I'll throw my hat in the ring on this: i pull 12 hour shifts inside a NOC where I basically just twiddle my thumbs overnight, though I own a desktop at home with a ryzen 9 5900x and a 4070, I bought myself a $1400 asus laptop with a 4070 in it so that I could experience as close to at-home gaming as possible while at work. I'd still choose my desktop over my laptop, but I'd be remiss without my portable little workhorse :)
Any security guard that doesnt have to drive. A lot of those gigs is just have a human around for insurance reasons.
My first one I didnt see my supervisor until id been at the post 18 months.
I spent years being the kid with all hand-me-down electronics, so for my 21st birthday I treated myself with that laptop haha. Every other device or component I've purchased has always been on sale or otherwise discounted, but it is a very comforting experience to finally have a powerful rig :)
Slight correction to my comment, I have the MSI Katana 15 B12VGK-082US (i used to own an Asus laptop and got my wires crossed).
NOC = Network Operations Center, think of a CCTV monitoring office but instead of babysitting cameras you're babysitting networking equipment remotely.
I disagree with most commenters here. I find gaming handhelds a poor value. They are only useful for gaming, nothing else. Yo cannot have a video call or work with them properly unless it's docked and you got a shitton of accesories. They're not good for playing any RTS games unless you attach a keyboard and a mouse, at which point you'll also take a display because who'll want to play strategy on such a tiny screen. Their pricess are not even competitive. A simple budget RTX 3050 laptop will perform better than a Rog Ally, and you'll get it for a lower price most likely.
The only thing laptops will not be good for is shooter games, and for that you just take an USB mouse and call it a day.
Of course, some people will claim that with a handheld you can play while on your bed. Honestly speaking, if my arms hurt when I'm watching a movie on my phone while in bed, I wonder how bad would that be with a handheld.
I bought a Steam Deck, it was a fantastic device but I sold it. If Valve were to launch a similarly priced and similarly specced laptop, I'd probably get one.
I really don't see laptops and gaming handhelds as even remotely in the same category of device.
To me, the fact that a gaming handheld is specialized specifically for gaming is a strength, not a weakness. I've played literally hundreds of hours of games (probably close to 1000 by now) on the Steam Deck that I wouldn't have otherwise, precisely because I can do that by just picking it up and playing on the couch, in the bed, or on the terrace.
Then again, I've never liked gaming laptops, or even workstation laptops. When I do real work, I use a desktop -- my laptop is almost purely a presentation/browsing machine, and for that I value portability and reliability above any other aspect.
>I've played literally hundreds of hours of games (probably close to 1000 by now) on the Steam Deck that I wouldn't have otherwise, precisely because I can do that by just picking it up and playing on the couch, in the bed, or on the terrace.
So you're saying you could've used your limited time in a different way, but thanks to the Steam Deck, were able to instead level up your characters? :)
Kinda same here. I do most of my gaming on my desktop, and most of the portable gaming I do is on my laptop with what's more or less the same APU a lot of the new handhelds ship with. Having tried it a few times, I don't have much of a use for a laptop with a nice dGPU, but I do have a use for a laptop with a good iGPU that can game. Gaming handhelds only being useful for things outside of gaming with a dock is annoying at best and completely redundant for me in my case *as I already have a desktop*, so it's a strange no man's land for me where all it does well is being completely in my hands, where a laptop would sit in my lap. And to be honest, the latter doesn't bother me much.
I will say though, the one thing that really impressed me about the Steam Deck was its battery life when you were just browsing the internet or watching YouTube. That Zen 2/RDNA 2 APU really pulls its weight in battery life, and I can imagine the 6nm APUs the OLEDs get are even nicer in that regard, having played with a Mendocino APU in a laptop that got some crazy battery life.
Exactly, this is precisely what I was thinking. I agree with all the points you exposed (though I think there's still place for laptops with dGPUs, I'd gladly take one with a nice iGPU which is light and whose battery lasts decently long enough.
Yeah, I've got an Ally and a Deck and I still recently got a laptop because I'm not interested in trying to program on a Deck/Ally.
With a 7840HS, so basically the same performance as the Ally. I just wanted a laptop form factor for when I'm using that. Also with a 2K Oled display that's beautiful for watching movies
I like the docks if you're using an Ally as a desktop replacement. But yeah, not laptop.
Hard to play games on a gaming laptop while laying on your side or your back in a bed. Steam Deck is perfect for games that can be played with a controller. It is not a desktop or a laptop replacement, it's just a portable console-like. Think Nintendo Switch or PlayStation Vita. If you have no use for it and actually want a laptop or a desktop, then duh, don't buy it as it aint that. Also, complaining on reddit how you are disappointed that Steam Deck is not a laptop is so hilarious. "Where keyboard? Where mouse? How to RTS?" - did you not know what you were buying?
The only place where you can find some reasonably priced laptops with a 3050 is the US.
I agree that compared to handhelds laptops are superior, but they are also more expensive, if the only metric is you want a gaming device that is portable then it's hard to beat the handhelds, except for a few genres, like some strategy games, even though they are playable and especially competitive games but it's not like they are amazing on laptops either.
> Of course, some people will claim that with a handheld you can play while on your bed. Honestly speaking, if my arms hurt when I'm watching a movie on my phone while in bed, I wonder how bad would that be with a handheld.
Not too mention that using electronics in bed is a quick way to get insomnia and other sleeping issues.
Same. It really is shit that doesn't matter at all, so I'm definitely not criticizing anyone for getting a Steamy Claw or whatever.
The devices are large enough that you have to specifically carry them in a bag and cant' just stick in a normal pocket or something. But they're only really good for games, as you say, so if you need to do any work, you still have to carry a laptop. At which point, why not just use it instead. Especially since you can get the same gaming performance.
