The problem with new video formats is their performance requirements as that they generally assume playback via dedicated hardware. The catch is that it often takes years before such decoders appear in GPUs and processors, leaving all devices purchased before then without support.

This is one thing that’s kind of frustrating about laptops. With desktops, you can stick in a new GPU. With laptops, maybe you can do an eGPU, but generally you’re stuck with whatever the thing originally shipped with.

Sure, you get some other benefits from buying a new laptop, but the rate of CPU performance increase has fallen off a lot, and now GPUs are the thing that are advancing quickly. A CPU upgrade used to be the primary reason to get a new computer. Throwing out a whole computer if you’re basically fine with it other than wanting a more powerful GPU is kind of a bummer.