Laptop review/recommendation resources

I am in need of a new laptop as my power connector is completely shot. Laptops are not really in the wheelhouse of the tech youtube crowd I’m familiar with, is there a good source like L1T, GN, HWUB, etc but focused on laptops someone can recommend?

I don’t need much from it, so not looking to spend a ton, but I still want it to be capable. Mostly used for browsing and media consumption while laying in bed, but when I travel I’d do light-medium gaming on it. Therefore would like to have some kind of dgpu. Biggest priorities otherwise are cost, weight, non-shit screen. I’ve had multiple laptops I’ve ordered online and returned immediately because the screen despite having good claimed specs was absolute trash-tier with shifting colors if I so much as squint. For that reason I prefer in-store shopping, but been to 2 best buys now and didn’t see much compelling. Also can’t keep up with the purposefully-obscure laptop hardware naming conventions.

Sorta considered framework, generally like the idea, but ultimately I think too expensive for what is on offer, and personal feelings about certain business partners…

What was that folding one with a magnetic keyboard that could be used like a normal laptop or with a larger, separate screen?

don’t need much from it, so not looking to spend a ton, but I still want it to be capable. Mostly used for browsing and media consumption while laying in bed, but when I travel I’d do light-medium gaming on it

IMO, if it’s possible to give up on gaming - then an m2 or m3 macbook air for a 1000$ is difficult to compete with.

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oh, I guess I should have mentioned, absolutely no interest in mac or chromebooks. Of the big three, I hate microsoft the least.

I do genuinely appreciate the input though :slight_smile:

One channel that specializes in laptop reviews that doesn’t seem to pull punches when things need improvement:

Not sure I have any others I could recommend currently, for lack of looking around on my part.

Otherwise, beyond the Lenovo Legion that I have (Ryzen 5600H + RTX 3060), the only laptops I could personally recommend are all the usual ‘new linux user’ meme thinkpads. :yay: But I think the legion would offend you on the weight category, as the laptop is moderately hefty but the power brick is worthy of the brick name (and about 1/3rd the size of the laptop).

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I’ve so far had good experience with rting (https://www.rtings.com/) when it comes to laptop reviews. They are not perfect but it can help you sort whats current on the market.

For my personal recommendation. If you enjoy tinkering and are willing to deal with the occasional teething issue framework(https://frame.work) is a solid choice, beyond that sager(https://www.sagernotebook.com) and eluktronics(https://www.eluktronics.com/) tend to have some pretty decent gaming laptops.

Beyond them Lenovo makes some decent budget laptops, but can be a pain to repair or perform maintenance depending on the model.

At the end of the day I’d probably get a list of laptops then try to narrow them down by looking up multiple reviews.

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Notebookcheck.net has been gold standart in reviews so far, just ignore news articles they have been publishing for last few years.

They got tools, benchmark database, interactive comparison tools and most importantly stable benchmark methodology and german team going back almost two decades or so.

Original site is german, but they do professional translations into english pretty much immediately.

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Just grab a business model from HP, Lenovo, Fujitsu that matches your requirements as closely as possible. Most modern internal graphics are more capable than you think. HP Elitebook 845 G10/G11 would be on my list to have a look at (with the better screen option and U-series CPU not HS).

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They don’t specialize in laptop reviews, but they have a lot of good ones:

A recommendation of my own, from having used everything from Clevo to Dell to MSI to LG.

I really like the LG Gram.

You can get it with a dGPU, though I haven’t personally used any of those. The 17" model has a really nice screen, full keyboard (with numpad), and the integrated GPU from a couple of years ago was perfectly fine for 3D PCB CAD using Altium Designer. They’re a bit pricey (though there are often sales at Costco that make the price reasonable), but they’re almost impossibly light, and the battery should last 12+ hours for the lightweight tasks you mentioned. (not that long for gaming :slight_smile: )

Good luck, laptops are tough :slight_smile:

Unfortunately it throttles like crazy, https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-Gram-17-2024-laptop-review-Small-improvements-and-a-new-Core-Ultra-7.826926.0.html

What do you think of this channel for laptop reviews?

Seconding notebookcheck, I’ve been looking for a new machine for some time now and their reviews have consistently been the most comprehensive and data heavy, they include everything in one page, take pictures of everything you want pictures of, and mention stuff like the pitch of fan noise and whether there’s coil whine.

