Help to chose a Work/Gaming Laptop (~3500$)

[Rifawkes]

Hi everyone! 

I am looking for laptop choice advice! I saw this Q&A type post earlier and find it clear to read so I made one similar :

 

CONTEXT:
I am an Engineering student in my last year of school and would like to buy a work/gaming laptop that will last me at least 5 years.

As I am willing to put a lot of money in it I really want to choose it carefully! Thanks for your help!
 

• Total budget ?
~3000€  /  ~3500$ max budget (France or USA)

 

• General Specs / Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications?
- 2 in 1 would be awesome

- 7-9 hours battery ideally

- i7 8th gen or better

- 16 Gb ram or more (I assume 2 x 8Gb is also better but please correct me if not)

- 512Go SSD minimum - 2To SSD maximum

- Windows 10

 

• How important is weight and thinness to you?

Thin and light is better but most importantly:

I don't want a laptop looking too much like a gaming laptop (as I need to use it for work it is better if the design is sober)

Performance is still my priority.

 

• Do you have a preferred screen? 
15"

FHD or 4K

Good screen temperature and colors as I wish to use Adobe Creative Suite

60Hz+ refresh rate as I wish to play also

 

• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing? List which programs/games you desire to run.

- Adobe Creative Suite (mostly Photoshop & Premiere Pro)

- Solidworks / Fusion 360 (small/medium designs)

 

• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?

I would like to play in ultra settings around 45-70 fps depending on the game (The Witcher 3 / FarCry 5 / RDR2 / TES6 hopefully haha / etc..) 

 

• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? 
I would like the laptop to last so a solid structure would be great (metal).

A good keyboard is also nice.

Touch-screen is a good feature but not mandatory.

 

I know this is a lot of requirements and there might not be THE perfect laptop but still if you have any advice and devices to suggest I would be glad to hear it !  

For now I've been looking at : 

- HP Spectre x360 15-df0900nz

- Dell XPS 15 2 in 1

- Microsoft Surface Book 2

but I'm not convinced

 

PS: English is not my native language, sorry for the mistakes

 

[Fasauceome]

I believe the newest Dell XPS 15 is the laptop for you, having used it myself it seems exactly what you're looking for.

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

I believe the newest Dell XPS 15 is the laptop for you, having used it myself it seems exactly what you're looking for.

xps or laditude equivalent, matebook x pro, hp x360 should check the boxes

[genexis_x]

For that budget I'll go for true mobile workstations like Thinkpad P52, Precision 7530