Current design fads in laptops that you hate.

What are some current design trends you absolutely hate?

I, myself, cannot stand thick bezels, or disproportional bezels. While ultrabooks look nice from the outside, and they are insanely thin, the bezels just completely throw me off and make me cringe.





Whatever happened to the good ole' days when small bezels were awesome, and every inch of laptop was precious, and there was no extra, wasted space?







Another fad I hate is glossy plastic. Although it has STARTED to die down, it still hasn't completely gone away. Glossy plastic is the most ridiculously hideous design aspect I have ever seen in my life.

 

1376 x 720 as the standard resolution. Not only are they hard to do work on, but every one of the lot (except the isp on the x220) looks god awful color-wise. Also, High resolution screens with horrible colors. If i'm to pay $1000 + for a laptop, the colors had better be above average (i'm looking at you vaio SA).

 

I hate glossy screens with a passion.

 

I have one that kills the glossy plastic argument, glossy keyboards. Some Toshibas have them, or at least used to. shudders I think that Sony Vaios pull off shiny plastic pretty well.

 

I hate thick bezels as well, they take away a lot of screen space.

 

thick bezels, and minimal user upgrade-ability now ( soldered on RAM and inaccessible SSD's/HDD's annoy me most )

 

Some of these are external, others are engineered & internal

Thin&Lights paired with clunky chargers
F-key volume, eject, and WiFi control
16:9 glossy screens
Plastic retention clips instead of screws everywhere
Arrow keys taking the rightful place of the right control key
Numlock- & numpad-less keyboards
Latchless monitor closures
Metal stickers on the wristrest
Torx / multiple screw sizes inside a chassis
Glue/Epoxy
Tape
Double-stacked or side-by-side USB ports that block each other

 

The onslaught of awful 1366x768 panels we've been getting lately and the lack of dedicated media keys. Fn+F11/F12 for the volume control is a pain to use with only one hand. Seriously, Asus what were you thinking, at least use keys like F3/F4 that are within reasonable reach of the Fn key.

The thick bezel, i can deal with even though i'd rather not have it.

 

Also, who could forget the intel stickers some laptops have on the palm rests.

 

Cramped I/O port positioning & HSF which unaccessible from bottom service panel

 

Proprietary Drivers.

 

Computers with poor ventilation by placing aesthetics over engineering and smart alec users claiming "you are using it wrong(tm)" when the issue is mentioned.
Make the computer ridiculously thin just to please users who knows nuts about computer engineering trying to defy the laws of physics in the process, increasing e-waste by shortening the lifespan.
It is 21st century and you still think they can't get the physics right.

 

Hm, Can you clarify?

 

examples I can think of:

Sony Z2's video drivers, no external screen support higher than 1200 and OpenGL 1.1 support only with the PMD attached


Dells propitiatory video drivers for some of their Optimus implementations
( m11x for example )

Older Dell mPCI wireless cards that wouldnt work with the actual broadcom driver unless modded

Apples complete btch of a Quadro driver, and RAID driver for Mac Pros

most mfgrs have been guilty of it once or twice where you are stuck with their drivers and cant use the ones directly from the components OEM, a huge pain if they arent updated frequently

 

Nail on the head

 

Internal batteries. Thank Apple for that one.

It might not be a trend, but front facing ports also bother me. Nothing worse than using a laptop with a headphone wire sticking into you and getting in the way.

As above, thick bezels and bad Fn-key layouts seem unnecessary.

 

non standard keyboards between manufacturers, kinda annoying finding that PgDn/PgUp, End/Home only to find out it's hidden under a Fn key or somewhere else.

 

Touch controls for me, like the volume and brightness they never work 100%

I would prefer the old style volume dial but maybe I'm just getting old

 

glossy surfaces and cheap plastic - fingerprint magnet!
glossy screens
crappy 1366x768 screens (horrible viewing angles, color saturation, washed out) with no option for alternatives
whitelisting specific wi-fi cards only
non-easy to swap RAM and HDD (or voids warranty if you do)
stupid fan profiles with no user control whatsoever

 

- Metal...not necessarily the material, but the way manufacturers are just milking the MBP's design and trying to fit in metal everywhere for no good reason, even in places where it's not convenient or cost-effective (ooo metal machine let's charge 1000$+ for it). Also, this "metal fad" has caused the general public to think plastic is "cheap" when there are plenty of really good polymers out there, some of which can do a better job than metal in some tasks.

- Low resolution screens. Well this one is obvious lol

- Better panels I'd like, but tbh mid-range panels are fine if they're well calibrated so just overall decent panels across the board (higher res IMO is more important though for most people). I don't feel we need IPS panels everywhere (considering a good margin of people cannot really tell their colors/tones/hues apart)

- Button-less trackpads. Once again some kind of attempt at milking Apple's trackpad. The problem is just about every manufacturer almost gets it wrong and just ends up making a subpar clickpad.

