Wishful Thinking: describe your perfect laptop

Every once in a while a thread devolves to "wouldn't it be nice" discussions of the perfect laptop. Since I haven't seen a thread like that in a while, and I've been researching the market for my next laptop, so I'm gonna cut out the prelims and just get to the fun stuff. Feel free to chime in with your own perfect laptop ideas.

My perfect laptop, (mostly) within reason:

- 13" unibody, bezels no more than half a centimeter wide on any side, ~3/4" thick and <4 pounds.
- AMD APU, two user-upgradeable RAM slots, no dGPU. Perhaps less-realistically, make it a 35w APU with power-saving options to limit the maximum power draw so it works like a ulv APU when you want it to.
- 2.5" 7mm + mSATA.
- 1080p IPS screen, 400 nits at full brightness.
- 8-10 hours battery life. Optional 1 pound, <1/2" slice battery to double life.
- Small AC adapter with excellent cable management ala Apple.

So, essentially a 13" notebook with good build quality, screen, and battery life, and the same kind of fundamental low-level upgradeability you expect from a notebook, but that many ultrabooks don't offer.

 

Honestly, that's not too far away from reality. Sony sells some models that are not too far off that.

As for me, I bought my perfect system last year: the Lenovo Thinkpad W530. Superior build quality, full 180 degree hinge, weighs less than my previous system and is no thicker, swappable multibay for optical drive or hard drive, 15" 1920x1080 screen with even brightness and good viewing angles, quad-core processor running at 3 Ghz or above (whenever needed, due to Turbo), midrange performance dedicated graphics card, 8 hours battery life, 802.11n wifi, backlit keyboard, decent audio, solid state storage

 

Regarding the screen, I went from a 1680x1050 screen in my last system to the wider 1920x1080 screen in this system, and haven't had any problems adjusting to the aspect ratio. Of course, I may have had more difficulty adjusting if my previous screen was 1920x1200, due to the lost vertical pixels.

 

14" with thinkpad trackpoint and old style keyboard.
1080 ips
Real dock with upgradable egpu

Rest I can care less.

 

Lenovo really needs to throw in a numpad on 15" models..

 

Depends on if we're talking for perfect as an only machine, or in addition to a desktop. Since I have a desktop that I'm happy with now, I'll go with the latter.

- 13.3 or 14.1 inch screen. Either IPS, or unusually high quality non-IPS (think Sony VAIO Z series). Matté. 16:10 aspect ratio. 1280x800 for 13.3, maybe 1440x900 for 14.1. I don't like super-high-res displays.
- Full-power processor. I guess the i5-3380M is probably the right balance of speed ower usage for me right now. Though ideally, I'd bump the clocks up to 3.3 GHz to match my desktop's clocks at stock.
- Dedicated GPU. Sony and Asus have been known to put fairly powerful GPUs in 13.3-14.1 inch laptops, so something like they've done in the past. Wouldn't be top of the line, but would put Intel graphics to shame.
- Ideally, I'd like both a fast SSD of 80 GB or more for a boot drive, and a sizeable hard drive (say 1 TB?). Or just a 1 TB SSD if it's from a reputable enough vendor. The latter would be too $$$ today though.
- Battery life of at least 6 hours. These days I guess that one's easy.
- Shoot for at maximum 5 pounds. That's probably easy these days too, although perhaps not with a real GPU and a fast CPU. Similarly, slimmer than what I have now. I wouldn't be too picky since I'm used to a 7-pound, nice-and-thick laptop.
- Nice looks, but does not look like an Apple product. Dell Adamo or VAIO Z styles would be appropriate.
- Built like a tank. I've been spoiled by non-fragile laptops over the years.
- Optical drive. I still do stuff like watch DVDs and listen to CDs.
- Supports VGA, and probably at least one other display output. I like not having to carry around a dongle to connect to projectors.

I'd consider a screen that supported a stylus. At some point I'd like to get a tablet PC, but for a main laptop, I'm not sure I'd want the tradeoff in screen quality versus a non-touch-responsive screen.

If it were for an only computer, bump it up to 15.4 inch (still 16:10), and increase the GPU power. Basically what I got in 2007 with my Inspiron 1520, but a 2013 model. And with a NumPad.

There might be something like what I mentioned on the market; I'm not up on all the models anymore.

All right, I'm off to watch a DVD!

