Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Rankhole

Which Laptop should I get? Lenovo/Macbook Pro

By Rankhole, in Laptops and Pre-Built Systems · 7 replies

Recommended Posts

Posted · Original PosterOP

Hi there,

 

I'm currently looking for a new laptop, and I'm kind of torn apart.

On the one hand, I was looking at the Macbook Pro 13", because it has some of the best build quality - while at the same time sucking because of the shitty keyboard and being extremely overprised for the specs (duh, Apple...).

On the other hand, I was looking at some Lenovo Laptops that struck my interest.

One of them was a (used) X1 Carbon 4th Gen refurbished on amazon.

With this one, I thought I'd get  "X1 Carbon" levels of build quality and light weightness. However, it's still actually more expensive, even though it's way worse in terms of specs AND refurbished.

The other one is the relatively new Lenovo ThinkPad E595, which has just insane specs for the price. 16Gb ram, Rzyen 7 3700U processor which, from what I've seen, seems to work just as good as comparable 8th gen Intel i5/i7 processors, at least in terms of multicore results. On top of that, it comes with a 512Gb SSD...pretty damn impressive for the price of 760 euros (including taxes here in Germany).

 

The thing is...

I'd theoretically like the Macbook Pro OR the newest X1 Carbon the most. However, the X1 Carbon actually ends up costing me way more then the cheapest Macbook Pro, since they don't even offer "entry level specs" with that machine.

That's why I was looking for refurbished (or possibly even used) X1 Carbons. These two would offer me the best build quality...

However, obviously, they get crushed by price to performance, and honestly even performance, by the new Ryzen E595. This one however, weighs way more, about 2.1kg. Which is alright for a 15,4" Laptop, but still...

 

What do you guys recommend here?

I'll be using it mainly for university, where I do software development.

Also, I'd obviously be glad for other recommendations that I may have missed!

 

Best regards,

Rankhole

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Don't fall into the budget "high specs" laptop trap. The E595 has an awful TN screen, a lower resolution and worse build quality than the X1C, is significantly heavier and the battery life is probably much worse. Honestly, as someone who is just finishing a master's degree in software engineering, get this

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-4-Gen-Core-i7-6500U-8Gb-256Gb-SSD-14-FHD-1920x1080-IPS/153684534797?hash=item23c84fe60d:g:kuYAAOSwg31akABZ

it's plenty for software development and you'll only get something significantly better if you're willing to spend over 1200€. You might want to expand your ram but that's pretty easy and cheap to do.

...is there a question here? 🤔

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

What is scaling and how does it work? Asus PB287Q unboxing! Console alternatives :D Watch Netflix with Kodi on Arch Linux Sharing folders over the internet using SSH Beginner's Guide To LTT (by iamdarkyoshi)

Sauron'stm Product Scores:

Spoiler

Just a list of my personal scores for some products, in no particular order, with brief comments. I just got the idea to do them so they aren't many for now :)

Don't take these as complete reviews or final truths - they are just my personal impressions on products I may or may not have used, summed up in a couple of sentences and a rough score. All scores take into account the unit's price and time of release, heavily so, therefore don't expect absolute performance to be reflected here.

 

-Lenovo Thinkpad X220 - [8/10]

Spoiler

A durable and reliable machine that is relatively lightweight, has all the hardware it needs to never feel sluggish and has a great IPS matte screen. Downsides are mostly due to its age, most notably the screen resolution of 1366x768 and usb 2.0 ports.

 

-Apple Macbook (2015) - [Garbage -/10]

Spoiler

From my perspective, this product has no redeeming factors given its price and the competition. It is underpowered, overpriced, impractical due to its single port and is made redundant even by Apple's own iPad pro line.

 

-OnePlus X - [7/10]

Spoiler

A good phone for the price. It does everything I (and most people) need without being sluggish and has no particularly bad flaws. The lack of recent software updates and relatively barebones feature kit (most notably the lack of 5GHz wifi, biometric sensors and backlight for the capacitive buttons) prevent it from being exceptional.

 

-Microsoft Surface Book 2 - [Garbage - -/10]

Spoiler

Overpriced and rushed, offers nothing notable compared to the competition, doesn't come with an adequate charger despite the premium price. Worse than the Macbook for not even offering the small plus sides of having macOS. Buy a Razer Blade if you want high performance in a (relatively) light package.

 

-Intel Core i7 2600/k - [9/10]

Spoiler

Quite possibly Intel's best product launch ever. It had all the bleeding edge features of the time, it came with a very significant performance improvement over its predecessor and it had a soldered heatspreader, allowing for efficient cooling and great overclocking. Even the "locked" version could be overclocked through the multiplier within (quite reasonable) limits.