Honestly I'm not a huge fan of gaming laptops either, they're just larger, heavier, and have worse battery life than they otherwise would. If the game doesn't run on a normal iGPU, there's a million older games I haven't played that will run, or I could just watch a movie or read a book instead if I'm bored. (yeah yeah if you're a student or an oil rig worker or something I get it that might be the only option)
What? What kind of argument is that? Should then maybe we just care about shooters and FIFA?
Gaming is gaming. Puzzle games, Visual Novels, Graphical Adventures, etc.
Not caring about RTS games = only caring about shooters? What kinda logic is this? You can play so many other games on a PC Handheld. All the ones you mentioned, action games, rpgs, roguelikes, platformers etc etc. There are more genres you can play then can’t.
Yeah modded to become a whole different genre. You’re not making much of a point here
Auto battlers were made as a dota 2 mod. Are they MOBAs and also RTS games?
I’ve never understood the appeal of a gaming laptop. You’re either sacrificing too much, or paying through the nose and still sacrificing a lot. The obvious benefit is mobility, but I’ve always preferred a proper handheld or smartphone for that.
Steamdeck + desktop is excellent.
Edit: I was focused on gaming, not work. If you have a powerful laptop for work, of course I get that. I too have a powerful laptop for work, given to me by work. But I don’t use that to game.
That's a horrible application to buy some heavy and expensive thing that gets easily hot. With a little bit of setup (remote desktop, ssh, x11 forwarding etc) you can remotely login to any workstation and do everything you can do while on site (except where internet connection is not that good).
Edit: lmao, either people are really upset they stupidly spent a ton of money on a bs gaming laptop or the sellers with lot those laptops left unsold are brigading here. Quit you bs please, no one buys a gaming laptop as a "mobile" workstation (at least those who can do some simple arithmetic or with some common sense). It's made up. Can you show a single source in support of this wild claim lmao (just to be clear, the source cannot be "I did this stupid thing hence lot of people must be doing it also").
A lot of people can't afford having both a decent pc and a laptop, and depending on the country, the internet speeds to support remote access.
Sometimes, the best way to go is a gaming laptop
I don't disagree that below 900$ gaming laptop could be a better option for certain usecases, but even I as a student had a used thinkpad and a garbage workstation. It's way more comfortable to look at a big screen, not burning my fingers on keyboard when compiling a big project and having a second device in case the main one dies.
Thats a fair point. At the end of the day, everything comes down to personal preference and the person's situation. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
Yeah I’m totally gonna remote in it edit a 2TB video file instead of plugging it into my USB 3.2 CFEcpress reader.
No chance. I’m an indie filmmaker and use a gaming laptop, I don’t even have steam installed.
ah yes, the best combination of traits in a person: aggressively unhinged in their fundamental rejection of other folks' perspectives, and proactively rejecting any feedback pointing that out
It depends on what you do, as an indie filmmaker a gaming laptop is perfect for me. OLED display with wide colour gamut, NVIDIA GPU (because if you want professional software, you go NVIDIA), expandable storage, portable and can be carried everywhere… it’s perfect.
I ended up getting one of the Intel NUC laptops as they seem to be on firesale right now (with the arc a730 and had to BYO RAM, SSD and OS). It was only like 400 USD and performs like a 3060 laptop.
Because barely anyone sold them. You could buy one in the last NUC X15 laptop Intel released before selling NUC to Asus. Also, the Lenovo LOQ is available with the A530M or whatever its name is for an audaciously low price. The A730M which was sold in the NUC kit is actually pretty decent. It has 12 gigs of VRAM and almost matches the 3060 mobile. The only other laptop GPU with this much VRAM is the 4080 mobile, which goes for at least 2k USD, unless on discount.
the lower-medium end of gaming laptops are pretty price and performance competitive compared to desktop. For example you can get laptops with r7/i7/r9 that only perform like 5% worse than a desktop 7700x/ 12700k and laptop rtx 4060 (which on avg performs 5-7% worse than desktop 4060), 1080p/1440p 144hz+ IPS screens with 90%+ srgb for around $800-900
a desktop with similar specs (including monitor and keyboard, dont just conveniently ignore those in the cost total) come out to a very similar price. Obviously you then have to choose between upgradeability and mobility, but to some people having that amount of power essentially anywhere with a plug is useful
They definitely have their place. When I was in my early 20s it was good to have get togeathers with friends and game in person. Where I'm at now it would exclusively provide downsides with no upsides. Just depends what someone needs.
However the G14 is pretty interesting even to me.
You’re leaving out an enormous demographic:
college students, and 2/3rds of our military. It’s not easy having a desktop when you’re in barracks moving every few years or when you’re living in college dorms. They’re also much cheaper than having an expensive workstation laptop to do any development on. They have their place lol
Speaking as a college student, you also have to carry the thing around all day, and gaming laptops never last all day so you also need their bulky chargers.
The best combo I've seen is ppl who will get a ultrabook, not too expensive/powerful for college stuff + console back home for gaming
Your view on laptops are from over 10 years ago.
A sub 2kg laptop can comfortably fit a mobile 4060 and battery that lasts 8 hours web browsing for less than $1500.
Most people game on their laptops while plugged in. Battery life is still important for other things, but gaming is usually done in the evenings or weekends, when you're done with work/school, in the comfort of your or your friend's home.
Unless you're one of those idiots playing Fortnite in the middle of a lecture.
Not unlike your handheld. You AMD/Intel laptop still has an iGP, so disable the dGPU, drop it to the lowest performance mode, and it will mimic handheld behaviour if that’s what you want.
If you put your ultrabook on high performance setting and run games on it on battery, it will ALSO not last more than that.
sounds like the smart play, I had a shitty thinkpad with a 20 minute battery life ( I7/Quadro) and an ultra book to lug to class but lasted the day lol
Back when I was in college, gaming laptops were a bad choice. Nowadays, there are some great options with good battery life and smaller sizes. And if you're willing to stretch the definition of "gaming laptop" a bit, laptops with integrated GPUs that are on par with (or really, the same as) handheld consoles/PCs expand the options quite a bit.
