Reccomendations on a new laptop

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Finch

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#300835 7-Oct-2022 21:45

Hi everyone.

Following on from a previous thread of mine where my laptop has essentially died (After 5.5 years), I'd like to buy a new one with a budget of $1500 maximum. Looking around, there's quite a few, not entirely sure on what I'm looking at. Ideally would like to go to NL as I have a $100 Gift Card for there, but not the end of the world if I don't. I do like the look of the Microsoft Range, however it might be just slightly under what I'm after.

My style is light browsing (Potentially a maximum of 15 tabs open at a time on Chrome), generic Youtube/Disney+, Discord etc etc. Would stay at home also, don't need to take it with me. So my use is fairly light, however I certainly don't want something that's going to lag at all, especially when I have multiple tabs open. HDMI slot and at least 1920x1080 screen is a must. I currently have 256GB storage, but am prepared to drop.

I don't game very much, if I do it's OSRS (Old School Runescape), and AOE2:DE (Age of Empires 2:Defentive Edition), on Steam. I'd say the most intense thing I do would be playing AOE2, so if it can handle that I'm sure everything else will be fine.

Below is my current (Broken) laptop, so any improvement on that would be cool. Thanks heaps!

Asus UX310UA

Intel® Core™ i5 6200U Processor, 8 GB DDR4 2133MHz, 13.3" (16:9) LED backlit FHD (1920×1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 72% NTSC, Integrated Intel HD Graphics 520

https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/asus-zenbook-ux310ua-gl079t-13-3-laptop-intel-i5-6200u-8gb/26149350

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#2978844 7-Oct-2022 21:47

HP Probook are robust and reasonably priced, that's what I got my wife. The Elitebook are even more robust but way over your budget, I have one for work, works well. HP fans are a lot louder than surface fans. Lenovo and Dell are my #2 picks.

I also like Lenovo and Dell.

shrub

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#2978862 7-Oct-2022 23:13

The lenovo thinkpads G2 with the ryzen apu are my go to at the moment. Intel onboard graphics just are not up to the mark anymore.

Starlith

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#2978863 7-Oct-2022 23:15

There is actually some really sweet deal s going on at Dell for a Dell Inspiron 16 5620 - here's one for $1300 with 512gb ssd, 12th gen intel and 16gb ram, Intel Xe Graphics

That is such a steal at the moment that I'm now considering upgrading from my 2015 xps 15 9550.

Finch

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#2978870 8-Oct-2022 00:00

shrub:

The lenovo thinkpads G2 with the ryzen apu are my go to at the moment. Intel onboard graphics just are not up to the mark anymore.

So this one would be no good? Says Intel Iris Plus Graphics

https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/15-6-asus-x515-i5-8gb-512gb-laptop/35658152

Starlith

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#2978872 8-Oct-2022 00:12

Finch:

shrub:

The lenovo thinkpads G2 with the ryzen apu are my go to at the moment. Intel onboard graphics just are not up to the mark anymore.

So this one would be no good? Says Intel Iris Plus Graphics

https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/15-6-asus-x515-i5-8gb-512gb-laptop/35658152

For AOE the Intel Iris will be completely fine.

Any heavy modern 3D games it will struggle in comparison to the AMD Ryzen 6800 integrated graphics but you can run the intel iris in low detail settings and still achive atleast 60fps

alisam

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#2978925 8-Oct-2022 11:59

Starlith:

There is actually some really sweet deal s going on at Dell for a Dell Inspiron 16 5620 - here's one for $1300 with 512gb ssd, 12th gen intel and 16gb ram, Intel Xe Graphics

That is such a steal at the moment that I'm now considering upgrading from my 2015 xps 15 9550.

Anyone with any thoughts on why there is such a big discount?

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jonathan18

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#2979130 8-Oct-2022 16:26

alisam:
Starlith:

There is actually some really sweet deal s going on at Dell for a Dell Inspiron 16 5620 - here's one for $1300 with 512gb ssd, 12th gen intel and 16gb ram, Intel Xe Graphics

That is such a steal at the moment that I'm now considering upgrading from my 2015 xps 15 9550.

Anyone with any thoughts on why there is such a big discount?

It’s not at all unusual for Dell to have discounts this substantial, so I wouldn’t necessarily read anything into this.

Personally, I’ve made a decision to never purchase from Dell directly again, as I have found them an incredibly frustrating company to deal with. Like some of the worst customer service I’ve experienced. Others have no issue so YMMV.

Finch

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#2979224 8-Oct-2022 20:43

So as I'm looking, I discovered this website (CPU Benchmark) and I'm comparing the possible laptop processors I have penciled in. Is this a good indicator of how good (Or bad) a laptop is? Or should I be looking at something else?

Everything I'm looking at is minimum 8GB ram and 256GB storage.

Thanks.

