First post, by keenmaster486
- Rank
- l33t
This will be a rant, yes, but not an angry one. Only mildly irritated.
Let me start by saying that modern hardware is great - if you're talking about the guts of a machine. The latest Intel and AMD CPUs are ridiculously fast, our GPUs have gotten so good it's scary, our WiFi speeds are pushing gigabits per second now -- it's a great time to live in hardware-wise.
Unless you are using a laptop, that is. In my opinion.
Here is my list of grievances and how older laptops did it better:
- Numero Uno is always the keyboard. Modern laptops have either (A) a chiclet "island" style keyboard, with very short travel and a cheap, plasticy feel -- or (B) in the case of the MacBooks, a "butterfly" keyboard that feels like typing on little pieces of Scotch tape and frequently breaks. These objectively inferior keyboards are engineering compromises made in order to prioritize thinness (I'll get back to that later). In addition, the keyboard layouts are increasingly minimalistic, with various hotkeys and shortcuts taking the place of frequently used keys such as PageUp and PageDown.
- Build construction -- most modern laptops prioritize thinness over all else. Since there are limits to how well we can engineer things for a particular price, this often results in laptops that feel cheap and flimsy. We have reached the point of marginal returns in the thinness department, and we have driven off that cliff into the abyss.
- Ports -- many modern laptops eschew standard ports such as USB or HDMI, in favor of either a new standard such as USB-C (which is not bad in and of itself, but breaks compatibility) or just removing them altogether and relying on wireless capabilities to do everything. Not the best for usability!
- No optical drive options -- this is a mistake in my opinion. Yes, most consumers don't need an optical drive any more. But many still do -- people have DVDs and CDs lying around they still want to be able to play, and many businesses will have use for the optical drive for various reasons. But I'm pretty sure none of the PC companies still make a laptop that has the option of an optical drive.
- Modularity and upgradeability -- most companies are striking down things such as removable batteries and socketed RAM/CPUs in favor of cementing the specs of laptops in stone. Fine for the average consumer but not so great for power users and developers who want to be able to upgrade their machines, or squeeze as much life out of them as they can.
- Screen aspect ratio and overall laptop dimensions. 16:9 is just not a pleasing aspect ratio! Many people have noted this over the years. I prefer 4:3 myself -- others say 16:10, or 3:2, but the main point is that 16:9 is just too wide. It has to do with the field of view of the human eye -- while you are working, you shouldn't have to keep panning your eyes back and forth all the way from the left of the screen to the right.
Now, there are many things modern laptops do better than older ones - most visibly is the touchpad technology, which has peaked with the MacBooks in my opinion -- you can't find an older laptop that has as good of a touchpad. The other big thing there is the screens, which are much better quality, resolution, color reproduction etc. than they used to be (aspect ratio notwithstanding). All this besides the fact that the hardware is much faster than it used to be. But all this comes at the price of the points above.
My main point here is that the market is RIPE for a completely disruptive product, which would combine the best aspects of older laptops (the points mentioned above) with the best aspects of modern hardware, for a killer product. It would be popular with developers and power users, and would gain a reputation as the gold standard of laptops.
These thoughts are largely being stoked by my experimentation lately with old IBM and early Lenovo Thinkpads... and wishing that I had a modern laptop with the form factor and good design points of a vintage Thinkpad.
Any thoughts?
World's foremost 486 enjoyer.