We're Still Waiting for the Laptop's Big Year (theverge.com) 34
An anonymous reader shares a report: After a long, long month of laptop releases, Computex 2022 is finally over. In some ways, it's the Computex that wasn't. The early part of this year was an exciting time to be a laptop reporter. Every company and its mother announced that big ideas were on the way. Wacky products abounded, from monitors to phones. LG Display (which supplied the 13.3-inch panel for Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold) showed off a 17-inch foldable OLED screen. We saw RGB, OLEDs, and haptics galore. Chipmakers promised architectural innovations and performance gains. We were told that these were all coming soon.
At the end of May was Computex, the biggest laptop-specific show of the year. This would've been the perfect time for some of these innovative releases to be, you know, released -- or get a release date. But we didn't get them at Computex 2022. The show was, in fact, aggressively unexciting. We got a heck of a lot of chip bumps. We got some higher refresh rate displays. We got an HP Spectre x360 with rounder corners. Don't get me wrong: incremental upgrades, both to internal specs and external elements, are important. They will make a difference in people's lives. Companies do not need to reinvent the wheel with every single laptop they release. But it is still worth noting that a number of devices that truly seem poised to expand or redefine their categories are not yet here.
At the end of May was Computex, the biggest laptop-specific show of the year. This would've been the perfect time for some of these innovative releases to be, you know, released -- or get a release date. But we didn't get them at Computex 2022. The show was, in fact, aggressively unexciting. We got a heck of a lot of chip bumps. We got some higher refresh rate displays. We got an HP Spectre x360 with rounder corners. Don't get me wrong: incremental upgrades, both to internal specs and external elements, are important. They will make a difference in people's lives. Companies do not need to reinvent the wheel with every single laptop they release. But it is still worth noting that a number of devices that truly seem poised to expand or redefine their categories are not yet here.
Chip delays (Score:3)
There's an ongoing supply chain issue and everything is delayed. The X1 with Alder Lake CPUs was supposed to be out in like March and is just now making it to reviewers. That said it's delivering the goods, compared to the 6th gen X1 that I ended up with, it's like 50% more multi-core performance.
The XPS13 Plus is probably even more impressive, though I'm not a fan of some of the engineering choices they've made.
All the foldable stuff is clearly just a gimmick for now so I'm not sure what everyone was expecting.
Whoohoo! Trade show! Laptops with gimmicks! (Score:3, Insightful)
And none of them tailored to get work done. No decent screens, no keyboards usable for touch-typists, no trackpoints.
The biggest innovation of the decade is apple's M1, and that's so wildly proprietary it's not even funny any longer.
Re:Whoohoo! Trade show! Laptops with gimmicks! (Score:5, Insightful)
No one cares about foldable screens or screen haptics, but they'll hype these pseudo-features anyway just as they have with every appearance of 3D TV.
I want to see non-glossy screens and screens that don't become opaque black mirrors in more than 10 lumens of direct light.
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This is a good point, it would be great to see laptop screens push their brightness up to that 600-1000 nit mark, that would be an actual usability upgrade for almost all users. Of course that doesn't get tech site headlines.
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The problem is that laptop backlights are big energy users. Designers have worked really hard to make everything else on the computer as efficient as possible, but there aren't many gains left on screen power consumption. If you want good battery life, you'll have to compromise on screen brightness.
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For sure and in the olden days of CFL backlights that was a bigger deal but with any modern LED backlight it should be used dialled down most of the time but when you are outside or in a bright environment and need to use the machine I would sacrifice some battery life to be able to be able to actually use it. Plus higher brightness is needed if laptop displays are going to ever meet any HDR standard in the future.
It's just a feature that just isn't often isn't an option at all even for those willing to fo
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We've already established that lots of these assumptions aren't good for people who're trying to get work done.
I'd like something to take notes on, to write (text, email, letters, programs, whatever) with, and do so anywhere. R.R. Martin writes using WordStar, that runs fine on DOS (or when I used it, on CP/M, on a Z80). So do a modern low-power chip that's 32 bit and nonetheless uses a fraction of the power a Z80 used. Tack on a good keyboard, a trackpoint, and decent-in-daylight screen...
Wait, the backl
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whine much? (Score:3)
Someone went to a trade show and didn't get their wishes fulfilled, I mean its a laptop... make it thinner, lighter, more powerful and run longer on batteries, that's pretty much it. Listen I get it, we all want shiny new wow, but there's been a bunch of shit happening in the world and companies might not hit your personal wish list on your personal schedule.
