AI Laptop REACTIONS! https://somegadgetguy.com/b/45Q
Checking out all the announcements today from Dell, HP, Microsoft, Samsung, Acer, Asus, and Lenovo! I did a live recording of my reactions.
Windows on ARM is getting REALLY exciting! Here are some things to look out for while shopping a new "AI" laptop!
This video started out as a "react" video, but kind of became a buying guide.
It's a little longer, but here's the deal, if you've only shopped Intel and AMD computers, you might not know what makes Qualcomm chips different.
Especially frustrating how many manufacturers just list generic specs like "12 core CPU", instead of telling you what parts are IN THE laptop.
Also, had to have a chat about RAM. Is 16GB of RAM enough in a world of on-device AI?
(No, no it's probably not...)
@SomeGadgetGuy To be honest I will gladly see an list of non-ai powered/supported machines. And yes it is very frustrating, what the manufacturers are doing today, especially for a person who doesn't want to have anything common with all of the forced ai bullshit. Customers who pay attention to this particular topic does not know what they can actually buy, because of lack of such important informations. Okay I can go to the Tuxedo company and get something there, but that's only one vs. many.
@MartinBe If we want better hardware for Linux machines, we have to want this hardware to succeed in Windows land.
Unfortunately we're still tied to a consumer electronics market economy.
@SomeGadgetGuy Nope, there is completely no need to have anything common with windoze and its already totally mainstreamed marked. An pretty good example of that is Tuxedo with their products. I honestly hope that one day they will began to made some mobile stuff as well and as good as they are doing laptops, workstations and gaming machines dedicated to Linux. There are also some other manufacturers equally so well, but I think Tuxedo leads the very correct way.
@MartinBe Tuxedo makes some cool gear, but we shouldn't expect boutique manufacturers to fulfill the same quantity of sales necessary for consumer demand.
Like the 15" Tuxedo laptop is a perfect example of what I'm talking about about.
The reason we can get good prices on 12th gen Core I5's today, is because when that chip was new, it was produced at a huge scale to cover consumers and corporations. Those corporate contracts delivered longer support and replacement parts for other companies like Tuxedo to benefit from years later.
The success of X Elite today is what will determine mini PC and boutique prices in three years.
We need to be good educators to help consumers find these alternatives, but we can't pretend we're not tied to this market.
It's going to take YEARS still to make meaningful changes to consumer spending, and we can't progress if Linux machines consistently stay YEARS behind Windows offerings.
@SomeGadgetGuy That's true. It is small company, their stuff is not for everyone. But they offer something that you can not find nowhere else. Product quality and client support quality. For that especially I am happily paying my money by buying from them. I have one of their laptops. Amazing thing. It feels like made exactly for me and my preferences. This feeling can not be compared with anything else on the market today. M$ is a monopoly for years, that's why they have such big market amount.
@MartinBe
Oh no arguments on tuxedo, they do great work.
But my point still stands that Tuxedo can NOT leverage the same kind of sales to get the pricing that would keep them competitive against Dell purchasing. In fact, Tuxedo would likely become a brand you would not want to do business with if they hit that kind of scale.
So for Tuxedo to offer that support, and keep prices in check, they offer 2-3 year old components.
So if we want them to succeed with ARM chips in 2 years, we have to hope ARM chips reach a scale that Tuxedo can benefit from for better pricing.
Along the way, we have to hope Qualcomm keeps up streaming better Linux support and experimental distros, so nerds like me can install a working distro on hardware becoming out this year.
The more interest there is in corporate sales, the faster we get better Linux support for end users.
@SomeGadgetGuy No worries, I understand your point. Arm is not a good idea for the future. They are and they were limited from the very beginning, even back then at the designing table. As same thing as with the x86 or x86_64 architecture is. At one point in time they will reach those borders and it will be end of story. But the completely different thing is with the RISC-V. This one is not limited in any way. I think this architecture should be developed very much. That's the future for us all.
@MartinBe
Yeah but ARM isn't really "limited" anymore. Software support has improved radically, and there is no approaching that performance per watt with RISC. See also, every phone and MacBook currently being sold.
My points before, of course we want RISC and an open architecture some day, but we also need to make it through the day with a computer today.
When I can buy a RISC machine that can accomplish the tasks I need to accomplish, I'll happily do so. There is no RISC ecosystem that approaches the robust ecosystem of ARM. Along the way, I can't keep recommending to consumers "just keep waiting for a machine that won't exist for YEARS now, until massive corporations decide to make one". That's not how a consumer tech cycle works.
So as a tech reviewer, I'm in a position where I need to make recommendations for the needs people have now, while also educating on the kind of purchasing that might help enable the resources we need in the future.
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