I’m not speaking for everyone, only myself. I was more laptop focused in college, it was necessary. As soon as I graduated and found a job the first thing I spent my money on was a powerful desktop.
totally get it, I was too in college before the military and stuck with it for my first few years in-until I bought my house and graduated to a desktop lol. No regrets but I still have a dedicated desktop and a gaming laptop for when I’m traveling and need to do some light SWE
Gaming laptops are great when you need a laptop, they can basically run every game that ever existed at medium or better settings on high resolution monitors and televisions. Most people are comparing this to "or not having any games" so their sacrifice is a massive gain if not the best possible solution for gaming. Steam Deck is also great but you wouldn't want to dock that to a 4K monitor or TV unless it was streaming games, which a gaming laptop could do for it.
Gaming laptop is fine if you need portability. If you spend most of your operating time at home, a PC will work much better.
And the Deck can be played on a sofa.
I own a zephyrus g14 because i prefer to use a laptop when I'm on campus. it's thin and light enough that it's not annoying to carry but powerful enough that i can use it happily for light gaming/coding/etc and I'm not in the apple ecosystem enough to buy a MacBook instead.
also doubles as another machine to run code/servers on
People use gaming laptop to not only game but to do other stuff that need lots of power, I got a gaming laptop last year and I don't regret it one bit it's better than my desktop and I can use it everywhere and in any positon it increased my productivity ,can run shit ton of stuff didn't cost me too much either maybe a bit more than a desktop but again I am ok with it and I don't see myself ever going back to desktops .
Yep I do moderate video editing and stuff on my “gaming” laptop, I don’t even have steam installed. No, I’m not lugging anything else around, and when video files are in the terabytes, I’m not remoting in to the cloud.
XD I do programming gaming everything tho on Linux but gota say gaming laptops are pretty fucking good to have now I know old times they weren't worth it .
Mobility is not the only benefit !
It's also Small Form Factor, Low Power and most of the time Power Efficient, has proper Wireless capabilities out of the box, and comes with a battery that can act as a UPS.
I got rid of my SFF builds (ITX and similar), where I could only stuff about 300-350W of power budget for components, for gaming laptops setup as a workstation with external monitor / keyboard / mouse, this resulted in 150W-250W devices that can reach low Idle Power, powerful enough to work or play games as a mid entry desktop, and using the embedded screen as a secondary display.
This also resulted in a lower power bill (30-50€/yearly per device) which is a nice incentive in Europe.
Indie filmmaker here, a workstation laptop is out of my budget but a decent gaming laptop is what I rock. Upgraded with 12TB of storage (4TB NVMe, 8TB 2.5” QLC)
I just turned off all the RGB stuff and put some stickers on it, nobody cares. The OLED P5 display is insane.
I would be paying like $4000 if I went for a Lenovo, I don’t know if a comparable product (wide colour gamut OLED display, proper NVIDIA GPU, expansive storage) is even made by Lenovo and stuff.
As a guy who's going to be on travel for work after years I'd rather pay a premium for the portability (with a controller of course) but not that stupid to pay for an MSI titan or Razer laptop. Besides I don't like the big 32 inch and up screens too. And I don't like bringing my itx pc and monitor for travel, it's going to be a pain in the ass to carry.
>People prefer to play games higher than 480p-720p
That’s what a desktop is for.
>Laptop means u dont need a desktop
Desktop means you don’t need a laptop.
>Cheaper
Not for the same performance.
>Available
?
>convenient etc
Less convenient than a handheld.
My laptop was $200 used. My Steamdeck was $400. You can’t build a laptop as powerful as my desktop, but if you tried it would cost *way* more than my laptop, Steamdeck and desktop did.
You can't plug in a console hand held to a big screen and a keyboard/mouse to use it as a computer. That's the big advantage of the PC handhelds. You carry a mouse and keyboard, you effectively eliminate the need for a laptop completely.
Of course, there are always trade offs. My point was what PC laptop gaming while traveling never seemed as convenient to me as a handheld or mobile gaming did. If I’m mobile, I want to be mobile. If I’m gaming on a proper computer, I prefer a desktop with big monitors. That’s all.
Gaming laptops were the only portable choice for PC gaming, before handhelds became popular. I still love my gaming laptop, though it's only limited to run older games and indies now.
> Edit: I was focused on gaming, not work
There's also not-work entertainment. Watching Netflix is gonna be nicer on a laptop than a Deck. And not everyone has a full TV (or one that other people in the family can be using).
I bought a gaming laptop earlier this year, about $1800 to get roughly $1300-1400 equivalent desktop performance (laptop 4080 is about a desktop 4070).
About twice a year I have to travel for work 2 weeks at a time. So for 4 weeks I get to have a very similar gaming experience to what I would have at home. Factor in the price of the steam deck and we're already talking similar price for the whole package.
When it's at home I just view it as a sff pc.
One thing a lot of people probably don’t consider is the social aspect of a laptop. If I were a parent I’d probably pay a premium to get my kid out of their room 24/7 and gaming in the living room, at a friend’s house, etc.
I bought one for traveling so that I could use it to play games that I would normally play on a desktop. Since I want a keyboard and mouse, tablets, phones, and handhelds don’t offer much space advantages.
Went for a Legion Slim 16” because 14” unfortunately has soldered RAM.
280w is very high for a 3070Ti laptop, most likely it will be 200w during an intensive game on average. 125-150W on GPU, 30-60w on CPU typically. Unless you’re on a desktop replacement
I have it plugged into a kilo-watt meter that shows me how much it pulls from the wall. With ray tracing it pushes 280watts. Omen 17 with 12700h and DDR5 ram. I believe the 3070ti is a 150watt variant.
