Do you have back pain? Well, I have some difficult news: the future of technology no longer belongs to the thinnest and smallest PCs. On the contrary, laptop makers came to CES 2023 with thick lists jam-packed with 14-inch, 16-inch, and even 18-inch laptops.
This is, for better or worse, the new reality of laptops. It’s not good for posture, but it’s good news for performance (and maybe your eyes).
Meet the backbreakers
It’s a bit weird to see PC laptops do a sudden 180 and flee to girthy designs. Exactly 10 years ago, at CES 2012, Intel responded to Apple’s obsessively thin MacBook Air by opting for a thin design for the Ultrabook concept. Many of today’s most popular PC laptop sub-brands, including Dell’s XPS and Asus’ Zenbook, were born out of this thin trend.
But those days are over. Modern high-performance CPU and GPU designs once again demand more power, not less, with each new generation. Increased competition between AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Apple, and Qualcomm (among others) has pushed laptop core counts into double digits. Laptop makers had no choice but to build for bigger, hotter hardware.
Acer
Take the example of Acer’s Predator Helios 18. This huge laptop offers one of four 18-inch display options: three IPS LCD screen variants, each weighing 6.97 pounds, and a top-tier Mini-LED monster that tips the scales at 7, 17 pounds. All versions are over an inch thick, nearly 16 inches wide, and nearly 13 inches deep.
It’s what people in the business call “absolute unity”, and Acer is not alone. Asus and alienware, among others, have also shown or teased bigger flagships, and Razer is said to have one as well. So, let’s be clear: these are headlights, not gimmicks.
17-inch gaming laptops? Ha! It’s so 2022.
The performance justifies the size
The growing size of flagship laptops isn’t so bad. As mentioned, laptop CPU core counts are now mostly in the double digits, while laptop GPUs have quickly embraced the latest features (like Nvidia’s DLSS). That’s good news for performance, especially in applications that need it most.
A typical laptop with an Intel Core i7-9750H processor, common to high-performance laptops sold through 2020, scored around 1,100 to 1,200 in the Cinebench R15 multi-core benchmark. New laptops with Intel Core i7-12700H processors, like the Lenovo Legion 5itypically score 2,400 to 2,600 on this same test.
Today’s laptops may seem designed with Godzilla as their target demographic, but they also outperform in absolute terms, achieving up to twice the performance (and sometimes more) of the best laptop sold a few years ago. And the Core i7-12700H, remember, that’s ancient history: the armada of dreadnoughts hitting stores in 2023 will have Intel Core 13e-gen and AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors.
Nvidia
Graphics performance gains aren’t quite as impressive, but still improving. Ray tracing was widely available on Nvidia hardware a few years ago, but most games with support were only enjoyable on top-tier gaming laptops with RTX 2080. Performance is still an issue today, but Nvidia’s new RTX 40 series is much more capable to showcase the feature alongside playable frame rates, especially when Nvidia DLSS 2 or DLSS 3 are used.
And these advantages carry over to average prices. Even budget laptops from 2023, like the Acer Aspire 5 (coming soon with Intel Core 13)e-gen, starting at $549.99 in March), are workhorses capable of handling most of the tasks anyone would throw at them. They can be used to start a YouTube channel, code an escape app, or manage all aspects of a business startup. Even competent 1080p gaming is within reach with an upgrade to the optional Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU.
When it comes to screens, bigger is better
A larger laptop isn’t much fun to carry around an airport, but let’s face it: most people don’t travel most of the time. Laptops are often used at home, on a desk or couch, with only brief trips to a classroom, coffee shop or conference center. These short jaunts make weight less of an issue and allow owners to reap a key benefit: bigger, better screens.
Put aside the 13-inch laptops: 14-inch screens are finally taking their rightful throne. 15 inches? That’s fine, I guess, but why settle for that when you can have 16? And, as mentioned, the biggest and baddest portable powerhouses rock 18-inch screens. Pull this stuff out at your local Starbucks and, well, you’re making a statement.
IDG / Matthew Smith
Kidding aside (or was I even joking?), a bigger screen is better. It offers a more useful display in productivity applications and greater immersion in games and movies. It can even reduce eye strain, as you’ll have room to use larger font sizes in apps or Windows itself. You won’t find these simple, mundane benefits in a press release, but they make a laptop more comfortable to use.
The best laptops go one step further with display resolution upgrades. 1080p is still the norm for budget laptops, but almost all laptops priced above $1,000 have tossed that aside in favor of 1440p and 4K, along with a few odd resolutions in between. They’ve also moved from the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio to the slightly larger 16:10 aspect ratio, which is now the de facto standard for many laptops.
Conclusion
CES 2023’s push for a plus-size laptop isn’t a fad. The realities of modern computing hardware and intense competition between major chipmakers ensure that flagship laptops will remain great. So buy a bigger backpack, check your posture and enjoy the bigger screen. Big laptops are here to stay.
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