Looking for a BIG laptop 18+ inches

IceDigger

IceDigger

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Feb 22, 2001
Messages
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I have a client who is looking for an 18"+ laptop and I am having one helluva time finding one.

Last giant one I know of is the MSI GT83 but that ones pretty old now.

Any clues to a more modern one or are they just not made anymore.

Even a custom find. Client doesn't care about money :D
 
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Yeah...that's what she said.


Also, think they stopped producing laptop screens larger than 17.4 or whatever.
 
Pretty sure they only make up to 17" at this point. Laptops bigger then that are starting to become impractical. They do have those portable extension screens that you can slap onto a laptop. There was a laptop with built in triple display that I saw on LTT but can't find it now.
 
I've looked for these laptops out of curiosity recently, and... 17 inches is really as big as it gets these days.

And frankly, I'm not sure if that client really needs anything bigger. Even a 17-inch system can be a bear to stuff into a bag; you can often get a 4K resolution that provides ample breathing room for apps; and if this is a desktop replacement, it's probably smarter to get an external monitor.

One option is to get a portable monitor. With Macs, you can even use an iPad as an external display.
 
The last 18.4" inch laptops were the AW m18, HP Envy amd Elite (can't recall the specific model), MSI GT8x. Clevo/Sager had a model years ago as well. In my view, these were the only laptops that could truly be considered DTRs.

Unfortunately, the last of these models were made 4-5 years back. And even if you could find one, the internals and display tech will be very outdated.
 
The biggest, best gaming laptop is the MSI TITAN GT77 - which isn't even much of a TITAN anymore ("slimmed" down from 10lbs in the past to around 7lbs). The 12900HX mobile CPU is nearly as fast as the 12900K desktop CPU!



Looks pretty incredible, IMO. Probably that or the GE76 would be what I would go for when getting a "large" one.

If you don't want to do the tweaking and customizing, I have bought two laptops from HIDEvolution in the past and they've been great - not cheap, though. :)
 
I remember when we got our 18.4" Toshiba. It was absurdly large, took it to Denny's one night to show my friends and it took up most of the table, lol.
We used it for photo processing and printing at events back in the day.
onsite-shinko.jpg


I did buy this 17" Dell for a client that has an ancient Toshiba 17" and wanted the same size screen.
He only uses it for emails and web browsing and there were only gaming models available with that size screen, so the RTX 2060 won't get any use, lol.
IMG_1307.JPEG
 
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Zepher said:
I remember when we got our 18.4" Toshiba. It was absurdly large, took it to Denny's one night to show my friends and it took up most of the table, lol.
We used it for photo processing and printing at events back in the day.
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Now reminded of just how big those 18-inch laptops (especially the many, many Toshiba Qosmios) felt. Even if there was a modern take on them with a thinner, lighter design, it'd feel like stuffing a dinner tray into your bag.
 
Aurelius said:
Now reminded of just how big those 18-inch laptops (especially the many, many Toshiba Qosmios) felt. Even if there was a modern take on them with a thinner, lighter design, it'd feel like stuffing a dinner tray into your bag.
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When we got it, there was like only one bag large enough, it was a case logic bag. All of the other bag/carrying case makers stopped at 17".
 
Zepher said:
When we got it, there was like only one bag large enough, it was a case logic bag. All of the other bag/carrying case makers stopped at 17".
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I've waxed lyrical about my Asus w90vp 18.4 inch here before. It was an elegant monster with crazy good build (it had leather accents on the keyboard and hand rest!). If I could get the same laptop today with updated components, I'd buy it in a second.

Asus actually supplied a gargantuan custom backpack with the laptop that looked like a Nasa EMU oxygen pack. The only other bag at the time that handled it was a Slappa DJ bag I found (that I still use now, 13 years later).

Here she is from my FS/FT listing...

pre1072.jpg
 
IceDigger said:
I have a client who is looking for an 18"+ laptop and I am having one helluva time finding one.

Last giant one I know of is the MSI GT83 but that ones pretty old now.

