Laptop decisions

[Tacitus]

Hi all

 

I'm in the market for a new laptop just now as I've moved house and no longer have space for a desk (desktop going behind the TV for gaming).

 

I need a laptop for general day-to-day use which for me is primarily web surfing, film/TV and photo editing in Lightroom/Photoshop.  I therefore want something with a good screen and powerful enough to smoothly edit photos.  I also want good portability as the last laptop I had was a tank and as a result never really moved. 

 

I went to a shop and the thing I was (to my surprise) most keen on was a Surface Laptop 2.  I also didn't like the 13.3" 16:9 laptops - they feel too small. 

 

My absolute maximum budget is around £1,300 for which I could get a Huawei Matebook X Pro (8th gen i5, 8gb ram, 256gb SSD), a Surface Laptop 2 (same spec as Huawei) or a refurb Dell XPS 15 with a 7th gen i7, 512gb SSD, 4k display (from Dell outlet) or a new XPS 15 with 8th gen i5, 8gb ram and 256gb SSD. 

 

I'd probably rather not spend so much if I could though, and for around £930 I can get a Surface Laptop 2 with a 128gb SSD, but I'm not convinced that's sufficient storage really.  I don't know how capable cloud storage is to supplement physical storage but I'm rarely without internet.

 

Am I mad for looking at the Surface over the Huawei, and mad for considering the Huawei over the Dell?

 

Any other suggestions welcome.

[Daniel1]

I would go for the Dell XPS 15.  

[GoldenLag]

Id grab the Huawei Matebook X Pro. 

 

Mostly because its an really good laptop

[updlester]

matebook is a really good laptop, also good build quality 

[genexis_x]

11 hours ago, Tacitus said:

I need a laptop for general day-to-day use which for me is primarily web surfing, film/TV and photo editing in Lightroom/Photoshop.  I therefore want something with a good screen and powerful enough to smoothly edit photos

 

didn't like the 13.3" 16:9 laptops - they feel too small. 

 

maximum budget is around £1,300

Preferred max weight in kg/lbs and min battery life in hours? Any other requirements?

[Tacitus]

4 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Preferred max weight in kg/lbs and min battery life in hours? Any other requirements?

I'd say the XPS (circa 2kg I understand) is probably about the maximum weight I would tolerate but ideally I'd like it to be a little lighter.  I'm not too concerned about battery life as I'm rarely without access to a plug socket.  Enough to get a few hours of browsing/typing or watch a film should suffice.  The more the merrier though, of course. 

[genexis_x]

21 minutes ago, Tacitus said:

I'm not too concerned about battery life as I'm rarely without access to a plug socket.  Enough to get a few hours of browsing/typing or watch a film should suffice.  The more the merrier though, of course. 

So you don't mind poor battery life?

[Tacitus]

12 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

So you don't mind poor battery life?

It's not very high up my list of priorities. 

[genexis_x]

If battery life isn't an issue, I would go for PCSpecialist Recoil II (TongFang GK5CN6Z)