Why gaming laptops?

[JohnnyDelRay]

Well I always thought it's for those who want a desktop replacement, due to their circumstances, not being in a permanent place. Like my brother, whose contract renews quite often around the world.

I've tried to get a semi-portable laptop which can play games, but I'll be the first to tell you, it doesn't work. Unless you want to fork out a stupid amount of cash for it. You want portable, you sacrifice power. You want power, well then it becomes more of a desktop, hard to carry around, heavy, crappy batt life, and all those things.

There are times that I wished I had one, like when I last went to Australia for a month, helping my mom move so the desktop and all the rest were in boxes. That was on school holidays too, when DNF, Portal 2, and a bunch of other games came out, was rather frustrating. But I found ways around it....

The alternatives:
- Use a normal laptop for games that can actually run on the laptop (e.g: Torchlight, it actually has a "netbook" mode!) And older shooters/RPGs that are still f'ing cool. Save the desktop for your hardcore graphics intensive games.
- Like many have said, just use a netbook or more portable laptop for moving around, or even a tablet, and the desktop at home for the rest. Only drawback with tablets is limited storage, and compatibility with some USB devices (camera memory cards and things).

Gaming laptops cost a shitload and go out of date stupidly fast anyhow, although maybe not as fast these days.

 

[jojoemon]

I have one. It's incredibly nice to be able to bring my computer over to friends houses, dorm-rooms ect. I also travel a lot, and not having to pack or mail a desktop around is a huge plus. And also, ya know, it plays games. That bit's important

 

[Hemlet]

For me it was really just a space issue. Yes, I COULD afford a sexy ass desktop with top of the line hardware. I'd just have nowhere to PUT the damn thing. There is not an available space in my home for such a beastly machine, and so I put that money towards a nice gaming laptop. It suits my needs for hardware and software, and I can actually find a suitable space to set it down.

 

[Jodah]

Meh, I got a regular laptop that was good enough to play a few games and then my main gaming rig for real games. I can tear it down for transport in 5 minutes and have it loaded in my truck in 10. My laptop was for regular visits home, a day or two. I would take my gaming rig home on longer breaks (summer, Christmas, Spring, etc).

 

[Nuclear_Suspect]

I've got a gaming laptop and yes the price was a bit steep.

However I'm also the nightshift at a taxi central (A Taxi Dispatcher if you wanna make it sound important) and exactly how many people need a taxi at 3am on a weekday? So I got meself a rather nice powerhouse of a laptop so I can game at home, at work and at my mates flats for some good ol' fashioned LAN.

(And my laptop is better than my mates desktops he he)

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I have a gaming laptop, and yes, while I'm at home it sits plugged in all the time. However, given that I move quite a bit and don't own a transport, a laptop is just that much more manageable than having to carry a tower and monitor plus whatever. Instead of having to dedicate a whole suitcase to one thing, I can just slip it in my backpack, where I know it'll be safer, and that way it's almost always on hand.

 

[Xman490]

Maybe these people are in college and don't want to have to lug an entire desktop + monitor out of storage every year.

Maybe these people (including myself) didn't really think about it. The only schoolwork I use my laptop for are documents and a digital textbook or online program. I also have my old desktop staying where it was, unused and ignored.

 

[mjc0961]

I am begging to question if you actually are reading my posts.

And after reading this entire thread, I am beginning to question if you're actually reading anyone else's. You're just ignoring everything they say and repeating what you said in your first post. Why ask the question if you weren't going to listen to any of the answers?

I think you're trying too hard to miss the point.

*snip*

Your original question was, "So please tell me from where this desire for owning a gaming laptop stems?" In other words, why do other people want gaming laptops? And for all of the reasons given, it is very easy to see why.
The question was not, "Why should I get a gaming laptop?" Obviously, a gaming laptop would not appeal to you. There is really nothing left to say... Do you still not understand why people would want these things?

In other words, this.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Alrighty, I got this one. I am traveling 9 months out of the year, sometimes even only spending a few days in certain places, and I also obviously like to play games. Bringing an entire desktop setup is horribly impractical (and I do NOT trust airline luggage people to handle it with care), so what does that leave me? A gaming laptop, is what.

I spent $800 on this baby roughly 2 years ago, I've yet to have any real tech problems, and it can still run (just about) any game that comes out today. Hell, I was playing the "Space Marine" demo earlier today, and it ran fine. Also, that means I can sneak this baby into work with me, and if I've got some spare time...you get the idea. I've distracted quite a few people at various cafeterias across the country playing Battlefield an Dawn of War.

 

[infohippie]

If you can afford to buy a gaming laptop, you can afford to buy a work laptop and build a gaming PC.

This, absolutely. For the price of a gaming laptop you can build a better gaming desktop, plus buy a small cheap (and light!) laptop for taking to class. Plus probably have a few bucks left over.

