It’s so much easier to understand what people are saying when they avoid using obscure, non-obvious acronyms.
Right, if it’s just a temporary thing you don’t need to go that high. A “gaming” machine is needed, IMO, if you work on the laptop full-time - whether you play games or not, those are the only ones really built for power and durability.
For the stopgap, buy refurbed with better specs and not new with worse and you’ll come out ahead on all fronts.
Sounds like a huge waste of money. If an office laptop is $700 and the gaming laptop is $1300, that $600 difference is almost entirely going towards a discrete GPU and higher tier CPU you don’t need. It’s not remotely worth it to pay $600 for $595 worth of components you don’t need and $5 worth of hinges and back plate.
The GPU adds a bunch of additional failure modes too, decreasing reliability (in terms of connections, drivers, display switching, heat management, fans, etc.)
I don’t think gaming laptops are generally built for reliability. They have to compromise on a LOT to fit into such a small space and come anywhere close to their desktop counterparts in terms of performance but still be at a similar price point. And some of them just outright use repurposed desktop parts (like CPUs), further adding to heat issues.
They also generally have much, much shorter battery life.
You’re leaving out a lot of cosmetics (also not needed) and giant cooling systems (counterproductive if you want a quiet laptop you use at a cafe!). Now, minor niggle, several years ago, there was the not such a minor issue that you could only get SSDs on the “gaming” or “pro” level laptops, but that’s not really an issue these days! Really, the only other thing that a gaming laptop might provide that could be nice but not NEEDED is a higher resolution monitor, and that’s only if you want to/need to review a lot of quality graphics / images or video on the screen, a relatively minor subset of laptop use outside of gaming.
To be fair, I think they generally DO try to put a fair amount of effort into making a $1,500 device feel like it should be worth $1,500 though I’ve also seen enough video reviews of gaming laptops with significant flex or weak keyboards to know it’s not always the case. I just can’t see saying a 60-100% premium for components you don’t need for your “usual laptop stuff” is worth it for perhaps better build quality.
Don’t forget a better quality screen. If it is something you’re going to stare at for hours a day, a good screen will make a huge difference. It isn’t just higher resolution, though that’s part of it.
I have my fleet of low end Dell’s I bought in 2019. The CPU, RAM, and SSD are all fine for using the computers today. The screens are terrible. They were terrible when new, and still are unpleasant to use.
More expensive doesn’t always mean better, but cheap can often mean worse. Metal frames, bodies, and hinges will go a long way towards making a laptop more durable, as well as thinner and potentially lighter.
It really does come down to use. Sure, go cheap for something that sits on a desk at home 95% of the time, and is used for entertainment browsing, and the occasional email. If it is actually going to be used for work that requires a reliable and functional computer, then spend more on quality. This almost always requires spending more to move into manufacturers’ higher end lines.
Eh, sure. But not a $600 better screen. $600 buys a very nice monitor. This is all theoretical unless we have an actual model to pick apart but it still feels like dramatically overpaying for the use case without getting much return. I’m also not saying to go super cheap but buying a laptop where the single most expensive component (GPU) is something you’ll never use just feels foolish.
It’s like buying a car. If you only need a reliable car to get you to work every day, then buying a $90,000 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat with a super powerful, 800 horsepower engine is a major waste of money when a $35,000 Hyundai IONIQ 6 will serve you just fine.
Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat — I took this 2 months ago
Hyundai IONIQ 6 — taken 3 months ago
Assuming a non-bleeding edge use case …
ISTM it used to be that part of the reasoning to buy a higher spec machine was future proofing. IOW, a $500 laptop won’t run the next gen of Windows + apps adequately, while a $1500 laptop will run the next 2-3 gens of Windows + apps adequately.
So they both cost, say, $250/year for the service they provide, but the fancier machine gets you 6 years without the hardware replacement hassle and you avoid 2 migrations. In exchange for which you pay an extra $1k two and four years sooner than buying three generations of $500 machines.
My current impression is the pace of tech change has slowed considerably, and it’s not clear to me how the price/perf curve on modern products has shifted. So other than hassle-avoidance, I’m not sure which approach is the cheaper one now on a dollars/year basis.
Anyone?
I have an HP z-book laptop for work that has some odd quirks when displaying on dual external monitors, and it never even occurred to me that the problem could be a driver for the dock! (Thunderbolt 230W G2) I always just assumed it was related to the NVidia video driver. Unfortunately corporate IT blocks me from downloading or installing any drivers, so it looks like I just have to live with it.
There’s never been a time when buying an N times more expensive laptop will extend the lifetime N times. As a roughly WAG, buying a 50% more expensive laptop can extend its longevity by maybe 20%. You spend more for the features you want now. That 50% more expensive laptop will be nicer to use now due to the better screen/better speakers/snappier response times etc.
But yes, also Moore’s Law effectively died mid 2010s via a combination of mobile becoming the more lucrative market so engineering investment went into greater power efficiency vs more performance and Intel botching the transition to 7nm.
Yep, those HP Thunderbolt docks suck (according to our IT guy).
Yeah, but now you’re buying a desktop, and you always get more performance per dollar on a desktop. Yes, I know, lots of people use monitors with laptops, and if you want to get a cheap laptop and a nice monitor, then go for it. That is a valid compromise.
My point is that there are lots of differences between a $300 laptop and a $1300 laptop. (Assuming it isn’t just a $300 laptop marked up by $1000.) The $1300 one will be better constructed and have a nicer screen. It will probably also be smaller (for the same size screen) and lighter. I absolutely know which one I’d want to use for hours per day, even if it were my own money.
Of course the trick in shopping is to find the good deal, that has a nice screen, and is built well, but is $700.
As has been demonstrated in this thread, shopping by brand is a bit pointless. All of the different brands mix and match the same CPUs, RAM, and SSDs, so you get whatever performance you’re willing to pay for. Each brand can have dozens of models that are differentiated on size, weight, material, screens, and price.
When I’m trying to help people buy laptops, the two things I need are a budget and a computer size. Then you can go down the path of looking for the best ultra-light 13" for $900, or whatever.
I think we understand each other, we just differ on what it’s worth. To me, it feels like upgrading to the master suite on a cruise for the nicer view but you’ll never use the spa, luxury restaurant or drink coupons. To someone else, maybe they really want that view. Buying a higher end gaming laptop for cruising Facebook on the sofa or bus feels the same way but YMMV.
One thing that you typically get with the higher priced laptop are features that work better, are more reliable, and extra features. For instance, a cheap laptop will have a cheap keyboard that gets clogged with gunk and the letters will wear off and the keys break off. A more expensive laptop will have a backlit, waterproof keyboard with a better tactile feel. A cheap laptop will have a cheap touchpad with poor resolution and pressure control. An expensive laptop will have better touchpad which will enable more precise mouse movement and interaction. An expensive laptop may have better fall protection. A cheap laptop touchscreen will be more clunky than the expensive one. And so on. None of those features are critical to the core use of the laptop, but it makes using the laptop a lot more enjoyable experience with fewer hassles. For something that you’re going to be using on a daily basis for hours at a time, it can be worth it to pay extra even if all the core components are basically the same from a performance perspective.
Is this really a feature of more expensive computers? Because that’s something that I would really like.
I work in IT at a hospital and get asked for advice all the time. If you buy their business line of laptops just about any brand will work well for you. I’m partial to HP and Lenovo myself.
I’d also add that a good video card on your laptop (yes, a video card ‘for gaming’) will often extend the useful lifetime of the machine, even if you don’t use it for games.
For my last machine I knew wanted something from Lenovo’s business line with a nice gaming card. This is the model I ended up purchasing: