Laptop upgrade options

[stormloop]

Hi LTT forum! 

 

Ive been using a Dell XPS 15 9550 model for a few years and enjoy the laptop in general but feel it might be time for an upgrade for a few reasons. 

 

Battery life is the main issue as even after spending $120 to upgrade to the larger battery capacity that takes up the space of the expandable drive area, it still doesn’t last very long at all. My friends with MacBooks seem to get a days use without needing to charge and I’m very jealous of this feature specifically.

 

portability is very important for me and my XPS is at about the maximum weight I would want in a new laptop and I would most likely consider moving down to a 13” form factor.

 

being able to dual boot Linux aswell as either windows/Mac OS would be great but not necessary required. I don’t mind windows or Mac as I’m comfortable with both but my hesitations towards a MacBook are due to keyboard and other quality issues. (A shame because I would go for a MacBook if they weren’t so prone to faults).

 

Most of the time I’m going to be using the laptop for software development but might use ableton, photoshop etc very lightly. 

 

Aesthetic, Portability and battery life are the most important things tho. 

 

Budget is kinda flexible but obviously I don’t wanna spend more than I need. 

[R4BE]

Gigabyte Aero 15 - 94wh battery / 2kg-ish / black

MSI P65 - 82wh battery / 1.9kg / silver, closest thing to mbp

Zephyrus M GU502 - 76wh battery / 1.9kg / black

Zephyrus S GX502 - 76wh battery / 2kg / black

Razer Blade 15 Advanced - 80wh battery / 2.1kg / black

MSI PS63 - 82wh battery / 1.6kg / black [NOTE: cpu in this is 25w ulv whiskey lake chip compared to 45w coffee lake/r in others]

 

[stormloop]

12 hours ago, R4BE said:

Gigabyte Aero 15 - 94wh battery / 2kg-ish / black

MSI P65 - 82wh battery / 1.9kg / silver, closest thing to mbp

Zephyrus M GU502 - 76wh battery / 1.9kg / black

Zephyrus S GX502 - 76wh battery / 2kg / black

Razer Blade 15 Advanced - 80wh battery / 2.1kg / black

MSI PS63 - 82wh battery / 1.6kg / black [NOTE: cpu in this is 25w ulv whiskey lake chip compared to 45w coffee lake/r in others]

 

MSU options look nice. Is there a 13” version 

[stormloop]

Bumping this. I have decided that I really need a 13” model. The new XPS 13 looks nice but people seem to be recommending against it. Not sure why.