 

Realistic but perfect for me:

- 13.3" 1080P IPS (1200p ultimately)
- Quad Core i7 support
- GTX 760m (i.e. GTX 670mx), preferably upgradeable if possible
- mSATA + SATA slots (both SATA III)
- Two DDR4 RAM slots
- 1xHDMI, 1xDP (but VGA would be fine too), three USB 3.0, Gigabit ethernet port, wigig wi-fi (802.11ac?), 4 channel crisp audio, SmartCard reader
- Backlit keyboard and *no ghosting*
- Less than 5lbs, less than 1.5" thick is ok by me
- 65WHr battery minimum, should support 6 hours *useable* battery running off IGP alone.
- Fully configurable BIOS for GPU overclock and voltage, RAM clocks and timings, CPU overclocking
- Thin and light AC adapter. To power above would probably require 120W PSU, but they can make those thin and light these days
- User configurable fan profiles
- Internal USB port for something like a logitech USB unifying receiver.

It's a slight stretch but the upcoming Clevo W230ST should come close to this I hope. Probably not IPS screen though, and more than likely a 750m instead of 760m, and BIOS is likely to be sparse.


I'd also like a thin and light:

- 12" 900P IPS
- AMD 35W APU support (no TDP limitations, make it OC like Llano)
- 2xmSATA (SATA III)
- Two DDR4 RAM slots
- 1xHDMI, 1xDP, three USB 3.0, Gigiabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi N, decent audio, SmartCard reader
- backlit keyboard
- less than 3.5 lbs, less than 1" thick
- 60WHr battery minimum
- Fully configurable BIOS
- Thin and light AC adapter, for above should be able to do with 45W

 

15.6" 1080p
i7
mSata + 2 HDD
backlit keyboard

everything else would be gravy

 

All I wish for is the manufacturer clearly states the touchpad make in their product description and provide easy access for serviceable parts, yeah, it's wishful thinking but everyone has the right to dream :wink:

 

Great point. Yes, every laptop should be like that. At least user access to RAM and SSD/HDD. It really irks me when you see laptops that have a "warranty void if removed" sticker on the laptop's bottom compartment cover over a screw that has access to the RAM and HDD. Really?

 

The notebook I own right now pretty much ticks all my wish list boxes:

- Matte screen with 1680 resolution (not a fan of 1920 in a 15" form factor)
- Reasonably powerful discreet GPU
- Easily user serviceable HDD and RAM so I can fit massive SSD storage
- Good after sale service/support. I love being able to take my machine to an Apple store directly if needed.

Only thing I miss is a separate number pad on the keyboard.

 

For me its basically a rmbp 13, add to that:

-Quad core

-16gb of ram

-2.5 SSD in there

-thunderbolt 2.0

thats about it

 

hmmm,

Quad core XM CPU
48-64GB of RAM
Dual FirePro M6000 GPU's.
Precisioncolor or Dreamcolor 2 IPS screen in 1200
7 row thinkpad keyboard but with the Toughbook emmisive keyboard lighting system
Optical bay that can be swapped into a second battery like the Toughbooks or many older thinkpads
True docking port none of this USB junk. ( 4 extra external monitors )
Mg, Ti or Carbon fibre support framework
2 e-SATA 6 GBPS ports
mSATA and dual 2.5" 12mm bays
and if its not too much to ask a Wacom tablet built into the screen ( again like some old model units ) or in place or addition to the number pad

 

You forgot to mention:
14 lbs.
7 lb. AC adapter
$8000+

 

My ideal laptop:

* Something in the 13.3" range
* Beyond 1080p resolution, don't care about the aspect ratio so long as it's not stupidly-wide (like 21:9)
* IPS
* 300 nit or higher
* Convertable tablet display with a Wacom pen (a la X230t and the like)
* Business-class build quality
* Easy-access panels for HDD, RAM, etc.
* Dual HDD bays?
* Conservative styling (no MSi or Alienware stuff)
* Keyboard/mouse similar to the W520 and older Thinkpads
* Decent GPU (maybe something as powerful as a 650M?)
* Weighs 3lbs or less
* Have a real-world battery life of 14+ hours with lite internet surfing, Office, that sort of thing

And as a bonus:
* Easily-upgradeable GPU, a la Y500.
* Very high-quality IPS display (a la Dreamcolor2)

 

LOL, don't care on all three aspects. I could use the power, and is why my " chunky " Elitebooks and Precisions have negated my 17" MBP and 15" MBP retina and a couple Mac Pros and one Xeon render unit.

and 21 lbs is a lot lighter than packing a small desktop and calibrated screen, 15 MBP's, a Mac Pro ... or my 2 year old.

