First off, my initial post in this thread wasn't to the OP, it was to you. Specifically to your comment that you couldnt run Unreal Engine on one, to which I replied that was wrong, I can run UE just fine on both of my laptops.
Fortunately I'm not considering such an extravagent purchase as a baseline of whether or not most laptops can run a game engine. Not to mention that's being very vague, running the game engine isn't the same as having to say, run a game, developed with the engine, especially at high settings if you were doing any development related specifically to the visuals.
I was not recommending either of them specifically to the OP. My only other comment was if you get a solid GPU, game development on a laptop is no problem at all.
Unfortunately that's a completely vague statement and would depend a lot on what you need to do in your development, god forbid you're doing engine development wherein performance requirements are probably higher than would be expected later on.
I'm not saying its impossible to develop games on a laptop I'm saying if that's the ONLY thing you do it on then you really should not pander all your advice to that statement, because a lot of people DON'T do that.
Everything else is a matter of taste and perspective. *YOU* dont see that value in a Razer nor in portability. Obviously many others do.
Luckily I'm not one of those "the consumer knows best" people. I wouldn't say that most of the later COD series games are "great" games just because a bunch of people buy them just like I wouldn't say that Razer laptops are a "good" product just because people buy them. People waste their money all the time, people buy alienware desktops that cost 3x the same price as the parts do, all the time.
Yes, you can get a better speced laptop for cheaper than the Razer... now find me one with the same weight, form factor and quality of finish. You cant.
Weight? From what I can tell the Razer laptops are 4.4 pounds roughly, the same weight as most laptops. The heavier ones are lucky to go past 5 pounds. Form factor is one thing they market, its slightly thinner from top to bottom than a standard laptop, if that really is worth dropping all that money on, heh, yeah okay. Same with the finish, I would find it hilarious if you're actually suggesting it is a great value to pay that much more money for what is basically a pretty case. Apple thinking there.
Apparently *you* dont value portability while others do. Sometimes portability means simply being able to move it 10 feet from the office to the couch instead of across the country. There are other advantages to laptops that you are overlooking other than portability. If you lived on campus you would certainly realize that compactness is certainly one. Integration is another ( speakers, keyboard, monitor, mouse, UPS all in one package ). Generally quality is another advantage in laptop favours, especially on the higher end. Finally, and once you start paying the hydro bills you will appreciate power usage as well.
You don't go to college forever(at least I hope not) in fact in general most people are not going to be developing games at college, which is almost the entire basis for why someone would pay for an expensive laptop rather than just a second rate one that works fine for taking notes and browsing and other stuff. I think you're being mildly delusional here in taking me as saying that laptops are useless. Which honestly leaves me not even really wanting to take your arguments seriously because at this point they just sound like you trying to back up spending your money.
Finally the concept of external mouse, monitor and keyboard seem to be completely alien to you. I am currently typing this on an external keyboard, with a logitch g700 mouse on a 27" monitor. See, when I am home I have all the luxuries of working on a full sized computer. However, unlike you, if I wanted to I could take it out on my deck right now, or throw it in my backpack and head to the coffeeshop, or throw it in my luggage and go across the country. Or I could sit here and play every single current generation game on high settings.
If you actually read my posts, which you clearly aren't, I've mentioned external keyboards and mice multiple times. I also mentioned their problems and why they are the complete opposite to portable. I find it kind of funny if you think it is portable to drag a bulky usb keyboard and mouse to the coffee shop. The mouse I can understand, sure, that's tiny. The keyboard not so much, and also takes up real estate since it has to be -behind- the laptop's keyboard, rather than off of to the side or something like the mouse. You're talking about needing a big table or counter to even set the laptop up on.
