Need some help choosing a laptop for a friend from Noel Leemings.

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Need some help choosing a laptop for a friend from Noel Leemings.

JaseNZ

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#279842 12-Nov-2020 11:39

I have a friend who is wanting to upgrade her old windows laptop of the being driven by hamster era.

She also wants to upgrade her phone and already has her heart set on a blue OPPO A91 Dual SIM Smartphone.

She does a lot of photography on an enthusiast level but does not want to enter the apple eco system and along with her camera wants to use the phone for photo's around town etc.

She has a budget of 3k with the phone taking up 600 of that leave $2400 for the lappy.

Perhaps the Microsoft 3 laptop ?? at $2290.00

https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/prod185145.html

Or Dell Xps 13" i5 at $1800

https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/prod185173.html

Just after some advice, She also won't budge on Noel Leemings.

Any and all advice before I take her in tomorrow would be much appreciated.

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#2602562 12-Nov-2020 11:47

Black Friday sales coming up. I wouldn't buy a big ticket item from NL until then.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

Jase2985

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#2602572 12-Nov-2020 11:58

but what will she use the laptop for?

JaseNZ

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#2602587 12-Nov-2020 12:13

Her photography stuff, which I am guessing is light room and she will also have ms office on it.

She is heading away and wants to get everything now I could try and persuade her but don't like my chances.

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timmmay

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#2602601 12-Nov-2020 12:29

I had a Surface Laptop 2. It's got a quiet fan, average WiFi that usually works but occasionally struggles, and is fairly compact. Haven't used a Dell. Hp Probook are good but the fans are much louder than Surface, and Lightroom can use some CPU and also can use reasonable amounts of RAM for disk caching large images to disk for speed.

neb

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#2602605 12-Nov-2020 12:47

floydbloke:
Black Friday sales coming up. I wouldn't buy a big ticket item from NL until then.

I wouldn't buy a big ticket item from NL

FTFY.

jonb

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#2602631 12-Nov-2020 13:13

The HP x360 would be great to have the flip screen if main device when going away, handy. The 128GB version is too small storage, maybe with black Friday sale the 256GB version might be in budget.

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Jase2985

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#2602693 12-Nov-2020 14:08

JaseNZ:

Her photography stuff, which I am guessing is light room and she will also have ms office on it.

being more specific will likely end in getting a better product

JaseNZ

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#2602948 12-Nov-2020 17:50

Sorry all I know is she will be using it for what I said before I am unable to contact her as she currently has no phone hence getting the oppo. Will have a better idea when I see her tomorrow we have have a good look at things and a play.

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evnafets

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#2602955 12-Nov-2020 18:09

Like any laptop, the questions to consider

- what screensize? 13? 15? 17?

- weight - Is it going to be mobile or on the desk the whole time? Hook it up to an external tv/monitor or not?

If she is going to be doing photography, how long do you think that 256GB SSD will last her?

Maybe consider getting one with a HDD in it as well. You may have to look at "Gaming" laptops to get that but they generally start at 15" in size.

gzt

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#2603627 14-Nov-2020 09:54

Random thoughts

On weight alone I'd look at Surface Go. Nothing beats it. I'd also want a hard case for it.

Storage is good to have. On the other hand USB-C is fast and external storage is cheap.

Remember weight of the machine is only one factor. Charger weight is a factor for travel.

Consider a machine with USB-C charging for wide charger availability. Potentially just carry a cord.

I'm over-stressing weight and portability above. If it sits on a hotel room desk not so important.

Pick a model with a history that retains the same form factor. Xps 13 is good. Random pretty branded machines with no model history can easily be a pain. Ie; latest processor and no performance, random physical issues.

Btw this week I'd abandon windows throw caution to the wind and go Apple M1 100%! : ). Reasonably priced and within budget.

freitasm

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#2603630 14-Nov-2020 10:06

If she wants something small, very light and fast enough for browsing, document creation then could consider the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go, just released. If they want something a bit faster then perhaps the Huawei Matebook 13.

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#2603650 14-Nov-2020 11:00

If you are after the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 from NL, see if they can price match. I got mine (i7 with 16 GB) at about the same price as what they are selling i5 with 8GB currently (this was during a sale an year ago).

PBTech has that for $2,399 right now (https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NBKMST61725614/Microsoft-Surface-Laptop-3-Home--Personal-Model)

However, take note about the disk capacity. You'll probably need an external disk eventually. Also, as someone else mentioned, the wifi is bit iffy.

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#2603675 14-Nov-2020 12:33

Touchscreen devices can be somewhat reflective and not so great if outdoor work is required. I seem to recall @Geektastic having trouble with that aspect.

HDR would be a nice to have. I'm not sure if it's available in the price range.

freitasm

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#2603676 14-Nov-2020 12:36

For reference, no HDR on Surface Laptop Go. HDR on Huawei Mate book only for streaming. Surface Laptop Go uses WiFi 6.

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JaseNZ

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#2603693 14-Nov-2020 13:24

Thanks for all the help guys, I was just her advisor and she settled on the following

Lenovo 15.6" IdeaPad 5 Intel i7-1065G7 8GB RAM 512GB SSD Notebook

and a Samsung Galaxy A71

Bit of haggling and got him to knock 300 off the price , Free otto box case for the phone, Cloths and antivirus pack with a years subscription on it for 6 devices.

It was only an 8gb laptop so dropped into PBTech which had so many people you could hardly move and grabbed an 8gb stick to put her up to 16gb.

got him to cover the cost of that as well so total discount was 365 plus all that other stuff.

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