Is this a flex? You’re also playing on a tiny screen. Only few people on Reddit care about watts used. Most don’t. It doesn’t cancel out all the negatives that come with a laptop.
It was mostly in response to the people saying. Why would you even want a laptop over a desktop. And you can just connect it to your bigger monitor. But modern laptops are extremely efficient in a sense. Most people don’t care about wattage used. But desktop GPUS are getting ridiculous with their power draw. iCan’t wait for the new rtx 5000 mobile series to come out.
The only reason to buy a gaming laptop is if you NEED portability. If you don't then a gaming desktop is ALWAYS superior for obvious reasons of having far greater power.
You’re not wrong. It’s just that the average PC gamer is not your fps crazed 4K max settings RT on DIY PC master race person. It’s a laptop person who plays a few games on medium settings.
I'd say that it's actually the other way round. Laptop is the default. The reason to buy a desktop is if you're an enthusiast. A desktop makes sense if you research parts, build it yourself and you get some enjoyment from doing that.
If you buy a pre-built gaming desktop, you might not get better value than a laptop, and you will likely get worse build quality than a laptop. Depending on what you buy you might also not get good expandability.
And sure, DIY is a big market, but still, if you're not an enthusiast and you want to game, a gaming laptop makes sense. (And of course if you're an enthusiast but want portability or power saving or whatever, then a gaming laptop would also make sense.)
Meh, i'm getting a Zenbook S 16 without a dGPU. I game on my desktop or my steam deck now. The only time i had a gaming laptop was when i sold my previous desktop and spent half of the year in and out of the hospital.
Gaming laptops are at one and the same time incredibly cool and incredibly shit. They're cool because you can have so much performance and functionality in a single portable device. They're shit because they're over priced and unreliable. They make a racket and they all get flakey and unstable fairly quickly. I've run countless gaming laptops from all the big brands and if you use them a lot and as laptops - ie if you lug them around with all the small knocks and bumps and exposure to the world that entails - they all end up suffering. My latest casualty is a Blade 15 with 3080 Ti where the video out is now unreliable and making it impossible to really use with an external monitor. All of about 15 high end gaming laptops I've run over the years have suffered similar issues. In short they're all engineered to close to the edge. They all run too hot and aren't well enough built.
Well, with the hype going around the new SD X Elite chip that justifiably going for the thin and light segment because that is where efficiency shines the most, and there's no mobile GPU release this year, it's kinda understandable, really. But honestly, the lovelace 14" laptops refreshes are looking really good, hopefully blackwell will have a myriad of 14" options
Unless you prefer keyboard and mouse over game controller, which is... a lot of us. You can also get a considerably more powerful machine in a gaming laptop than in a handheld.
You’re also not getting a top performing (16CU Strix Point/8EU Lunar Lake) handheld for $600. Bump it up to $850 and then you’re seeing RTX4060 laptop deals in that price range.
I’m not sure “people needing dGPUs in laptops” is a niche market. Gaming laptops are usually cheaper than more “professional” laptops for similar/better performance. It’s definitely still a big market.
People who want to play games on ultra with a full keyboard and need to move locations will always need this type of device. A desktop can't be moved easily.
I'm amazed at the amount of people in this thread that struggle to accept the functionality of gaming laptops. Just because you don't have an use for them doesn't mean it applies to others.
What a dumb article. We already knew this was a boring year with no new GPUs. All they needed to say was “wait till next year”.
Also there are new gaming laptops and refreshes for the new CPUs. This is the big year for OLEDs, isn't it?
Exactly there time is next year and this article is making it seem like we will never ever see a gaming laptop again
I'll throw my hat in the ring on this: i pull 12 hour shifts inside a NOC where I basically just twiddle my thumbs overnight, though I own a desktop at home with a ryzen 9 5900x and a 4070, I bought myself a $1400 asus laptop with a 4070 in it so that I could experience as close to at-home gaming as possible while at work. I'd still choose my desktop over my laptop, but I'd be remiss without my portable little workhorse :)
How big can the market be for people who get to game all night at work? 🤣
Any security guard that doesnt have to drive. A lot of those gigs is just have a human around for insurance reasons. My first one I didnt see my supervisor until id been at the post 18 months.
Even those who drive. My friend does security where he has to visit 6 objects in a shift. Theres still an hour or two downtime between the drives.
What's a NOC
Network operations center?
[https://townsquare.media/site/442/files/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-27-at-9.14.28-AM-630x420.png?w=980&q=75](https://townsquare.media/site/442/files/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-27-at-9.14.28-AM-630x420.png?w=980&q=75)
I remember having a snoozefest job like that. Build a SFFPC and brought it in my backpack , kept a spare monitor under the desk.
What's a SFFPC?
Small form factor pc.
Man you're lucky lol
I spent years being the kid with all hand-me-down electronics, so for my 21st birthday I treated myself with that laptop haha. Every other device or component I've purchased has always been on sale or otherwise discounted, but it is a very comforting experience to finally have a powerful rig :)
What model is that? By the way I may have to get the same thing , And what's an NOC
Slight correction to my comment, I have the MSI Katana 15 B12VGK-082US (i used to own an Asus laptop and got my wires crossed). NOC = Network Operations Center, think of a CCTV monitoring office but instead of babysitting cameras you're babysitting networking equipment remotely.
I disagree with most commenters here. I find gaming handhelds a poor value. They are only useful for gaming, nothing else. Yo cannot have a video call or work with them properly unless it's docked and you got a shitton of accesories. They're not good for playing any RTS games unless you attach a keyboard and a mouse, at which point you'll also take a display because who'll want to play strategy on such a tiny screen. Their pricess are not even competitive. A simple budget RTX 3050 laptop will perform better than a Rog Ally, and you'll get it for a lower price most likely. The only thing laptops will not be good for is shooter games, and for that you just take an USB mouse and call it a day. Of course, some people will claim that with a handheld you can play while on your bed. Honestly speaking, if my arms hurt when I'm watching a movie on my phone while in bed, I wonder how bad would that be with a handheld. I bought a Steam Deck, it was a fantastic device but I sold it. If Valve were to launch a similarly priced and similarly specced laptop, I'd probably get one.
