440p OLED touchscreen is better than the macbook's too. 100% sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI-p3. Probably even covers some of the ProPhoto colour space. And blacks are true black cause the pixels turn off.

Also it's got some other bonuses, like a GTX 1060 and a Core i7 7700hq. Few generations behind but it still handles most titles.

 

I thought Dell support was a joke but first time I had issues, I asked Colton from Linus Media Group here on the forum if he knew anyone who could help and he found someone to sort it out. Next time I sent the Alienware official page a Facebook message and they got it done.

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Just now, peddles said:

I get that. But like I said, I'm talking about 13" ultra portables. Not workstations.

 

And while yeah, everyone's idea of perfect is different, I'm not asking for things which are really controversial in this category. Just the best bits from all other laptops.

Eh, mines a 15" portable, so not really any difference from my perspective.  

 

Sounds like there is a niche market for completely custom laptops, and no one is filling that void.  Probably because costs of laptop, etc would yield little to no sales in that situation/market.  

 

 

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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32 minutes ago, ShortRouter said:

Asus Zenbook. Massively underrated.

16:9, no TB3, low resolution screen, slow RAM, slower CPU's

Does look nice though...

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1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

All that you've suggested increases cost... Macbooks I understand, but others dont cost remotely enough to do everything you want.

I'm ok with that. Make it cost more if it's perfect!

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2 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Eh, mines a 15" portable, so not really any difference from my perspective.  

 

Sounds like there is a niche market for completely custom laptops, and no one is filling that void.  Probably because costs of laptop, etc would yield little to no sales in that situation/market.  

 

 

Maybe. I just feel like the top competitors are all so close to getting it really, really right. It's frustrting!

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Just now, ShortRouter said:

most laptops are 16:9. It is what the TV industry dictates.

Not true. MBP, Surface Laptop 3 and XPS all have taller screens. They are the 3 most popular ultra portable premium laptops out there.

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5 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Alienware 13R3 gets most of them.

It does look good, but I'm not sure I can class it as ultra portable. I'd happily lose a bit of the graphics performance for some thinness. I guess it's a different category really.

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29 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

I agree with you but companies won't collab with each other to make the "perfect laptop" Also thunderbolt and wifi 6 should start to be more common in the next few years

I don't think it needs collaboration. Each company just needs to polish what they have an extra step. Up the price for all I care. If it has everything, it's fair that it costs more.

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2 minutes ago, peddles said:

I don't think it needs collaboration. Each company just needs to polish what they have an extra step. Up the price for all I care. If it has everything, it's fair that it costs more.

You would have to keep the old model to serve that price range and then it would be stupid to just make the same laptop but "better in every way."

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23 minutes ago, peddles said:

Not true. MBP, Surface Laptop 3 and XPS all have taller screens. They are the 3 most popular ultra portable premium laptops out there.

Look at the notebook segment as a whole. 90 % are 16:9.

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1 minute ago, Berkomeister said:

You would have to keep the old model to serve that price range and then it would be stupid to just make the same laptop but better in every way. 

Why? There are tiers of quality the entire way from Value to Premium. Why not have Ultra Premium?

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1 minute ago, ShortRouter said:

Look at the notebook segment as a whole. 90 % are 16:9.

Doesn't make it good though...

All taller aspect does it give you more, not take away.

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Just now, peddles said:

Doesn't make it good though...

All taller aspect does it give you more, not take away.

Disagree, for multimedia I take 16:9 over anything else. Imagine the black bars watching a 21:9 movie on a 3:2 display! For multimedia 16:9 is perfect.

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4 minutes ago, peddles said:

Why? There are tiers of quality the entire way from Value to Premium. Why not have Ultra Premium?

The laptops you want improved are already expensive. I can buy a 2080 ti for the same price where I live. What I am saying is that range is already premium. I don't think people even go above 2k usd in laptops, nobody will buy them so there is no reason for them to make it

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44 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

The laptops you want improved are already expensive. I can buy a 2080 ti for the same price where I live. What I am saying is that range is already premium. I don't think people even go above 2k usd in laptops

Maybe. I guess some options feel tantalisingly close. Even if not perfect, there's still room for improvement with smallish increase in cost. eg:

 

MBP - add WiFi 6 and touchsceen

XPS - better QC, maybe better speakers.

SL3 - better screen + TB3

 

Just those changes would probably be enough to avoid my rant!

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