Are there any good laptops? If so, please tell me about them!

Couldn’t decide what category to post this in, hopefully it’s not too out of place here.

I was hoping to get some recommendations for a new laptop since I’m having some trouble sifting through all completely trash offerings on the market.

Currently I’m running a Surface Pro 3 i5, 8gb RAM, 256gb and it seems like it’s going to die someday soon. It randomly just shuts off and refuses to turn on for a while, the TypeCover just disconnects when it pleases and the performance is pretty measly.

I’m looking for something at a max of $2000 AUD. Hoping I can find one that is decently powerful.
I do a lot of C# programming, Cisco PacketTracer, running multiple virtual machines and video streaming.

Ideal specs would be:

  • 16gb RAM (maybe even DDR4)
  • 256gb SSD (at least)
  • Some form of dedicated graphics
  • i5 (i7 would be nice, but battery concerns)
  • Enough battery to get me through one day at university
  • Linux support is a huge plus

This seems like a pretty tough order to fill, which explains why I can’t find any that fit this criteria.

Dell Xps 15 7th gen or 8th gen. The 7th gen may go on sale soon since they are about to release 8th gen

2 Likes

Whoops. Skimmed the bit about dedicated graphics. High end MBP or Dell XPS 15 would be the way to go, imo.

The new XPS 9575 comes out next month I believe. It would have the new six core 8750h CPU with a GTX 1050ti and has the ability to be upgraded to 32GB of RAM. The XPS can come with a 97 whr battery. What sucks about it tho, is it will have a “maglev” keyboard, which is similar to Apple’s “butterfly” keyboard. The maglev will have something like .7mm of travel. As far as pricing, I do not know. It may be more expensive then your 2k AUD budget.

Next month more manufacturers are supposed to come out with gaming/business laptops with the 8750h. So if you do not like the look of gaming laptops you could spring for one of those. I heard somewhere that the new Zenbook Pro gets announced next month.

The last gen vivobook can be had for around 1800 AUD. It features a 7700HQ, 256GB of m.2 ssd and a 1 TB 2.5hdd, 16GB of DDR4 clocked at 2.4 Gigglie-hurtz and a gtx 1050. Asus say the battery can last you 6 hours on its 47whr battery.

The current gen vivobook has newer specs, although lacks the new H series of processor from intel.

It does however have:

  • i7-8550u
  • 8GB of RAM clocked at 2.4 Gigglie-hurtz ( upgradable to 16GB )
  • 256GB m.2 ssd and a 1TB 5400rpm Hybrid drive
  • GTX mx 150- 2GB dedicated RAM
  • 4.5 hours of battery life ( not a lot I know )

Although, this laptop features a USB-C port, you can not charge your computer with it. You could however get yourself a portable charging bank that is able to charge your computer using the tip that can fit into your computer. I do not know if this one would work with the vivobook, but just to give you an idea: https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Laptop-Portable-Charger-Multi-Voltage/dp/B00M0YQYF4

And this computer does not have thunderbolt 3.

Also, for the zenbook and the vivobook, watch out for the power button as they put it in a dumb location. They put it above the backspace key and to the right of the delete key.

See, heres the thing, your requirements are what real laptops are. Otherwise all the Y series chips and shitty intel APU’s… Those are all netbooks. For the most part.

I 2nd or 3rd the XPS 15.

I just got the XPS 15 about 2 weeks ago for work. I have the i7-7700HQ, 16GB ram, 4K screen, 512GB SSD, and GTX 1050 GPU. I was in desperate need or I would have waited for the 6-core that went on pre-order a few days after I got this one.

The only requirement I don’t think it fills is a full day of battery. I get about 6 hours with keeping the screen brightness at the brightness I like to use it at… maybe if I lowered it I could squeeze a full work day. This is constant use at work. Your results may vary with intermittent use during class with time in between where it’s not powered on.

@Goalkeeper The 9575 will have the maglev keyboard, but that’s the 2-in-1 XPS 15. The new XPS 9570 that will have the 6-core i7’s won’t have the maglev keyboard (AFAIK). Dave2D (YouTube) did a review of the 2-in1 and said it doesn’t feel much like the scissor switch, but that the way it did feel was hard to explain. Stating that after a day or two you’d be used to it. The current gen XPS 15 keyboard feels like for me, although I wish it had a wee bit more travel. (Not to mentioned dedicated home/end/pg up/pg dwn keys filling an extra column on the right would be nice.

1 Like

Awesome. I did not know this. I had wanted the 9570, but the idea of maglev scared me away. I guess I was looking at the 9575, thinking it was the 9570.

:+1: :+1: :+1:

Yeah, it’d be hard to justify the cost of these laptops if the keyboards weren’t good. I don’t bring my mech keyboard with me when I’m working @ different client locations so I’m usually bound to the laptop keyboard.

Also worth a mention is the Dell Precision 5530 (just announced) or Precision 5520 (current model). Basically a Xeon loaded XPS 15, with up to 32gb ram, and a nVidia Quadro instead of GTX series. Not sure what the prices are like for this in terms of AUD.

1 Like