Refurbished: Thinkpad X1 Carbon 3rd Gen or HP Envy x360 AMD Ryzen 5 (UK)

[Visual Hudson]

So first of all, I hate hate hate laptops. Compared to a desktop, they're more expensive, lower power, less reliable, and... I could go on.

However I tend to go travelling or on trips away between half a dozen to a dozen times a year, and I've been toying with the idea of getting a laptop to have guaranteed access to a computer on my travels. I do already have an iPad 4 which I've been using for years which serves most purposes, however there's functions it doesn't have which I would like to have whilst we're away. For example:

• Unloading pictures and videos from my DSLR (& other cameras / drones / etc) SD cards to a HDD
• Potentially being able to edit them whilst I'm away instead of having to wait to get home and use my more desktop PC. So being able to run Photoshop & Premiere Pro would be something I'd want to do. 
• Ability to potentially play some games on the go, however it wouldn't need to be anything super excessive. One of my favourite games is Civ V. 
• Whilst any laptop will do it, the ability to more easily remote desktop into my computer would be handy. Splashtop works perfectly fine on my iPad & OnePlus 3T, but being able to do it through a computer would definitely be easier. 
• I do like the idea of the 360 degree folding laptops, as it allows them to be used similar to a tablet, but I suppose it isn't something that is absolutely necessary. 
• I would also like it to be touchscreen, but again it isn't something that is absolutely necessary. 
• I'd prefer 16GB of RAM, but given the price point I'm looking at I'd settle for 8GB. The potential to upgrade in the future would be nice. 

With my general disdain for laptops, I don't want to purchase a cheapo laptop, get disappointed and frustrated with it's crappy performance because then I'll just never use it. However, I also can't afford do spend thousands, nor would I want to on a laptop. So I have been thinking about buying a refurbished laptop with the idea being that I'd be able to get a slightly used or somewhat older model that is higher spec without having to pay full price for it, similar to buying a used car instead of a new car. Which has seemingly lead me to the following laptops: 
 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 3rd Gen - £629 (with Windows 10 Pro) (for a modern, X1 Carbon you're looking well over £1000):
https://www.tier1online.com/728-20bts0mx00/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-3rd-gen-8gb-240gb-ssd-i7-5600u-full-hd-grade-a

HP ENVY x360 AMD Ryzen 5 - £679.97 (brand new on HP's website they're £850, so it's nearly a £200 saving):
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-hp-envy-x360-amd-ryzen-5-2500u-8gb-1tb-128gb-ssd-amd-radeon-v-a1-2ph22ea/version.asp
 

HP Envy x360 again but £0.02 more expensive, but otherwise looks to be the same:
https://www.laptopoutlet.co.uk/hp-envy-x360-15-bq150na-15-6-full-hd-touchscreen-2-in-1-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-2500u-2-0-ghz-3-6-ghz-turbo-quad-core-processor-8gb-ram-1tb-128gb-sshd-windows-10-home-64-bit-2ph22ea-abu.html?___SID=U

Tier 1 Online also has some slightly even older, bit more damaged X1's that are a couple hundred pounds cheaper but ARE touchscreens:

https://www.tier1online.com/refurbished-lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon/?sort=bestselling

 

I was pretty settled on the X1 Carbon 3rd Gen but realistically, whilst Thinkpads are legendarily reliable, it probably doesn't actually best suit what I want. Although I wasn't sure I'd find a better deal. Then I came across these HP Envy x360's with the AMP APU which seems like it would actually be better suited in many ways, however the more I research into it, I've found lots of people complaining about issues with the laptop freezing, the screen being too dim and poor representation of the sRGB palette, not to mention the displays coming from a bunch of different manufacturers which is causing quite the variance in quality. Whereas I'm aware that the particular Thinkpad I've found isn't the Yoga version, isn't touchscreen, and won't be any good for games, but being a Thinkpad I presume / except it to be much more reliable especially given the fact I'm looking at purchasing a used / refurbished model. Further helping it, the Thinkpad does come with a one year warranty, whereas the Envy x360 comes with only three months.

