Backup Laptop

[SleepyWill]

Hi everyone!

 

I wonder if anyone can help me? I'm after a laptop to act as a companion to my desktop, and it's been a good 15 years since I last bought one and I'm getting myself turned around a bit with different ideas.

 

Essentially I'm home all day, as I work from home but I'm disabled and sitting at my desktop all day is taking a toll on my health.

 

My desktop is really nice - i7 8086, Titan X, 32Gb ram, it does almost everything I ask of it and really only my graphics card could do with updating, so I was originally looking for a laptop simply to stream that computer.

 

However, the more I thought about it, the more useful it would be to have it as a capable machine in its own right! 

 

Ideally I would be able to edit photos and watch YouTube and Netflix on it, whilst connecting to the desktop to edit video and play games (though being able to play open world heavily modded RPGs away from home such as Skyrim would be worth stretching the budget for), and perhaps using it to stream games and record them simultaneously would be preferable than recording them from my desktop?

 

In my research, a mediocre review for a screen is a consistent turn off. I definitely want 4k, as long as it hits 60hz, I'm not fussed about going higher, but for my photo editing a great colour panel is my absolute top priority.

 

Time isn't a huge issue, I'll have to wait a few months to save up, but my other priority is excellent quality control and robustness.

 

I don't care much about weight - but the massive desktop replacements are way too big and heavy, I would consider any screen size with a strong preference for 15 inches, I'm actually not interested in the paper thin machines at all, I don't understand the appeal. Battery life is very much not an issue, if it goes for an hour or two, I'm happy.

 

Good IO is my third priority, I have a lot of stuff that plugs into my computer's for different reasons, and future proof would be good as I would not want to have to buy again for a minimum of 5 years!

 

Sorry about the wall of text, thanks for reading!

Edited December 27, 2018 by SleepyWill

[SleepyWill]

Apologies - I'm in the UK and my budget is scalable but I would hope to stay under £2000 - if we can get something perfect, significantly under then I can buy it months earlier and save myself a lot of pain but I am prepared to wait if it is worth it!

[Pixel5]

you will probably need to focus on what is the most important thing for you as the budget is kind of on the edge of giving you a high performance laptop with 4k 60hz panel.

 

especially a quality 4k panel is hard to find or only available in higher end configurations which also tend to be heavier or even more expensive.

 

[genexis_x]

43 minutes ago, SleepyWill said:

whilst connecting to the desktop to edit video and play games

I don't quite understand this

 

Prefer regular laptop/Ultrabook or gaming/performance laptop?

[SleepyWill]

So I'm not looking for a high performance or gaining laptop - I can run a game on my desktop Pc or my editing software and stream it via moonlight to a phone with ease, so I would do the same to a laptop - but enough grunt to be capable when away from home is worth paying extra for, but it's not going to have to run video editing software by itself - at worst, Skyrim 1080p with mods at 60fps - if an ultrabook can handle it, it's all I need .

 

 

Essentially, what is the very best 4k screen for gamut and accuracy £2000 can buy? So long as it's built by someone without a reputation for QC problems, or going to degrade the performance of itself by poor design and has performance for some light gaming, then I'll buy it!

Edited December 27, 2018 by SleepyWill

[genexis_x]

9 hours ago, SleepyWill said:

without a reputation for QC problems

Very hard to get such laptop unless you go for premium business laptop or true mobile workstation (eg Thinkpad P52)

9 hours ago, SleepyWill said:

best 4k screen for gamut and accuracy

I wouldn't get UHD panel due to Windows scaling problem and shorter battery life. There are also a few good FHD panels. You can also do manual colour calibration on good sRGB panels

[SleepyWill]

5 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Thinkpad P52

Oh wow, that looks perfect! P1000 and 4k screen bang on price - I get your concerns, but editing photos in FHD is ok for an amateur, but it’s how I make a good half of my living and if there are windows scaling problems, I’ve already been living with them just fine! 

 

This was a catagory of laptops I didn't even realise existed!!! 

 

Thank you very much! I'll do my due diligence and keep you updated! Anyone happen to know if this model gets an annual update and whether they are due one soon?

[genexis_x]

50 minutes ago, SleepyWill said:

Anyone happen to know if this model gets an annual update and whether they are due one soon?

P52 is a fairly new model with 8th gen CFL-H CPU. Will probably update again when new CPU/GPU arrives but I can't confirm