Laptop for a student with big budget

[5x5]

3 minutes ago, fatymid said:

I read Lenovo's review once again. 

 

Here's the part about battery life (although I would be buying FHD screen)

Also, the review gives as cons:

• CPU performance on battery
• energy management at 100% load

(link to the review) https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-i7-4K-HDR-GTX-1050-Ti-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.335608.0.html#toc-verdict

 

Like I said, I didn't plan to game on that machine, but if I get Nvidia GPU I want to play games (Witcher, PUBg, etc). Now I am concerned about performance and battery life (the review says that Lenovo has better performance and worse battery life than its competitors)

The battery performance on every laptop is reduced - no battery can power an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU running at full tilt since that would cause it to catch fire.

As for performance at 100% load - that's an i7/i9 concern mostly but it's easy to solve with an undervolt via Intel's XTU utility. For you, there won't be an issue unless you intend to run long renders overnight. At which point, undervolting, once again, fixes everything.

 

Battery life is also MUCH better on the FHD display. - https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-i5-FHD-GTX-1050-Ti-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.339576.0.html

Expect 9 hours or so

[fatymid]

13 hours ago, 5x5 said:

The battery performance on every laptop is reduced - no battery can power an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU running at full tilt since that would cause it to catch fire.

As for performance at 100% load - that's an i7/i9 concern mostly but it's easy to solve with an undervolt via Intel's XTU utility. For you, there won't be an issue unless you intend to run long renders overnight. At which point, undervolting, once again, fixes everything.

 

Battery life is also MUCH better on the FHD display. - https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-i5-FHD-GTX-1050-Ti-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.339576.0.html

Expect 9 hours or so

Thanks for your answers so far. My next concern is the screen. I've seen Matebook's and it is splendid - bright with amazing clear picture. I haven't seen any X1 so could you tell me about it? FHD with 1920x1280 does not promise much  

[5x5]

3 hours ago, fatymid said:

Thanks for your answers so far. My next concern is the screen. I've seen Matebook's and it is splendid - bright with amazing clear picture. I haven't seen any X1 so could you tell me about it? FHD with 1920x1280 does not promise much  

It's a solid IPS display. At 15 inches, anything over 1080p is pointless for the most part since you'd have to glue your nose to the screen to make out any difference. 300 mitts of brightness should also be plenty since most people tend to use their machines set to 200-250 indoors

[fatymid]

1 hour ago, 5x5 said:

It's a solid IPS display. At 15 inches, anything over 1080p is pointless for the most part since you'd have to glue your nose to the screen to make out any difference. 300 mitts of brightness should also be plenty since most people tend to use their machines set to 200-250 indoors

Ok, thank you.

 

After talking to some people I started to question my approach to buying a laptop. Looking at my ASUS - 3 year old machine, after 1425 battery cycles can only keep itself on for slightly above 4 hours with battery save option and during light work. Only 3 years and I already need to consider buying a new device (also because i3-6100 feels outdated). I bought ASUS for ~800 USD, Lenovo costs at least twice as much. I mean, X1 appears to be a fantastic device that has all the specs I would like. But should I go for it considering how fast its parts might wear off in 3? (It's again me being anxious about spending that much money)

 

Could you give me your thoughts on this matter?

[5x5]

1 minute ago, fatymid said:

Ok, thank you.

 

After talking to some people I started to question my approach to buying a laptop. Looking at my ASUS - 3 year old machine, after 1425 battery cycles can only keep itself on for slightly above 4 hours with battery save option and during light work. Only 3 years and I already need to consider buying a new device. I bought ASUS for ~800 USD, Lenovo costs at least twice as much. I mean, X1 appears to be a fantastic device that has all the specs I would like. But should I go for it? Could you give me your thoughts on this matter?

That's the good think about buying business class. Batteries are easy to find, relatively cheap, and easy to replace. Also, 1400 cycles is a hell of a lot. Thats a full cycle every day for three years straight. That's one durable ass battery imo

[fatymid]

1 minute ago, 5x5 said:

That's the good think about buying business class. Batteries are easy to find, relatively cheap, and easy to replace. Also, 1400 cycles is a hell of a lot. Thats a full cycle every day for three years straight. That's one durable ass battery imo

Well, it's even more than 3 years (3x365=1095). 

 

Let's say I want to be using X1 for 5-6 years. RAM or SSD can be replaced, but is it possible that there would be no batteries available for my device in this time? For example, there is no new ribbon (tape? sorry, don't know how to call this part in english) I can replace my old one with (in ASUS). That;s a bummer

[5x5]

Just now, fatymid said:

Well, it's even more than 3 years (3x365=1095). 

 

Let's say I want to be using X1 for 5-6 years. RAM or SSD can be replaced, but is it possible that there would be no batteries available for my device in this time? For example, there is no new ribbon (tape? sorry, don't know how to call this part in english) I can replace my old one with (in ASUS). That;s a bummer

Well cause your old laptop isn't a business machine that is used by thousands of companies . Just Google T420 parts. You'll see a large amount for sale.

[fatymid]

21 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

Well cause your old laptop isn't a business machine that is used by thousands of companies . Just Google T420 parts. You'll see a large amount for sale.

I just found out that there is 1st and 2nd gen of X1 Extreme. How to tell them apart?

This is the device I ordered https://www.x-kom.pl/p/515792-notebook-laptop-156-lenovo-thinkpad-x1-extreme-i5-16gb-512-win10p-gtx1050ti.html (sorry for polish language but the specs are there)

[5x5]

2 minutes ago, fatymid said:

I just found out that there is 1st and 2nd gen of X1 Extreme. How to tell them apart?

This is the device I ordered https://www.x-kom.pl/p/515792-notebook-laptop-156-lenovo-thinkpad-x1-extreme-i5-16gb-512-win10p-gtx1050ti.html (sorry for polish language but the specs are there)

First gen comes with a 1050 Ti, second gen with a 1650. They are mostly the same

[fatymid]

On 9/13/2019 at 3:37 PM, 5x5 said:

First gen comes with a 1050 Ti, second gen with a 1650. They are mostly the same

Hi, sorry to bother you again but I, by chance, found multiple topics on Lenovo forum from people claiming they have battery life issues:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/PSA-Better-battery-life-for-X1-Extreme-P1/td-p/4279531/highlight/true/page/4

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-Battery-Issue/m-p/4308269#M94527

 

As battery is one of my main concerns, do you know if this issue has been fixed? (some coments are from 2019)

[5x5]

1 minute ago, fatymid said:

Hi, sorry to bother you again but I, by chance, found multiple topics on Lenovo forum from people claiming they have battery life issues:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/PSA-Better-battery-life-for-X1-Extreme-P1/td-p/4279531/highlight/true/page/4

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-Battery-Issue/m-p/4308269#M94527

 

As battery is one of my main concerns, do you know if this issue has been fixed? (some coments are from 2019)

That's mostly on the 4K screen model since the 4K 400 nitt display is very power hungry and requires 3-4 times more power than the 1080p one. Just update your BIOS and firmware/software and you'll be fine. The 1080p models, as evident by most sources, get 7-9 hours

[fatymid]

There are comments about FHD version too and they are not old! I am really unsure what to do now. Do you recommend X1 from experience?