 

Its probably un-realistic, but I figured I'd give it a try for fun:
15.6 inch
<1inch thick
<5pounds weight
i7
gtx760m
metal construction
Full HD 1080p IPS screen, no discoloration
Exceptional Build Quality and Manufacture support
Alienware Like Color Lighting Options
Chiclet Keyboard yet good for gaming
Flawless Touchpad

 

I think you mean <1 inch thick, <5lbs? Desktops certainly fit in the >1 inch thick, >5lbs category

 

Haha :laugh: my bad, fixed it

 

Actually, this sounds fairly realistic to me. I don't see anything here that's all that revolutionary, at least according to what could be built.

 

Hm, let me give this a try:

13.3" IPS/PLS matte screen, 400 nits at least, over 800:1 contrast rate, 75% gamut or better, 900p
7+ hours of battery life in "Balanced", minimal brightness setting, web surfing and netflix/youtube watching.
Under 3lbs
Lenovo-style keyboard and trackpoint (no touchpad).
Looks like my current Series 9 Samsung or the next best thing: Asus UX3x and UX2x series
Less than 0.75 thick when folded flat in a clamshell design
Good Customer Support (on par with Clevo resellers), decent up-to-date drivers
120GB Crucial mSATA + 2TB 7200 RPM HDD (Seagate or WD)
Aluminum unibody (PLEASE be scratch-and-fingerprint-resistant)
Really really good cooling system (I really don't care if it's loud, just keep running temps under 40C with normal usage, with an ambient room temp of 24C)
Backlit keyboard with variable brightness settings and different colors, no numpad for me please, spill resistant with drainage holes (a la X230)
i5 Dual-Core with Hyperthreading (I'm really loving these mid-level i5's with like...a TDP of under 20W) 2.0 Ghz or better
Super-fast charging 120W AC adapter
Removable battery, upgradeable hard drive bay and RAM slots
3 year accidental drop and spill on-site one-day warranty that's less than $100.

Total Price: $1200 (+ $100 for warranty) = $1300.

edit: In terms of ports, I only care about 3 things: 3 USB 3.0 ports (one is sleep-charge), 1 HDMI out, and 1 headphone jack I don't need more than 8GB of RAM

Mr. Mysterious

 

This is easy:

A multi-cpu notebook with three CALIBRATED Adobe RGB 1080p (or higher) screens (two fold out) and as someone already mentioned above: at least 64GB RAM. On Haswell platform(s), of course.

Throw in removable/replaceable batteries (along with all day 'slice-type') and a few 2.5" SSD bays along with a few SATA3 mSATA and NGFF slots too (I would like about a dozen drives between them...).

Make every edge around the notebook offer USB 3.0, eSATA, DVI, VGA, Display Port and at least a few USB 2.0 ports too. Along with a SD card reader too of course.

Give us an apple-like (magnetic) power connector and Bluetooth 4.0 and 3 antennae WiFi with G/N and AC modes with dual Intel NIC's for good measure.

I don't care about 'thin' - I don't care about 'light' I do care that it is metal/unibody and I do want a TRACKPOINT on it - not any touchpad junk. Also need a number pad and a backlit keyboard too.

And just as important: make the cooling system handle the hardware easily and quietly too.

Cost? Who cares... if I had this puppy I can make it pay for itself in ~12 hours...


With Windows 8 PRO SP1/Windows Blue and such a system, I could possibly forget to update my desktops to Haswell...




(well, almost forget).

 

Lol, what about battery life? And weight? It's got to be at least 15lbs, this machine...

