I'm sort of obliquely back in the laptop market, looking for a new laptop to use in the field with my radios. I'm a geek, and I spend a good bit of time on websites and YouTube channels that review hardware. It's a hobby. This means that I have a list of curated sites and search criteria that I turned to when I kicked off the laptop search.
The requirements are simple - a laptop that can be used outdoors (more rugged than a standard laptop, but not necessarily 'toughbook' standard), has a daylight readable screen, a back-lit keyboard, good battery life (a real 8 hour minimum), a good selection of ports (USB-B, USB-C, HDMI), a good CPU and enough system RAM and storage to get the job done. It also needs to be reasonably priced (not cheaply priced, but reasonably priced) and run Windows 11. Sorry, Apple need not apply. Many would say my requirements fit a 'business-class' standard, and I would agree.
The problem I'm finding is that may reviewers, even the good ones, don't want to spend much time reviewing business -class laptops because they are commodity items and, even worse, are just so boring. B.O.R.I.N.G. These are the laptops bought by the hundreds or thousands by Big IT to hand out to their workforce like Moon Pies at a Southern Baptist bible camp. Generally they are good computers, but they are... BORING.
Today's laptop reviewers seem to want to focus only on gaming, AI, immersive graphics and sound, fast wi-fi protocols, gobs of CPU cores, pen compatibility and Cinebench scores. Computers with mid-range specs, or laptops the emphasize other attributes like rugged construction or screen readability in direct sunlight get passed over. I don't need (or want) bleeding edge performance (and commensurate pricing), I want...
- an outdoor readable screen, 13" - 14"
- great battery life
- rugged construction
- a good selection of ports
- backlit keyboard
Since it's Christmas season, there are dozens and dozens (but certainly not hundreds, as YouTube would have you believe) of laptops on sale right now, but something's gone wacky with the pricing. I'll spot a really good price on an interesting laptop, and I'll bookmark it to go search for a competitor. But when I come back the pricing I saw just a few hours before (not days or weeks, but hours) has changed, and rolled back up to a higher price level. This has happened with Microsoft Surface laptops and Surface Pro tablets, and a whole range of ASUS and HP laptops on several major on-line retailers like Amazon and BestBuy. I know there are pricing algorithms working in the background to dynamically push and pull pricing based on number of search hits, available stock, competitor's offers for similar units, etc., but this is friggin' ridiculous.
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| Twenty-four hours ago this same laptop, on the same vendor's website, was $750 |
Hey computer retailers, guess what this results in? It results in me not buying ANYTHING you have on offer. You've screwed yourself. Congrats.
Next up, I think we'll talk about operating systems.
W8BYH out
