- Joysticks (like the ThinkPad’s knob), one between
EscandF1or to the left ofEsc, and the other to a side ofUpand above eitherLeftorRight.
No, the Thinkpad Trackpoint is totally different from the joysticks you’d find om something like the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch or GPD Win. Totally not usable for gaming. Source: have used three Thinkpads and gamed on them. The Trackpoint is usable for camera movements in slow paced games but that’s about it really. Most of my gaming happened with just the keyboard.
And yes, I use the Trackpoint daily for al my non-gaming mouse usage for 10 years now.
- Second screen like the ROG Duo (full name ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo). Extra points for selling standalone screens of similar sizes, for people who want a more compact second screen for their system, and for people who cannot afford a full screen when the price of the half-screen becomes cheap enough, and it should come in a 540p and a 720p version, eventually.
- The same touchscreen-numpad combo as the ROG Duo, but with a third mode for the
F13-F24keys, aside for numpad mode and touchpad mode.
It sounds like you’re trying to design an ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo. If you really want all those things, why not just buy that instead?
- Compact network cable port which opens up to “bite” the network cable, but having it open up on the side of the screen instead.
They’re already working on a ethernet expansion card. I’m actually expecting to see it any day now when the market place launches.
- Maybe make your own SlimCat version of the Cat network cables, which to fit into slimmer laptops.
That would be non-standard and therefore very annoying to use. If you’re going to make your own cables anyway, why not make cables with ethernet/rj45 on one end and usb-c on the other end, and a USB gigabit NIC integrated in the cable? This is basically what an ethernet dongle already is btw.
- Thicker, with bigger fans, having intakes both below and to the sides, with plastic “walls” to route/funnel the air from the intake to the important components and then to the exhaust, to keep the components colder and longer-lasting during normal operation, but also to futureproof by letting people overclock it as much as possible, including spinning the fans so fast it sounds like a jet engine taking off, and to avoid the need of a laptop-deck.
Overclocking in laptops is basically not a thing these days. The boost algorithm will already give you everything that the cooling and power delivery allows the chip to do. Not much to gain above that. Definitely not while also keeping reliability high and lifespan long, so useless for futureproofing.
- APU with a slide-in graphics card like the ThoughBook has, even if it requires a few screws, to make upgrading easier, with air channels already accounted for in the design of the laptop, and to allow people to buy the version without a graphics card first and add a newer graphics card later.
How are you going to hook this up? There’s power, thermals, PCIe lanes, everything. This is nowhere near trivial. You’d probably need to have all the power delivery and output muxing and stuff in the mainboard, adding costs for all users, including those that never use a dGPU.
- BIOS settings to undervolt the CPU/APU and GPU, so it can last longer.
I’m not against having more BIOS settings, but the default voltages should already be low enough to extend battery life and CPU lifespan
- Remove the need for USB splitters, by having a lot more ports than any modern laptop, even if just as a swapable cover for each of the two sides, also helping to not need a laptop-deck.
Ports take up space. Earlier you already talked about vents on the sides, which also take up space. You’re going to have to make choices here.
- Full support for Windows 7 and Linux.
Windows 7 has been EOL since early 2020 and out of mainstream support since even 2015. We shouldn’t even be talking about this.
Linux support is basically a given if you stay away from Nvidia, and stay away from verions as old as Windows 7.
- 3 headphone jacks, 1 combo, 1 mic, 1 headphones/speakers, to allow maximum compatibility with consumer headphones.
Having three headphone jacks is not going to be user-friendly if you want to plug in stuff every day, even if you clearly label them. Also, most consumer gaming headsets have moved to USB anyway. And consumer non-gaming headsets are mostly bluetooth. Regular headsets (without mic) work perfectly fine with a combo jack and there’s splitter cables for those few that still use 3.5mm microphones. I have one on my desk right now.