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Discussion Help me find a new laptop.

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freedomseekr

freedomseekr

life is noise
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Hello famis,

I've been using an MSI laptop that was pretty darn good when it released since 2014 (a G series GE60 2PE Apache Pro), but the past two years it has been showing some issues, including very loud fan (in fact, so loud that I often resort to listening with headphones during use because of how noisy they can become), a battery that has been replaced twice already but is unable to hold a decent charge and occasional kernel panics (which I guess is down to issues with heat transfer which would also explain the very noisy fan). Hence, I have decided to replace it, though I don't know what I'll do with it given its issues and its vintage.

Now as far as the new device will be concerned, this is not going to be a "daily driver" device. I own a fairly solid tower PC with an AMD 3700X and a GTX 1660 Super which I'm using for PC games as well as the centrepiece of my media environment and I'm not looking to replace it. Rather, this will be a device that will be used for some light gaming while visiting family or travelling, as well as doing personal work from places that aren't home.

I do have a laptop from work for hybrid working purposes, but I'd rather avoid using it as a private device at all (beyond stuff like quickly looking things up during work hours) and I've set a strict rule for myself that I won't travel with it unless I absolutely need it, i.e. for working from a remote location for longer periods of time or travelling for work-specific purposes.

I have compiled a list of things I'd like to have from the device and decided to put them into three categories - "essential", "nice to have" and "avoid if possible":

Essential:
  • Screen size should be no smaller than 14" and no bigger than 16"
  • discreet on-board GPU, doesn't have to have the latest bells and whistles
  • USB-C power delivery option
  • parts like battery, RAM and SSD should be replaceable and/or upgradeable
  • German keyboard layout
  • price should be at around €1500
  • battery life at around four to five hours with a light workload (browsing, using Office etc.)
Nice to have:
  • Numpad - not a necessity, but if it comes with it, all the better
  • built-in camera cover - I can provide my own should the need arise
  • screen resolution beyond 1080p (I think this is a given nowadays anyway, but it just needs to be above 1080p, not necessarily 4K)
  • more than three USB type A ports
  • RJ45 jack
Avoid if possible:
  • any device above €2000

Your help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
 
If you have a desktop PC already do you really need the laptop? What are you gonna use it for? (I’m going somewhere with this).

If it’s just basic use cases and dicking around could a tablet work? If not why not just get a MacBook Air or else something like a MS Surface Laptop? You’ll get a much better day to day use case device rather than going for something chunky with a discrete GPU and a num pad. If you need that just use your desktop?

Too many people sacrifice a nicer everyday use case laptop for “light gaming” when people make these types of threads!
 
Vanillalite said:
If you have a desktop PC already do you really need the laptop? What are you gonna use it for? (I’m going somewhere with this).

If it’s just basic use cases and dicking around could a tablet work? If not why not just get a MacBook Air or else something like a MS Surface Laptop? You’ll get a much better day to day use case device rather than going for something chunky with a discrete GPU and a num pad. If you need that just use your desktop?

Too many people sacrifice a nicer everyday use case laptop for “light gaming” when people make these types of threads!
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Like I wrote - this isn't going to be a "daily driver". I'm looking for a replacement for what is, in essence, a "portable (second) desktop", same as how I've used the old device (which I'm writing from right now because I'm still waiting on a desk for the new place I moved into a few weeks ago). It won't be lugged around every day, it won't be in use every day - it's something I want for scenarios where I'm away for lengthier periods of time and thus don't have access to my home desktop system. And when I DO need it, it's going to act much like a desktop and I'm not going to move it beyond taking it to another room, stowing it away when I don't need it and packing it for transport when I'm going places.

Also, a numpad is "nice to have" - I don't necessarily need it and if it'd net me a smaller device, I'd happily drop it.

I have a smartphone for the smaller daily use cases like calendars, map checking, and short e-mails. Surfaces and tablets look nice, but they aren't what I'm looking for.
 
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I think your essentials are asking a lot. Not many laptops are upgradeable anymore, and few will have that many USB ports. Get a Macbook Air, get a nice USB hub, call it a day. No need to overcomplicate. The M2 Macbook Air 15 will last you a very long time.

EDIT: I've consulted a council of my peers and they think a Macbook Air + a Steam Deck would be a good combo for you, and still be around $1500.
 
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1upmuffin said:
I think your essentials are asking a lot. Not many laptops are upgradeable anymore, and few will have that many USB ports. Get a Macbook Air, get a nice USB hub, call it a day. No need to overcomplicate. The M2 Macbook Air 15 will last you a very long time.
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They want to over complicate things hence the reply I got. I agree with you btw.

In essence what they want is basically a gaming laptop without saying they want a gaming laptop.
 
1upmuffin said:
EDIT: I've consulted a council of my peers and they think a Macbook Air + a Steam Deck would be a good combo for you, and still be around $1500.
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Hi muffin, council here. Yeah, I think with that budget and you primarily wanting a gaming device the Steam Deck or Ally would be a decent bit, and just grabbing an old laptop on the side for other stuff could work out. Specifically aiming for a gaming laptop is a headache and there are other options to look at.
 
Haven't looked at laptops in a minute, but the last time I did I was impressed with Asus's Zephyrus line. Not overly familiar with German pricing but a quick glance at Amazon.de seems to indicate the lower end of them are around your budget.

They have basically all of your essentials and zero of your nice to haves. My brother got a 2022 model a little while back and is quite happy with it. That said, that was a year and a half ago and it might be worth seeing if other options have topped it.

I'll echo that a MacBook Air and Steam Deck are nice devices, but obviously you know what form factors suit you best. If you feel you need Windows, there's not much getting around that.
 
freedomseekr said:
Your help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

I agree with a lot of people here. Macbook are great for everyday use, you can do some decent gaming on them. And a steam deck is a good added companion device. I would go for a M2 macbook if possible with your budget.
 
Jersh said:
Haven't looked at laptops in a minute, but the last time I did I was impressed with Asus's Zephyrus line. Not overly familiar with German pricing but a quick glance at Amazon.de seems to indicate the lower end of them are around your budget.

They have basically all of your essentials and zero of your nice to haves. My brother got a 2022 model a little while back and is quite happy with it. That said, that was a year and a half ago and it might be worth seeing if other options have topped it.

I'll echo that a MacBook Air and Steam Deck are nice devices, but obviously you know what form factors suit you best. If you feel you need Windows, there's not much getting around that.
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Yeah, if OP is particularly after the laptop form factor to keep it to one device, ASUS is one of the most popular options. Lenovo also have a really popular line of Windows gaming machines as well (Legion). If you want Windows functionality in your gaming handheld, ASUS ROG Ally is a pretty great device out the box to consider.

If OP specifically wants a laptop to keep everything on a single device, fair enough and I'd just look at those 2 brands for something in spec/budget. I'm one of the people who decided to split everything into more dedicated devices and it's been such a great game changer, so I'd ask OP to at least consider the option if it does fit within their needs.
 
I think the laptop + Deck solution is a good one. For most normal usage it's really hard to complain about a Macbook Air. The M2 models are almost the platonic ideal of a laptop.
 
Get a MacBook Air.

Best purchase of a laptop I ever got, that I use for my daily driver computing. You can't go wrong with either the M1 or M2. Ridiculously cool, amazing battery life, and because of those two things, the air has not slowed down even a bit after my first year with it. You can get a MacBook Air M1 New for like $750 via bestbuy. Use the rest of that 1250 left of your budget for upgrades to your pc, or steamdeck or anything like that.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Windows is basically essential to me - not only do I use it at work, but also a lot of the people in my life who come to me for tech support use it (if not all of them), so being familiar with it (especially since we're in the transitional period to a new version) is a massive boon for me. I have used an Apple device in the past, but I've found that being the go-to guy when it comes to computer trouble is not fun when you're just unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the system that everyone else around you is using.

And yes, I'm not opposed to a gaming laptop. My current laptop is one and I'd like to stick with something familiar. Also, yes, I prefer keeping it to one device, not just for simplicity's sake, but because my PC gaming habits also involve games from places other than Steam and I just don't want to bother with the hassle of figuring out side-loading, say, my GOG copy of Jade Empire. The ROG Ally might be more up my alley for that kind of use and I might look into it as an option though.

Having spent the rest of the afternoon after my post above perusing some German sites, I've found that notebooksbilliger, the place I bought my current laptop from has a sale going on and I've been looking at either of these two devices, the HP ZBook Firefly 14 G10 and this Lenovo Legion 5. While the latter is closer to what I described in my opening post. the former has a pleasant aesthetic to it, is smaller and lighter and comes with built-in Radeon 760m graphics which upon some cursory research should do fine for me. Both devices come with a 512GB SSD built in, but it seems they use standard M.2 SSDs, so doing an upgrade should be easy (and cheaper, given how insane those price drops at NBB are).
 
freedomseekr said:
Thanks for the replies.

Windows is basically essential to me - not only do I use it at work, but also a lot of the people in my life who come to me for tech support use it (if not all of them), so being familiar with it (especially since we're in the transitional period to a new version) is a massive boon for me. I have used an Apple device in the past, but I've found that being the go-to guy when it comes to computer trouble is not fun when you're just unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the system that everyone else around you is using.

And yes, I'm not opposed to a gaming laptop. My current laptop is one and I'd like to stick with something familiar. Also, yes, I prefer keeping it to one device, not just for simplicity's sake, but because my PC gaming habits also involve games from places other than Steam and I just don't want to bother with the hassle of figuring out side-loading, say, my GOG copy of Jade Empire. The ROG Ally might be more up my alley for that kind of use and I might look into it as an option though.

Having spent the rest of the afternoon after my post above perusing some German sites, I've found that notebooksbilliger, the place I bought my current laptop from has a sale going on and I've been looking at either of these two devices, the HP ZBook Firefly 14 G10 and this Lenovo Legion 5. While the latter is closer to what I described in my opening post. the former has a pleasant aesthetic to it, is smaller and lighter and comes with built-in Radeon 760m graphics which upon some cursory research should do fine for me. Both devices come with a 512GB SSD built in, but it seems they use standard M.2 SSDs, so doing an upgrade should be easy (and cheaper, given how insane those price drops at NBB are).
Click to expand...
Those deals look pretty solid for the hardware you're getting. I'd say you can't really go wrong with either of them - though the graphics performance of the Lenovo should be substantially better.
 
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freedomseekr said:
Thanks for the replies.

Windows is basically essential to me - not only do I use it at work, but also a lot of the people in my life who come to me for tech support use it (if not all of them), so being familiar with it (especially since we're in the transitional period to a new version) is a massive boon for me. I have used an Apple device in the past, but I've found that being the go-to guy when it comes to computer trouble is not fun when you're just unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the system that everyone else around you is using.

And yes, I'm not opposed to a gaming laptop. My current laptop is one and I'd like to stick with something familiar. Also, yes, I prefer keeping it to one device, not just for simplicity's sake, but because my PC gaming habits also involve games from places other than Steam and I just don't want to bother with the hassle of figuring out side-loading, say, my GOG copy of Jade Empire. The ROG Ally might be more up my alley for that kind of use and I might look into it as an option though.

Having spent the rest of the afternoon after my post above perusing some German sites, I've found that notebooksbilliger, the place I bought my current laptop from has a sale going on and I've been looking at either of these two devices, the HP ZBook Firefly 14 G10 and this Lenovo Legion 5. While the latter is closer to what I described in my opening post. the former has a pleasant aesthetic to it, is smaller and lighter and comes with built-in Radeon 760m graphics which upon some cursory research should do fine for me. Both devices come with a 512GB SSD built in, but it seems they use standard M.2 SSDs, so doing an upgrade should be easy (and cheaper, given how insane those price drops at NBB are).
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I totally get that, and I am not here to talk you out of it.

It seems like you are getting a really great deal with what you have.

I just want to say that I was in your exact same position. All my family, and my friends, used windows devices for pretty much all of my life. They pretty much turned to me for everything, and this is really something I couldn't really comprehend until I jumped to the apple ecosystem. But since I got my Mac, of course people would ask me when their laptop died, what they should get. Friends and family started getting it, pretty much started with one, then WoM spread. Now pretty much all of my friends and family have it. After a little learning curve, even my 50 year old parents got it.

And since then, I have had to do absolutely nothing to do tech support for them. Absolutely nothing. They were good, and are still good.

Windows is so much more buggy than Mac OS, especially with windows pushing updates all of the time. And not only that, but I think the insane heat of X86 chips drastically increase the chance of hardware failure too. Because the macs my family and friends got, all work perfectly. No problems, which I have never experienced before as a windows family.
 
Just as a heads up, I went with the Lenovo Legion 5 posted above.

Lozjam said:
I totally get that, and I am not here to talk you out of it.

It seems like you are getting a really great deal with what you have.

I just want to say that I was in your exact same position. All my family, and my friends, used windows devices for pretty much all of my life. They pretty much turned to me for everything, and this is really something I couldn't really comprehend until I jumped to the apple ecosystem. But since I got my Mac, of course people would ask me when their laptop died, what they should get. Friends and family started getting it, pretty much started with one, then WoM spread. Now pretty much all of my friends and family have it. After a little learning curve, even my 50 year old parents got it.

And since then, I have had to do absolutely nothing to do tech support for them. Absolutely nothing. They were good, and are still good.

Windows is so much more buggy than Mac OS, especially with windows pushing updates all of the time. And not only that, but I think the insane heat of X86 chips drastically increase the chance of hardware failure too. Because the macs my family and friends got, all work perfectly. No problems, which I have never experienced before as a windows family.
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Oh trust me, if I could get my family members in particular to switch to Macs, I'd happily go back to MacOS myself. Unfortunately, most of them are obstinate (age does that, sadly) and are either unable or unwilling to learn how to operate in an all-new OS environment, so I need to suffer along for the ride.
 
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