To be honest, I really don’t have the urge to buy a gaming laptop now

Gaming laptops were once the mainstream product line in China's notebook market. Faced with the vast number of PC gamers, gaming laptops have attracted the attention of many young users with their powerful performance and cool appearance. The prices of this type of notebook products are also quite high-end. Although the prices can easily exceed ten thousand yuan, they have maintained quite good sales thanks to their design focused on gaming.

As a PC gaming enthusiast, I have also fallen into the trap of gaming laptops, but to be honest, it is difficult for me to buy gaming laptops nowadays.

In my opinion, the current gaming laptops have no more cards to play except piling up hardware performance. When players cannot get a fresher gaming experience from gaming laptops, they naturally lose the urge to buy them.

The product is not novel, and consumers are not willing to buy it

Although there are more and more gaming laptops, we can see fewer and fewer product highlights.

In recent years, with the rise of OEM products in the industry, the homogenization of gaming laptops has become increasingly serious. Except for some brands that maintain their own proprietary appearance design, other brands are even difficult to distinguish in appearance. Gaming laptops, which were once synonymous with cool appearance among laptops, are gradually losing their ability to attract attention.

In addition, gaming laptops are becoming less and less innovative and have fallen into the dead end of hype, with many seemingly useless upgrades such as mechanical keyboards, external heat sinks, and external graphics card docking stations. The main reason why users choose gaming laptops is that they need to be more portable than desktop computers, and these things have become a burden on gaming laptops.

So whenever I see gaming laptop manufacturers bragging about these features, I can't help but ask myself why I don't just build myself a desktop computer, which, in addition to being able to realize these useless features, would also cost a lot less.

Moreover, as far as current gaming laptops are concerned, there is no other way to improve the gaming experience except piling up hardware performance. And putting desktop-level processors and graphics cards in gaming laptops can only be seen as a burden.

The impact of the return of game consoles to the domestic market cannot be underestimated

China's huge group of PC gamers has made the gaming laptop industry taste the sweetness, and has also attracted many manufacturers to flock to the market and decide to make money in this niche product area, which has also created a hot scene in the domestic gaming laptop market in recent years.

In fact, the reason why domestic game players are mainly concentrated on the PC platform is that there was a 15-year "ban" on game consoles, which prevented players from accessing more game platforms. Coupled with the gradual popularity of PC online games, the idea that computers are equivalent to game consoles has been deeply rooted in the minds of Chinese people for quite a long time.

With the lifting of the ban on game consoles, PS4 and XBOX ONE have attracted many PC gamers to switch to these platforms with their high-quality gaming experience. In order to attract domestic gamers, the three console manufacturers Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have also put in a lot of effort.

Sony, which has always been based in Asia, seized the opportunity after returning to the Chinese market, and its non-region lock policy quickly gained popularity. Although Microsoft's XBOX ONE's region lock mode made it lose a round, its upcoming XBOX ONE X Chinese version console will be released simultaneously around the world, and the news that it will not be region locked has also been revealed, which has excited many domestic players.

The dark horse Nintendo Switch has also gradually begun to pay attention to the mainland market. It recently announced that it would "simplify Chinese" more than 60 games, including mainstream blockbusters. Coupled with the previous "scandal" with Tencent, players are also full of expectations for Nintendo's return to the Chinese market.

The good news about these game consoles will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the gaming laptop market. Judging from the current performance of gaming laptop products, it will be difficult for it to withstand this wave of impact.

Mobile phones are taking away fragmented gaming time, and gaming laptops can’t keep up

Since smartphones became the mainstream carrier of mass entertainment, the decline of the computer industry has been unstoppable. For the current main consumer groups, computers are almost completely linked to work, and computer games and entertainment are gradually moving away from them.

Compared with gaming laptops, mobile games can make better use of players' fragmented time. The lighter size allows players to play a game while riding in a car, eating, or going to the toilet. Even after returning home, most people will continue to play with their phones, while computers have become a disposable product.

Faced with this latecomer, computers are clearly unable to cope. As everyone's time becomes increasingly fragmented, computer games seem too cumbersome.

Unless there are major changes in the gaming laptop industry, it’s hard for me to think of a reason to buy one.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.