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I got my hands on the redesigned successor to 2024's best gaming laptop for most people — I'm confident that I'm going to love it, but there is ONE downside

Lenovo redesigned its flagship Legion Pro 7i gaming laptop for 2025, and I have it in for review. Here are my first impressions after getting my hands on it.

Image of the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 10) laptop.

I would pay a LOT of money for this absolutely incredible AI laptop... But maybe not as much as it actually costs

The HP EliteBook Ultra 14 is one of the best laptops I've ever had the pleasure of reviewing, but it's ridiculously expensive, even among enterprise devices

The HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) being held up by a hand. A Windows Central Editor's Choice award is in the bottom right corner of the image.

I don’t need 32GB of RAM, but 16GB isn’t enough anymore — 24GB is the new sweet spot, and Windows OEMs need to catch up

My Surface Laptop 7 is less than a year old, and I'm already hitting the 16GB RAM ceiling. Yet, I can't justify an upgrade to 32GB RAM because I don't need it. I really need 24GB RAM, but that option is fleeting in the Windows laptop space.

Upgrading laptop RAM

I can't pick a favorite — the award-winning Razer Blade 16 or its new big sibling — but you can preorder both now

Razer just unveiled its new Blade 18 gaming laptop powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The company also opened preorders for its award-winning Blade 16 that wowed us at CES 2025.

Razer Blade 18 (2025)

The Surface you know and love (or hate) is dead — Microsoft's Windows hardware enters a new era

We're in a new era of Microsoft's Surface hardware, one that's more mature and less willing to take risks. Gone are the experimental form factors and categories, with the focus now on prioritizing the status quo while pushing Windows forward in other ways.

Surface Laptop 7

Trump's tariffs force Acer to raise laptop prices by 10% — Expect similar news from other PC makers in the coming weeks

Acer CEO and Chairman, Jason Chen, announced a 10% price increase on its laptops sold in the US. This comes as an answer to US President Trump's 10% tariff on Chinese goods.

Backside of the Acer Swift 14 AI while it sits on the table and faces right.

You can now preorder ASUS' ridiculously powerful 2-in-1 detachable gaming laptop

You can now preorder the ASUS ROG Flow Z13, which pairs a versatile 2-in-1 design with AMD's most powerful mobile hardware ever. It could be the best gaming tablet.

The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) in four positions, including upright with its keyboard attached, upright with its keyboard detached, laying down with its screen up, and laying down with its back up.

Modular laptops and mini PCs might be around the corner thanks to Intel

Despite laptops overtaking their towering cousins in market share, these portable computers still lack one vital trait that has kept stationary desktops still relevant today. Desktop computers are, to a very large extent, modular by design, making it easier to upgrade and replace components as needs and technologies change. Sure, some laptops have upgradable RAM and storage, but that’s pretty much all there is to them given certain limitations in design.

Those limitations include the design of the motherboard itself, an all-in-one all-or-nothing object that is pretty much the soul of a computer. Intel, however, is proposing a rather ground-breaking change that will help make these components more repairable and less wasteful. If followed by its partners, it won’t just kick off a new age of modular laptops, it could even give Intel and AMD a huge edge over their Arm-based rivals such as Qualcomm and, of now, Apple.

Designer: Intel

The difference in motherboards between desktops and laptops is like night and day. Desktops follow an industry convention that has been shaped over decades, allowing components from rival companies to be mixed and matched as the consumer desires. Laptop motherboards, on the other hand, are often designed based on brand needs and whims. More importantly, they come as a whole package, with many parts soldered onto the board, including the ones that get worn out faster than others.

Intel’s proposed guidelines try to split the laptop motherboard into three distinct parts, two of which would hold the I/O or input out components such as USB and HDMI ports. The third would be where the core silicon is located, specifically the CPU and the GPU, among others. The modularity would allow different affected parts to be replaced if broken or, if desired, even upgraded, without throwing away the rest of the motherboard.

Those guidelines also have something for mini PCs, which are like the middle child between desktops and laptops. In this matter, the CPU and motherboard are separated from the graphics card and other components, making it easier to swap out GPUs or CPUs in the future. The growing popularity of mini PCs, partially thanks to the Mac mini and Mac studio, could be the driving force behind this initiative. Ironically, Intel itself has given up on the form factor, licensing its “NUC” brand to ASUS.

Designer: Framework

These guidelines might be ideal for reducing e-waste and promoting the right to repair, but it still all depends on whether other players are willing to play ball. Laptop manufacturers might be hesitant to do the work redesigning their laptops, and Intel’s rival AMD might not be keen to cooperate either. It’s still a distant dream, but one can already have a foretaste of the future today with the Framework laptops, proving that it can indeed be done with the right design.

The post Modular laptops and mini PCs might be around the corner thanks to Intel first appeared on Yanko Design.

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