Should I wait for Broadwell? [Budget Laptop 550$]

[ImViTo]

I was thinking on getting a new laptop, for light gaming, Some league of legends, maybe some older games like Assassins creed 2, and that and GTA V on low setting when it comes up. But I don't know if I should wait till broadwell comes up so I could get something better for my budget, I'm even thinking on some intel NUC's or mini pc's

[rmac52]

I need a new laptop for school and I'am waiting for broadwell.

[soaringchicken]

wait til broadwell, even if it's not that big of a jump in performance, prices for non-broadwell laptops will lower at least a little

[Xaring]

wait til broadwell, even if it's not that big of a jump in performance, prices for non-broadwell laptops will lower at least a little

And form factors too. 

[D2ultima]

ULV broadwell chips are already out, so I don't know why you're still waiting.

 

You're not getting anything with a higher end chip for $550. I don't think GTA 5 on low is going to be playable at all however.

[EcoBoost]

I was thinking on getting a new laptop, for light gaming, Some league of legends, maybe some older games like Assassins creed 2, and that and GTA V on low setting when it comes up. But I don't know if I should wait till broadwell comes up so I could get something better for my budget, I'm even thinking on some intel NUC's or mini pc's

Definitely. The higher-end Ultrabooks already have the ULV broadwell chips, and they'll be heading to lower-end laptops quickly. 

 

 

ULV broadwell chips are already out, so I don't know why you're still waiting.

There's no laptop for $550 with a Broadwell chip yet.

[ImViTo]

What about the gigabytes brix, or an intel nuc?

 

And Intel Iris Graphics are good?

[pit5000]

$550 and still want some gaming? I would say look for something from last year with an i7, maybe wait a bit until broadwell pushes the clearance sales

[vembutech]

Hi,

 

Get a HP Envy Sleekbook or a powerful Acer Aspire V5 .

[D2ultima]

Hi,

 

Get a HP Envy Sleekbook or a powerful Acer Aspire V5 .

The bolded text makes no sense, please re-learn computers.

[Aniallation]

The bolded text makes no sense, please re-learn computers.

This guy has just been spamming the mobile devices forum lol

[D2ultima]

This guy has just been spamming the mobile devices forum lol

I noticed. I don't even know if I can report him for that, but his information is fanboyish, outdated and flat out wrong at the same time.

[Aniallation]

I noticed. I don't even know if I can report him for that, but his information is fanboyish, outdated and flat out wrong at the same time.

Well tbh I'm doing the same but at least I'm doing research and providing useful information rather then suggesting Sandy Bridge laptops lol

[Mew]

You should wait for Braodwell and only get Broadwell for the much better battery life, although battery life claims from most manufacturers have no relation to actual battery life. You can check out Engadget's rather poor review of the new XPS 13 with the new Broadwell chip. Spoiler: battery life is still not very impressive.

[EpicAdom]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes.

[Aniallation]

You should wait for Braodwell and only get Broadwell for the much better battery life, although battery life claims from most manufacturers have no relation to actual battery life. You can check out Engadget's rather poor review of the new XPS 13 with the new Broadwell chip. Spoiler: battery life is still not very impressive.

Well Broadwell uses less power, so you'll get better battery life compared to a Haswell chip in a laptop with the same battery capacity. However as laptops continue to grow thinner and thinner, their batteries get smaller and smaller. A more efficient chip but a smaller battery equals the same if not worse battery life.

[Mew]

Well Broadwell uses less power, so you'll get better battery life compared to a Haswell chip in a laptop with the same battery capacity. However as laptops continue to grow thinner and thinner, their batteries get smaller and smaller. A more efficient chip but a smaller battery equals the same if not worse battery life.

 

But as stated in the review, Dell quoted 11 hours of battery life on the particular model, and Engadget was only able to get about 7 hours of video playback, which isn't video streaming such as netflix or twitch which are a lot more demanding. Because of that, I'd estimate battery life at about 6 hours of Netflix, and about 4 or less of Twitch which is really really poor. I wish Engadget would also have a separate chart or graph that demonstrated each laptop's battery life performance relative of capacity. Looking up the specs of the XPS 13, it has a 52 WHr, 4 cell battery. I have a somewhat similar system with a haswell ulv (Latitude E7440 with 4200u, 14" 768p screen, 8gb ram, 128gb ssd) that has a deteriorated 3 cell  34 Whr battery that has about 75% capacity remaining. With this system I am able to get 2 hours of League of Legends, about 5-6 hours of Netlix (each 45 minute episode takes about 15% battery), and about 3 hours of Twitch. This doesn't look very good for the new Dell XPS and Broadwell. But, like I said, it's a poor review; I need to see how it performs once it's through the likes of Anandtech.