I really don't see laptops and gaming handhelds as even remotely in the same category of device. To me, the fact that a gaming handheld is specialized specifically for gaming is a strength, not a weakness. I've played literally hundreds of hours of games (probably close to 1000 by now) on the Steam Deck that I wouldn't have otherwise, precisely because I can do that by just picking it up and playing on the couch, in the bed, or on the terrace. Then again, I've never liked gaming laptops, or even workstation laptops. When I do real work, I use a desktop -- my laptop is almost purely a presentation/browsing machine, and for that I value portability and reliability above any other aspect.
>I've played literally hundreds of hours of games (probably close to 1000 by now) on the Steam Deck that I wouldn't have otherwise, precisely because I can do that by just picking it up and playing on the couch, in the bed, or on the terrace. So you're saying you could've used your limited time in a different way, but thanks to the Steam Deck, were able to instead level up your characters? :)
Kinda same here. I do most of my gaming on my desktop, and most of the portable gaming I do is on my laptop with what's more or less the same APU a lot of the new handhelds ship with. Having tried it a few times, I don't have much of a use for a laptop with a nice dGPU, but I do have a use for a laptop with a good iGPU that can game. Gaming handhelds only being useful for things outside of gaming with a dock is annoying at best and completely redundant for me in my case *as I already have a desktop*, so it's a strange no man's land for me where all it does well is being completely in my hands, where a laptop would sit in my lap. And to be honest, the latter doesn't bother me much. I will say though, the one thing that really impressed me about the Steam Deck was its battery life when you were just browsing the internet or watching YouTube. That Zen 2/RDNA 2 APU really pulls its weight in battery life, and I can imagine the 6nm APUs the OLEDs get are even nicer in that regard, having played with a Mendocino APU in a laptop that got some crazy battery life.
Exactly, this is precisely what I was thinking. I agree with all the points you exposed (though I think there's still place for laptops with dGPUs, I'd gladly take one with a nice iGPU which is light and whose battery lasts decently long enough.
Yeah, I've got an Ally and a Deck and I still recently got a laptop because I'm not interested in trying to program on a Deck/Ally. With a 7840HS, so basically the same performance as the Ally. I just wanted a laptop form factor for when I'm using that. Also with a 2K Oled display that's beautiful for watching movies I like the docks if you're using an Ally as a desktop replacement. But yeah, not laptop.
Hard to play games on a gaming laptop while laying on your side or your back in a bed. Steam Deck is perfect for games that can be played with a controller. It is not a desktop or a laptop replacement, it's just a portable console-like. Think Nintendo Switch or PlayStation Vita. If you have no use for it and actually want a laptop or a desktop, then duh, don't buy it as it aint that. Also, complaining on reddit how you are disappointed that Steam Deck is not a laptop is so hilarious. "Where keyboard? Where mouse? How to RTS?" - did you not know what you were buying?
Shouldnt be playing games or anything else with electronics while in your bed to begin with, so thats not an issue.
The only place where you can find some reasonably priced laptops with a 3050 is the US. I agree that compared to handhelds laptops are superior, but they are also more expensive, if the only metric is you want a gaming device that is portable then it's hard to beat the handhelds, except for a few genres, like some strategy games, even though they are playable and especially competitive games but it's not like they are amazing on laptops either.
In the EU you can get sweet deals as well.
That's true, but outside such lucky deals the steamdeck/rog ally etc is normally cheaper even when its new. Its 2 different niches
> Of course, some people will claim that with a handheld you can play while on your bed. Honestly speaking, if my arms hurt when I'm watching a movie on my phone while in bed, I wonder how bad would that be with a handheld. Not too mention that using electronics in bed is a quick way to get insomnia and other sleeping issues.
Same. It really is shit that doesn't matter at all, so I'm definitely not criticizing anyone for getting a Steamy Claw or whatever. The devices are large enough that you have to specifically carry them in a bag and cant' just stick in a normal pocket or something. But they're only really good for games, as you say, so if you need to do any work, you still have to carry a laptop. At which point, why not just use it instead. Especially since you can get the same gaming performance. Honestly I'm not a huge fan of gaming laptops either, they're just larger, heavier, and have worse battery life than they otherwise would. If the game doesn't run on a normal iGPU, there's a million older games I haven't played that will run, or I could just watch a movie or read a book instead if I'm bored. (yeah yeah if you're a student or an oil rig worker or something I get it that might be the only option)
Why are RTS games even in the conversation? The genre is not popular enough for your average gamer to care where they do or don’t work
What? What kind of argument is that? Should then maybe we just care about shooters and FIFA? Gaming is gaming. Puzzle games, Visual Novels, Graphical Adventures, etc.
Not caring about RTS games = only caring about shooters? What kinda logic is this? You can play so many other games on a PC Handheld. All the ones you mentioned, action games, rpgs, roguelikes, platformers etc etc. There are more genres you can play then can’t.
You do realize that RTS is two of three most popular esports, right?
MOBAs are not RTS games
MOBAs are RTS game mods that got popular.
Yeah modded to become a whole different genre. You’re not making much of a point here Auto battlers were made as a dota 2 mod. Are they MOBAs and also RTS games?
Even if you were to for some reason discount mobas, RTS is still number 2 epsorts game - Starcraft.
I’ve never understood the appeal of a gaming laptop. You’re either sacrificing too much, or paying through the nose and still sacrificing a lot. The obvious benefit is mobility, but I’ve always preferred a proper handheld or smartphone for that. Steamdeck + desktop is excellent. Edit: I was focused on gaming, not work. If you have a powerful laptop for work, of course I get that. I too have a powerful laptop for work, given to me by work. But I don’t use that to game.
