...laptop manufacturers think that gaming laptops equals flashing lights and bright colours, but even worse, and this is the thing that annoys me more than anything else as skins can be bought and lights turned off, WTF is the thinking behind having WASD keys highlighted (especially looking at you ASUS). Who looks at their keyboard anyway when gaming anyway? And then considering the price of these things its not kids buying them I would guess but young adults and any young adult who thinks these monstrosities are cool is not cool. Considering the love for Apple's design, and then by extension razor, how have these companies not cottoned on to the fact that there is a massive gap in the market for a well made, well priced, professionally looking laptop with decent gaming specs? My dream would be a Razor blade with a 1050ti so heat issues would be less of a problem (they could even keep it as thick as it was previously to help cooling), white back lit keyboard, 99w hour battery, black USB ports, Dells IGZO infinity screen (1080p is enough at 15 inches I think, 4k looks nice but adds to cost and battery drain) and one or two m.2 ssd's, 16GB RAM (but upgradable) and a i7 7700HQ for about £1500 inc vat It should be possible and I would imagine it would sell hugely so why have we not seen something like it?
I have to look at the keyboard for absolutely everything when using a laptop, laptop keyboards just feel so incredibly unnatural since I'm so used to mech keyboards that I lose all confidence when faced with a laptop keyboard, but even I don't need the WASD keys in a different colour. Anyway, I agree, normal aesthetics with a decent dedicated gpu should be much more common, just imagine the Asus Zenbook 3 in slightly thicker with a 1050 or 1060 in it...
I don't understand most 'gaming' aesthetics. Keyboards and mice have backlights. Can't say I ever even look at my Keyboard. Only 12 years olds need to look at their boards to type, most likely.
I understand this is the view but ive lost count of the number of times I've heard someone say apple mbp's are nice but they just can't game. And look how well the mbp's sell to every demographic. Razorblades would do the same i think if it werent for the price, which whilst similar to a Mbp doesnt have the same rep for quality and apparently razor are terrible for customer service and also the heat issues and fan noise from jamming a 1060 into it. Also having that green logo on the top puts many off who need a laptop for work and play. The dell XPS is as close as I have found for a professional looking laptop with some power but it is still not quite there. Professional and powerful - where is the competition?
I looked at this and it's one of the few out there that is passable for my tastes, but it's still plastic. And it has those orange bits on it doesn't it? That said what's your opinion on it as my rant stems from my needing to buy a new laptop in may and I've started looking around? Edit: read your review, thank you it was very informative and gave a good insight into things many reviews gloss over.
I ended up buying a Dell Inspiron 15 7000, the 960m version not the newer 1xxx ones (The new updated model looks stupid). Like you I'm not a fan of all the superficial stuff, but it's got a 6700HQ, 16gb RAM, GTX960, 500gb SSD and an M2 socket (Currently empty) white backlit keyboard and 1080 screen for £850. There are a couple of additional things that I can't live without, firstly it has to have a numpad, and secondly the screen hinges must lift the screen in such a way that you can't see daylight through them. upgradablity is nice too but not essential, the bottom case of my Dell is held on with a single screw which is nice.
My old Clevo M980NU also annoyed the crap out of me when eventually you could not turn the lights off anymore. It was because of missing drivers for Windows 10 and Linux. What I did when I wanted to watch eg. a movie on it? I covered the lights with a towel
It has a small orange bit on the lid, but I would classify the overall look as 'grown up'. My colleagues in the office certainly didn't clock it as anything out of the ordinary. Personally, I don't think it looks too plastic. It really does look fairly 'normal'. Personally, I love it. Very compact but the power it has is astounding, both in terms of general grunt and gaming power.
I agree, Dell have gone the same way as everyone else it seems with the ‘aggressive gaming’ look. I was hoping that they would just upgrade the parts because for that price it would have been a steal and I would have probably gone for that (would have preferred a bigger battery though) but now it’s a definite no as even the black one looks a bit childish and I just can’t have that with where I will need to use the laptop. Same for me too in terms of upgradability, it’s nice, especially with SSDs but more it is for peace of mind if something like RAM breaks then it is easy to switch out. I have little need for a number pad though and prefer a centralised keyboard which you only seem to get with 14 inch or less laptops, the exception being the XPS but that is because it has a 14 inch footprint. The gigabyte is the only one giving me pause for thought about going for the XPS. I think I need to get my hands on them both to see which I prefer. I would have gone all out and got a blade but the thermals and customer service reputation is putting me off.
