While I like thin and light, I think manufacturers have gone too far in that direction. If a laptop is too "thin and light" to have a couple of regular USB ports without attaching a dongle, then it has gone too far.
I build my own desktop PCs periodically but I have only purchased 2 laptops for myself. The first was a Pentium M based Acer that I got a great deal on in the early 2000s. I got the second about two years ago when I opted for an Alienware (9th gen i7 based).
I don't actually do much gaming but I opted for the Alienware for a few reasons:
- It's fast and has discrete graphics (1660ti...I didn't opt for the 2060 at the time because i didn't care about ray tracing which was about the only advantage)
- While it's pretty thin for the amount of power it has, it still has room for some USB ports
- It does not throttle even when pushing the CPU, iGPU and GPU to the max...a rare or nonexistent attribute in a non-gaming laptop these days it seems.
- I always liked the Alienware aesthetic, I could finally afford one, and it's highly unlikely I would ever get a desktop Alienware as I prefer building my own.
- It has a big 4K screen (17-inch)
- It might be another 10 years before i buy another new laptop so i figured I would go big now.
It's a bit bigger and heavier than is ideal for a laptop but i'm not really travelling much (or at all right now) and it still compares well to the "thin and light" of 10 years ago. I absolutely love it and the only "negatives" are that it does not have a card reader and i wouldn't mind upgrading it from 16 GB to 32 GB. I'd love to build a new desktop but until GPU prices come down that isn't happening.