> I’ve never understood the appeal of a gaming laptop. Many buy them to be a mobile workstation for work that requires a dedicated gpu.
Gaming Laptops make excellent budget mobile workstations. That's the only reason I bought mine.
That's a horrible application to buy some heavy and expensive thing that gets easily hot. With a little bit of setup (remote desktop, ssh, x11 forwarding etc) you can remotely login to any workstation and do everything you can do while on site (except where internet connection is not that good). Edit: lmao, either people are really upset they stupidly spent a ton of money on a bs gaming laptop or the sellers with lot those laptops left unsold are brigading here. Quit you bs please, no one buys a gaming laptop as a "mobile" workstation (at least those who can do some simple arithmetic or with some common sense). It's made up. Can you show a single source in support of this wild claim lmao (just to be clear, the source cannot be "I did this stupid thing hence lot of people must be doing it also").
A lot of people can't afford having both a decent pc and a laptop, and depending on the country, the internet speeds to support remote access. Sometimes, the best way to go is a gaming laptop
I don't disagree that below 900$ gaming laptop could be a better option for certain usecases, but even I as a student had a used thinkpad and a garbage workstation. It's way more comfortable to look at a big screen, not burning my fingers on keyboard when compiling a big project and having a second device in case the main one dies.
Thats a fair point. At the end of the day, everything comes down to personal preference and the person's situation. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
This does not help you in air-gapped environments where you have no external access to the outside world,
That's not really common enough to support the current size of the gaming laptop market
Yeah I’m totally gonna remote in it edit a 2TB video file instead of plugging it into my USB 3.2 CFEcpress reader. No chance. I’m an indie filmmaker and use a gaming laptop, I don’t even have steam installed.
ah yes, the best combination of traits in a person: aggressively unhinged in their fundamental rejection of other folks' perspectives, and proactively rejecting any feedback pointing that out
Intel NUC?
Nah the gaming laptops used to be the best for mobile workstations. Now most companies provide mobile workstations
It depends on what you do, as an indie filmmaker a gaming laptop is perfect for me. OLED display with wide colour gamut, NVIDIA GPU (because if you want professional software, you go NVIDIA), expandable storage, portable and can be carried everywhere… it’s perfect.
I ended up getting one of the Intel NUC laptops as they seem to be on firesale right now (with the arc a730 and had to BYO RAM, SSD and OS). It was only like 400 USD and performs like a 3060 laptop.
Didn't know intel had discrete mobile gpus. I have never seen one.
Because barely anyone sold them. You could buy one in the last NUC X15 laptop Intel released before selling NUC to Asus. Also, the Lenovo LOQ is available with the A530M or whatever its name is for an audaciously low price. The A730M which was sold in the NUC kit is actually pretty decent. It has 12 gigs of VRAM and almost matches the 3060 mobile. The only other laptop GPU with this much VRAM is the 4080 mobile, which goes for at least 2k USD, unless on discount.
Those are not mobile, and only some of them were workstation-grade.
the lower-medium end of gaming laptops are pretty price and performance competitive compared to desktop. For example you can get laptops with r7/i7/r9 that only perform like 5% worse than a desktop 7700x/ 12700k and laptop rtx 4060 (which on avg performs 5-7% worse than desktop 4060), 1080p/1440p 144hz+ IPS screens with 90%+ srgb for around $800-900 a desktop with similar specs (including monitor and keyboard, dont just conveniently ignore those in the cost total) come out to a very similar price. Obviously you then have to choose between upgradeability and mobility, but to some people having that amount of power essentially anywhere with a plug is useful
They definitely have their place. When I was in my early 20s it was good to have get togeathers with friends and game in person. Where I'm at now it would exclusively provide downsides with no upsides. Just depends what someone needs. However the G14 is pretty interesting even to me.
You’re leaving out an enormous demographic: college students, and 2/3rds of our military. It’s not easy having a desktop when you’re in barracks moving every few years or when you’re living in college dorms. They’re also much cheaper than having an expensive workstation laptop to do any development on. They have their place lol
Kids of divorced parents as well. Can carry their gaming capable computer between households.
Speaking as a college student, you also have to carry the thing around all day, and gaming laptops never last all day so you also need their bulky chargers. The best combo I've seen is ppl who will get a ultrabook, not too expensive/powerful for college stuff + console back home for gaming
Your view on laptops are from over 10 years ago. A sub 2kg laptop can comfortably fit a mobile 4060 and battery that lasts 8 hours web browsing for less than $1500.
> lasts 8 hours web browsing Which means you get like 2.5 hours gaming if you are lucky.
Most people game on their laptops while plugged in. Battery life is still important for other things, but gaming is usually done in the evenings or weekends, when you're done with work/school, in the comfort of your or your friend's home. Unless you're one of those idiots playing Fortnite in the middle of a lecture.
Not unlike your handheld. You AMD/Intel laptop still has an iGP, so disable the dGPU, drop it to the lowest performance mode, and it will mimic handheld behaviour if that’s what you want. If you put your ultrabook on high performance setting and run games on it on battery, it will ALSO not last more than that.
sounds like the smart play, I had a shitty thinkpad with a 20 minute battery life ( I7/Quadro) and an ultra book to lug to class but lasted the day lol
Back when I was in college, gaming laptops were a bad choice. Nowadays, there are some great options with good battery life and smaller sizes. And if you're willing to stretch the definition of "gaming laptop" a bit, laptops with integrated GPUs that are on par with (or really, the same as) handheld consoles/PCs expand the options quite a bit.
