Laptop recommendations...

[charleswrivers]

No better place to get laptop advice than a car forum:

So I was looking at a new laptop and was curious if anyone had experience, good or bad, on the Dell XPS line.

I was looking at variants what had the 6 core 8750h and sticking with the 1080 screen because at 15", I don't care to spend more on a 4k screen. Looking to be in the $1200 range give it take.

My last laptop is a 8 year old Samsung R580 that cost around $500-600 back around 2011-2012. I'd gone to a SSD a few years into having it and have dismantled it to reseat the heatsink... placed the screen and keyboard in the last couple years and a couple batteries in all that time... so I tend to keep things a long time and fix them as I can to get the most out of them. While I know I could slap a SSD in a $400 Acer, I'd like to have something that will, again, last a long time and be quite good in the first few years.

So far as gaming is concerned, I still do a bit on a desktop and can gamestream off the PS Network on the laptop if I wanted if I was away from home so I don't see only having a 1050 Ti as a liability. Any suggestions or recommendations are welcome. As portability and battery life are also big pluses, I'd pick it's ~4 lb weight and long battery life over a mid-range gaming laptop that might have a 1060 but be thick, heavy, have a much lower capacity battery and a dim screen. The one thing that it's missing that sucks is a number pad on the XPS 15.

I do have one of the more recent iPads with a keyboard attached, so I don't have any interest in anything under a 15" screen or budget Chromebooks. If I need more portability, I'd go with it.

When I buy computer stuff, I research awhile before I buy but I'm a little out-of-date with the good and bad of laptops today. I was thinking of building a MSI Whitebook like I had done a few times for friends/family years back, but I think MSI has gotten out of the barebones laptop business.

Thanks.

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[kalvin126]

Have a look at these Wirecutter articles. They do a great job at researching what is out there and provide several options:
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-gaming-laptop/
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-laptops/

 

[charleswrivers]

Have a look at these Wirecutter articles. They do a great job at researching what is out there and provide several options:
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-gaming-laptop/
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-laptops/

Thanks. I'll check them out. I'm sitting here and watching YouTube comparisons as it is. XPS 15 sounds better and better, though it sounds like it needs to be opened up and some thermal pads need to be added and the thermal paste needs to be replaced right out the gate to keep it from throttling a lot. I'm just seeing a whole lot else interesting at this price point. The mid-range category is a lot more empty than I remember.

 

[jred721]

XPS 15 is probably one of the best 15 inch laptops you can buy period. In the sense that it is an extremely sturdy, reliable and powerful machine that runs cool and has pretty good specs. Battery life is also a talking point. I haven't owned one but I do know for a fact that these machines are highly regarded as a lot of my coworkers run these machines as their work laptop and they swear by it. I'd say jump on it.

 

[charleswrivers]

XPS 15 is probably one of the best 15 inch laptops you can buy period. In the sense that it is an extremely sturdy, reliable and powerful machine that runs cool and has pretty good specs. Battery life is also a talking point. I haven't owned one but I do know for a fact that these machines are highly regarded as a lot of my coworkers run these machines as their work laptop and they swear by it. I'd say jump on it.

Yeah... I've been making a list of things that compare favorably against it. Looks like a Lenovo 720/730 is a competitor and actually MSI makes a GF63 and a GF63 8rd (1050 vs 1050Ti) that shares very similar specs at around the same price. The MSI is similarly light with 1/2 the battery, a worse screen though not terrible (I'm not looking at the Acer's, they may spec similar hardware but they're clunky and have awful screen's) but have a number lock.

Nothing has soundly beaten it and I'm not sure than anything else will. That XPS 15 looks like it's screen's color reproduction and brightness capability and battery life are at the top of the heap. No number pad, camera at the bottom of the screen vice top for an 'up the nose' angle and the need to open it to improve the thermals look to be the only major knocks against it.

I've got tomorrow off so I'll try to see if I can put my hands on one and decide. The XPS 15 looks to be the one to beat with that MSI a bit interesting if I can see one in person and it wows with an aggressive price.

Thanks for the input.

 

[jred721]

Yeah... I've been making a list of things that compare favorably against it. Looks like a Lenovo 720/730 is a competitor and actually MSI makes a GF63 and a GF63 8rd (1050 vs 1050Ti) that shares very similar specs at around the same price. The MSI is similarly light with 1/2 the battery, a worse screen though not terrible (I'm not looking at the Acer's, they may spec similar hardware but they're clunky and have awful screen's) but have a number lock.

Nothing has soundly beaten it and I'm not sure than anything else will. That XPS 15 looks like it's screen's color reproduction and brightness capability and battery life are at the top of the heap. No number pad, camera at the bottom of the screen vice top for an 'up the nose' angle and the need to open it to improve the thermals look to be the only major knocks against it.

