As all the new releases at CES 2017 slowly come trickling out and I keep hearing about more and more oversized, heavy, power hungry and less and less mobile extreme gaming laptops I had to ask the question: At what point does a laptop stop being a laptop and becomes a compromised desktop PC?
Let’s take MSI’s new offering the GT83. Here it is in all it’s glory:
Wait, that’s the previous GT 80 model that was just as ungainly and impractical. Who can tell the difference anymore. It seems people actually bought it since it’s getting an update. You can clearly tell even from a photo like this one just how massive this laptop is when you consider how small a USB-port is in real life.
So MSI and the gaming community in general thought it was a good idea to cram not one but two full sized desktop GTX980 GPUs running in SLI inside a laptop! After that they decided installing a mechanical keyboard, with its long key travel and bulky construction into a laptop was also a good idea. For the updated GT83 version someone thought it was a good idea to run not one, but 2 GTX1080s in SLI to power a 18-inch 1080p 60Hz screen! How is this even a thing? One GTX 1080 won’t run into the limits of that screen even in 4 years time when we’ll be talking about how the then new GTX1380 can do 8k at 60fps in VR or something.
At what point is a laptop bigger and more cumbersome than what you can build with a thin form factor desktop? I mean, MSI themselves built a thin compact desktop for CES 2017, the Trident 3 that is smaller than their laptop monstrosity. The Trident 3 actually looks much thinner than their new “gaming laptop”.
Now this trend has spread across the industry to all manufacturers. I’m not picking on MSI alone here because I consider myself a fan of theirs, but even I can’t see the point of these things(I can’t even call these laptops). Acer showed off their 9000$ Predator 21X, that has a curved 21-inch screen and weighs 9kg. The thing is obviously thicker and heavier than a thin desktop case. It is also larger than the typical mid tower desktop.
Asus showed off something equally impractical with their ROG series laptops that have detachable water coolers that also come with a carrying case. Not a small case, but a full on travel case with wheels you would use to move across the country with. At least in Asus’s case you can take just the laptop with you, that is obviously still a very heavy laptop with all that piping inside it, but still. Just look at this mess:
Razer showed off their 3 screened Valerie prototype, that eventually got stollen. I’m still wondering about how that one happened. That thing was also big, bulky(mind you not as bulky as the others) and heavy, where did the thieves hide it?
There obviously are people out there that are buying and demanding these stupid machines or MSI wouldn’t have decided to update their GT80 or Acer to build a 21-inch weight lifting device.
The futility of the exercise is staggering
What is the point of having a laptop that requires a big ass carrying case, just to move it from one place to another, has the battery life of a couple of minutes and requires to always be plugged in if you want to use it? Also most of them require not one but 2 power bricks with individual power cords. What is the difference between a laptop like that and a desktop PC then?
The futility of the exercise becomes much more obvious when you consider that you can build desktop PCs with full power desktop components, not neutered mobile components, that are much smaller, more powerful and can be more mobile than any of these “laptops”.
I really don’t get it. Who are these people that think that having a 21-inch “laptop” at Starbucks, a classroom or anywhere on the go seems reasonable? How are people not complaining that they can’t see past your desktop sized screen? Will you get a bill from your local cafe for plugging in those 2 big power bricks when you power on your machine? Why pay that much extra for something that is inferior performance wise to any similarly priced desktop PC? It also severely lacks all the mobility that defines any laptop.
I know some people will like to compare these things to high end cars like a Bugatti Veyron or other unobtanium cars, but the thing is, those can actually cash their checks in. They do have the performance and quality that justify their prince, status and exclusivity. Those things are really pushing boundaries. These “laptops” are more like some Mansory molested AMG S-Classes. All for show with little extra in the performance department. They are definitely pushing some boundaries, but not the ones they are playing within.
Let’s do a quick and dirty thought experiment because this is really bugging me.
The 4000 dollar 21 24-inch gaming desktop PC challenge
For this challenge I will consider building something just as good or better for half the price. I’m going to round up these numbers for easy calculations.
Let’s start this off with that 21-inch FullHD screen first. For about 270$ we can get the smallest gaming ready, 1080p 144Hz monitor on market: the 24-inch ASUS VG248QE
I looked for a 21-inch screen but there are none I can find quickly with high refresh rates, so we’ll go with this one for now.
Now, let’s see about that compact desktop shall we. Let’s keep it at comparable quality and craftsmanship and go for MSI’s own Vortex G65VR compact trashcan desktop PC with dual GTX1080s in SLI just like the “laptops” for a cool 3000$:
I think we can all agree that this thing is insanely powerful even by desktop PC standards.
All we need now is a keyboard, a mouse and a UPS that last 20min for the remaining 730$ budget. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the MSI Vortex draws 300w of power from the socket, just like these laptops do. So here we have this UPS for about 170$ that claims 20min at 300w draw. It’s not like you would be gaming on battery with these “laptops” anyway.
Now we still have 560$ to play with for a keyboard, mouse and possibly a headset. I think we can go for a highend setup here. Let’s go for the Corsair K95 with all its RGB and mechanical goodness at just under 170$.
No true gamer would be seen dead without a precision pointing instrument. So let’s go with a safe bet from people who know what their doing and get a Logitech G500 Gaming Mouse for another 120$. You were going to buy an external mouse for your laptop anyway. Just saying.
Now in the headset department we really don’t even need to be that picky. We are going agains laptop speakers, so basically any old gaming headset would do. Let’s take a Uh..shiny!..RGB enabled model like the Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma headset for about 80$.
so what are we going to do with the remaining 190$? What else does a gamer need. How about we go for an ergonomic massaged executive leather chair for 150$ and be done with it.
Now let’s tally everything up. We spent as follows:
- We got the 24-inch ASUS VG248QE for about 270$
- We got MSI Vortex G65VR compact desktop PC for 3000$
- We got a UPS for about 170$
- We got the Corsair K95 mechanical keyboard for another 170$
- We got a Logitech G500 Gaming Mouse for about 120$
- We got a Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma for just under 80$
- We finally got an ergonomic massaged executive leather chair for 150$ or more
All that is 3960$ in total. Beat that Acer Predator.
Now let’s assume you were willing to pay the full 8000$ price tag for one of these “laptops”. For the remaining 4000$ you can afford your very own personal assistant which you can hire for less than 15$/hour that will help you assemble/disassemble and move your entire desktop setup wherever you want to game on the go. That’s enough for 266 hours of on demand personal help. How often do you game on the go anyway?
Conclusion
While I was slowly getting worked up about the whole RGB craze thankfully I am not the only one who dislikes them and we won’t go into that rant. What did get me all worked up are all these extreme expensive and insanely impractical gaming laptops that keep showing up. I get it, some people have more money than sense and like to show off and that is okay. That oddball laptop here and there is good and it shows what is actually possible. Now it seems that all major manufacturers are jumping on the “extreme“(I should probably write this X-treme) gaming laptop band wagon and making completely impractical machines for the purpose they were intended. I hope that with my quick and dirty calculation I have shown you that these devices don’t make any sense when for half the price you can buy or build something that is better and much more powerful in every way.