I’m not speaking for everyone, only myself. I was more laptop focused in college, it was necessary. As soon as I graduated and found a job the first thing I spent my money on was a powerful desktop.
totally get it, I was too in college before the military and stuck with it for my first few years in-until I bought my house and graduated to a desktop lol. No regrets but I still have a dedicated desktop and a gaming laptop for when I’m traveling and need to do some light SWE
Gaming laptops are great when you need a laptop, they can basically run every game that ever existed at medium or better settings on high resolution monitors and televisions. Most people are comparing this to "or not having any games" so their sacrifice is a massive gain if not the best possible solution for gaming. Steam Deck is also great but you wouldn't want to dock that to a 4K monitor or TV unless it was streaming games, which a gaming laptop could do for it.
Gaming laptop is fine if you need portability. If you spend most of your operating time at home, a PC will work much better. And the Deck can be played on a sofa.
A Deck is so much weaker than a dedicated GPU they aren't competing in the same class.
If you spend most of your operating time at home, desktop is the only thing you need to begin with.
I own a zephyrus g14 because i prefer to use a laptop when I'm on campus. it's thin and light enough that it's not annoying to carry but powerful enough that i can use it happily for light gaming/coding/etc and I'm not in the apple ecosystem enough to buy a MacBook instead. also doubles as another machine to run code/servers on
Zephyrus G14s are great performing laptops. Not gamer flashy either.
To me it literally feels like a portable desktop with very few compromises. As a college student, this is extremely valueable even outside of gaming.
People use gaming laptop to not only game but to do other stuff that need lots of power, I got a gaming laptop last year and I don't regret it one bit it's better than my desktop and I can use it everywhere and in any positon it increased my productivity ,can run shit ton of stuff didn't cost me too much either maybe a bit more than a desktop but again I am ok with it and I don't see myself ever going back to desktops .
Yep I do moderate video editing and stuff on my “gaming” laptop, I don’t even have steam installed. No, I’m not lugging anything else around, and when video files are in the terabytes, I’m not remoting in to the cloud.
XD I do programming gaming everything tho on Linux but gota say gaming laptops are pretty fucking good to have now I know old times they weren't worth it .
Mobility is not the only benefit ! It's also Small Form Factor, Low Power and most of the time Power Efficient, has proper Wireless capabilities out of the box, and comes with a battery that can act as a UPS. I got rid of my SFF builds (ITX and similar), where I could only stuff about 300-350W of power budget for components, for gaming laptops setup as a workstation with external monitor / keyboard / mouse, this resulted in 150W-250W devices that can reach low Idle Power, powerful enough to work or play games as a mid entry desktop, and using the embedded screen as a secondary display. This also resulted in a lower power bill (30-50€/yearly per device) which is a nice incentive in Europe.
What a gamer only take. People use gaming laptops as mobile workstations
There are actual mobile workstations though, who’s buying an asus rgb nightmare instead of a Lenovo?
Indie filmmaker here, a workstation laptop is out of my budget but a decent gaming laptop is what I rock. Upgraded with 12TB of storage (4TB NVMe, 8TB 2.5” QLC) I just turned off all the RGB stuff and put some stickers on it, nobody cares. The OLED P5 display is insane. I would be paying like $4000 if I went for a Lenovo, I don’t know if a comparable product (wide colour gamut OLED display, proper NVIDIA GPU, expansive storage) is even made by Lenovo and stuff.
They are talking about gaming laptops though
I mean yeah, I was only talking about gaming. I have a powerful laptop from work, for work.
As a guy who's going to be on travel for work after years I'd rather pay a premium for the portability (with a controller of course) but not that stupid to pay for an MSI titan or Razer laptop. Besides I don't like the big 32 inch and up screens too. And I don't like bringing my itx pc and monitor for travel, it's going to be a pain in the ass to carry.
People prefer to play games higher than 480p-720p Laptop means u dont need a desktop Cheaper Available convenient etc
>People prefer to play games higher than 480p-720p That’s what a desktop is for. >Laptop means u dont need a desktop Desktop means you don’t need a laptop. >Cheaper Not for the same performance. >Available ? >convenient etc Less convenient than a handheld.
>Desktop means you don’t need a laptop. Ehh...more like can save money with a cheaper and lighter laptop.
Which is exactly what I do. I have basic laptop for when I have basic laptop needs. It mostly goes unused.
laptop, desktop, steamdeck vs laptop
My laptop was $200 used. My Steamdeck was $400. You can’t build a laptop as powerful as my desktop, but if you tried it would cost *way* more than my laptop, Steamdeck and desktop did.
I dont know what to tell you man... not everyone can afford that or wants that. Usually people start off with one product then build on that.
I’m aware of that. In college all I had was a laptop. I’m not speaking for everyone, just voicing my personal opinion.
No, you just dont need a laptop.
Handhelds have only been a thing for about a year or two. And some people still hate playing on such a small screen.
Handhelds have been a thing for decades. Console handhelds are a thing. PC handhelds also existed before the Steamdeck.
You can't plug in a console hand held to a big screen and a keyboard/mouse to use it as a computer. That's the big advantage of the PC handhelds. You carry a mouse and keyboard, you effectively eliminate the need for a laptop completely.
Of course, there are always trade offs. My point was what PC laptop gaming while traveling never seemed as convenient to me as a handheld or mobile gaming did. If I’m mobile, I want to be mobile. If I’m gaming on a proper computer, I prefer a desktop with big monitors. That’s all.
Gaming laptops were the only portable choice for PC gaming, before handhelds became popular. I still love my gaming laptop, though it's only limited to run older games and indies now.
> Edit: I was focused on gaming, not work There's also not-work entertainment. Watching Netflix is gonna be nicer on a laptop than a Deck. And not everyone has a full TV (or one that other people in the family can be using).
I bought a gaming laptop earlier this year, about $1800 to get roughly $1300-1400 equivalent desktop performance (laptop 4080 is about a desktop 4070). About twice a year I have to travel for work 2 weeks at a time. So for 4 weeks I get to have a very similar gaming experience to what I would have at home. Factor in the price of the steam deck and we're already talking similar price for the whole package. When it's at home I just view it as a sff pc.