There is currently an X1 3rd Gen on eBay at about £250 but with a day or so to go, it's likely to go up in price and doesn't look like it would come with any form of warranty from the seller:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-14-Third-gen-excellent-condition/142833567220?epid=141019033&hash=item21418b45f4:g:i7EAAOSw0J9bIn9G

One person mentioned that the Envy x360 came with a privacy screen function, where you press a button and the makes it impossible for the people next to you to see your screen, which I thought sounded like a fancy, but good feature. However I can't find any mention of this anywhere else, other than for the more expensive Spectre models. 

So... basically, can anyone help me pick a laptop? Well I'm either buying a laptop or a HTC Vive, but whilst my heart says go for the Vive, my brain says that the laptop is the better purchase as it will serve more use in the long run. 

What do people think of these laptops / deals?

Should I be looking elsewhere, or for any other laptops? 
Any advice at all, really?

Edit: I've also found some other slightly more expensive laptops, but not really had chance or now got time to really look into them or see how they compare. Ideally these are more expensive than I'd like to pay, but if anyone can advise me on these as well that would be great! Oh and as far as I'm aware, these are all brand new, unless I'm mistaken. So I suppose that is something to bear in mind with the price.
 

MSI GL62 15.6" Intel Core i7-7700HQ GeForce GTX 1050Ti 8GB RAM - £749.97 (appears like other websites list this as the GL62M, although not sure why?):
https://www.tesco.com/direct/msi-gl62-156-intel-core-i7-geforce-gtx-1050ti-8gb-ram-1000gb-256gb-ssd-windows-10-gaming-laptop-black/369-9390.prd?skuId=369-9390

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 260 - i5-6200U, 8GB RAM, smaller screen but is touchscreen and folds over 360 degrees - £786.93:
https://www.ebuyer.com/821231-lenovo-thinkpad-yoga-260-2-in-1-laptop-20fes4st00

 

FX504GD NVIDIA GTX 1050 2GB, 15.6" FHD, I5-8300H, 8GB DDR4 - £679.99:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-fx504gd-nvidia-gtx-1050-2gb-15.6-fhd-i5-8300h-8gb-ddr4-gaming-laptop-lt-25b-as.html

 

FX504GD NVIDIA GTX 1050 4GB, 15.6" FHD, I5-8300H, 8GB DDR4 - £769.99:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-fx504gd-nvidia-gtx-1050-4gb-gddr5-15.6-fhd-i5-8300h-8gb-ddr4-gaming-laptop-lt-250-as.html

[genexis_x]

Budget? What are your requirements? (display size, battery life, hardware etc)

[Visual Hudson]

I thought that I'd covered budget and requirements in the post, quite extensively really. 

 

Screen size doesn't really bother me. I guess I'd prefer larger over smaller, but I get that smaller is more portable. 

 

Battery life, again, longer would obviously be better especially when I'm taking it travelling, but realistically we're talking about a difference of what a couple hours at best? Ultimately they all need to be plugged in for any real use. 

 

Budget wise...  obviously cheaper is better but value for money or bang for your buck is most important. Hence I was looking at refurbished models of previously higher end devices which appeared to bring me around about the £600 to £700 mark. However some of the models I listed were both way below and also slightly above that figure.

 

As I say, if you read through my original post, I think I cover all of this pretty extensively. 

[genexis_x]

Any links of online stores?

[Visual Hudson]

I linked to a number of stores, well infact  a number of laptops directly in my original post? 

[genexis_x]

9 hours ago, Visual Hudson said:

I've found lots of people complaining about issues with the laptop freezing, the screen being too dim and poor representation of the sRGB palette, not to mention the displays coming from a bunch of different manufacturers which is causing quite the variance in quality.

Freezing is caused by AMD software+firmware. Display variation happens in almost every laptop model.