Gaming laptops strike me as being an extremely niche product. They're really only useful to someone who travels a lot for business or whatever but is a die-hard gamer and absolutely must get in a few hours of gaming in his hotel room at night while away. If you don't need to game on the move you can always do better with a gaming desktop plus ultraportable.

 

[Quazimofo]

-Versatility. You can play high-end games with maxed out graphics, play movies and music, you can even write your thesis.
-Portability. Whether you're in your room, in the classroom (am I the only one who played WoW during boring lectures?), or on the GO-train for your hour long commute.
-Accessibility of Wifi. Even Gulak's Meat House on the floor above the corner-store has free wireless these days.

basically this, not to mention it is a much more useful tool than my dinosaur desktop for school due to better processing power for the larger files and more recent software (came with the laptop).

and i got to play dawn of war in brit lit class the last couple of days of school, and minecraft in health class.

and i can bring it to friends' houses so we can play co-op without dealing with headphones or crappy internet. and its alot easier to be able to point on THEIR screen to point out something, instead of trying to describe it.

 

[aidutcher]

I've got a friend who spent $1100 on a laptop pretty much just because it has the highest resolution screen he could find. It just happens to be able to play any game out right now. Everyone has their reasons for their purchases.

Personally, I just wanted the smallest, lightest, least expensive laptop I could find, so I got an Acer Aspire One netbook for about $300. It can run a bunch of older games as well as some more recent ones. It can run Portal fairly well, which surprised and impressed me.

 

[Nouw]

I have one partly because I need it for school but also because I can move it around the house. I use my desktop for shooters and laptop for strategy games.

 

[Aggieknight]

Over the passed few weeks I have seen a lot of people asking advice for their gaming laptops, and I have never understood why people want to own these things. Ninety percent of the time you need to be within a power cord's length to a wall anyway at which point you have a mobile desktop(not a lightweight one either), the costs of a laptop can be up to twice as much for a desktop with same/similar specs, and heat is a big issue. I have heard people say mobility can be a factor to which I reply "buy an ultraportable or a regular laptop for the mobility, spend the difference on a desktop with better specs".

So please tell me from where this desire for owning a gaming laptop stems.

The answer is simple - the convenience is worth the cost.

I'm middle aged (scary to say), well above average compensated, and cannot be tied to a desktop in a shadowy room. Whether it is my wife wanting me to geek out next to her in bed while she's watching "So You Think You Can Dance", or if I'm on another continent and want to shoot my friends in the face, a gaming notebook provides me the capability to accomplish my PC gaming on my terms where all I need is a power source and wifi.

Yes, it costs more; yes, they are less upgradable; it just doesn't matter. When I was a starving (literally) college student, I built my PCs from the ground up, carefully tinkering with components and maximizing my power/price ratio. Now what is important to me is ability to game whenever I have time to game regardless of location.

I'm on my 3rd gaming notebook (an Alienware, a Dell, and a Macbook Pro), and will not go back.

 

[DracoSuave]

If you can afford to buy a gaming laptop, you can afford to buy a work laptop and build a gaming PC.

This, absolutely. For the price of a gaming laptop you can build a better gaming desktop, plus buy a small cheap (and light!) laptop for taking to class. Plus probably have a few bucks left over.

But then you can't take said gaming PC easily to other people's houses or a cafe or other locations which you can do with a gaming laptop, thusly completely fucking defeating the purpose of having a gaming laptop.

Gaming laptops strike me as being an extremely niche product. They're really only useful to someone who travels a lot for business or whatever but is a die-hard gamer and absolutely must get in a few hours of gaming in his hotel room at night while away. If you don't need to game on the move you can always do better with a gaming desktop plus ultraportable.

Or alternatively, you've never heard of LAN Parties, or coffee shop gaming. It's like you're stuck in the mindset that people want a gaming laptop so they can have portable work. This is absolutely bullshit.

They want it so they can have portable gaming. Get that? Gaming that is portable. Is that so difficult a concept?

Really?

REALLY!?!

 

[Vrach]

So please tell me from where this desire for owning a gaming laptop stems.

You mean outside being able to game on the go? You'd be surprised how convenient and necessary that is for some gamers, a wall socket is not a hard thing to find, even in a simple coffee place, let alone if you have more than one residence (home, college campus, girlfriend's flat, meeting up with mates for a LAN party, I can keep naming places all day if you'd like) or travel a lot. And that thing that lifts your laptop and provides better cooling (its English name escapes me atm) is not too heavy, both can fit in a laptop backpack quite easily and aren't hard to carry, at least for men (sorry ladies, I do feel for you on the issue).