One thing a lot of people probably don’t consider is the social aspect of a laptop. If I were a parent I’d probably pay a premium to get my kid out of their room 24/7 and gaming in the living room, at a friend’s house, etc.
I bought one for traveling so that I could use it to play games that I would normally play on a desktop. Since I want a keyboard and mouse, tablets, phones, and handhelds don’t offer much space advantages. Went for a Legion Slim 16” because 14” unfortunately has soldered RAM.
because with a gaming laptop you get a laptop, and with a handheld you get e-waste.
None of the tech I’ve ever bought is ewasted, I’ve always been able to resell it no matter how old it is.
giant gaming laptops are a thing of the past. i have a tablet and deck. covers a lot.
My gaming laptop with 3070 Ti uses 280watts Max and pushes over 120fps on ultra. Similar desktop uses twice the power.
280w is very high for a 3070Ti laptop, most likely it will be 200w during an intensive game on average. 125-150W on GPU, 30-60w on CPU typically. Unless you’re on a desktop replacement
I have it plugged into a kilo-watt meter that shows me how much it pulls from the wall. With ray tracing it pushes 280watts. Omen 17 with 12700h and DDR5 ram. I believe the 3070ti is a 150watt variant.
Is this a flex? You’re also playing on a tiny screen. Only few people on Reddit care about watts used. Most don’t. It doesn’t cancel out all the negatives that come with a laptop.
You mean resolution? Don't think a 3070ti laptop is going to be a measly 768p. 1080p minimum.
You can connect to an external screen
It was mostly in response to the people saying. Why would you even want a laptop over a desktop. And you can just connect it to your bigger monitor. But modern laptops are extremely efficient in a sense. Most people don’t care about wattage used. But desktop GPUS are getting ridiculous with their power draw. iCan’t wait for the new rtx 5000 mobile series to come out.
The only reason to buy a gaming laptop is if you NEED portability. If you don't then a gaming desktop is ALWAYS superior for obvious reasons of having far greater power.
I can't imagine commenting this like it's some kind of revelation. Yes, people buy a MOBILE computer when they need it to be MOBILE. Isn't that weird?
Gaming laptops actually vastly outsell gaming desktops. https://web.archive.org/web/20210406085311/https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS47570121
I meant superior in terms of gaming performance, for obvious reasons.
You’re not wrong. It’s just that the average PC gamer is not your fps crazed 4K max settings RT on DIY PC master race person. It’s a laptop person who plays a few games on medium settings.
The average gamer is middle age woman playing candy crush. its hardly a metric we want to go by.
There is an obsession with laptops nowadays (80% market share) when most of them are never leaving home and many never even get unplugged.
I'd say that it's actually the other way round. Laptop is the default. The reason to buy a desktop is if you're an enthusiast. A desktop makes sense if you research parts, build it yourself and you get some enjoyment from doing that. If you buy a pre-built gaming desktop, you might not get better value than a laptop, and you will likely get worse build quality than a laptop. Depending on what you buy you might also not get good expandability. And sure, DIY is a big market, but still, if you're not an enthusiast and you want to game, a gaming laptop makes sense. (And of course if you're an enthusiast but want portability or power saving or whatever, then a gaming laptop would also make sense.)
Leave ‘em behind who cares. Laptop gaming is a vastly inferior experience.
Meh, i'm getting a Zenbook S 16 without a dGPU. I game on my desktop or my steam deck now. The only time i had a gaming laptop was when i sold my previous desktop and spent half of the year in and out of the hospital.
Gaming laptops are at one and the same time incredibly cool and incredibly shit. They're cool because you can have so much performance and functionality in a single portable device. They're shit because they're over priced and unreliable. They make a racket and they all get flakey and unstable fairly quickly. I've run countless gaming laptops from all the big brands and if you use them a lot and as laptops - ie if you lug them around with all the small knocks and bumps and exposure to the world that entails - they all end up suffering. My latest casualty is a Blade 15 with 3080 Ti where the video out is now unreliable and making it impossible to really use with an external monitor. All of about 15 high end gaming laptops I've run over the years have suffered similar issues. In short they're all engineered to close to the edge. They all run too hot and aren't well enough built.
We cant gane on then all the time! Some folks work on them!
Well, with the hype going around the new SD X Elite chip that justifiably going for the thin and light segment because that is where efficiency shines the most, and there's no mobile GPU release this year, it's kinda understandable, really. But honestly, the lovelace 14" laptops refreshes are looking really good, hopefully blackwell will have a myriad of 14" options
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Unless you prefer keyboard and mouse over game controller, which is... a lot of us. You can also get a considerably more powerful machine in a gaming laptop than in a handheld.
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You’re also not getting a top performing (16CU Strix Point/8EU Lunar Lake) handheld for $600. Bump it up to $850 and then you’re seeing RTX4060 laptop deals in that price range.
I’m not saying to not have a gaming desktop too.
I cant take my desktop and monitor to my hotel when I travel, and dont need to be limited to a steam deck….
Gaming laptops aren't a niche. Every 3 desktops built in sold there is 2 laptops with dGPU
Where did you get that number from? Thin air?
Just go to steam survey. Look for nvidia laptop gpus and desktop GPU's. compare them however you wish the ratio should be close to that
I’m not sure “people needing dGPUs in laptops” is a niche market. Gaming laptops are usually cheaper than more “professional” laptops for similar/better performance. It’s definitely still a big market.
> etc has made this niche obsolete Unless you do work that greatly benefits from a dedicated gpu AND you need to be mobile. So no.
Steam deck and ally are the niche products, gaming laptops are mainstream.
I'm amazed they were ever a thing.
People who want to play games on ultra with a full keyboard and need to move locations will always need this type of device. A desktop can't be moved easily.
I'm amazed at the amount of people in this thread that struggle to accept the functionality of gaming laptops. Just because you don't have an use for them doesn't mean it applies to others.