 

-Apple iPad Pro - [5/10]

Spoiler

A pretty good product, sunk by its price (plus the extra cost of the physical keyboard and the pencil). Buy it if you don't mind the Apple tax and are looking for a very light office machine with an excellent digitizer. Particularly good for rich students. Bad for cheap tinkerers like myself.

 

 

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted · Original PosterOP
18 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Don't fall into the budget "high specs" laptop trap. The E595 has an awful TN screen, a lower resolution and worse build quality than the X1C, is significantly heavier and the battery life is probably much worse. Honestly, as someone who is just finishing a master's degree in software engineering, get this

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-4-Gen-Core-i7-6500U-8Gb-256Gb-SSD-14-FHD-1920x1080-IPS/153684534797?hash=item23c84fe60d:g:kuYAAOSwg31akABZ

it's plenty for software development and you'll only get something significantly better if you're willing to spend over 1200€. You might want to expand your ram but that's pretty easy and cheap to do.

I literally just saw a similar one. I've found one for 600 euros, with the best i7 (6600) aswell as 16Gb ram and a 256Gb SSD. That looks like a damn good deal!

Do you know if there is any significant differences between X1 4th Gen and letest Gen? Other than performance I mean?

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted
37 minutes ago, Rankhole said:

Do you know if there is any significant differences between X1 4th Gen and letest Gen? Other than performance I mean?

There's probably some difference in battery capacity and weight but I doubt it's significant.

39 minutes ago, Rankhole said:

I've found one for 600 euros, with the best i7 (6600) aswell as 16Gb ram and a 256Gb SSD. That looks like a damn good deal!

Make sure the screen is IPS though

...is there a question here? 🤔

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

What is scaling and how does it work? Asus PB287Q unboxing! Console alternatives :D Watch Netflix with Kodi on Arch Linux Sharing folders over the internet using SSH Beginner's Guide To LTT (by iamdarkyoshi)

Sauron'stm Product Scores:

Spoiler

Just a list of my personal scores for some products, in no particular order, with brief comments. I just got the idea to do them so they aren't many for now :)

Don't take these as complete reviews or final truths - they are just my personal impressions on products I may or may not have used, summed up in a couple of sentences and a rough score. All scores take into account the unit's price and time of release, heavily so, therefore don't expect absolute performance to be reflected here.

 

-Lenovo Thinkpad X220 - [8/10]

Spoiler

A durable and reliable machine that is relatively lightweight, has all the hardware it needs to never feel sluggish and has a great IPS matte screen. Downsides are mostly due to its age, most notably the screen resolution of 1366x768 and usb 2.0 ports.

 

-Apple Macbook (2015) - [Garbage -/10]

Spoiler

From my perspective, this product has no redeeming factors given its price and the competition. It is underpowered, overpriced, impractical due to its single port and is made redundant even by Apple's own iPad pro line.

 

-OnePlus X - [7/10]

Spoiler

A good phone for the price. It does everything I (and most people) need without being sluggish and has no particularly bad flaws. The lack of recent software updates and relatively barebones feature kit (most notably the lack of 5GHz wifi, biometric sensors and backlight for the capacitive buttons) prevent it from being exceptional.

 

-Microsoft Surface Book 2 - [Garbage - -/10]

Spoiler

Overpriced and rushed, offers nothing notable compared to the competition, doesn't come with an adequate charger despite the premium price. Worse than the Macbook for not even offering the small plus sides of having macOS. Buy a Razer Blade if you want high performance in a (relatively) light package.

 

-Intel Core i7 2600/k - [9/10]

Spoiler

Quite possibly Intel's best product launch ever. It had all the bleeding edge features of the time, it came with a very significant performance improvement over its predecessor and it had a soldered heatspreader, allowing for efficient cooling and great overclocking. Even the "locked" version could be overclocked through the multiplier within (quite reasonable) limits.

 

-Apple iPad Pro - [5/10]

Spoiler

A pretty good product, sunk by its price (plus the extra cost of the physical keyboard and the pencil). Buy it if you don't mind the Apple tax and are looking for a very light office machine with an excellent digitizer. Particularly good for rich students. Bad for cheap tinkerers like myself.

 

 

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted · Original PosterOP
2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

There's probably some difference in battery capacity and weight but I doubt it's significant.

Make sure the screen is IPS though

I just checked and the E595 also has an IPS display. It's just that it has only 250 cd/m2 brightness, aswell as being a mat display, which makes it look less colorfull.

