Looking for light weight, long battery life, high performance laptop for college, 3D rendering, light/medium gaming

[travisjayday]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum.

 

Well, basically... the title says it all.

 

I'm going to college and need a laptop with high specs that's light and has a long battery life but can also take a punch when necessary (like when I'm rendering 3D scenes or playing the latest AAA title). Preferably a GTX 1060 with a new Intel i7 CPU. 

 

I'm looking for something discrete, e.g. no flashy RGBs and big bulky tanks; I'd prefer a sleek perhaps even bezelless laptop with small form factor (14in-15in). 

 

Something that has solid battery life that will take me through the day on light work like class notes, browsing the web, would be awesome. 

 

Since I am a college student, I do not have infinite money, sadly :-(. I have a budget of around 1000-1500 USD (but maybe could go a little bit over).

 

I've been searching the web for the last couple of days for hours but could not find anything that fits all criteria. A laptop that comes close is the MSI P65 Creator at https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834155030, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the small SSD and the mid-range GTX 1050. 

 

Now I'm not sure if what I'm looking for exists within my budget, that's why I'm posting here because I'm getting somewhat desperate. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

 

 

 

 

[Enderman]

Good laptops around that price rarely even have a dedicated GPU.

[AlexTheGreatish]

The Acer Helios 300 or Nitro 5 are both good options, so is the Dell G3.  They'll both be arriving with 1660s and 9th Gen processors pretty soon so I'd hold off for the couple weeks until those are available.

[travisjayday]

2 hours ago, Enderman said:

Good laptops around that price rarely even have a dedicated GPU.

That's false.

[travisjayday]

2 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The Acer Helios 300 or Nitro 5 are both good options, so is the Dell G3.  They'll both be arriving with 1660s and 9th Gen processors pretty soon so I'd hold off for the couple weeks until those are available.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it. Are the 1660s going to be a whole lot better than the 1060s?

[Enderman]

3 minutes ago, travisjayday said:

That's false.

For slim and light ones with long battery life? Nope.

Stuff like the XPS15 and MBP start at much higher than $1000...

[AlexTheGreatish]

8 minutes ago, travisjayday said:

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it. Are the 1660s going to be a whole lot better than the 1060s?

Don't think I'd say a lot better, but they'll be better so might as well see how well they do in a couple weeks.  Also the 1060 laptops will probably go on sale then so either way it's a good move.

[AlexTheGreatish]

Also the new Zephyrus feat AMD could be a v good option, although no one has experience with that chip yet so only time will tell exactly how good it is.

[genexis_x]

12 hours ago, travisjayday said:

light and has a long battery life

Max weight in kg/lbs and min battery life in hours?

[travisjayday]

6 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Max weight in kg/lbs and min battery life in hours?

Weight isn't too much of a problem, perhaps around 2-3kg (tbh I don't have a good feeling about what is too heavy). My dream laptop would have a battery life of around 7 hours under light browsing maybe.

[genexis_x]

Looks like MSI P65 8RE is the only choice, however be aware of the flimsy build quality and poor coolingg