$3,000, $4,000, $5,000?
Gaming laptops have generally speaking been more expensive
than their non-game encounter parts for a long time, but why does the upper end of the market
feature models that cost this much? You could easily build a higher spec gaming desktop
for less money, and based on what we've seen over the past few years, there isn't much to make us think
that gaming laptops will get significantly cheaper anytime soon.
So what gives? You might already know that part of the reason
these laptops tend to be so expensive is that it takes a significant amount of engineering
to take high-performance GPUs and CPUs and fit them into the power and thermal envelope of a laptop.
Unlike with a desktop, you see, laptops only have so much room for cooling and power delivery,
and developing solutions to make it all fit costs money.
But can we dive a little deeper than just, it's hard to make things small?
Of course we can. Otherwise, we wouldn't have made this video. As time has gone on and we demand ever faster speeds
and ever higher performance, it's become more and more difficult to guarantee signal integrity
over the tiny traces that move data between different parts
of your computer. Instead of, say, a circuit board or PCB built from four
or six layers and one ounce of copper, you might have an eight-layer PCB with two ounces of copper
in order to prevent too much signal loss. And not only is this more difficult to design and manufacture,
some of the raw materials have also gotten more expensive.
The price of copper, for example, spiked during the pandemic and hasn't gotten close
to returning to pre-pandemic levels. And there was also a well-publicized chip shortage,
and it's not like the GPU companies just lowered prices
out of the goodness of their hearts after the supply situation improved.
This also applies to power delivery. Newer hardware demands more power phases
and different, more expensive controllers. The per-unit cost difference might only be around a dollar,
but when you think about how many components inside of a laptop need upgraded infrastructure,
that adds up quickly. And guess who gets to pay for all those extra innards?
But these general concepts could also apply equally to desktops.
Obviously, we've needed more powerful CPUs and GPUs
as games have gotten more demanding, but it isn't just higher-end chips
and the necessary supporting hardware that have driven up gaming laptop price increases.
Over the past decade or so, as more and more users and tech media have given feedback
to laptop manufacturers about what they want, the general consensus has been nicer stuff.
And what we mean by that is enhancements like metal
instead of cheap plastic for the various parts of the chassis. USB power delivery ports instead of barrel connectors
and nicer displays with higher refresh rates and resolutions,
better viewing angles and contrast, and HDR support.
Simply put, expectations not just for raw performance,
but also integrated peripherals and fit and finish
have gone up, not down. And these expectations touch many parts of the laptop,
which result in a significantly higher final price.
One good way to think of this is that even cheap commodity items like Ethernet switches
have large price differences between models that support gigabit speeds,
which have been around a long time, and the newer 2.5 gigabit standard.
So if this is the case, think about how the price differences
between something like a standard LCD and an OLED display
would translate to the price you end up paying for a gaming laptop.
And of course, because a laptop is a highly integrated product,
if you put in one piece of higher-end hardware, there's a good chance you'll need another piece
of higher-end hardware to support it, which means higher costs, again.
Which isn't necessarily the case with desktop PCs
where you can pick and choose which parts you're okay with skimping on to save money.
Obviously, mid-range gaming laptops are still plentiful,
but you might end up compromising on something you may not want to.
And given the way the market is, it doesn't look like we'll be in for much price relief
at the higher end in the coming years. And if we've completely put you off splurging
on a top-tier gaming laptop, remember that any home gaming rig can be portable
if you've got a large enough hand truck. Thanks for watching, guys.
If you liked this video, you might like our recent video about netbooks.
Remember those small laptops? Why are they gone? We know why.
Check out our other video. It's over there. Bye.