Well if that's not reason enough, they might want one machine for both gaming and uni/study/work - a laptop for gaming can actually be used for other things too, y'know. Like say, if you're studying something like server admin stuff and them 8GB of RAM come in handy for running a number of virtual machines. Or you're studying visual design and having a top range graphics card isn't useless. Or if you're a programmer like me and compiling a long ass project gets done that much faster on a good processor.

Not to mention gaming laptops tend to have awesome batteries that can last up to and even over 10 hours when you're doing comparatively (to gaming's battery use) menial things, making them awesome for stuff like note taking and such (especially if you have slow, shit handwriting like me, while being able to type 70wpm).

Oh and know another very universally awesome thing about having a laptop compared to having a PC? When your power decides to go out, even for a second, you're not risking losing a pile of work on whatever project you've been doing. I've seen an entire classroom lose a straight 45 minutes of coding cause they were working on desktops, while those of us carrying laptops just kept on working uninterrupted.

Also, you'd be surprised at the prices, if you find a good deal, it's not at all a ripoff price. In fact, it might be a complete bargain. I spend some 600 euros buying myself a desktop PC back in October. Phenom II 965 QuadCore 3.2 GHz, 6850 gfx and 4GB of RAM (I won't lie, I didn't spare much on the case, the cooling or the power supply either, but I also skipped buying stuff like a DVD-RW). In the meantime, I bought a 2TB HDD to have for some extra storage as I was running out, which ran me another 70 euros or so.

A few months back, I see a laptop for just under 700 euros, here it is, though no longer available (scuse the Serbian, but specs are easy enough to see):
http://www.pcpractic.rs/proizvodi/laptop/6932-asus-a53sv-sx354
Lemme sum that up for you - i7 2630QM 2-2.9GHz (turbo), 6 MB cache core (one of the lovely SandyBridge ones), 6GB RAM, 15.6" screen (which I could use in conjunction with the monitor at home for oh so many things), GT540M 2GB graphics card and 750 GB HDD.

The laptop kills my PC - granted it came a few months later, but considering the upgrade for essentially the same price, it's a hell of a deal. Oh and don't scoff at the prices, it's how things are here, I know you guys in the US (and probably other countries as well) could easily get a better PC/laptop for these prices, but the fact is, that's the prices we run with and the point is how they compare between a gaming PC and a gaming laptop.

 

[Fearzone]

I can't see it either, so I read through the responses here. Still not convinced. Playing games on a laptop is a second-rate gaming experience. There's less processing power, less customizability, heat is an issue, and the screen won't be as good. I say go for the full monty with a desk top. If you need portability, playing a JRPG or two on a PSP or Nintendo DS isn't going to kill you.

 

[Nibblitman]

A gaming laptop is the only way I can be able to play games for weeks at a time. My work has me in hotels for 6-8 days at a time and I have no space to haul a desktop with me. I use the gaming laptop so that I have something to do in the tiny little NV towns (Austin, Eureka) that I end up working in.

I have both a laptop and desktop but the desktop is around 4 years old. I got this laptop when I got my job so that I could still play games and use the internet while out of town. If I didn't all I could do would be sit in a hotel room and watch tv or go drink at the bar with the miners, and I can only do those for so long.

tl:dr I still want to play when my work takes me to the middle of nowhere

 

[DracoSuave]

I can't see it either, so I read through the responses here. Still not convinced. Playing games on a laptop is a second-rate gaming experience. There's less processing power, less customizability, heat is an issue, and the screen won't be as good. I say go for the full monty with a desk top. If you need portability, playing a JRPG or two on a PSP or Nintendo DS isn't going to kill you.

You are wrong.

Gaming while wearing bunny slippers being served mocha lattes by an attractive barrista while basking in the sunshine taking in the fresh air of a warm summer day is absolutely not a second-rate gaming experience.

There's big screen sizes... and there's living. Portable gaming rigs allow gaming in ways that transcend your 'Made for Crysis 2' needs, and go into a realm of enjoying gaming in ways that range from decadent to 'Seriously, how did we game before this?'

Also, if screen size is an issue, l2dockingstation.

you are really saying you dont have a 1 ft by 2ft space by your feet under your desk? (thats dimensions, height can vary depending on mobo). Is your name by any chance mother hubbard?

Yes, let's pretend that he wouldn't need monitor space either, eh?

And yeah, some dorm rooms really don't give you a lot of space to work with, and so less is, in fact, more.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

I have a fairly nice gaming laptop. I basically bought it through a auction site like ebay for about 1/2 of retail, factory sealed and everything and its done wonders for me. Reasons I like it more than a desktop

-Take it to friends houses, LAN wars etc, stick it in my backpack and bike there, dont need to drive.

-Take it to uni and into lectures to write notes down/play games when bored.

-Webcam+Skype and the maneuverability is just great, like talking to my gf through skype while Im in the kitchen making breakfast.

It has its disadvantages but I love my laptop right now and it works great.