Any clues to a more modern one or are they just not made anymore.

Even a custom find. Client doesn't care about money :D
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What's the use case? They just want a "full size" monitor, or is this really about getting desktop-caliber power that's "portable?"
 
Slight necro but I literally just had this size issue.
Ran an Acer 8930 thhen replaced it with an AW-18.. Last month after 6yrs the AW18 started crapping out.

With no more 18" I had to get a 17".

To be honest, the performance gains have out shined the slight loss in screen size and do not really notice the loss in screen. The biggest notice is height.
 
I remember the age when "bigger" was considered better. I used to laugh at making a laptop "bag" that was actually like a luggage roller so people could have the 24" screen they wanted.

IMHO, iPad and phones changed all of that. Now we want 8K displays on our Apple watch.
 
As someone who still has three 18.4" Alienware laptops there definitely is a difference in screen size.

Personally I ended up throwing RTX 3000 GPUs in my M18xR2 & AW18 to keep them relevant in todays time. Packed with 32GB RAM, MXM NVMe SSD adapter, they aren't too bad.

However, so far there is a 18" Alienware, Razer Blade and ASUS laptop coming out next year. We'll see at CES as it seems the 18" screens are coming back.

2560x1600 165/480Hz 18" screens.
 
Wade88 said:
They showed a new m18 at CES.
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That and Razer showed a Blade 18. Seems like a display manufacturer has an 18-inch panel and the gaming PC brands leapt on it. That seems like the best use, really — there's a subset of gamers who have to play on a laptop, but want the most desktop-like experience they can get (and, of course, are willing to pay for it). And the Razer system, at least, is a lot sleeker than those Qosmios and other behemoths of old (the Alienware still looks fairly chunky).
 
Aurelius said:
That and Razer showed a Blade 18. Seems like a display manufacturer has an 18-inch panel and the gaming PC brands leapt on it. That seems like the best use, really — there's a subset of gamers who have to play on a laptop, but want the most desktop-like experience they can get (and, of course, are willing to pay for it). And the Razer system, at least, is a lot sleeker than those Qosmios and other behemoths of old (the Alienware still looks fairly chunky).
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The only thing I don’t like about the Razer is that even though it’ll be 18”.. It. Still. Is. TKL

Like, why.

I’m actually looking to get the Asus one depending on the pricing, I’m assuming the Razerblade will be the most expensive.
 
w35t said:
The only thing I don’t like about the Razer is that even though it’ll be 18”.. It. Still. Is. TKL

Like, why.

I’m actually looking to get the Asus one depending on the pricing, I’m assuming the Razerblade will be the most expensive.
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What's TKL?
 
Nobu said:
tenkey (number pad) -less
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Actually, I think the tenkey is the arrow keys plus home, del, ins, etc. 68% (or something like that) is without the numpad, and 60% (or so) is neither.
 
Nobu said:
Actually, I think the tenkey is the arrow keys plus home, del, ins, etc. 68% (or something like that) is without the numpad, and 60% (or so) is neither.
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Nope. Ten key-less (TKL) means the number pad. :)
 
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why not just google "TKL"...


w35t said:
Got lucky and snagged this one up before it sold out, get to become aquatinted with it this evening =D

Killer deal for $2500, almost posted it in the [Hot] Deals section but figured it wouldn’t qualify, that’s msrp after all.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-r...-1tb-ssd-eclipse-gray/6531333.p?skuId=6531333
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nice! nvidia just released new drivers for the 4080/90 mobile chips, so make sure to grab em when you get it. and post pics...
ps: the most recent BB review seems to be whining about coil whine. hopefully thats not an issue for you.
 
pendragon1 said:
why not just google "TKL"...



nice! nvidia just released new drivers for the 4080/90 mobile chips, so make sure to grab em when you get it. and post pics...
ps: the most recent BB review seems to be whining about coil whine. hopefully thats not an issue for you.
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Yeah hopefully not but 99% of the time I’m using noise canceling headphones anyway. I wouldn’t think you’d be able to hear it over the fans but we shall see.
 