My Samsung does a few things right in my list:

Yes
Ha! No.
Yes
Not even close
Definitely
Yep
Kind of, haven't tried them yet
Kind of, I'm pretty sure this is possible
Yep (not so good with scratches and fingerprints; working on a solution)
Not so much, I wish temps were lower
Yes on backlit, no on different colors, yes on numpad, no on drainage holes
Yep, but 1.7GHz (Close enough)
45W, I believe...really small and slim though
No, yes and no
So very close, it was going to be $150 or so, but no on-site and one-day....looks like the only service center was in Texas!
2 USB 3.0 ports (1 of which is sleep charge), micro HDMI (grrrrr) and a very good headphone jack

Mr. Mysterious

 

like I said in post 17 ... who cares. some of us truly could USE units like these. and a top notch portable render unit or edit unit with calibrated full gamut screens will pay for themselves in a few days. ( no im not actually kidding )

 

A laptop the size of an ATX mid-tower... Hope it comes with a chiropractor. One downside would be that a battery strong enough to power it for one hour would exceed TSA regulations for battery capacity, so no flying with this baby (that is, if it weren't already considered a deadly weapon for its potential as a bludgeon ).

I like how the variety of responses kind've covers the whole spectrum: you've got your capable ultrabooks or equivalents, gaming machines in various sizes, and the über-workstations of the (rendering) time is money crowd.

 

Mine would be respawned version of Alienware M15x (they're dead since 2010), but this time they make it an ultrabook with discrete Nvidia GT750 GPU. Long battery with ULV CPU and hopefully a brighter customized color backlit keyboard. And don't forget the bald alien head on the lid and your own name written in the plate.

Or any kind of mainstream desktop replacement (17.3-inch 1080p, i7-3630qm, GT650M or GTX660M, 8GB of RAM) but thin and light hopefully just around 2 kg. Have an enormous battery life and SSD. Equipped with unusual large macbook-like glass touchpad.

Only then my life will be complete..

Sent from my PadFone 2 using Tapatalk 2

 

15.6" 1920x1080p, IPS display, 3 lbs, tablet with digitizer and touch features. .5" thick. 24hr battery life

 

Wow, I'm in the wrong business if you can make up $10k in one day's work!

 

17" 1920 x 1200 or greater rez, IPS LCD.

Dry/gel cell battery cause they are light (albeit pricier), possibly 120W/hr.

i7-840QM, I won't put the gen number in as it will obviously be whatever gen. Intel has released by then (Gen 4, Gen 5, etc.).

Alienware backlit keyboard (with numerical keypad), scissor switch type (no chiclet keyboard), with the touch control media center buttons.

AlienFX lighting scheme.

Capacity for three hard drives and an mSATA whilst leaving out the optical drive, all supporting SATA III.

Macbook pro style trackpad (MBP trackpads have to be the best I've ever used).

Silver Aluminum chassis

2 more USB 3.0 ports in lieu of both the Expresscard slot and 1394 port.

CIR Receiver.

Only need single GPU (MXM card) but also want the latest sound blaster integrated to the MB with an S/PDIF port.

Better cooling by way of high RPM capable fans, triple pipe heat sink...and for God's sake, Fill them with HELIUM! Nitrogen does not transfer heat as well!

All the regular amenities: support for 16GB RAM, 4 USB 2.0 ports, 4 USB 3.0 ports (including the 2 3.0 ports added in the expresscards space), One eSATAp/USB combo port, HDMI out (no need for HDMI in), DP and VGA port, webcam, 1Gb Ethernet, bluetooth card, and WiFi card.

 

the actual work takes a bit longer, but the power workstations I run have on many occasions given me the edge to nail down a few pretty large editing contracts on site, where my competitors couldn't do anything on site and had to go back to their offices to hunch over in their cubicles. ( wasting both the prospective clients time, and theirs )

 

I was just being cynical. There's something to be said about immediate response. By the way how you've been KCETech1?

 

Oh I know you were HT but I'm in smartass mood today as well.

 

Seriously. The only way my computers will ever pay themselves off is if I can resell them for an equal or greater value.

Maybe I need to start mining BitCoins...

Naah

 

I personally would love to have a machine that's got the same 1200p screen on the R2 I have right now.

If I could get that on the P570WM, I'd be plenty happy with that. ^_^

 

• 13" IPS matte Full HD non-touch

• chassis black carbon / metal ~1.2kg

• (U)LV CPU w/ integrated GPU

• 8h battery @280nits @25% load @WWAN

• mSATA SSD and flush SD Card

• WWAN, WiFi, 2xUSB, HDMI, RJ-45, 3.5mm jack, 2W speakers

• Backlit keyboard, multi touch pad

Basically a fusion of a Vaio Z & Samsung 9 Series

 

Funny how almost everyone wants a better screen Makes me very happy to have made a sensible purchase for my last two laptops; ie they have good screens.

