Every couple of years, a new modular laptop is brought out. And every couple of years, consumers don’t buy them because they’re bulky, expensive, and unwieldy. This killed laptops with MXM GPUs (among other problems, like GPU white-lists) years ago.
While they’re not gaming focused, the latest Framework 16" laptops have a replaceable GPU. They’re also incredibly repairable. They serve a niche market segment so expect to pay for all of those features.
I disagree. The thinness (and lightness) is a huge selling factor.
MXM has been around for ages and it died out of disinterested. Now, with GPUs and CPUs sucking down hundreds of watts of power, you’ll need a new swapppable GPU standard (like the standard Framework invented) because you have to design your laptop to get rid of all that heat. Manufactures have gotten pretty good at designing laptops that can just about cool their GPUs without weighing a ton and being thicker than a dictionary, but they don’t have that advantage when they don’t know what GPU is going to be installed.
People who care about this stuff will know to look for laptops that have the features they need, but very few people need them. Regular consumers don’t know the difference because they don’t need this stuff. The only general consumers who have ever asked me if their laptop can be upgraded in that way we’re the people who bought a 300 euro Window laptop who just found out “new” doesn’t mean “fast”, or people who think they’ve found This One Weird Trick to get a fast laptop for cheap.
Luckily, most modern laptops support eGPUs so you can upgrade your laptop, and carrying around the extra brackets and cooling capacity is an option.
we can agree to disagree then. people i know tend to favor thicker phones after i explain they can have better battery life and etc. they are just being misinformed on that one.
besides, engineers should be in charge of that. not the bean counters, not marketers and not designers.
people who are completely misinformed shouldnt dictate how we make our stuff
Every couple of years, a new modular laptop is brought out. And every couple of years, consumers don’t buy them because they’re bulky, expensive, and unwieldy. This killed laptops with MXM GPUs (among other problems, like GPU white-lists) years ago.
While they’re not gaming focused, the latest Framework 16" laptops have a replaceable GPU. They’re also incredibly repairable. They serve a niche market segment so expect to pay for all of those features.
its easy to blame consumers when these companies barely have any marketing and regular consumers don’t know the difference.
nobody would be buying devices for their thinnes if they understood the tradeoff.
I disagree. The thinness (and lightness) is a huge selling factor.
MXM has been around for ages and it died out of disinterested. Now, with GPUs and CPUs sucking down hundreds of watts of power, you’ll need a new swapppable GPU standard (like the standard Framework invented) because you have to design your laptop to get rid of all that heat. Manufactures have gotten pretty good at designing laptops that can just about cool their GPUs without weighing a ton and being thicker than a dictionary, but they don’t have that advantage when they don’t know what GPU is going to be installed.
People who care about this stuff will know to look for laptops that have the features they need, but very few people need them. Regular consumers don’t know the difference because they don’t need this stuff. The only general consumers who have ever asked me if their laptop can be upgraded in that way we’re the people who bought a 300 euro Window laptop who just found out “new” doesn’t mean “fast”, or people who think they’ve found This One Weird Trick to get a fast laptop for cheap.
Luckily, most modern laptops support eGPUs so you can upgrade your laptop, and carrying around the extra brackets and cooling capacity is an option.
we can agree to disagree then. people i know tend to favor thicker phones after i explain they can have better battery life and etc. they are just being misinformed on that one.
besides, engineers should be in charge of that. not the bean counters, not marketers and not designers.
people who are completely misinformed shouldnt dictate how we make our stuff