So just getting it set up, build quality seems really solid so far, good amount of BLB but that’s to be expected I suppose, really doesn’t bother me all that much. This is my first foray into Windows 11 and I gotta say, not much a fan.

Anyway, so far I’ve only had time to run one benchmark, the FFXV one as it’s a small standalone, score was 12293, high preset, 1440p (no 1600p option). I just ran it on my desktop rig with the same settings, which is a 3080 and a 10900KF, and got 12698. Desktop is Windows 10 and all stock clocks but still, pretty got dang impressive.


B7CBD49B-5391-457A-AD3F-85D15BDC23D0.jpeg
 
w35t said:
So just getting it set up, build quality seems really solid so far, good amount of BLB but that’s to be expected I suppose, really doesn’t bother me all that much. This is my first foray into Windows 11 and I gotta say, not much a fan.

Anyway, so far I’ve only had time to run one benchmark, the FFXV one as it’s a small standalone, score was 12293, high preset, 1440p (no 1600p option). I just ran it on my desktop rig with the same settings, which is a 3080 and a 10900KF, and got 12698. Desktop is Windows 10 and all stock clocks but still, pretty got dang impressive.


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its yuge! whats the diagnal on that touch pad, like 6-7"?! ;)
shift the taskbar icons to the left to make it feel more natural, and pin things to it. youlll get used to 11.
 
pendragon1 said:
its yuge! whats the diagnal on that touch pad, like 6-7"?! ;)
shift the taskbar icons to the left to make it feel more natural, and pin things to it. youlll get used to 11.
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However, the laptop carrying crate is an option you have to purchase separately.
 
pendragon1 said:
its yuge! whats the diagnal on that touch pad, like 6-7"?! ;)
shift the taskbar icons to the left to make it feel more natural, and pin things to it. youlll get used to 11.
Click to expand...
That picture makes the lower portion appear abnormally large, the touchpad is actually 6" diagonally though lol. Honestly this feels like a slightly taller 17.3" laptop because it essentially is. For me, the bigger the display the better, I was ecstatic when I learned they were making 4000 series laptops with 18" displays. I game mostly on the road but at home I'm on a 27", 35" uw, or a 65" TV so going down to a 14-16" would be a serious no go. It also slides right into the backpack I already have (Everki Atlas) for my laptop in my sig. Don't get me wrong it's a big sucker, but my two laptop ago whatever it was 17" was more of a brick than this.

Also, getting some pretty awesome results in the Cyberpunk bench, ray tracing ultra with dlss frame generation yields 120fps average at 1600p. Turn DLSS off and I'm getting 70fps avg, which is still damn incredible. So far this seems to perform roughly as well my 3080 desktop.

CPU temps are pretty high already though, getting into the low 90s, gpu temps are very impressive only getting into the low 70s however.

For some reason I thought this display had some form of HDR, it appears it does not, which is unfortunate, though 1440/1600p at this size is delightful over 1080p, it's definitely got plenty of brightness and 240hz feels great on the desktop, looking forward to playing a fast twitchy shooter like CS:GO on it. If a 4090 laptop with an oled display shows it's face and isn't something like $5k I'll probably make the switch, but so far very impressed.
 
w35t said:
4090 laptop with an oled display shows it's face and isn't something like $5k I'll probably make the switch, but so far very impressed.
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Yes, I'm holding out for a 4090 18" with OLED ideally higher than 60hz.
 
Wade88 said:
Yes, I'm holding out for a 4090 18" with OLED ideally higher than 60hz.
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Probably going to be waiting a while. I bet we’ll see some 15” oled before too long as there are already panels that exist but idk about 18”. I’d definitely settle for a 17” if they become available but a 16:10 16” would probably be too small for me.
 
These are the kind of people who decide they need a 67" TV, a 1550P monitor and a 9 core CPU and a sports car with a V14 engine. Also, they want a good price.
 
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