"when competing manufacturers have been stepping up their game as of late in the same budget category."

Which ones? Because Dell/HP/Lenovo all make plastic laptops + they started adding crap like soldered ram and only letting the USB-C ports live on those new models. Not to mention those terrible screens with 45% Color gamut.

While I respect opinions on how to make a product better, I don't think suggesting to change something like a "charger barrel" be a proper improvement since the USB-C port supports charging anyways. Samsung still sells those barrel chargers with some of their laptops and you didn't bash them here when that happened. If anything, maybe improving the cooling system would actually be an improvement, along with moving the fingerprint to a new position (although who uses that on a laptop lol?).

Quoteit should have just shipped without the proprietary AC charger port in the first place.

Why? More choices and ports on a business focused laptop is a good thing. No need for pass through hubs to carry around if you don't to.

Not everything needs to be like the others otherwise why bother with your website reviews if it's exactly the same.