You're right. They are not that upgradable at all. Memory is easy (and cheap) to upgrade, but things like graphics are pretty much a no-no in upgrading.
Not true at all - it's much more scary to upgrade but to say it's not upgradable at all is a sweeping AND INVALID statement
hell it's not even that difficult in most cases, just got to do the research!
MXM means that on some laptops, graphics is indeed upgradeable (although this never really took off as it does take more space to stick an MXM module in than it does to solder it to the motherboard!) but even without it, models such as Dell's Latitude D620/D630 are upgradeable in the sense that within an hour and for about a ton, you can swap the motherboard for one with the nVidia chip instead of the Intel IGP - which I'd say was an upgrade.
Screens are upgradeable - as a product gets to the end of it's life, it's often extended by swapping the panel for a better resolution one - when the XPS 1530 came out the panel I've got on mine wasn't available - tis now and very reasonably. Can pick it up on eBay too, seperate, and it'll swap over as long as you're gentle. Makes using it much more pleasant usually!
Processors are typically very easy to upgrade - some models make it a b*****d job to get to but on my XPS it's a cinch. It's only Ultraportables that tend to have the CPU soldered to the motherboard - again though as later revisions come out with different chips you can buy the motherboard and that gives you the option to do that.
Memory is an obvious one - SODIMM is a standard now for laptops, with only very very few deviating from this.
Hard disks - again depend on model but typically just two screws and slide out, which is another upgrade you can do in your spare time!
DVD/CD drives - if when you bought the laptop the Blu-Ray drive was a £500 option, but now there's one on eBay for £100 that you want, the drive is usually a single screw under the keyboard at worst - another upgrade...
The trouble is consumers are scared of laptops, thinking they are an immense feat of engineering and much more fiddly than desktops. Difference is if you're methodical and sensible you can take a laptop apart and put it back together inside an hour... In my time I've retrofitted wireless to laptops (that didn't even have the aerials!), replaced screens, replaced motherboards and swapped processors - allsorts.
However - the Toshiba posted does appear to be good and as much as I hate them for their shite kit in the past, their latest 'break it and you get it fixed with your money back' isn't to be sniffed at...
