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Find me a new laptop
The use case:
It will really only be used when I travel. This includes waiting in airports, on a plane, in a hotel room, or things like that. It won't be used at home other than preparation for travel or a temporary backup in case my desktop dies.
The main uses are web browsing and gaming. It is acceptable if some games require low or medium settings, or are even unplayable because the hardware is too slow. Some games that I play when I travel are very light on hardware.
The essentials:
SSD only, and no hard drive; should have at least 240 GB of capacity
IPS monitor, 13 or 15 inches
Properly matched memory channels: exactly two memory modules of the same capacity
AMD Ryzen 5 or 7 APU
Windows 10
Desired features:
monitor resolution around 1920x1080
matte (non-glare) monitor
ethernet port (can get a USB to Ethernet adapter, but would prefer not to need it)
lots of USB ports (can get a USB hub, but would prefer not to need it)
Ryzen 7 3700U
13" monitor rather than 15"
16 GB of memory rather than 8 GB
2666 MHz memory rather than a lower clock speed
M.2 NVMe over PCIE SSD rather than SATA
removable battery
no discrete video card; integrated GPU only
would prefer a convertible or detachable, but not a big deal
I don't have a fixed budget, but can pay whatever it costs to get what I want. That said, for obvious reasons, I'd prefer to pay as little as possible. I'm hoping to keep it under $700. But if I can get all of my desired features for $900, that's absolutely an option.
The best option I've found so far is this:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-inspiron-15-5000-laptop/spd/inspiron-15-5585-laptop/nnbuc5am102s
That includes all of my essential features and several of the desired ones for $650. It's good that laptop vendors have gotten their act together more in the last few years and realized that a <$100 SSD or an IPS monitor shouldn't automatically mean that the laptop costs over $1000. But if anyone can find a better option, I'd be interest to see it.
It will really only be used when I travel. This includes waiting in airports, on a plane, in a hotel room, or things like that. It won't be used at home other than preparation for travel or a temporary backup in case my desktop dies.
The main uses are web browsing and gaming. It is acceptable if some games require low or medium settings, or are even unplayable because the hardware is too slow. Some games that I play when I travel are very light on hardware.
The essentials:
SSD only, and no hard drive; should have at least 240 GB of capacity
IPS monitor, 13 or 15 inches
Properly matched memory channels: exactly two memory modules of the same capacity
AMD Ryzen 5 or 7 APU
Windows 10
Desired features:
monitor resolution around 1920x1080
matte (non-glare) monitor
ethernet port (can get a USB to Ethernet adapter, but would prefer not to need it)
lots of USB ports (can get a USB hub, but would prefer not to need it)
Ryzen 7 3700U
13" monitor rather than 15"
16 GB of memory rather than 8 GB
2666 MHz memory rather than a lower clock speed
M.2 NVMe over PCIE SSD rather than SATA
removable battery
no discrete video card; integrated GPU only
would prefer a convertible or detachable, but not a big deal
I don't have a fixed budget, but can pay whatever it costs to get what I want. That said, for obvious reasons, I'd prefer to pay as little as possible. I'm hoping to keep it under $700. But if I can get all of my desired features for $900, that's absolutely an option.
The best option I've found so far is this:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-inspiron-15-5000-laptop/spd/inspiron-15-5585-laptop/nnbuc5am102s
That includes all of my essential features and several of the desired ones for $650. It's good that laptop vendors have gotten their act together more in the last few years and realized that a <$100 SSD or an IPS monitor shouldn't automatically mean that the laptop costs over $1000. But if anyone can find a better option, I'd be interest to see it.
Comments
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
If you want a laptop capable of gaming into the next few years I would strongly suggest spending $1000+ for the Dell G7 with a GTX 1060 and M.2 NVMe drive.
You absolutely want a dedicated graphics card if you'll be playing anything other than browser based games (IMHO).
I've used the G7 for travel, remote development work, & for gaming and I've never had an issues with it.
Some games are very light on hardware. The game I play most often on my current laptop is Hearts. Even some games that can be fairly demanding will run fine on fairly slow hardware if you turn settings down far enough.
Besides, don't underestimate just how capable AMD's Vega 10 integrated GPU is. It likely offers around 15% or 20% of the performance of the GTX 1060 that you cite, even as part of a 15 W SoC.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-nitro-5-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-256gb-solid-state-drive-shale-black/6212602.p?skuId=6212602
Ultimately, that's a much higher power system than what I had in mind. It's higher performance, certainly, but the combination of a 45 W CPU and a 64 W GPU will get you a lot more performance than a 15 W APU. That also adds a lot of weight, and the potential for some serious heat problems as dust accumulates over time. It also means that gaming on the battery will drain it awfully fast.
It does look like a nifty laptop for some use cases, likely including yours. Just not mine.
Regarding the performance, because I'm not relying on a laptop to be my primary gaming computer, I'm willing to accept some games being outright unplayable on it. It will mean that when I travel, I might sometimes say, I guess I can't play this game for the next several days. I'll have to pick something else to play in that time instead, and pick up that game again when I get home.
Stiill, I expect to end up with a much milder case of that than my current laptop, which is eight years old and runs an AMD E-350. But also importantly, it still runs, and I want that sort of longevity out of a sparsely used laptop.
you better get a desktop for that.
HP Pavilion Laptop - 15z Best Value
As compared to the Dell laptop that I linked above, this one has a Ryzen 5 2500U rather than a Ryzen 7 2700U, and 2400 MHz memory rather than 2666 MHz. That probably means about 10%-20% less performance.
But it also has 16 GB of memory rather than 8 GB, an ethernet port, and it costs $90 less. The ethernet port means that I wouldn't need to buy a USB to ethernet adapter, which also saves some money and hassle. The Dell laptop would also get to me about a week sooner, but I don't actually need it until mid-August.
It looks like it's on clearance, as you can spec out effectively the same thing with a Ryzen 7 3700U, and HP wants $1055 for that. Yes, a Ryzen 7 3700U is better than a Ryzen 5 2500U, but not $495 worth of better.
I found a review here of a similar model:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-finds/2019/02/25/hp-pavilion-15z-review/#248ae4d2538c
The reviewer goes on repeatedly about how the Radeon Vega 8 integrated GPU is actually a discrete video card, but slower than some Nvidia discrete card. So basically, the reviewer doesn't know what he's talking about.
Why is it that Mr LOL has to always comment?