 

1. Ineffective cooling.
2. Style over substance (don't get me wrong, I like a nice looking laptop, I just think they're prioritising over other things a lot more than they should).

 

From a purely visual perspective:

Glossy anything, for sure. Glossy plastics, glossy screens, glossy keyboards (disgusting).

Touch to tap trackpads.. I want a discrete button for left click, and right click.

Hinges that aren't solid metal.

Glowing or flashing lights that aren't status indicators. Including illuminated logos.

Palmrest designs.. like circles, or wavy lines, or whatever you may have. I don't think they add sophistication. It looks cheap.

And although it's not a trend, more like a defacto design standard - island/chiclet keyboards.

 

Not sure if this is a trend but i hate it when the ac power port is on the sides. It is just so much more convenient at the back. Also adding insult to injury is including the ac power port to the right side of the laptop where my mouse is positioned.

I guess the last one you can't really blame either side will tick off the right/left handed users.

 

I'd combine every single thing mentioned in this thread as a reason not to change my R61 for other notebook

 

The switch to 16:9....#$&#!%&!%#*!%*%*!%$*@%*@$@^(^(#^%(I

I want the 16:10 ratio back in laptops please ^^ Why did we ever switch?

 

1. Machined aluminium 'unibody' structures. Great for my home stereo enclosures, not for my laptop thanks

2. On non-unibody structures, plate aluminium panels that's there purely for 'layman skin feel & "it's metal" assurance' and not properly thought out or finished

3. Bad knockoffs of Apple's design. Just irritates me from a design perspective, and because it also further serves to elevate Apple's perceived status as (totally unjustified from a quality viewpoint IMO) the premium maker. Knock it off properly or have an original thought

3. With anyone else who mentions those stupid Intel / 'I have THIS many features' stickers

4. Bad chicklet keyboards. Don't mind good ones but they are few and far between

5. Apple-driven buttonless and increasingly larger trackpads. We're not all uncoordinated 2-year-olds part of a 'no child left behind' program

I could go on but will end there

 

- Large bezels
- Low res screens
- No physical touchpad buttons (I hate having to tap-to-click)
- Side AC port (though this wouldn't be a problem if the adapter had a right angle)
- Weak hinges
- Ineffective cooling
- Non-upgradeable parts

This is all I have off the top of my head.

 

I could never understand that...I hate that the Fn is always in the bottom left, but all the keys tend to be in the upper right portion of the keyboard. At least on the the 1000he there are two Fn keys, one on each end of the keyboard. We should really do away with the second window key and just put the Fn key there instead.

 

yeah the windows right click/context menu is useless to me. I used to have a 1000HE, best netbook I ever owned. Ridiculous battery life.

On a similar note to non-upgradeable parts.. integrated batteries. That annoys me.

 

i hate:

glossy screens
glossy lids ( all the dust and finger prints get all over )
fn keys that dont need the usage of the fn key. thank you apple and dell. i cant even use alt+f4 with out using 2 hands or being a finger contortionist.
beeps at post

and people who put things on top of my laptop. just a pet peeve of mine. its a laptop, not a table.

 

I'm surprised only 2 people mentioned this, and they only said the power plug... Ports on the SIDE instead of the REAR. Its even more annoying on a DTR. I want most of my ports on the rear except for my USB. I and most CERTAINLY want an express card slot on my 17 inch Asus G73.

 

I agree with having the power ports on the rear and a couple of usbs. But I like having a couple usbs on the side for convenience with something like a flashdrive.

 

It depends on the model. Some exhaust heat thru the rear so not only there's no space to move all ports there but i rather have ports on the sides than heat and at least the power plug on the back.
On smaller laptops, i do prefer having them on the rear and a few USB ports on the sides but this is far from being one of the most annoying things manufacturers adopted lately.
So here's my list:

• Cheap, poor quality plastic bodies - rather slightly heavier than flimsy

• Glossy screens -they're so reflective you can't cut yourself shaving even on a sunday morning.

• 16:9 ratio - Yes, i'm one of the folks that prefer 16:10

• Button-less touchpads - i was never a fan of these and now they're removing the buttons?!

• And everything that keeps a customer from upgrading his own system - you won't see me going with a brand like that anyway

...................

Well, this isn't any better

Spoiler

 

Switched Fn and Crtl key compare to every other single brand out there (ThinkPads)
A Little red button that make you think you are using a mouse.( ThinkPads)

I am too addicted to above and now I am having a hard time with my new HP

 

Thick bezels and single fan cooling systems.

edit: Glossy screens too.

