A question for serious gamers! (Mods' opinions welcomed)

An external battery for this high power laptop would be great may enough to get an extra 4 hrs out of it I would not mind carrying ti around wahts an extra few pounds when this laptop already weighs 10lbs. I would also love to see a Mini PCI Blue tooth adapter. That way I can replace the sinky wifi with something useful!

1) Why, I'd like my lappie to have a built-in LCD projector that I can use to display games on a wall. (dream on, white boy).

2) I also like Braingoo's idea.

3) O-LED, low-power consumption display that can be rolled up like a poster.

4) I'll think of something else soon.

A low profile Docking station that utilizes the laptop resources (motherboard, memory, etc), only allows the use of desktop GPU, and therefore more power and easy replacement. You could use the fans as a cooling unit for the laptop as well.

Its all about the accessories! First of all, I feel that there needs to be more accessories for a laptop's expansion bay. The utilization of this space is evident in my buddy's Sony VAIO; theres an expansion for an internal subwoofer, or a pop-out "table" surface for your PDA etc. also, I love the idea of Sager 8890's little expansion bay for an MP3 player or multi-card reader. I would love to see a small space reserved for a pop-out laptop mouse. More laptops need to come with a remote, like my Alienware baby. Also, more laptops whould take some lessons from IBM such as their hard drive "airbag" technology for when the laptop is dropped while on, or their one button recovery software. Also, a real metal chassis and keys that glow through the letters would be a nice touch!

Ultimately it comes down to this, for me I want a laptop that can perform in most games with above 40fps with the graphics maxed out.......Basically a laptop that performs like the 6800ultra from nvidia. I wouldnt mind having a low powered processore that could handle gaming but give could battery life....something like the amd64m's. Just like the first guy said, external batteries like voodoo's speedpad would be awesome. I think voodoo has the right idea by making a pad that your laptop sits on into a portable battery as well! If only more could adopt this tech and maybe decrease price........

PS. Cool paintjobs are always welcome
PPS. If we could somehow get 16" QXGA displays and/or UXGA/QXGA 17" displays, I would be in gaming heaven

I also work in the gaming industry, as a concept artist/texture artist, but I'm trained as an industrial designer, originally, so I've always thought of new ways to make laptops more useable for gamers.

First off, the ability to input through a touchpad is very limited. There really should be a detachable, rechargeable wireless mouse in the notebook, or available as a peripheral.. one that works well and fits the form of the laptop, without having to remove the wireless interface everytime you stow it in your bag.

A well-designed, tiny joystick for laptops would make my day too. Perhaps one that could be attached to the side or suction-cupped to the wrist-rest area? I love to play flight sims, or just to be able to fly well in a game like Battlefield 1942, without lugging my 10-pound forcefeedback joystick with me wherever I go.

As an artist, I would love to see a Wacom graphics tablet incorporated into the screen of a laptop.. one with hi-res position, tilt, and pressure sensitivity, like Wacom's current "Cintiq" like this one tablets, but incorporated into a reversible screen, like a tablet PC.

Of course, faster response times on LCD or future OLED displays will be very nice, to get rid of the annoying tendency of the current technology for ghosting.

A GOOD pair of flat panel, folding speakers that flipped back along the screen would probably be a great addition too. I've seen one notebook that did this with a widescreen format display. It was an HP, or possibly Toshiba I think.

And finally, I would love to see a built in coffeemaker. Also a smokeless ashtray so I could smoke in my office.

I know One Desktop Video card in Laptop computers! That would be the best!
Even if it ment having to plug in an external device Like an AGP enclosure for laptops.

Hey Toddler,

Are you talking hardware or software?

Dantes

Hey Bradpokey, couldnt you just take the new logitech bluetooth optical mouse and have a bluetooth card in your laptop and do that for a wireless controller? The only thing I can think of is that the mouse will need a wireless base, but what if the internal bluetooth was installed as the "base" and probally the only external thing would be the charger, or we could even forgo that and make it a normal mouse that takes AA or something? I dunno tell me what you think.............also, what exactly is the difference between a lappy card and a dekstop card structure wise, other than size?

