trying to think of like... how would I describe each laptop manufacturer on pure vibes. off the top of my head...
asus: we have more marketing and r&d budget then we can possibly spend on normal things. look, this one is coated in LEDs! this one has the keyboard in the wrong place! this one splits open! half of their premium product launches generate more youtube views than actual sales because by the time you consider buying one they're discontinued. high-end products can be quite good; midrange products are often a couple bucks too expensive because the brand name buys you some clout. spends a lot of cash to get floorspace at best buy. taiwan.
lenovo: a relative newcomer to the western market (they bought IBM's thinkpad division back in the day), used to be the kings of cost cutting on basically every part they could think of. if they've learned what parts are actually worth cutting costs on (and benefitted from the fact that these days 85% of the parts that exist are Actually Decent) there might be something there. primarily does direct online sales. mainland china.
msi: kind of hit on an identity when they made the first thin and light gaming laptop/"jack of all trades, master of none" device that was actually good, and continue to have a strong presence in that market. devices tend to be a bit on the hollow/flexible-feeling side, not necessarily in a bad way, but just in contrast to "ough that's solid but heavy." under-reviewed, imho. taiwan.
gigabyte: hey, we exist too! some cool stuff at the high end; primary drawback in the west is a reputation for spotty support if you don't speak mandarin since they just do less sales volume than the other Asian companies. mainland china
acer: budget, budget, budget. takes up a truly impressive amount of the low to midrange market with usable but unspectacular devices. once in a while they'll put out a premium-priced device and get confused reviews, like, "guys, this is just a budget laptop with a higher price tag???" known for pure gaming laptops with poor battery life, displays, keyboards, and trackpads but very competitive performance, and general use laptops that are very competent for the price tag if you can find the model that hit the right balance on all of the parts. taiwan.
lg: primarily known for the lg gram line of premium, very lightweight general-use laptops, which are pretty good. do they make anything else? korea.
samsung: yeah we make everything; sure, let's make laptops. very low volume kind of like lg, but a marketing behemoth like asus. korea.
framework: finally, a repairability-focused laptop that's actually good. only has one device (13" general-use) and it's a bit overpriced iirc, and you have some "we're a startup" stuff to deal with, but it's rare that you can take a moral stance and actually get a good product out of it. united states.
dell: kind of the flagship american laptop brand. does a bit of everything. competes with asus on the "solidly built, premium-priced, unnecessarily flashy gaming" front via alienware, with acer on the "budget-priced, competent enough gaming" front via inspiron, and with apple on the "best possible jack of all trades" front via xps. notably, has a huge refurbished store (dell outlet) with a ton of selection that's unmatched by any of the others. united states.
hp: guys we're just like dell! please believe us. used to be the other flagship american laptop brand for years and then idk they ran out of money or something and dropped most of their product lines. kind of like american acer now, I guess? united states.
apple: operating system differences aside, has a consistent standard of build quality, minimum part quality, relative reliability, and "having a working trackpad" that makes every windows laptop look like some sort of children's toy. (I am not joking: the 2008 macbook pro has a trackpad that has not been matched by a windows pc in 15 years. it is legitimately puzzling.) 2016-2019 missteps aside, 80% of the things one could list about a laptop have been multiple years ahead of the competition on the mac essentially forever. on the other hand, they're a gazillion dollars, you can't game on them basically at all, you're stuck with macos, etc etc. (the m1 macbook air in particular is so good that none of that even really matters, though. fingers crossed for the 15" m2 air to continue the trend and not be $1800.) united states.
microsoft: "look, we can match apple's build and display quality!" an extreme newcomer, specifically designed to push the windows platform in the fronts where apple traditionally ate their lunch. they absolutely have done that, and are years ahead of almost anyone else on those fronts. too bad they're constantly a year behind schedule with their hardware and only do premium pricing, had some reliability issues, and suffer from a "we glued the whole thing together and if it breaks it's unfixable" problem that they're only very recently engineering their way out of. still, managed to put a seriously compelling product (surface laptop) in the premium general-use device category until the m1 air came out. united states.
razer: "look, we can match apple's build quality in a gaming laptop!" a relative newcomer that made an incredible, unprecedented jump from a gaming mouse company to a moderate-volume premium pc manufacturer somehow. only sells to the ultra-premium gaming market (weird ultrabooks aside), but does a good job of it. united states.
clevo: the white-label manufacturer behind many smaller brands like ibuypower, maingear; often does comically huge desktop replacement style devices. taiwan.
origin/corsair: who knows, but knowing corsair (asus on bad steroids), it will be about 85% too expensive to be more than a curiosity. united states.
huawei, xiaomei: up-and-coming chinese phone manufacturers joining the laptop market a la samsung. hard to find or get service for in the west. notable because they had access to the high-end display panels that before recently only apple and microsoft used, and sold devices with them at much lower prices. mainland china.
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Wanted to say Glaze 2.0 is AMAZING.
What took 30 mins+ before, took me THREE MINUTES last night. WITH my other programs still running.
For folks who tried Glaze but haven't been using it due to glazing time, give 2.0 a chance!
I've heard that other folks have had it taking the same time/longer, but the quality is so much better. Your settings will determine the outcome, but it's definitely a huge improvement over the initial release version.
This update was super sexy of the Glaze Project. You can download the updated version from their site HERE!
(You should also use in conjunction with Nightshade!)
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