I always see the wrong questions asked on this subject

[Cjennmom]

Laptops are ALWAYS slow, even right out of the box new. THAT is the question I want to see answered, why are ALL laptops slow?!

 

[sizzling]

Usually come with a huge amount of bloatware and are weaker than their desktop counterparts. Also unless using an SSD their HDD tend to be significantly slower.

 

[Cos70]

Power, pure and simple. People want portable power for long periods of time, and we cannot provide batteries sufficient in lightweight capacities yet. To counter this, they reduce power by using more power efficient (slower) equipment. They COULD be as powerful, but nobody would buy them because of the 2 hour life before needing to recharge.

 

[little_me]

While Cos70 is correct that power is the issue, he is by far over estimating the time between recharges if we go to desktop power usage.
64W for CPU
200W for GPU
bit extra, lets say 300W total (still low power for desktop if used for gaming/video editing/other heavier use)

Now, lets look at normal laptop battery... for like gaming laptop, like ROG, seemingly they have like 76Wh battery (so 76/300=0.25 hours, aka 15 mins.)

Lets take top contender, like Lenovo thinkpad x260 (supposedly like 17 hours on websurfing over wifi) it has still only 73Wh battery. so.. yeah, not any longer than ROG's

Big questions on laptops are:
What will you use it for while not plugged in?
playing games? forget long battery life.
surfing? it wont use lot of power so longer battery life, it also wont need big GPU/CPU so less battery usage and longer life.

 

[rgd1101]

depend, high end/ gaming one usually are fast, it depend on your budget.