 

Ultrabooks by ASUS , I checked one out in a retailer and it seemed not much faster than a 5 year old Dell that I own. I5 ? 4 GIG ram, 900 US, -NAH!

 

Anything Apple looking.

 

At microcenter earlier today, thought of this list. Add laptop "subwoofers" aka dead weight to the list.

 

I wouldn't necessarily write them off. Although they're nothing like a real subwoofer, they do make listening to music on a laptop bearable, instead of the default "I'm singing into a watering can" sound you get from other laptops.

Maybe they should rename it to something other than a subwoofer, though. With something that size you'll never get the low end bass response that a 12" driver can produce. Maybe something along the lines of "dedicated bass speaker for improved low end replication" would be more applicable, though it's not really much of a buzzword as it stands.

 

Hmmm... Microwoofer!

 

Sounds too close to microwave, next thing you know, people will try to bake things with their laptops and then sue Some laptops could probably bake something though...

Said it before i think, i'll say it again though, bad thermal design for the sake of looks. The engineering student that i am is offended.

 

Wedged designs. ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM! I prefer the flat book style such as the one on the u300s, z830, mbp, envy 14, etc.
I also hate laptops that are almost 2 inches thick at the back and less than 1 inch at the front.
Uber thick bezels.
Glossy bezel
Glossy keyboards, glossy anything!
Glossy dedicated mouse keys (z830)
TINY touchpad. I don't care if it has dedicated mousekeys... I don't want my touchpad small as a the ipod nano's screen. [exaggeration of course, but I still hate tiny touchpads]
Alps touchpad
Trial softwares

 

I agree with you on that, however, my fn key seems to be always on, I have to engage it to use the F-Keys.

My biggest pet peeve is quick launch buttons. I hate them. Especially when they put them in places you would expect some other key. I tend to use CTRL-Z, -X, -C, -V a LOT, but I am always opening the stupid calculator. This makes even less sense with Win7 because you can pin those programs to the taskbar. The third level of BS is when that stupid key doesn't even open the version of the program you use, it opens a default assignment you can't change.

 

Toggling Fn+F11 or whatever usually can be changed in the BIOS. And I know it's personal preference, but I guess wedge designs or flat designs don't bother me. I guess why do I care. I don't look at the profile of the laptop ever, I would prefer thickness consistency for use of common ports instead of thinning and requiring special adapters for "mini" type ports.

 

- Glossy screens on almost everything these days
- Glass across the whole front surface (including the part that isn't even the screen). Too mirror-y.
- Superwidescreen resolutions (16:9 or wider). Especially since they're so common.
- Manufacturers copying Apple designs. The HP EliteBook 15 is a prime example. Sometimes they are good designs, but where's the originality? I wouldn't want people to think I had a MacBookPro if it wasn't one.

I would say slot-load optical drives but this doesn't actually seem to have been gaining any steam for several years now. Since they're still strictly optional, it's not a big deal.

I don't mind Intel stickers or AMD stickers. Big honking Toshiba stickers across the palm rest are kind of ugly though, I wouldn't want one of those. And Windows Vista stickers are a negative, but that went out of style a few years ago, thankfully.

 

-6 row keyboards. Some of us that do real work actually use those keys that are disappearing.
-Chiclet. Out of all the chiclet keyboards out there, there is only one that is actually usable.
-Metal for the sake of metal.
-Fake metallic plastic. The mouse buttons for the Z830 come to mind.
-Huge touchpads look ugly imho. From a functional point of view, they are better, but I don't use touchpads anyways thus it doesn't matter.
-Fn combinations instead of real buttons. Volume up down mute at the very least, a physical WiFi switch is also useful.

On the topic of huge bezels. I really don't mind them at all. Glossy bezels look bad like glossy anything though.

 

To be honest, I'd much rather eliminate the numberpad and have your traditional 3x3 with prt scrn, scl lck, pause, ins, home, pg up, del, end, pg dn and arrow keys below them, like on a traditional keyboard. As much as I know that you SHOULD use a number pad for extensive number input, I just don't. I can go just as fast if not faster using the top row number keys. Years and years of habit I guess.

 

Number pads on notebooks mess me up when I'm typing. The home, page up, page down, and end keys being combined with arrow keys is annoying although I got used to them when my I was forced to use my old Asus netbook as my primary computer for a while.

 

Yeah, I think most users would prefer the 3x3 keys and arrow keys than a number pad. Would be nice if they offered both.

 

-Glossy Screen is on the top of my list by a mile.
-Poorly designed keyboards.
-720p resolution (besides the IPS on the Lenovo X220)
-Overall poorly built systems.
-Stickers showcasing whats inside your system.
-HDMI/Displayport/Thunderbolt----Wish there was a standard so I could throw away some cables.