A mouse is a big thing. An MX700 (which I own, or even the MX900) are DESIGNED to be used with a charging base station (Unlike Microsoft mice) so they suck batteries, lasting only a day or two per charge (as opposed to a month on older Logitech or Microsoft mice). While this is great for desktop mice, as the much higher power drain leads to a way better wireless optical, it's not conductive to notebook use. While I think an integrated wireless mouse as proposed above is a bad idea from a space-used-inside-the-laptop standpoint, better wireless bluetooth opticals are always a good idea. Unfortunately, the only wireless opticals truely suited for gaming right now are the MX700/900 (Despite Microsoft's advancements, they're STILL the only mice to have the exact same performance (125hz) as USB desktop mice), and they don't have the battery lifetime that portable use requires. Not to mention that the MX700's basestation is too big to be carted around. Yeah, you can get the MX900, and instead of using it's bluetooth base station, use a USB blouetooth adapter, or MiniPCI card, but the battery problem remains.

Second beef? LCD. Yes, they're good currently. But 12-16ms on laptops should be more prevalent. And I'd like the companies to tell us what they are. I've asked Alienware twice to tell me the exact response rate on their 15.4 and 16.1 inch screens. They won't do it. They will say they're good, or give me a general range that encompasses all LCDs on the market today.

Other than that? Not much, really. Better battery tech would be nice, but it's on the way. Two up-and-coming power sources for laptops being looked at very keenly by me are fuel cells, and NEC's new batteries that perform on par with current ones, but recharge in 30-seconds. Yes, imagine recharging your laptop's battery in 30 seconds after a few hours of use. They use some sort of crazy organic resin that produces the same power as current rechargables.

Oh, and of course, how could I forget, I'd love to see the gap between mobile GPUs and desktop GPUs dissapear sooner rather than later. Eventually I think the difference between mobile and desktop GPUs will be like that between mobile and desktop CPUs; smaller, cooler, and less power consuming, but nearly as fast. But I'd love for this to happen very soon rather than in a few years.

the mx700 does not drain batteries, that is bull****. I have one at home and I dont have to recharge for usually about a week. Trust me on this one. I use my comp for close to 4-5 hrs a night so dont think its because I barely use it. I only charge it when the light goes red as well........so........and i wasnt talkin abt puttin the mouse inside the lappy I was proposing it as external, but its small and wireless and you can easily put it in ur bag and out of it and use it w/o pluggin **** in........Otherwise I agree with ur post totally...

not really game related but if i could have 2 HDD's AND the cd rom drive alll in at one time that would make me happy

Maybe they changed the batteries since I bought mine (A good while ago, a year at least)?

What are yours rated at? The batteries in mine are rated at 1700mAh.

Another factor is lifespan; as time goes on, batteries hold smaller and smaller charges. With my usage rate (4-6 hours per day?), if I don't charge it one night, the red light goes on the next day. I haven't had them DIE the second day yet, but 2 days is definately the max.

Or, if your batteries are rated the same as mine... maybe I got lemon batteries?

ill check when I get home fore you guspaz, right now Im at the "state" debate tourny at OU....its awesome here. I brought my mom's lappy here and found out they have wireless net which is a plus.......anyways...ill get my battery ratings to you as soon as I get home .

Jamaster, There is already two lappy's that will let you have dual hds and a cd drive, that would be the 8790 which also supports raid 1.0, and the 8890 (though it is a huge mother****er..........

You must have seemingly low standards Just kiddin, I couldn't pass it up.

When I went to KU the old saying used to be "If I owned He!! and Oklahoma, I'd live in he!! and rent out Oklahoma"

haha

This may sound stupid, but to have specific computer configurations on 16 Meg SD cards so that whatever card is in the reader the computer boots those specific specs. It would save having to change configs between my flight sim, KOTOR and the like. It would also allow some background progs to be available depending on the spec you had on each card.

Dantes

It would also be cool to use this feature to change between OS's like if you hade on card in it would always boot to Linux but if you put in the other it woul always goto windows.