 

If you want a decent budget option, Acer Swift 3 14 with 8250U+MX150, though it's not convertible, has no touchscreen and has non upgradable RAM

[Visual Hudson]

I understand that display variance happens across most if not all the laptops, however I had read that it was particularly a bad issue on that laptop exacerbated by the fact that the screen wasn't much good anyway. 

 

 I've been looking up this Acer laptop you suggested but it's also appears as though most people are saying that the screen is not very good in that it's not very bright or it's colour reproduction isn't great for people who want to do photo or video editing.  now I'm certainly no professional editor,  however it is something that I am concerned about as I do use Photoshop and Premiere Pro. But that being said it isn't of the utmost importance, like it isn't the very top of my list of needs in this laptop. ( before you ask me what actually is top of my list of priorities, I'm not too sure to be honest) 

 

Is it possible that you, or someone else, could look through the laptops that I have linked and give me your thoughts on them? 

 

Edit: Also, wouldn't the AMD Ryzen 5 with the APU perform better than the MX 150 which is basically just a rebadged GTX 1030?

[genexis_x]

23 minutes ago, Visual Hudson said:

the screen is not very good

Budget limitation

23 minutes ago, Visual Hudson said:

before you ask me what actually is top of my list of priorities

I want to ask you this question TBH

24 minutes ago, Visual Hudson said:

Is it possible that you, or someone else, could look through the laptops that I have linked and give me your thoughts on them? 

X1 Carbon gen 3 and Thinkpad Yoga 260 have outdated hardware. Envy x360 has similar pros and cons compared to Swift 3. MSI GL and Asus FX504 are terrible (if you want to hear the explaination then ask me)

[Visual Hudson]

12 hours ago, ZM Fong said:

Budget limitation

I want to ask you this question TBH

X1 Carbon gen 3 and Thinkpad Yoga 260 have outdated hardware. Envy x360 has similar pros and cons compared to Swift 3. MSI GL and Asus FX504 are terrible (if you want to hear the explaination then ask me)

I know I'm limited by my budget, but I still want to try to get the best that I can especially considering I do plan on using the laptop for some photo and video editing, hence why things like brightness and colour reproduction are something I'm concerned about. However I'm not a professional editor, and with my budget, I'm not expecting the absolute best. Just not the absolute worst! 

 

I think I've covered my priorities pretty well in my original post, but what is my top priority? I really don't know. It is a bit of a coin toss between GPU performance and the screen, but also cooling as I get so frustrated by burning my hand on laptops that can't cool very well. But then cooling leads to noise, and noise is a pain, but I can deal with that. I definitely did like the idea of a touchscreen, whilst I'd probably be disappointed if I didn't get one, it wouldn't be the end of the world. There's just so many factors, I just don't know... 

 

And yes I'm fully aware that the Thinkpads have "outdated" hardware but honestly I'm not too bothered if it's a generation or two behind. My desktop rig is running with a 3770K and a GTX 680, I've been running that since they came out like 5 or 6 years ago, and I'm not planning on upgrading just yet. If I did any upgrade on my PC, it would be my graphics card but only because I want a HTC Vive, but a lot of people I've read have said that a GTX 680 can run a Vive no problem so if that's the case then I wouldn't be bothered about upgrading. 

 

Anyway, my ooint being, I wasn't bothered about it being older. If anything I thought that was a good thing!! As it allowed me to get a better quality laptop at a much lower price than it would cost for me to purchase brand new. A Thinkpad X1 you're looking well over £1000 but here I can get a used one for £650? I mean, that seems like a steal to me?

 

Seeing as you mention it, why do you think that the MSI and Asus FX504 are terrible? Someone on reddit has actually just recommended the FX504 funnily enough! Haha

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, Visual Hudson said:

why do you think that the MSI and Asus FX504 are terrible

FX504 has shit cooling and OKish overall quality. GL series has mediocre build quality and OKish cooling. Both have QC and QC concerns.