Help me pick a new laptop!
July 20, 2020 8:58 AM Subscribe
My 6+ year old Dell Inspiron is starting to show its age, and I'm looking to upgrade - or at least starting to entertain the idea. Willing to spend a bit more this time around but there's so many choices! I'm willing to go up to about $1600 (or a bit more if it's really worth it), more details below the fold.
My current laptop is an Inspiron 5000 14", which has been getting a lot more use lately thanks to working from home. I'm mostly using it for light office usage (Office 365 / Azure applications + Citrix desktop for work) and also do a fair bit of photo editing. I occasionally use it for watching media, but not too often. I've also used it to rip my old DVDs in the past, something I'd like to continue if I ever get the time.
I usually use my laptop as just a laptop (I have a seperate Samsung tablet already), so no need for a 2-in-1, touchscreen, etc. My current laptop has a touchscreen, and while it's neat I admit I haven't used it as much as I expected to.
Preferred specs:
- Display: prefer 14", but willing to consider 13-15". 14" seems to be the sweet spot for me portablility-wise. Unsure if a built-in 4K is worth the money, but I would like the ability to add a 4K external monitor in the future. Note that my current second monitor is 1080p, so unsure if a 4K laptop display would look odd next to it (maybe 1080p would be better because of this?). Built-in HDMI for the second display would be preferred.
- Processor: honestly no clue what I need here.
- 512 GB SSD minimum, prefer 1 TB SSD.
- 16 GB RAM
- Thunderbolt 3 port. Never used one, but it sounds like that + an external GPU might be an option if I want to use graphics-heavy applications later. I don't foresee a need for a GPU now but I like the idea of being able to add one if needed.
- Durability. I travel a fair bit (or at least I did pre-Covid) so something that isn't crazy heavy and can handle some bumps would be nice.
- The less bloatware, the better. My current Dell is fine now but I had to spend a lot of time cleaning out all the junk to make it usable. I know I could just do a clean Windows install, but I would prefer to avoid that if possible - for the amount of money I'm spending it shouldn't be necessary.
Right now my front-runner is a ThinkPad X1 Gen7 or Gen8. I don't know much about ThinkPads except that my wife had a employer-issued one many years ago and she wasn't a fan for some reason, although it looks nice and the reviews online seem promising. Only other idea I've had is a Dell XPS 13 or XPS 15. Not as familar with them, but I've seen them mentioned a fair bit online.
Open to any ideas or suggestions, thanks!
My current laptop is an Inspiron 5000 14", which has been getting a lot more use lately thanks to working from home. I'm mostly using it for light office usage (Office 365 / Azure applications + Citrix desktop for work) and also do a fair bit of photo editing. I occasionally use it for watching media, but not too often. I've also used it to rip my old DVDs in the past, something I'd like to continue if I ever get the time.
I usually use my laptop as just a laptop (I have a seperate Samsung tablet already), so no need for a 2-in-1, touchscreen, etc. My current laptop has a touchscreen, and while it's neat I admit I haven't used it as much as I expected to.
Preferred specs:
- Display: prefer 14", but willing to consider 13-15". 14" seems to be the sweet spot for me portablility-wise. Unsure if a built-in 4K is worth the money, but I would like the ability to add a 4K external monitor in the future. Note that my current second monitor is 1080p, so unsure if a 4K laptop display would look odd next to it (maybe 1080p would be better because of this?). Built-in HDMI for the second display would be preferred.
- Processor: honestly no clue what I need here.
- 512 GB SSD minimum, prefer 1 TB SSD.
- 16 GB RAM
- Thunderbolt 3 port. Never used one, but it sounds like that + an external GPU might be an option if I want to use graphics-heavy applications later. I don't foresee a need for a GPU now but I like the idea of being able to add one if needed.
- Durability. I travel a fair bit (or at least I did pre-Covid) so something that isn't crazy heavy and can handle some bumps would be nice.
- The less bloatware, the better. My current Dell is fine now but I had to spend a lot of time cleaning out all the junk to make it usable. I know I could just do a clean Windows install, but I would prefer to avoid that if possible - for the amount of money I'm spending it shouldn't be necessary.
Right now my front-runner is a ThinkPad X1 Gen7 or Gen8. I don't know much about ThinkPads except that my wife had a employer-issued one many years ago and she wasn't a fan for some reason, although it looks nice and the reviews online seem promising. Only other idea I've had is a Dell XPS 13 or XPS 15. Not as familar with them, but I've seen them mentioned a fair bit online.
Open to any ideas or suggestions, thanks!
Best answer: I bought an upgraded XPS 15 with high end CPU/GPU in 2017 and it's been pretty durable, I would hope the newer ones aren't significantly worse. Thinkpads have traditionally also been durable. If you want to handle bumps, make sure to get an SSD-only laptop, at this point most of the newer ones are SSD-only for size reasons anyway.
Regarding monitors, I don't think there's any reason to try and buy a 4k display at that price point, and 4k displays do not always scale down well to 1080p so you would be stuck at 4k. I'm not sure if the laptops with integrated graphics can drive an external 4k display, but anything with an nvidia/ati card definitely can. Right now my setup on my desktop is one 1080p monitor and one 4k monitor, and it works okay but not great. In windows I have it setup up so the 4k monitor has a 200% scale on it, and the 1080p monitor has 100%, so the physical size of icons and the like is the same. If I keep an application fully on either display things are fine, but dragging and moving my mouse between the monitors is kind of weird. I tried having my 4k monitor run in 1080p, and it looked kind of awful, which is weird becuase it should just be able to double things in hardware. So I would probably stick to 1080p for both unless you buy a particularly large monitor
posted by JZig at 10:38 AM on July 20, 2020
Regarding monitors, I don't think there's any reason to try and buy a 4k display at that price point, and 4k displays do not always scale down well to 1080p so you would be stuck at 4k. I'm not sure if the laptops with integrated graphics can drive an external 4k display, but anything with an nvidia/ati card definitely can. Right now my setup on my desktop is one 1080p monitor and one 4k monitor, and it works okay but not great. In windows I have it setup up so the 4k monitor has a 200% scale on it, and the 1080p monitor has 100%, so the physical size of icons and the like is the same. If I keep an application fully on either display things are fine, but dragging and moving my mouse between the monitors is kind of weird. I tried having my 4k monitor run in 1080p, and it looked kind of awful, which is weird becuase it should just be able to double things in hardware. So I would probably stick to 1080p for both unless you buy a particularly large monitor
posted by JZig at 10:38 AM on July 20, 2020
My one son went with Legion, after his XPS went flaky. My other 2 sons went with the Surface Pro (6, not the 7, as there is no real difference performance wise except the 7 being more money). That being said, you do not want a tablet-like at this point, and you have DVD uses..
So, the Legion. I personally liked the XPS15, but only with the larger battery capacity - and the battery has been an issue on all Dells I've had the past 5-6 years for some reason.
posted by rich at 11:23 AM on July 20, 2020
So, the Legion. I personally liked the XPS15, but only with the larger battery capacity - and the battery has been an issue on all Dells I've had the past 5-6 years for some reason.
posted by rich at 11:23 AM on July 20, 2020
Best answer: Oh, also on looking back:
- Display: 14" or 15" definitely.. 13 is too small.
- Processor: i5 is my go-to. The i7 performance boost is not worth it. But i3 to i5 in price is.
- you can get away with 512 GB SSD. Another option is to look at the upgradability. I usually got stripped-down spec (read: 128 SSD), then bought the 1 TB SSD for $100, and swapped it in myself.
- 16 GB RAM; again.. if you can do it, get the lowest spec on this and just get the memory yourself.
- Thunderbolt 3 port. Eh.. USB-C for sure, though.
- Durability. Most are fairly durable nowadays.
posted by rich at 11:27 AM on July 20, 2020
- Display: 14" or 15" definitely.. 13 is too small.
- Processor: i5 is my go-to. The i7 performance boost is not worth it. But i3 to i5 in price is.
- you can get away with 512 GB SSD. Another option is to look at the upgradability. I usually got stripped-down spec (read: 128 SSD), then bought the 1 TB SSD for $100, and swapped it in myself.
- 16 GB RAM; again.. if you can do it, get the lowest spec on this and just get the memory yourself.
- Thunderbolt 3 port. Eh.. USB-C for sure, though.
- Durability. Most are fairly durable nowadays.
posted by rich at 11:27 AM on July 20, 2020
Best answer: I have the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7. It's great. I was a little taken aback by how small it was when I first unboxed, and still would like a slightly larger screen, but for my primary use cases (on the couch, on the airplane) it's perfectly fine. Battery life is great. Minimal pre-installed cruft. My only complaint is that it's impossible to keep the thing clean. The touchpad was immediatly, irreperably smudged after the first time I used it. That might by more of a "me" problem, though.
posted by sacrifix at 11:35 AM on July 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by sacrifix at 11:35 AM on July 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I'd take a look at the Microsoft Surface Laptop. I got it last year after reading a bunch of reviews and I'm really happy with it. It's slim and light but durable: pre-COVID I traveled with it at least once a week and it's still in great condition. I believe it has all the specifications you listed except for Thunderbolt port and monitor size (I have 13.5" but it also comes in 15"). As for graphics I use it for Photoshop pretty frequently and haven't had any performance issues.
posted by mellophone at 1:31 PM on July 20, 2020
posted by mellophone at 1:31 PM on July 20, 2020
I replaced a Dell with an LG Gram, and have been pleased with it. It's very light, partly because there's no DVD drive. It has a 500GB SSD and a Micro-SD port. 16GB Ram. Came with an external card reader. Fingerprint recognition.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:46 PM on July 20, 2020
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:46 PM on July 20, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks all! Still leaning towards either the Thinkpad X1 Gen 7 or XPS 15 but I'll check out a couple of the other options as well. The new XPS 15 looks great (love the display!) but might be a bit too pricey.
Not in a rush so might hold off for now to see if anything goes on sale...
posted by photo guy at 3:50 PM on July 20, 2020
Not in a rush so might hold off for now to see if anything goes on sale...
posted by photo guy at 3:50 PM on July 20, 2020
I have been very happy with my Lenovo Yoga. The screen resolution is amazing for the price point ($899).
posted by tafetta, darling! at 5:30 PM on July 20, 2020
posted by tafetta, darling! at 5:30 PM on July 20, 2020
The touchscreen adds a lot of expense, even more so if you ever have to repair it, so if you don't need/want it, move on. Maximize RAM, and check to see how much RAM can be installed.
posted by theora55 at 5:20 AM on July 21, 2020
posted by theora55 at 5:20 AM on July 21, 2020
also, I recently used the Windows 10 De-Bloater, customized options, and it was great.
posted by theora55 at 5:24 AM on July 21, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 5:24 AM on July 21, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by blob at 10:20 AM on July 20, 2020