What's wrong with a 1080p display on a laptop? My current laptop has a 2560×1440 screen and I can almost guarantee that my next one will be 1080p matte if I can help it. There is just no point in me wasting compute on pixels that I'll never see.
If I had to spec out the same machine today, I would opt for the 1080p display. Not just for the increased battery life, but better overall graphics performance as well. Unless you're doing serious graphics work, it's just not necessary.
4K has its place, but smaller displays where you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference at typical viewing distances is just not it.