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Yep, their reviews have been the best available for years. Only site that consistently photodocument internals also, which is extremely helpful for purchase decision edge cases.

But I have bad feeling that site itself might be struggling, given the ever increasing amount of fluff articles in last few years.

Reviews haven’t been affected, but all other news is mostly low quality and low effort regurgitation of press releases or worse, rumors.
Those articles often seem to exist only for affiliate link to be inserted somewhere, even if it does not make sense in the context.

Interesting, thanks for the link. I think the throttling isn’t as big a deal as it sounds - I’ve never had issues with my (older) Grams, and I’ve even compiled large projects on battery (like LibreOffice).

There are two other issues they point out that may be of concern. It looks like the 2024 models don’t have a memory slot, which the earlier models did (the RAM was split between soldered and DIMM, so you could upgrade to 40 or 48GB by replacing the 8/16GB with a 32GB DIMM). Also, the screen response time was terrible. I’ve never noticed that in practice, but it’s definitely a red flag for gaming.

It is if you value time or do tasks that do load the computer for more than ~1 minute bursts sadly it’s quite a common issue.

From bigger YT standpoint, would be Hardware Canucks
They do healthy spread, of sleek-light builds to halo-esque BRICKs

Otherwise, notebookcheck.net, gets in plenty of laptop [+ core component] reviews

Framework
Sager
Puget Systems
Any of the business oriented lines from Dell, HP, Lenovo

Those are what tend to recommend. I have personal experience with Framework and Dell and have been happy.

The most consistent and passionate tech channel on youtube: Jarrod’s Tech.

Get a Steam Deck (the next version) and a portable monitor + keyboard/mouse? ;D

I felt the obscurity of the laptop world myself, so many things to choose from. In the end, the “customizable” options, even if provided by smaller yet western brands, are all B2B orders from Chinese OEMs. This means, you’ll often encounter different models, brands that all stem from the same base chassis.

To even make sense of the available options, I suggest geizhals.eu to comb through the offers - use all the filters they have. Their filtering system is very impressive, it gets most tech specs right. For example, you can filter by 2 DIMM slots, although such obscure specs are more likely to be missed by their system.

The only brand I feel like shouting out for: MSI. They leave their engineering UEFI unlocked, just hidden behind a secret combo. Otherwise, like any other company they have their issues.

This will sound like a politician wrote it, but: it depends. What are your priorities? I would rank the top 5 in order from “absolutely must have” to " would be really nice", and then throw the budget in as guidepost.
First, how heavy and expensive can it be? If you need a really good screen that can be calibrated, a good OLED is most likely to give you that. There are some subnotebooks from ASUS or Acer that aren’t bad, but they don’t have a dGPU.
Then, how much memory do you need (or want)? With many current good PC notebooks, memory is soldered in LPDDR5 (with or without X at the end), which means buying the most RAM you can afford to get. I had to buy myself a new laptop (after 8 years on my old one :see_no_evil:) , and ended up getting what many would call a strange compromise: an ASUS Zenbook Duo (Meteor Lake 185H) with 32 GB LPDDR5X RAM. I really wanted the dual screen and the possibility of using a pen (detachable keyboard). It’s a bit heavier than would have liked (about 4.5 lbs), doesn’t have a dGPU, but its iGPU is not bad, and the two OLED screens are gorgeous.
However, the question of what to get will also vary depending on how much battery life (per charge) you want/need. If that’s not paramount, a laptop with a good screen,expandable memory (SODIMMs) and a beefy CPU might be an alternative that is cheaper or more likely to address the next point:
If gaming or serious video editing is really important, then yes, a dGPU (probably Nvidia) is key. Alternatively (with better battery life), maybe one with the higher-end Ryzen “AI” Zen 5 APUs; the first Strix Halo laptops were just released, and while they look great, they are also seriously expensive.
Others have already pointed to Notebookcheck.net. Their reviews are mostly good-okay. But, as I mentioned, I suggest to make a list of the must-haves and use it for the process of elimination. Despite all that, enjoy the hunt for your next laptop!

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I recently got the Asus Vivobook Pro 15 with the high refresh rate oled screen, Intel Core Ultra 7 and NVIDIA RTX 4060. And for the price, around 1.5K USD, I have yet to find a better offer.

The screen is amazing, the keyboard is great, size is barely bigger and heavier than my MacBook Pro 14 with M1.

If you can allow portability, a bit of build quality and battery life to take a hit or you don’t mind it, I would highly recommend it.

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