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Originally Posted by Steve2000  Five responses and no explanation as to why he is wrong. I am admitidly a laptop noob and I'm waiting for someone to educate me here. Who will take up the challenge?
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I'll take a stab at some of his lies/problems.
1. The gaming ones, with multiple video cards and big high rez screens are all 17 inches or larger and weigh as much as a mid-sized sedan.
A. This just isnt true, the 9750 alienware only weights 8.5 lbs, the Dell 1710 weights in at 8.5-9lbs. That simply isn't that heavy, 14-15 systems are weighting in at 5.5-7lbs.
2. Portability is hindered by the fact that to get anything not outright laughable for battery life, you need to add in a car battery.
A. Not true, my 9 cell battery from my M90 system is the same size and weight as that of my 1500 vostro and the M90 gets 3.5hrs of useable battery life.
3. Crack the screen on your laptop, and you are in hell. If it is six months old, expect to get merely screwed by the replacement costs.
A. Buy a decent warranty and problem solved and even with out warranty panels can be had for decent prices on-line pretty easy.
4. That brings us to the quality of the hardware itself, specifically the CPUs. You can make a CPU that is optimized for speed or for power use, but not both. The fundamental tradeoff in transistors is that speed brings leakage and more power use. More efficient transistors mean slower but less leaky parts. Expect to give up half a GHz or so if you want anything more than fractions of an hour of battery life.
A. Intel just blows this idea away with their latest core 2 processors. 'nuff said!
5. Then you have drivers, or rarely do you have drivers. The situation is improving, but they are still hard to find if they exist.
A. They exist and are revved just as often as their desktop couterparts.
6. The screens themselves are another bit of happiness. Response times are typically achieved through newer technologies or overdriving the screens. Overdriving costs power, and power costs battery life. Not good for laptops.
Any sane person will stop calling anything bigger than 17-inch a laptop, but 1920 * 1200 screens are starting to crop up in the 17-inch world now. While I applaud greater resolution, if you squint at the same rez on a 24-inch screen, imagine it on about 75 per cent the size. The increased dot pitch is not necessarily a plus if you can't read the text on the screen.
So, you end up with slow and blurry but still making you squint, or squinty and battery draining. Have you ever seen a laptop screen that is better than a high end desktop LCD? I mean that in a measurable, testable sense, not in fanboi "Oooooh.... shiny" mode.
A. While some points here are true I find my 17" WUXGA very useable and nice to look at, I would want nothing less as far as resolution goes. I find my WUXGA panel LCD in my M90 to look everybit as good as my 20" desktop panel.
7. A high DPI mouse also is needed. You can get p0wned repeatedly or you can use the right equipment. This brings us back to portability, but you get the point by now.
A. So buy one just like your desktop has and use it, it works just fine.
8. They may not be 100% future proof, but they are infinitely better than any laptop ever made. Get one with a decent handle or carry straps and you don't give away much in portability, and only a little in weight.
A. This is fine except what about the added 10lbs+ of weight needed for the LCD (which BTW doesn't have any handles).
9. especially a 'high end' gaming rig, well, prepare to be laughed at if I see you at a lan party.
A. And most people here would be laughing at you pulling out all your hardware and setting it up while we are already gaming.
Granted, There are compromises to be made when it comes to portable hardware but to call someone stupid for buying great systems like the 9750 and the 1710 screams of someone with a complex.
