15" laptop with 1050 and decent screen?

[Hyper_V]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a new 15.6" laptop that would last me a couple of years in uni, and have been for a while now. It's an incredibly painful task as I always hit a snag whenever I find one I might otherwise consider.

I don't plan on playing any new AAA games for the most part, maybe a few (but my current rig will be staying at home so I'll be able to use it over the weekend for that anyway). I'd still like to have enough power to comfortably handle older games, esports games or indies (and osu) at 1080p60fps, which is why I'm thinking of a 1050 or 1050ti woud be a good pick (an mx150 probably wouldn't be enough so I've been excluding it and everything worse than the 1050).

I'm okay with an i5 8300H or a similarly performing cpu, as it's similar to the 4770 I have now which is enough for what I'll generally be doing The U variants of both newer i5s and i7s are okay as well as long as they aren't much worse than my 4770. If nothing else has to be compromised, I dont mind paying a bit extra for something a bit better like a 8750H or something between these two.

The big problem here, at least for me is the screen, as I'll be doing some adept drawing and other color work. It doesn't need to be great, but I'd like to have at least 90% sRGB coverage, which is similar to what I've been using so far. IPS isn't a necessity as I don't need great viewing angles or brightness (I'll mostly be using it indoors), as long as the color reproduction and similar stuff is okay. This is where I've had most of my problems, as most great laptops I've found, even with IPS panels, only had 60% coverage which is bad just by looking at it, let alone even thinking of doing any such work on there. Otherwise, 60Hz is enough for me, but I certainly don't mind 120 or 144Hz to give me a better experience in league or something. Of course, 1080p is all I need. I of course dont mind going higher, but I'm pretty sure such screens are reserved for either worse specced or much pricier and premium laptops, neither of which I want.

I'm not too worried about things like battery life and portability that much, as long as it isn't below average, i'm okay with it. 8GB of ram and a small ssd and hdd (or an m.2 slot + 2.5" slot, either of them taken or free) is enough as long as it's upgradeable (doesn't have to be easy, I'm fairly adept at taking apart laptops). It can also be a refurb, at least I'm assuming it can be, as from what I've heard and checked, those are usually safe picks to get.

For my budget, I'm looking up to 1200€ max, preferably lower. I could go higher, but I've found a decent refurb strix II for 1300€ that has an 8750H, a 144hz 90% sRGB screen and a 1060mq, so at that price point I might as well throw the extra 100€ and just get that instead. I might eventually end up going with that anyway if I don't find any better pick, but the further down from that 1300€ I go, the more I save for my next build after I'm done with uni.
I'd like to note that, not only I'm from EU which, from my experience already has higher prices on electronics than say the USA, but i'm from Slovenia and over here the whole computer electronics market is incredibly messed up and illogical. What might cost 900€ elsewhere costs between 1000-1200€ here, so please leave some extra spacing with recommendations.

It was insanely hard looking for such a specific niche laptop, especially as it's incredibly difficult to find panel specs for specific models of laptops, and many reviews don't cover those as well (god bless Jarrod's tech, Notebookcheck and Ultrabookreview). I've found some insane value TUF FX504s with an 8300H and 1050ti, but from what I've researched those particular models of laptops have pretty crappy screens (though on the site it says 130% sRGB which has been seriously bothering me because so far I haven't found any review claiming any fx504s have more than 60% coverage on any panel). There's just no way to look up a specific model number after the generic model number, for example "fx504" or "fx505", to make sure that particular one is okay. This is also why I've thrown out most other (comparably much cheaper) gaming laptops out, not because of the design or bulk, but because everyone had the same story: I saw the specs, they seemed good; I saw the price, it seemed good; I spent 2 hours looking up reviews just to later find out it's sRGB gamut is 60% or even below.