I've got tomorrow off so I'll try to see if I can put my hands on one and decide. The XPS 15 looks to be the one to beat with that MSI a bit interesting if I can see one in person and it wows with an aggressive price.

Thanks for the input.

Haha interestingly enough my daily driver is a Lenovo Yoga 720 with 16 GB ram, 1TB SSD, i7 and the 4K screen. Snagged it for $1250 when Lenovo was basically churning out highly spec'd Yoga 720's as a way to make way for the successor Yoga 730 even though they're essentially the same laptop, insane value for money. I don't think Lenovo offers either the 720 or 730 in this specific spec anymore though, but they do offer them with decent specs nonetheless. I do have the 13.3 inch laptop, but it is insanely sturdy, reliable, great keyboard and I pretty much don't even use half the performance of this laptop.

It's made entirely out of Aluminum and is just as thin as a MacBook Air as well so portability is great. Only downside is the battery is kind of depressing as it only lasts me around 7 hours tops and that's when i'm on battery saver mode. I would have expected better battery life especially for this kind of laptop, but it's not too bad and it still gets me through the day. Also, 4K screen is definitely somewhat of a gimmick, the screen is gorgeous but on a 13.3 or even 15 inch laptop you can't really tell all that much of a difference compared to FHD.

 

[NoHonor937]

lol for $1200 you could probably do better than a dell. pick up an outdated republic of gaming. or just build a desktop computer thats 3x as powerful as a laptop. my 1060gtx 6 core intel and 8g of ram with custom case only cost me about 700 to build all together. i only use laptops for portable stuff so you wont need anything above i5 or i7 in a laptop. get 4g ram with two slots and upgrade to 8g easily. you can upgrade the wireless card for $7 and slap a 500gb ssd for $60 from ebay. my $500 laptop is much faster than most i7 just because of the ssd. i know computers in and out as ive built 3

 

[NoHonor937]

Haha interestingly enough my daily driver is a Lenovo Yoga 720 with 16 GB ram, 1TB SSD, i7 and the 4K screen. Snagged it for $1250 when Lenovo was basically churning out highly spec'd Yoga 720's as a way to make way for the successor Yoga 730 even though they're essentially the same laptop, insane value for money. I don't think Lenovo offers either the 720 or 730 in this specific spec anymore though, but they do offer them with decent specs nonetheless. I do have the 13.3 inch laptop, but it is insanely sturdy, reliable, great keyboard and I pretty much don't even use half the performance of this laptop.

It's made entirely out of Aluminum and is just as thin as a MacBook Air as well so portability is great. Only downside is the battery is kind of depressing as it only lasts me around 7 hours tops and that's when i'm on battery saver mode. I would have expected better battery life especially for this kind of laptop, but it's not too bad and it still gets me through the day. Also, 4K screen is definitely somewhat of a gimmick, the screen is gorgeous but on a 13.3 or even 15 inch laptop you can't really tell all that much of a difference compared to FHD.

yeah that processor you have in their kills the battery. its too powerful for the battery. i5 or i3 is much less power consumption for basically the 1/3 of the price.i never get laptops above i5 as i have a custom desktop to do heavy loads. laptops are for small portable stuff.

 

[charleswrivers]

lol for $1200 you could probably do better than a dell. pick up an outdated republic of gaming. or just build a desktop computer thats 3x as powerful as a laptop. my 1060gtx 6 core intel and 8g of ram with custom case only cost me about 700 to build all together. i only use laptops for portable stuff so you wont need anything above i5 or i7 in a laptop. get 4g ram with two slots and upgrade to 8g easily. you can upgrade the wireless card for $7 and slap a 500gb ssd for $60 from ebay. my $500 laptop is much faster than most i7 just because of the ssd. i know computers in and out as ive built 3

I already have a built desktop. I don't need another. I've built... a few. A few too many.

So far as Dell is concerned, I have no brand loyalty. I mix whatever components seem to be the best of the time for builds... though I do tend to stick with Intel for CPUs and Nvidia for GPUs... though I have bought and built things with AMD/ATI stuff when it was a bargain.

I also have been putting SSDs in things for years... that kept that 8 year old Samsung relevant.

RoGs... while I have owned Asus stuff before and like it, doesn't meet my mix if specs, battery life and weight. I did look to see what was for sale around me and nothing was interesting. I didn't see any refurbished that were interesting either. That is a good option though... that Samsung, which was bought when Blu-ray players were so expensive, folks were just buying PS3s instead was bought as a refurb for $500-600, which was a steal at the time as it had a Blu-ray player... and I'd wanted one in a laptop.

I'm leaning towards a hex-core (8750h) vice quad (8300h) this time around. TDPs are the same and boost/base clocks are the same. Thermal throttling might be a liability on the hex... but it shouldn't be an issue once I open it up and improve on what's there. Gen 8 Intels offers hex cores for i7s.