Mr. Mysterious

 

toshiba will launch the kirabook, it has more than FHD, actually 2560*1440

take a look

 

Great machine and quite good PPI, but Toshiba doesn't have good panels. Plus, take a look at the price!

The prototype from Samsung is much more promising, and it looks like we might have super-hi-res screens coming soon

 

A notebook that score over 8.0 in Windows Experience Index

Sent from my PadFone 2 using Tapatalk 2

 

Well it'd be difficult keeping it that thin and light, while having the gtx760m, atleast without having major heat distribution problems and or 30 seconds battery life.

 

panels are made by just a few companies in the world, I hardly doubt that they cant procure one, still that s9 is going to be very costly like the toshiba, those panels do jack up the price a bit, and they are designed to be high end models, thus the price also rises a bit just because of that

I wonder whats the battery life of those are, apparently sharp is already making IGZO, I dont even have to wonder who their first customer would be

 

I guess this is an argument that's been rehashed many times over the years, but I think it might be relevant (if someone knows of a threat that deals with this issue specifically, please link me). Just how much more utility or benefits can one gain with a higher rez screen? I mean...There were many people arguing during the rise of Blu Ray that the eye cannot see details as fine as 1080p on a 50" TV sitting 10+ feet away. This is different for laptops and tablets because we're sitting much closer, but just how much detail do we need?

I think manufacturers should move away from image resolution and towards image quality (ie color reproduction). Thoughts?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Agreed. I don't have the personal experience, but I've seen many, many posts on these forums from people who have used excellent screens like HP's Dreamcolor II as well as the MBP's Retina display and consider the Retina chopped liver. I've seen it in person and didn't think it looked much better than the 1600x900 Radiance display in my three-year-old Envy 14. I understand that higher-res screens also draw more battery power, though that might be incorrect. Either way, while I would like both in the end, I'd rather see high-enough resolution (at least HD+ in 13"-14", FHD above 14") and excellent brightness and color than a mediocre screen with high PPI.

 

I am all over that. color reproduction in most screens is in a pretty sad state

 

Third this. 1080p/1200p is a lot of vertical space, and is plenty for my personal use case. However, I definitely notice the differences between my W520's higher-gamut display and most everyone else's low-gamut displays on Latitudes, Precisions, MBPs, etc (accounts for the majority of computers on campus I believe). I also notice the difference in viewing angles between the X61t's IPS display and the TN panels that are so common in laptops.

Would be nice if we had a higher overall quality in laptop displays.

 

I agree, I love 1200p on 13'' notebooks, higher than that I dont have experience, but simply just improve the quality of the panel, IPS (or whatever new better tech) with high gamut, color accuracy and distribution. For me 15 panels could have higher res than 1080p, 17 way higher than that

PS: http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4...abook-takes-on-the-macbook-air-and-pro-all-at

it appears that you are correct, the screen has bad viewing angles

 

Whoops, I meant thread*, not threat. Sorry everyone!

IPS panels are great, but I think the next evolution of such screens is either e-IPS or AFFS.

Yep.

If that was true, we wouldn't be enjoying such "low" prices for laptops

I can't understand how anyone can handle anything above 900p on a screen that is 13" or smaller. I mean, I have good eyes (better than average in fact) and I sometimes find myself squinting at the screen to try and read some of the smaller text. I understand that more pixels mean more room to work with, but you have to be able to properly use it, right?

Mr. Mysterious

 

I have miopia, astigamatism and keratoconus , thankfully just the first 2 have hit me hard with 4.5 on both eyes. So no rosy vision still can make due with it

regarding prices I remember seeing a breakdown of prices of apple components in the mobile line here

Retina-Resolution Displays to Add Up to $100 to Apple's MacBook Pro Costs - Mac Rumors

it talks mainly about the display cost, now you can see its really "costly"

 

17 inch across one inch thick uni body titanium chassis.
high res (2560×1440 for example) IPS display. Possibly 3-D
stripped down Nvidia GTX titan GPU and a 3820qm intel i7 processor both placed near together so they can share a specially built liquid cooling system.
silicon carbon battery to power it off the wall (should have several times the power storage capabilities of lithium batteries).

 

I'm confused about this one...

Do you mean each bay can take a 3.5" HDD or 2 2.5" SSDs, or do you mean 2.5" bays that can hold two mSATA drives instead of a 2.5" drive?