[Aniallation]

But as stated in the review, Dell quoted 11 hours of battery life on the particular model, and Engadget was only able to get about 7 hours of video playback, which isn't video streaming such as netflix or twitch which are a lot more demanding. Because of that, I'd estimate battery life at about 6 hours of Netflix, and about 4 or less of Twitch which is really really poor. I wish Engadget would also have a separate chart or graph that demonstrated each laptop's battery life performance relative of capacity. Looking up the specs of the XPS 13, it has a 52 WHr, 4 cell battery. I have a somewhat similar system with a haswell ulv (Latitude E7440 with 4200u, 14" 768p screen, 8gb ram, 128gb ssd) that has a deteriorated 3 cell  34 Whr battery that has about 75% capacity remaining. With this system I am able to get 2 hours of League of Legends, about 5-6 hours of Netlix (each 45 minute episode takes about 15% battery), and about 3 hours of Twitch. This doesn't look very good for the new Dell XPS and Broadwell. But, like I said, it's a poor review; I need to see how it performs once it's through the likes of Anandtech.

Well, I have a laptop with a 4300U and a similar 50WHr battery to the XPS 13 and it gets about 4 hours of usage battery life in school just typing documents and browsing this forum, so honestly I'd have to say that 7 hours in the 2015 XPS 13 is very reasonable.

[Mew]

Well, I have a laptop with a 4300U and a similar 50WHr battery to the XPS 13 and it gets about 4 hours of usage battery life in school just typing documents and browsing this forum, so honestly I'd have to say that 7 hours in the 2015 XPS 13 is very reasonable.

 

Hmm, I don't usually sit in the library for that long of a period between classes, but I can get much better battery life just typing documents and browsing the web through chrome on my laptop. On some days, I might use my laptop for 2 hours before class and then use it in class to take notes for another 2 hours, and I'll still have about 30% battery left. I have reinstalled Windows 8.1 on it to remove all the junk and try to fix the terrible trackpad that Dell included on mine, so maybe that's why I get better battery life. But of course, my screen is a really low end screen that probably doesn't consume that much power and isn't very demanding to drive. That could probably make all the difference. 

[Aniallation]

Hmm, I don't usually sit in the library for that long of a period between classes, but I can get much better battery life just typing documents and browsing the web through chrome on my laptop. On some days, I might use my laptop for 2 hours before class and then use it in class to take notes for another 2 hours, and I'll still have about 30% battery left. I have reinstalled Windows 8.1 on it to remove all the junk and try to fix the terrible trackpad that Dell included on mine, so maybe that's why I get better battery life.

Well that's when I actually do work on my laptop. Most of the time I'm on my laptop it's playing SLRR in class. It gets about 4 hours of just tuning, about 2-2.5 hours if I'm actually driving around. But in most of my classes I sit near a power outlet so battery life isn't a huge issue for me.

 

I try Ubuntu on it though, and that gave me about double the battery life I got with Windows when just typing documents or browsing the web. Seriously. I could get 7-8 hours on Ubuntu vs around 4 in Windows doing the same thing.

[Mew]

Well that's when I actually do work on my laptop. Most of the time I'm on my laptop it's playing SLRR in class. It gets about 4 hours of just tuning, about 2-2.5 hours if I'm actually driving around. But in most of my classes I sit near a power outlet so battery life isn't a huge issue for me.

 

I try Ubuntu on it though, and that gave me about double the battery life I got with Windows when just typing documents or browsing the web. Seriously. I could get 7-8 hours on Ubuntu vs around 4 in Windows doing the same thing.

 

Yea, I wish Microsoft would just release updates to try to improve battery life and also improve power consumption. All the benefits from Haswell and Broadwell aren't taken advantage of as much as I would like. It saddens me that streaming Netflix through the Metro app despite cpu usage below 10%, delivers rather poor battery life.

[Aniallation]

Yea, I wish Microsoft would just release updates to try to improve battery life and also improve power consumption. All the benefits from Haswell and Broadwell aren't taken advantage of as much as I would like. It saddens me that streaming Netflix through the Metro app despite cpu usage below 10%, delivers rather poor battery life.

The iGPU performance increase I definitely appreciate though. Honestly even without a power consumption improvement, I'd still be happy waiting out for Broadwell to get those better HD 5500 graphics.

[Mew]

The iGPU performance increase I definitely appreciate though. Honestly even without a power consumption improvement, I'd still be happy waiting out for Broadwell to get those better HD 5500 graphics.

 

Well, if PC manufacturers besides Apple used the Iris and Iris Pro versions of the haswell ulvs, you'll probably desire it a bit less

[Aniallation]

Well, if PC manufacturers besides Apple used the Iris and Iris Pro versions of the haswell ulvs, you'll probably desire it a bit less

My mom's NUC has the Intel "Iris" HD 5000 graphics