My goal isn't gaming performance/dollar. I want a 15" screen size of good quality, which many of the budget gaming laptops lack... a long battery life... low weight. I could snag an Acer with a bulky chassis, poor battery life, poor feeling keyboard and junky TN screen with horrid backlight bleed but have the same processor and GPU and benchmark the same for 2/3 the cost. Its just not what I'm going for. Even that MSI I was looking at can be had with the i5 quad for about $800... but the more I see it's screen and chassis, even though it's weight is only 4 lbs with good battery life... it isn't growing on me. For a new laptop, it is priced reasonably aggressively. I'm also looking at things that have 1050/1050 Tis and know it won't be much for gaming. I have my desktop for more serious work.

In a world where Moore's Law is pretty well busted and single-theaded performance is pretty much capped out so far as clock speeds are concerned on desktops, I think the hex is going to have longer legs to make for a good laptop with their low wattage parts that make for middling clock speeds as the years wear on. Core2Duo guys with high clockspeeds we're ragging on Core2Quad guys 10+ years ago that higher single thread performance was kind. Time is moving on... and if I can match single threaded performance with a hex with 2 more cores/4 more threads on something I plan to keep until it dies... I'm going to go for it.

Thanks for the input though.

Also, 4K screen is definitely somewhat of a gimmick, the screen is gorgeous but on a 13.3 or even 15 inch laptop you can't really tell all that much of a difference compared to FHD.

Yeah... I'm sticking with a 1080. 4k looks great... It on such a small screen, I feel like it'll only serve to raise the price of the laptop (it looks like it can add upwards of 2-300) and will raise the graphical demands on the laptop and hurt battery life, though it may be a negligable amount. Heck, I only got a 4k TV a year it two ago and still have on a 27" 1080 monitor. I'll be sticking to 1080 for sure. The XPS 15 looks to have a great IPS screen with awesome color reproduction and gets *very* bright if you so desire to work well outside. Sometimes I do school work riding as a passenger with a laptop so a bright, good screen is a big plus.

 

[jred721]

yeah that processor you have in their kills the battery. its too powerful for the battery. i5 or i3 is much less power consumption for basically the 1/3 of the price.i never get laptops above i5 as i have a custom desktop to do heavy loads. laptops are for small portable stuff.

Yeah more than the processor it's the screen thats probably drawing more power because it's pushing all those pixels. Not a big deal though because for the price I paid there's not too many laptops that offer those specs so it was a good deal. I have a feeling that if I change the resolution to 1080 while on battery it will last a lot longer.

 

[NoHonor937]

Yeah more than the processor it's the screen thats probably drawing more power because it's pushing all those pixels. Not a big deal though because for the price I paid there's not too many laptops that offer those specs so it was a good deal. I have a feeling that if I change the resolution to 1080 while on battery it will last a lot longer.

Oh you’re running 4K? Yeah that’s battery drainer. Run 1080 and get 5 extra hours or so.

 

[brudacille]

MSI, great performance for gaming

 

[civicls]

I know this is an old thread, but I've had -by far- great success with their XPS line. I have the desktop version though, but I have an inspiron 15 gaming laptop. Both are excellent machines, with the XPS still going strong for 6 years with daily 10 hours of business use. By far the best model PC ever.

 

[charleswrivers]

I know this is an old thread, but I've had -by far- great success with their XPS line. I have the desktop version though, but I have an inspiron 15 gaming laptop. Both are excellent machines, with the XPS still going strong for 6 years with daily 10 hours of business use. By far the best model PC ever.

I liked some things about the XPS but at it's price point with a 1050 Ti, so-so speakers and it's narrow keypad with no number pad was a turn off. I also hated the 'up the nose' perspective the camera gave, since it's below the screen and pointing slightly upward.

I actually did get a HP Pavilion gaming laptop. For about $300 less than the XPS... I got the same CPU and HDD/SDD essentially. It has the 3 GB version of a 1060, which is still fine for 1080 stuff. I ended up getting the 144hz screen over the entry screen... though not for the high frequency, but it has brightness and color reproduction that's close to the XPS that had a great screen. The 60 hz screen was just OK.

Downsides... It came w/only 8 GB of RAM... but it's in only one DIMM, so I'm 1 8GB module away from 16 GB, (glad it wasn't a 2x4GB) and the case isn't as pretty as the XPS. I do think it might be a smidge heavier... but not noticably so. I have found it's mousepad isn't super great either.. but I use a wireless mouse most the time, so no biggie.

 

[martinvince4544]

If you want 2-in-1 / touchscreen, I would recommend the HP Spectre x360, with the i7-8705G 4-core processor, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD storage, 4K 15.6" touchscreen display, and RX Vega M dedicated graphics card. The laptop does have strong components, so battery life is around 6 hours. This laptop will be great for video / photo editing, as well as gaming. The RX Vega M graphics performs in between the GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti in games so you shouldn't have any issues.

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