Who needs laptops when you can buy micro size Dell OptiPlex. 7 by 1.4 by 7.2 inches....With 2x DisplayPorts for dual monitors. Forget HDMI.
But I prefer SFF HP or OptiPlex. With 2-3 DisplayPorts. As far as Intel desktop CPUs go, the 12th generation i5-i7 onward have best onboard Intel graphics 770, for highest refresh rates (HZ) on QHD and 4K monitors. Via DisplayPort.
For what I do, I do not need or want graphics cards.
I too love little micro and mini sized computers. We are currently using one with each of our 4K large screen televisions as entertainment centers. They are older and we are currently running windows 10 Pro on them and they are together the same PLEX network. Next fall I may switch them over to a Linux based network.
This is creating some trepidation however. Right now, we are using Audials one software to capture streams we are watching and saving the video to our Plex network. There is no Linux video capture utility with the same capabilities as Audials so it will create some problems for the way we do things. Currently anything we capture can be watched almost instantly on either television using the PLEX app. Audials also has some unique and easy to use editing capabilities. The ultra version can take out all commercials by itself and improve the looks of the video using an AI editing scheme.
But back to the discussion of integrated AMD GPUs vs Intel... in my experience if you have a machine without a discrete GPU... Ryzen APUs outperform Intel by a large margin in every corresponding generation.
My “gaming laptop” has a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700HX with a GeForce RTX 4060... I am very happy with the performance it gives me with Microsoft Flight Simulator. However, if I disable the GeForce GPU and use the integrated Intel® UHD Graphics for 13th Gen Intel® Processors... it performs worse than my wife's new laptop with AMD Ryzen 7 8840U with the integrated AMD Radeon™ 780M. This is actually unexpected considering the published benchmarks for the two APUs all give the Intel chip a huge advantage, but the Ryzen’s integrated GPU is much better than the Intel.
The following link shows that the Ryzen’s integrated Radeon™ 780M is 196% more powerful than Intel's UHD graphics 770.
https://technical.city/en/video/UHD-Graphics-770-vs-Radeon-780M
This has been going on for years and I am not sure why Intel has not taken care of this shortfall that makes a huge difference in laptops and little micro sized computers.
I normally do not buy Apple products, but one of my best friends purchased a Mac-Mini at Costco when they went on sale a couple of months ago and the thing is so amazing that it tempts me to go that direction for once.