Laptop for work / travel

[Monstergump]

Hi guys, I posted last year in October looking for a new laptop but ended up sticking to my dying Asus GL552VW a bit longer (budget got cut before black friday). I bought it for 1200 CAD$ new with an I7-6700HQ, GTX 960M, 12Go RAM, 1TB HDD. It got me through my PhD and I really liked the overall perf and had no problem with the poor battery being plugged most of the time.

 

Since my previous post, I moved from Canada to the US and started a job as a university researcher. I'm now looking for something more portable and work oriented (no strong gaming planned, maybe so light title from time to time). I would prefer something easy to move (14-15 inch, below 2kg), with a good CPU (I run a lot of programs simultaneously when I treat my data (including some computational modelization where multi core helps) and go through ref materials (multiple tabs opened)) and I would prefer 16Go of RAM. I also need a whole day of battery (8-10h) as I'm moving a lot more now and can't always run for a plug (USB charging would be a dream). I could do without discrete graphics though it'll be useful for future tasks I'll run but it would impact the battery I assume. Budgetwise, I'm confused and feel like spending more than 1500 US for such a config would 

 

So far I had in view the X1 carbon (gen 7, maybe gen 8 if my asus holds on till they come out), the MSI prestige 15, the Zenbook Duo (the price though...) and the MAG15u (worried about only getting a 8th gen cpu and single slot RAM). I also saw the Illegear Ionic but I'm not sure about availability/warranty, though it looked like a potential laptop for my needs.

 

Any help appreciated !

Thanks

[DrMacintosh]

Highly recommend a 13" Surface Laptop or a 13" MacBook Pro. Their Display aspect ratios and portability are unparalleled and they have long battery life. Thought these machines can get pricey. 

[David Wright]

In terms of real life battery usage, if you are aiming for 8 - 10 hrs then the MSI Prestige cannot be considered in that list. It's battery hungry. You will probably not get more than 4 - 5 hours max on any laptop with a dedicated graphics card.

 

The X1 Carbon on the other hand will easily give you about 7 hours on there similar to the Dell XPS 13. Their U processors are less power hungry but have nice turbo boost clocks for heavy loads, the x1 carbon gen 7 all come with 16gb ram afaik. 

Carbon Pros: good keyboard, good battery, decent processor, nvme ssd boot drives

Cons: fans are known to kick in at weird times even under light loads (they're quiet which is nice but still), complaints about glare on the display.

(I'm currently thinking of buying either the x1 carbon gen 7 or gen 6 and someone shared this link with me to get it in the 1200 USD budget

 

Zenbook Duo thoughts, you would probably be paying for the idea of two screens more than the functionality, the second display combined would make a significant difference in battery usage.

 

If you can do without a discrete gaming graphics card, then opt for a business laptop for better build quality, processing power and lightweight.

[genexis_x]

8 hours ago, Monstergump said:

Budgetwise, I'm confused and feel like spending more than 1500 US for such a config would 

If you can spend $1600, Eluktronics Mag-15 will be a decent choice

[Monstergump]

10 hours ago, David Wright said:

In terms of real life battery usage, if you are aiming for 8 - 10 hrs then the MSI Prestige cannot be considered in that list. It's battery hungry. You will probably not get more than 4 - 5 hours max on any laptop with a dedicated graphics card.

 

The X1 Carbon on the other hand will easily give you about 7 hours on there similar to the Dell XPS 13. Their U processors are less power hungry but have nice turbo boost clocks for heavy loads, the x1 carbon gen 7 all come with 16gb ram afaik. 

Carbon Pros: good keyboard, good battery, decent processor, nvme ssd boot drives

Cons: fans are known to kick in at weird times even under light loads (they're quiet which is nice but still), complaints about glare on the display.

(I'm currently thinking of buying either the x1 carbon gen 7 or gen 6 and someone shared this link with me to get it in the 1200 USD budget

 

Zenbook Duo thoughts, you would probably be paying for the idea of two screens more than the functionality, the second display combined would make a significant difference in battery usage.

 

If you can do without a discrete gaming graphics card, then opt for a business laptop for better build quality, processing power and lightweight.

Thanks for these feedbacks. Did not read about the prestige being battery hungry before but makes sense.

The Duo I know I would pay for the concept but it seems to be something I could apply to my work flow (ref on bottom screen etc)

 

When I see the price for a surface with reasonable spec (no choice as you can't upgrade), it makes no sense.

On the other end, it sure makes sense to get something like the MAG15 based on the price difference vs the MSI prestige let's say but again the more powerful components take a toll on battery life...
 

Leaning toward the X1 carbon at the moment but will definitively check the MAG15 a bit more.

 

[Lord Vile]

Productivity wise nothing beats a MacBook. Just depends if the software you need is available though you can just bootcamp. Also here in the UK apple is running a 0% APR 2 year thing on MacBooks so you can pay something like £100 a month over 2 years for a fairly specced out Pro 16”

[Monstergump]

On 1/25/2020 at 4:27 AM, Lord Vile said:

Productivity wise nothing beats a MacBook. Just depends if the software you need is available though you can just bootcamp. Also here in the UK apple is running a 0% APR 2 year thing on MacBooks so you can pay something like £100 a month over 2 years for a fairly specced out Pro 16”

The need to use bootcamp for most of my software and the pricing strategy has always kept me away from any apple product... But thanks for the suggestion.

 

Currently thinking to take a shot at the Mag15 as it is cheaper than alternative like XPS15 or X1extreme (and less thermally limited) while having a better bang/$ ratio than something like the Prestige 15.

[Lord Vile]

On 1/28/2020 at 3:25 AM, Monstergump said:

The need to use bootcamp for most of my software and the pricing strategy has always kept me away from any apple product... But thanks for the suggestion.

 

Currently thinking to take a shot at the Mag15 as it is cheaper than alternative like XPS15 or X1extreme (and less thermally limited) while having a better bang/$ ratio than something like the Prestige 15.

Would say having 2 OS’s is a plus, especially when it means you don’t have to deal with the ineptness of Microsoft when you don’t have to. 
 

Look at Razer for Windows, they’re expensive and I don’t know if they’ve Sorted out their QC but they are much more sturdy than the options you’ve listed and can be specced out fairly well.