Question Laptops are weird, advice/opinions needed

[doomkaliber]

Greetings forum!

I'm in a sticky situation as I've pretty much been a die-hard desktop user and am put in a position where I have to actually pick out a laptop for myself, which is proving... more difficult than expected.
Ironically, being a rather tech-savvy guy and I've actually helped a decent amount of people in their choices for laptops and have had praise for optimizing their budgets.

I'll do my best to keep it clean and simple by asking the following few questions that I have on my mind at the moment:

1. Customizability - There's rarely something better than popping the ol' PC case wide open and changing out that old 760 Palit/StormX that was brutally abused, working 18 hours a day for over 4 years and replacing it with a shiny new 1060. We've all been there... Anyway - I've always been hesitant when asked to help with opening laptops, because I simply do not understand them and have never really had the need to do so. My main question is, to what degree do you have that ability to change out or upgrade components? (Or pay somebody to do so if you're not well aware of what you're doing.)
2. Brands - So there's Acer, but then another Acer that's a Predator, while there's a brand called Alienware... Hm... So - I've currently set my eyes on a Dell G5 with a decent and satisfying set of components for my needs, giving me a bit of time before wanting to crack it open and see it's insides. Perhaps about 2ish warranty years or so, at the least. The question in the matter is what role does the brand it's self play in sense of the product's quality? Have you ever had contact with Dell's G series and what is your opinion on the topic? Is it possible that the difference margin is actually pretty slim and we're mostly paying for branding?
3. "Mobile" Components - I think this one is pretty straight forward - how do notebook components translate in terms of productivity. I know I'm using a GTX 1060, but is it actually a desktop-tier 1060 or is it more like two stacked 1030s in a raincoat and a mustache? Basically, how much can I expect in terms of "heavy lifting" compared to a desktop PC?

Anyway, if my horrendous sense of humor hasn't scared you away yet, I'd absolutely love to hear your opinions on any and/or all of the question raised.
Thank you very much in advance, as well as for your time!
Best regards,
-Asparuh Ivanov

 

[jsmithepa]

When you buy a laptop, you are saying, am willing to sacrifice performance for portability. Laptop vendors cannot give you infinity power (power=heat) 'cuz you would be complaining about a hot keyboard, and a loud fan to keep things reasonably cool.

A 1070/1060 u said, wuff! GPU is a major source of heat, I hope you need this for gaming 'cuz otherwise there is no reason to have this hot component in there.

There is an exception to this, the so called GAMING LAPTOPS, which tend to big(ger) and bulkier, and you don't just plan to move it that much. STILL never as good performing as a desktop.

On top of that, laptops are fairly non-upgradable, get all you need from the get-go and forget major upgrades. U maybe able to switch to SSD, a larger HD, more ram and that's it. The CPU is often soldered on, GPU can/maybe upgradable if it's a PCIe plug-in.