The specs that I really want are a good 1080p screen (14" or 15.6"), SD card reader, USB-C charging would be great, backlight keyboard, Ryzen 7 3700U processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD.
So far the only two laptops I have seen that come close are the Lenovo Thinkpad E595 and Dell Inspiron 15 5585.
The Dell has features I want for a lower price, but the build quality and Dell’s shortcuts kinda scare me. The 5585 has conflicting information as to whether it has an IPS or WVA screen. It also only has a 10/100 ethernet jack for some reason. I also don’t know how fast the SD card slot is. If its connected on a USB 2.0 bus then its going to be painfully slow to use with a 64GB or higher card. That just brings me to the build quality. I can’t find any independent videos or reviews on it to see what the build quality is like. Is it some kind of full metal body or is it like my current Inspiron 5000 and its got a metal palm rest and lid but has plastic core?
The Thinkpad E595 also looks great, but would cost a lot more for me to spec out to 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. I could go with a lower option and add an SSD aftermarket. Only other thing its missing is a backlight keyboard and a finger print reader would be a nice feature but not a dealbreaker.
Inspiron 5585: $924 CAD
Thinkpad E595: $1200 CAD
I don’t mind the extra cost of the Thinkpad if the build quality and feature set (minus keyboard) are worth it. Are there any other options out there from HP, Asus, Acer etc? My other thought was to wait for Computex to see if anything was announced there. I need to have something in hand by mid-July. Budget is probably $1300 CAD but I am willing to go higher if something is worth it.
Get the lower speced E595, then aftermarket the SSD and the RAM. I guarantee you they’re gonna be putting slow RAM in there if you use the configurator.
Lenovo is also coming out with T495, T495s and X395 models that should feature the same or similar CPU selections
As FurryJackman said, buy your own Ram and SSD. No need to pay a “business grade” markup for inferior components.
Dell Inspiron 15 5585
It also only has a 10/100 ethernet jack for some reason.
I just had to look that up.
The only websites I can find giving a number are going to be completely unreliable about getting that sort of spec right. The manual simply mentions “RJ45 connector” and nothing else. Which means they are hiding their shame and really did skimp on that shit. Wow.
Exactly. To me there is no excuse for 10/100 in a computer built in 2019. I’d almost say the same about USB 2.0 ports. I want to be able to offload photos from an SD card and if i’m limited to USB 2 speeds I might throw the laptop at a wall.
I’ll take a look at the costs of a lower specced model and what it would cost for me to upgrade it. Those Thinkpads you mentioned that are coming I think have soldered on RAM.
Took a look at the T495s and I might go with that although it may cost more. That said, it will tick all of my requirements boxes and hopefully not be too expensive in Canada. Only gotchas I see with it is that 8 of the 16GB of RAM is soldered on, so it seems like it only has one RAM slot. Kind of a bummer for future upgradeablility and base RAM speed. Lenovo seems to ship DDR4 2400, would DDR4 3200 even work in these laptops with a stock bios?
As far as I know those are going to be in the thicker gaming laptops. I’m looking for a thin and light. I’m not expecting the best performance. I don’t need a full GPU, but I do want something better than an Intel 620. The Vega 10 graphics should be enough to run some older (10+ years) games.
I think I’m just going to wait for the Thinkpad T495/T495s to come out and see how much that is going to cost and what the availability is. They said late May/June so hopefully soon.
I think someone needs to be the guinea pig for the E595 to see if it has 2 RAM slots or if it has soldered RAM. For sure the ultraportables will have soldered RAM, but the 15’’ models I don’t believe should if it’s the same base mobo as the E585.
I ordered the E595 a few days ago. My configuration is 3700U, 4gb ram, 1080p screen, 1tb hhd. This would go for $800 but I can get 20% off that using the code THINKPADSAV20 and saved $160. I will upgrade the ram with 32gb cl14, add in a samsung 970 evo plus, and upgrade the wifi to an intel ax200 (Wifi 6/802.11ax) card. All for a bit over $1000. You should do something similar.
I actually did do something similar. I went with an A485 which is on the older 2700U, but it had more features than the E595 for only a couple hundred dollars more.
I max specced the system except I kept the base 4GB of RAM and 500GB HDD. This does limit me where if I want a full size 2280 M.2 SSD, I need to buy a new caddy and extension cable for NVMe, but I should be fine with a SATA drive for now.