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I mean its a laptop... make it thinner, lighter, more powerful and run longer on batteries, that's pretty much it.
I don't want this. I want laptops to be thicker and heavier. This would allow space for socketed RAM, hard drives and a replaceable battery that would also last longer. Thermal performance could also be improved, more ports could be included (instead of having to carry around dongles or hubs... the list goes on.
M1 is the last innovation I saw (Score:3)
And I'm not even a fan boy.
The year of the laptop has already come (Score:5, Insightful)
COVID revitalized the laptop industry. Suddenly companies everywhere were buying laptops for people who might work from anywhere at any time. It was tough to even get laptops, they were so scarce, and the shortages haven't ended yet. Sure, there are supply chain issues, but there is also greatly increased demand. https://www.wsj.com/articles/s... [wsj.com]
No, there aren't any great new whiz-bang laptop features. But there's also no real demand for new laptop features. They do what they do, and they do it well.
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No, our company did that. Gave everyone desktops and not laptops. I ended up with a laptop through a quirk of the projects I was on, but I had desktops as well to do my main work - the laptop was for VPN and moble access.
The quirk was the laptop I had was being phased out so instead of bothe
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There are actually good companies out there, that treat their people well. I work for one of them. Now, if you're in a startup that is promising you riches and fame, then no, you're not going to be treated like a person. To find that, you have to work for an established company that has a steady income and makes an effort to be a place people want to work. Keep looking, such companies do exist!
The other half of the equation, I've learned, is you. Just don't make yourself a slave. When I interview for a job,
Take it and run! (Score:2)
> Every company and its mother announced that big ideas were on the way.
You should be happy to get ANY regular laptop these days. Beggers can't be choosers. Between war and China Covid woes, supplies are still bleeped up.
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I see no problems with that. Bought a Lenovo e14 a few months back, very nice machine with a Ryzen 4700U, 16GB, 500GB SSD, 2nd NVME slot and good display and keyboard for around $800 (was on sale and $50 cheaper). I can have > 20 in a slightly different config shipped to me tomorrow if I want. (4500U at $800 or 4700U with 1TB SSD at $900).
I would say these both nicely qualify as "regular laptop" and they are readily available, at least here. Habe not regretted buying it one bit and I do, among other thin
Meh (Score:3)
Still waiting for the $100 laptop (Score:2)
It's been years now.
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A refurbished/used one for $100 is probably a better deal than a new one for $100 because the second would likely be feature-poor. It's kind of like cars, whenever a country or company introduced a cheap car in the US, it had to compete with used cars, and couldn't. Such were bare-bones, puny, low quality, or all.
What? What "big year"? (Score:2)
Laptops are good enough for mobile use and quote affordable in reasonable quality at this time. Unless you misuse them as desktop replacement for high-performance things like gaming, that is. But that was and remains a stupid approach, for obvious reasons. (No, I am not discussing these reasons. If you feel a need to dispute this, then you do not have the mental facilities to understand the situation and I will not waste my time on you.)
Innovation as Entertainment (Score:3)
Companies do not need to reinvent the wheel with every single laptop they release. But it is still worth noting that a number of devices that truly seem poised to expand or redefine their categories are not yet here.
I get that The Verge is a blog and it needs clicks. The best way to get clicks is to enrage (hate clicks) or to entertain. Regardless, this article is seemingly worrying that there isn't enough "revolution" in the laptop industry not because it's desperately needed, but because there's less "WOW!!" to write about.
What a silly excuse for an article.
But the real world is more complicated and boring, and even the coolest innovations require all kinds of logistical stars to align.
This whole article could have been a tweet: "Remember all those funky ideas that laptop manufacturers were throwing out there a year ago? Well, not many have come to fruition (likely due to financial viability, market demand, and ongoing logistics issues. Luckily, what's out there is still an improvement."
It is now! (Score:2)
The demand has never outshone the supply as much as it does now.
This is the year of the laptop.
Meeting optimized laptop (Score:1)
I wish someone would create a laptop optimized for online meetings. With a really good camera system, good microphone, voice-optimized speakers, meeting-specific buttons and indicators and dual hdmi outputs.
Generally, Laptos Need Better Cooling (Score:2)
"we're still waiting for the laptop's big year" (Score:2)
Who is this "we" exactly?
Genuinely want to know.