Have Laptop Computers Got Better?

I

Invisible Crane

Adventurer
So I currently have this aging laptop that I've had since 2011 and quite frankly it's almost useless except for internet browsing, I'd like to build a proper desktop PC but rising costs have put a stop to that. I looked at laptops on amazon out of curiosity and one thing I noticed was quite a number of them have i7 processors, 8/16GB RAM, pretty good GPUs in them, etc. Though the prices can vary.

Heres one I found that honestly looks really good https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Laptops/...&qid=1488356095&sr=1-2&keywords=gaming+laptop

The one thing stopping me is Amazon have like thousands of them and I can't figure out which ones are good or not, though honestly I guess anything is better than the one I have right now. I know desktop PCs are better but are laptops now just as good as them?
 
On paper it looks good but real world mileage may vary...

A laptop will never match a desktop for performance due to power and space constraints but unless your a heavy, elitist type gamer (2011 laptop says no) then a laptop will work just fine.
 
What are you actually trying to do on the laptop? My laptop is amazing but it wasn't cheap and I don't play FPS games which require bleeding edge setups. The main issue with gaming tends to be that mobile graphics cards are often weak and poorly supported, driver-wise. So do some research on the kit in the models you're looking at - there should be benchmarks around - and then you should have a better idea.

R
 
I got a Dell 17 5000 series last year with a Core i5 chip and a Radeon Graphics card for £560, just before Brexit caused companies to jack their prices up. It was as slow as mud until I got rid of the Dell Bloatware. One of their utilities eats 100% of CPU time and it's always on. I'm not a gamer, all I need is it to stream 1080p video without glitching or buffering and it does that fine, the rest of it is used for surfing, the odd Facebook game, and word processing, and it's just what I need. It's also lightning fast now.

My old laptop was an Acer Inspire with a Celeron processor, and it too was lightning fast and did everything I wanted when I bought it around ten years ago, including playing HD video. Ten years of Vista updates alone filled up the hard drive, and updating the browsers, flash, whatever slowed it down to the point where it wouldn't play SD video anymore.

Incidentally, one of the Q&As on that laptop you linked to seems to suggest it's a scam offer from a marketplace seller. I've personally never heard of Aorus. Might be worth paying more and sticking with an established name.
 
I've really gone off laptops mainly due to the screens - Not just the poor viewing angles due to the vast majority being TN rather than IPS panels, but I've gotten used to having a screen straight on at eye-level which isn't great when I then go to use a laptop and have to look down and at an angle. Not great for the neck.

I did have a nice 17" HP laptop a few years back that was my sole computer at the time (the large screen was a little better for viewing) but it got very hot very easily, I clearly stressed it out by using it for long periods of time and as a result it didn't last long. Once you overheat the GPU or CPU in a laptop it's pretty much game over for the whole system, which is a big plus of desktops where you can just replace parts if they die and the cooling is a lot better.

I do have a Samsung laptop which I use so rarely now I often feel I might as well sell it, but it's definitely been the most reliable out of the three I've owned. If I was to need a new one for work/studies due to travelling (which I might in the next couple of years) I think I'd probably go for one of the new Dell XPS series simply because the screens look so nice.
 
Last edited:
Humbug to trackpads, I say! Such is the perennial drawback to laptops. For my recent holiday I used a Bluetooth keyboard with a tablet computer, and while its integrated trackpad made for a notable improvement over a touch-screen, ever did I yearn for a mouse to hand.
 
Back
Top