Help choosing between two laptops

Mobile Tech Laptops & Netbooks
1

A client of mine is looking to replace a 12 year old laptop (sandy bridge).

she’s a senior musician.

most of her uses are very light, but, she does use Photoshop and edits videos. even though her uses are light, she wants something capable that can easily handle video editing.

I’m a computer technician myself but I need extra opinions and perhaps people with experience on this one.

we are from Israel so the selection is not the same as everywhere else. I’ve narrowed it down to 2 models.

|||ThinkBook 16p G2 ACH|ThinkBook 16 G6 IRL||
| — | — | — |
|price|1095 USD|820 USD|
|cpu|AMD 5600H|Intel 1335u|
|ram|8GB soldered + 8GB sodimm|2 slots: 1X8Gb 1Xempty|
|ssd|2 nvme slots:1X256GB 1Xempty|2 nvme slots:1X512GB 1Xempty|
|screen|2560x1600 IPS 400nits Anti-glare, 100% sRGB|1920x1200 IPS 300nits Anti-glare, 45% NTSC|
|Weight|2KG|1.7KG|
|GPU|RTX 3060 6GB|Intel Xe|

Which do you think is better? there’s a price gap, its a stretch but we are willing to invest if its worth it.

Going over the specs:

CPU: I cant draw a winner on this one, Intel, more cores and better single thread but only 2 P cores scares me. also Intel is newer so perhaps new and better features.

RAM: not a huge difference but having 2 slots instead of one is nice. on the cheaper model I will add another dimm on my own.

SSD: both have double nvme which is what’s important. she needs 2TB so we will upgrade it on our own.

screen: I tend to really prefer the better one because screen is important but I wonder if she’ll notice the difference.

weight: of course 300 grams lighter is a very nice plus. Its partly due to a bigger battery on the more expensive model, but battery life isn’t very important.

GPU: that’s a big one, I have no idea if there will be any benefit at all to a 3060, will it do anything to video editing or will this GPU will sit forever unused.

Thanks!!!

2

Do you happen to know which video editing software she uses? Some will allow for hardware acceleration, so the GPU may help out with that. You’d want to check the software’s hardware support list as some GPUs might not be supported and/or tested, depending on which editing software and operating system you are intending to use.

3

Don’t laugh, she currently uses Corel VideoStudio. Crappy I know. There’s a chance of moving to a different software in the future.
She’ll be using Windows 11

4

I would actually not recommend Thinkpads, given the drastic decline in their durability and … Thinkpad-ness. This is especially noticeable after Lenovo’s logo change.

I wasn’t going to say “Dell Inspiron”, but the one my father bought for me (Inspiron 15 3511) is actually really performant for the price, so…?

I have seen Xe GPUs do things normally people would completely not expect them to, and that’s on a 11th gen. I think the 13th gen should do the trick.

Though the immediately course of action after getting either is to get another 8GB SODIMM to fill it to 16.

1 Like
5

Well, looking at their documentation, either the intel igpu or the nvidia card will work. It does want at least 512 MB of VRAM though if you do want to turn on the acceleration:

https://help.corel.com/videostudio/v26/index.html?app=Corel-VideoStudio&lang=en#/l2TOC12

CPU wise, seems to be a wash (https://www.notebookcheck.net/i5-1335U-vs-R5-5600H_14916_13003.247596.0.html), other than the usual jokes about the efficiency cores being cinebench accelerators. :slightly_smiling_face:

Given the video editing use case, I’d probably lean towards the Ryzen + 3060 combo. Despite how much I don’t like that half the ram is soldered. The other benefit is the screen size uptick. Extra timeline space is likely to be appreciated while editing. :slightly_smiling_face:

I do agree with the Thinkpad falloff sentiment, but I don’t know how or if it would apply to the Thinkbooks. Looking at the specific model, it appears similar to a Legion laptop I have with the same CPU and GPU (Legion 5 15ACH6H), just with half the ram being soldered. Probably built a little better though, but given the underside shot of the Thinkbook it appears to be a very similar design – one that I found a little fussy to take apart vs. some other machines I’ve worked on. For what that’s worth, anyway.

6

Thanks for the comments! We will go with the Ryzen machine :slightly_smiling_face: