Got a windows laptop as a gaming/school PC for my oldest. First time in windows seriously for years for me. I have some thoughts.
I got well reviewed medium/high end hardware and I like the aesthetics. Asus Rog 14
14” is a great size for what my son needs and it’s not a monster at under 4lbs.
The trackpad experience is trash compared to MacBooks that cost less. It feels terrible and even with the touch sensitivity turned way down I can’t scroll without two finger right clicking.
The fact a touchpad has a right click is just evil since you can’t physically see/feel it.
Logging into windows defaults to using your Microsoft account. Ok… but it takes 5 seconds to load the login and another 5-10 to verify you. Does this stuff not come up in performance testing as lag?
The parental experience is also rubbish. Can’t share a Game Pass account with your family. Each one is told they have to buy their own games. Kids accidentally bought Minecraft for a 3rd time. Maybe that’s the point? It’s not even a higher priced option to share GamePass.
Found a hack that said you can log into the windows store with the main account under your kids log-in.
Lost an hour with that edge case. When I go to log in to the store it asks for my “security pin”. It says my pin is wrong. Go back and forth for a while until you realize it wants your kids security pin… but it’s clearly asking for yours. The kids pin worked… while it asked for mine. No one has really tested this experience.
The screen on this thing is great.
Windows 11 has a pleasant look, but OMG some of the icons look like they were ripped straight fro95 and scream like Mick Jagger asking you to start him up.
The Steam game store doesn’t make it obvious, but you can share your game library with up to 5 people! Sweet. Just have to “enable steam guard”. Log into other accounts first and request access. Can’t just give access to an email address.
Windows mail claims it connects to iCloud email. It does not.
I like the keyboard on this better than some Mac keyboards.
The fan noise could drown out Mick Jagger.
Tried to buy Kerbal Space Program 2 through their choice of online store.. XSolla. Was getting an error message. Contacted support. They claimed I had issued a chargeback on their service for $5.57 four years ago and therefore block me (and my IP address now) from buying anything. They would unblock me if I emailed them that bank statement from 4 years ago and told my bank the 5.57 was not fraud. Thanks, but no thanks. Steam to the rescue again. People want apple to open up more app stores… wait till they get that experience.
I would totally miss iMessages.
Now that the basic setup is done it seems to be running smoothly and the gaming is much more diverse than on a Mac.
I just hope I don’t have to enter my password 100 more times in the next week for more tech support.