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted
5 minutes ago, Rankhole said:

I just checked and the E595 also has an IPS display. It's just that it has only 250 cd/m2 brightness, aswell as being a mat display, which makes it look less colorfull.

Still, not something I'd recommend for a student due to its other pitfalls (and at this point it would be significantly more expensive than the X1C). If you really need the extra power then sure, but I doubt it. Also bear in mind that most universities give their students access to some sort of computing cluster for heavy workloads.

...is there a question here? 🤔

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

What is scaling and how does it work? Asus PB287Q unboxing! Console alternatives :D Watch Netflix with Kodi on Arch Linux Sharing folders over the internet using SSH Beginner's Guide To LTT (by iamdarkyoshi)

Sauron'stm Product Scores:

Spoiler

Just a list of my personal scores for some products, in no particular order, with brief comments. I just got the idea to do them so they aren't many for now :)

Don't take these as complete reviews or final truths - they are just my personal impressions on products I may or may not have used, summed up in a couple of sentences and a rough score. All scores take into account the unit's price and time of release, heavily so, therefore don't expect absolute performance to be reflected here.

 

-Lenovo Thinkpad X220 - [8/10]

Spoiler

A durable and reliable machine that is relatively lightweight, has all the hardware it needs to never feel sluggish and has a great IPS matte screen. Downsides are mostly due to its age, most notably the screen resolution of 1366x768 and usb 2.0 ports.

 

-Apple Macbook (2015) - [Garbage -/10]

Spoiler

From my perspective, this product has no redeeming factors given its price and the competition. It is underpowered, overpriced, impractical due to its single port and is made redundant even by Apple's own iPad pro line.

 

-OnePlus X - [7/10]

Spoiler

A good phone for the price. It does everything I (and most people) need without being sluggish and has no particularly bad flaws. The lack of recent software updates and relatively barebones feature kit (most notably the lack of 5GHz wifi, biometric sensors and backlight for the capacitive buttons) prevent it from being exceptional.

 

-Microsoft Surface Book 2 - [Garbage - -/10]

Spoiler

Overpriced and rushed, offers nothing notable compared to the competition, doesn't come with an adequate charger despite the premium price. Worse than the Macbook for not even offering the small plus sides of having macOS. Buy a Razer Blade if you want high performance in a (relatively) light package.

 

-Intel Core i7 2600/k - [9/10]

Spoiler

Quite possibly Intel's best product launch ever. It had all the bleeding edge features of the time, it came with a very significant performance improvement over its predecessor and it had a soldered heatspreader, allowing for efficient cooling and great overclocking. Even the "locked" version could be overclocked through the multiplier within (quite reasonable) limits.

 

-Apple iPad Pro - [5/10]

Spoiler

A pretty good product, sunk by its price (plus the extra cost of the physical keyboard and the pencil). Buy it if you don't mind the Apple tax and are looking for a very light office machine with an excellent digitizer. Particularly good for rich students. Bad for cheap tinkerers like myself.

 

 

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted
8 hours ago, Rankhole said:

It's just that it has only 250 cd/m2 brightness, aswell as being a mat display, which makes it look less colorfull.

Displays are certainly one of the strong points of MBPs. 1560x1600, 500nits and glossy with an effective anti-reflective coating. The aspect ratio is also nice because you can fit more lines of code. The price is that hard part to swallow though. 

Laptop: 2016 13" nTB MacBook Pro Core i5 | Phone: iPhone 8 Plus 64GB | Wearables: Apple Watch Sport Series 2 | CPU: R5 2600 | Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4 | RAM: 16GB 2666 | GPU: Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580 4GB | Case: Apple PowerMac G5 | OS: Win 10 | Storage: 480GB PNY SSD & 2TB WD Green HDD | PSU: Corsair CX600M | Display: Dell UZ2215H 21.5" 1080p, ViewSonic VX2450wm-LED 23.6" 1080p, Samsung SyncMaster 940BX 19" 1024p | Cooling: Wraith Prism | Keyboard: G610 Orion Cherry MX Brown | Mouse: G303 | Audio: Audio Technica ATH-M50X & Blue Snowball
share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted · Original PosterOP

I decided to get a used X1 Carbon 4th Gen.

Specs:

I7 6600U, 16Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD

I think I'll definitely be happy, since the price was 549 Euros total :)!

 

On a side note...does anyone of you guys know where to get a fitting case for this specific X1 Carbon 4th Gen?

I could only find generic cases which probably won't fit ideally...

share
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Go To Topic Listing Laptops and Pre-Built Systems

×