I review laptops for a living, and I'm wondering why it's so hard to switch them off?!

I've been reviewing laptops for over two decades now. So I know my stuff; from thermal throttling under heavy workloads to the subtle differences between IPS and OLED panel technologies. 

I also try to pay attention the real-world stuff that actually matters in the day-to-day. Such as… Can you plug the charging cable in from either side? Does the laptop open smoothly with one hand? These little niggles, in my experience, are more important than manufacturers think.

On which note, something's recently been driving me a little barmy: how to turn the blooming things off.

Why's it so hard?

I'm not talking about sleep mode or hibernate. I mean switching it off for real. And it can't be just me who finds this tricky. Search YouTube for "how to turn off" followed by virtually any laptop model, and you'll find thousands of instructional videos. Thousands! 

Take the Honor Magicbook Pro 14, which I'm currently reviewing. This YouTube video takes just under a minute to explain how to power it down, and that's a minute of my life I'm never getting back. But if there wasn't genuine demand for this information, these videos wouldn't exist. People are clearly struggling with what should be a basic operation.

On Windows 11, you typically have to hunt through complex menus in order to find the right option. Imagine if that was the case for your kettle, your TV or your light switch. Admittedly, those who've signed up for a "smart home" experience might have the latter problem, but that's a choice they've purposely made. Most people who buy a laptop, in my view, would prefer a nice, clearly marked button on the screen that says 'Off'. Why can't that come as standard?

I expect most people would also like a physical button too. One that you press, and then the laptop powers off. In most cases though, such buttons simply put the laptop into Sleep mode… although often there's no obvious way of telling either way. 

Weird omission

This omission seems pretty weird, given that manufacturers seem to agonize over the tiniest details: the precise curve of a trackpad edge, the exact shade of silver for an aluminum chassis. They certainly seem to love telling me about these things in press releases, anyway. But when it comes to the fundamental act of powering down? Apparently, that's not worth their attention.

And yet the fix should be embarrassingly simple. Every laptop should have a clearly labeled power button that, when pressed and held for two seconds, shuts the machine down completely (and tells you it's doing so). No menus, no confirmations, no hunting through settings panels that seem designed by someone who's never actually used a computer.

So why doesn't this happen? 

Cockup vs conspiracy

If I were being generous, I'd assume this is simply an oversight – a collective brain fade across the entire industry. Everyone's so focused on making laptops boot faster, wake from sleep instantly and maintain connectivity that they've forgotten some of us occasionally want to turn them off.

The cynical part of me, though, wonders if it's more deliberate. Are these laptops purposely designed to be always-on devices, constantly syncing, updating, and phoning home with telemetry data? Are their makers deliberately focused on keeping them connected, keeping that data flowing, keeping us all locked into the ecosystem, 24 hours a day?

Either way, here's my humble request. Give us a physical switch that unambiguously shuts our laptop down. Or at the very least, put the shutdown option somewhere easier to find in the interface. Is that really too much to ask?

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