Finch

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#2979285 8-Oct-2022 22:26

Having spent the past 24 hours or so scouring the internet, I've narrowed my choice down to...8. I'm assuming these are all going to be essentially same same, but if there's one that stands out for the right (Or wrong) reasons please let me know. These are listed from cheapest - most expensive

Lenovo " Gaming" Laptop from Harvey - $1288 . Does also have a dedicated graphics card, not sure what I'm missing at that price?

Asus Laptop - MightyApe - 512GB storage -$1289 . Essentially same price as above, with double storage. No dedicated graphics card though, is that the difference?

Acer Swift 3 - MightyApe - $1395 . CPU Benchmark puts this as rank #77. Has 512GB storage, I'd also prefer smaller than 15.6". What am I missing here? Poor graphics?

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 - Harvey Norman - $1397, ranked #99 on CPU Benchmark. Also has 512GB storage.

Acer Swift 3 - Harvey Norman - $1397. Has LCD screen, perhaps not as good? Also has "only" 256GB storage. CPU Benchmark is also putting this at rank #132. Perhaps the worst on the list?

Lenovo - IdeadPad Flex 5i - JB Hifi - $1399 - Same processor as the Acer Swift directly above this, with the same storage as well. Is however touchscreen, but not something I imagine I'd use very often.

Acer Swift 3 - MightyApe - $1495. 16GB Ram. Again, same processor as above two, the 1135-G7. Perhaps that's why it's "cheap"?

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i - JB Hifi - $1499 . Different processor, the Intel Core i7-1165G7, however only ranked slightly higher at rank #129, so essentially the same?

Anyone have any tips? I'm leaning towards Acer Swift 3 from Mightyape at $1395. Thanks very much!

Bee

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#2979315 9-Oct-2022 09:21

I'm currently looking for something a little bit more powerfull up to $2500, but the lessons are the same :)

Have you looked at PB Tech at all? they have a lot of selection some at extremely good prices so they are definitely on my list.

Dell is also competitive, and for my experience - my last dell had a power failure and screen failure within the first 6 months but was covered by warranty, in both cases a technician came to my house and replaced the parts within a few days so Im a huge dell fan

My current HP has AMD CPU/GPU and the drivers have been really bad, every update after the first 6 months has not worked well, there are pages of people complaining on the internet but AMD has no solutions, so again Im leaning towards Intel I5 or I7 cpu.

Otherwise I have found NL and HN to be good retailers in the past, not sure on the overall quality of the acer you are looking at but at least I can tell you that Mighty Ape should look after you if you have any troubles :)

The biggest thing for me being a keen photographer, is that 512gb is just not enough space so Im looking at the best way to add more storage to a laptop.

Doing your best is much more important than being the best.

lNomNoml

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#2979322 9-Oct-2022 11:23

2 things.

if you want something that will last don't get Microsoft Surface anything.

Get something with a min of 16GB of RAM

Personally I would then look at what has the best warranty and compare that to the others in terms of specs.

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Finch

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#2979324 9-Oct-2022 11:27

lNomNoml:

2 things.

if you want something that will last don't get Microsoft Surface anything.

Get something with a min of 16GB of RAM

Personally I would then look at what has the best warranty and compare that to the others in terms of specs.

Was this in response to Bee or me? :D

Finch

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#2979330 9-Oct-2022 11:55

So I've now placed all the processors into a table to be able to compare them all. The current processor I have is the first one, i5-6200u. Huge difference in scores between that and everything else, obviously it's a 5+ year difference. It says the Ryzen 7 has a clockspeed of 1.8GHz, which is the lowest out of all 5 (Even my 5+ year old one), what does that mean and should I be worried? It days have 8 cores (With 16 threads), which is the highest, that's good, I think? If someone could please look into it so I can understand it all and don't get the "wrong" one very much appreciated :)

CPU Benchmark compare list

jonathan18

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#2979687 9-Oct-2022 14:47

@Finch - have you contemplated a second-hand laptop still under warranty? They come up occasionally here on GZ and, having purchased one from a member earlier this year, I can recommend this option as a good way to get a great-value laptop.

I bought an HP Firefly ZBook that was only a few months old so it had most of the three year on-site warranty to run (the warranty transfers with a sale to a new owner). Hardly used so in as-new condition, and I saved a significant amount over buying a much more basic model new.

There was a similar laptop here on GZ last month - as of the last post on 23 Sept no-one had bought it, so it could be worth asking the seller if it's still available: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=299478

Finch

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#2979690 9-Oct-2022 15:06

jonathan18:

@Finch - have you contemplated a second-hand laptop still under warranty? They come up occasionally here on GZ and, having purchased one from a member earlier this year, I can recommend this option as a good way to get a great-value laptop.

I bought an HP Firefly ZBook that was only a few months old so it had most of the three year on-site warranty to run (the warranty transfers with a sale to a new owner). Hardly used so in as-new condition, and I saved a significant amount over buying a much more basic model new.

There was a similar laptop here on GZ last month - as of the last post on 23 Sept no-one had bought it, so it could be worth asking the seller if it's still available: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=299478

Thanks for the reply. Haven't thought about it, but don't necessarily want to. I like my tech brand new :D

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