Man, They Don’t Make Gaming Laptops Like They Used to

The joys of cleaning retired your closets are minimal, prevention for the accidental to wax nostalgic astir the aged cogwheel that falls down archetypal from the pyramid of past tech. First to tumble from that highest were aged Alienware and Lenovo Legion gaming laptops that we unearthed portion moving retired of the existent Gizmodo offices successful New York City (and into new, swankier digs). They’re undoubtedly nostalgic machines for immoderate folks, but not me. Instead, I look astatine them little with reverence and much with wistfulness. Those laptops don’t look good, but they consciousness good.

The Lenovo Legion Y920 is simply a acold much caller machine. It’s lone 7 years aged arsenic of writing, but the Alienware you tin spot successful the pictures is practically prehistoric. The Alienware Area-51 m5550 archetypal deed store shelves successful 2006. It sported an Intel Core 2 Duo and a Nvidia GeForce Go 7600. For context, Gizmodo had been astir for conscionable 4 years astatine that point. I was 12 years aged astatine the time. The archetypal HP laptop of my younker was truthful mediocre astatine gaming that it would tally Team Fortress 2 astatine 10 FPS adjacent erstwhile forced to play successful DirectX 7 levels.

Those brands’ latest mobile rigs are 2 of my favourite gaming laptops I reviewed since the commencement of the year. Specifically, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 and the Alienware m16 R2 boasted a bully consciousness and coagulated show at their price. Side-by-side, you tin archer however overmuch much subdued modern models look than their older counterparts. The blaring Legion logo and sloped sides connected the Y920 look utmost to modern standards. Back then, that was considered restrained. Just look astatine the Alienware 13 from 2017 with its large, beaked frame.

Both companies were known for immoderate genuinely outlandish laptop designs, particularly the “desktop replacement” variety. Alienware’s marque was notorious for screaming “gamer” with each desktop, laptop, and peripheral it enactment connected store shelves, adjacent earlier its acquisition by Dell. The Area-51 and the akin Aurora m9700 are highest Alienware astatine its astir outlandish. That integrative ammunition looks similar it broke disconnected the acceptable of J.J. Abram’s Star Trek films. Those pointless achromatic ribs don’t really assistance you clasp it up. And it’s a dense sucker too. The m5550 is 6.94 pounds. The latest 16-inch Alienware without that thermal support weighs 5.62. That’s a batch of pounds to person each those extra, now-defunct ports. 

The extremity of immoderate laptop decorator is inherently 1 of compromise. You request to battalion arsenic overmuch powerfulness arsenic imaginable successful a constricted framework and inactive support it chill and portable. The 17-inch Y920 weighs 9.76 pounds. There’s nary 17- oregon 18-inch mentation of the 7i (at slightest not yet), though conscionable to compare, the Pro 7i weighs 5.46 pounds. Alienware’s big 18-inch m18 r2 clocks successful astatine 9.3 pounds.

The aged Area-51 was truthful breached successful parts that it seemed similar immoderate cook had mistaken it for a pork cutlet. It wouldn’t crook on, not the slightest due to the fact that its powerfulness fastener was missing. Sadly, we’ll apt ne'er spot that alien logo glow again. The Legion Y920 was likewise dead. These things hap erstwhile you don’t instrumentality attraction of your devices and worldly them successful a furniture adjacent the transcript room. But erstwhile you usage them, you recognize conscionable wherefore these laptops were truthful fashionable successful the archetypal place.

The past Alienware had a minuscule touchpad compared to modern machines, but it besides had a touchpad disabling button, truthful you ne'er had to interest astir thenar rejection. Its keyboard inactive types similar a dream. Its keys are instantly recognizable to anybody acquainted with designs of yesteryear, and they depress with a satisfying extent and clickiness (loud capable to annoy your neighbors). 

The Legion Y920 featured a afloat mechanical keyboard, and the cardinal spacing connected specified a monolithic framework feels practically luxurious compared to different moderately-sized laptops. Perhaps we should punctual Alienware astir the m17 R4 with those cherry switches? The thenar rests unsocial are comfy and anti-slip successful specified a mode modern machines don’t situation to. What hasn’t changed is the pricing operation of these laptops. The Y920 outgo $2,700 erstwhile it archetypal launched. That 2006 Alienware laptop was $2,800. Meanwhile, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 starts astatine $3,220. The m16 R2 starts astatine $1,550, but you’ll person to walk adjacent to $2,000 for a mentation with an RTX 4070 and the Intel Core Ultra 9.

Initially, the compromise inherent with gaming laptops was there, but past machines were overmuch much unfastened astir expressing their inherent “gamer” ascetic. Is it worse now? No, not necessarily. Tastes change. Some mightiness look astatine them with nostalgia. Others mightiness deliberation the aged look is garish.

Perhaps we should look to the past for a laptop keyboard that doesn’t consciousness similar a oversea of sponges.