It's been an incredibly painful two months of looking up laptops. I'm well aware that finding a laptop whenever your parameters are anything other than "price" or "raw performance/specs" is a dreadful experience (a friend has been through something similar just recently), but I never expected it to be this bad.
Worst case scenario, which isn't that horrible anyway, I'll be going for that scar. I'd like to try and save some more money if possible as I'll probably rarely use that 1060mq's full potential during my next couple of years.
Thank you all in advance for any replies, and happy gpu dropping.

[kelvinhall05]

Thinkpad T-series if you want something slightly bigger, X1 Carbon/non-Carbon if you want something thin-and-light, X-series if you want something smaller.

[Hyper_V]

I've checked many Lenovo laptops, yeah (at first, their legion line up as well until i found out their screens are pretty crap). I know they have really good reputation among other things, like their keyboards and easier serviceability.
But from the reviews I've checked, it would appear as most of their laptops dont have great screens? at least, that's from my knowledge. The x1 series, assuming you're talking about the high end ones I found seem too premium for me and definitely not fitting my budget. I'd be happy to be corrected on this though, as I've always considered Lenovo since I know they're a trustworthy brand.

[Hyper_V]

An added sidenote, since I forgot to mention: I've just checked some comparisons and from what it seems like, the mobile rx560 is about similar to the 1050 mobile in performance, so either that or anything better from team red's side would work just as well (given the use case I absolutely don't care about proprietary nvidia tech. shadowplay is great, but iirc amd has something similar as well, worst case scenario I can just use the windows 10 shadow capture anyway.)

In terms of cpu, i'm of course open to amd as well, but from what I've seen all U ryzen laptops only offer integrated graphics which are awful, and the two ryzen cpus (i think the 5 3550H and 7 3750H, correct me if i got the names wrong), while absolutely great and enough for my use, (at least from what i found so far) only come in budget gaming laptops with either the 1660ti (overkill for me, especially budget wise) or the 1650 (which would be a great choice), except that, again, so far, all laptops with either of these gpus are gaming ones that have really bad screens or other problems.

The intel with Vega graphics combos seem amazing, but they're only available in the intel nuc or two extremely high end premium dell laptops and some other premium laptop as well.

Additionally I'm wondering if there are any new laptops on the horizon that might fit my needs. I have a crappy pavillion 17" that could hold me for a bit, however I wouldn't be able to use it and wait for more than 2-3 months max, so ice lake is out of the question, as juicy and exciting it might be.

[genexis_x]

8 hours ago, Hyper_V said:

their screens are pretty crap

only the 250 nits option

8 hours ago, Hyper_V said:

15.6"

last me a couple of years

1050 or 1050ti

90% sRGB

not too worried about things like battery life and portability

1200€ max, preferably lower

Slovenia

If you want best longevity then go for premium business laptop/workstation, however they aren't cheap

 

Any links of online stores? Is is possible to buy from another country?

[Hyper_V]

I've checked multiple reviews on all lenovo laptops in my budget and each of them otherwise fit me perfectly except that they have a poor screen. I'm sure the higher end ones have better screens but that's beyond how much I'm willing to spend. More specifically, literally all Lenovo laptops I've checked that are within my budget come with 250 nits screens. I double checked and yeah, that's the crappy one which wouldn't fit what I need.

 

On 8/16/2019 at 5:51 AM, GeneXiS_X said:

If you want best longevity then go for premium business laptop/workstation, however they aren't cheap

I've checked a couple out, but they're usually way too expensive for what they offer to the point where it just makes more sense for me to go for either of the two asus' I found refurbished. Though, I actually found this zenbook pro 14 used (mind the crappy slovene website). it generally seems like what I would want, and the reviews seem to work out, but I am fairly concerned regarding thermals as it's an ultrabook, and I really wouldn't like to have a macbook experience whenever trying to do anything more substantial than taking notes or browsing the web. But, the battery would probably last longer than either one of those I have in my mind right now, and it's significantly lighter as well (the lack of numpad and the 14" screen dont bother me, and from what I've checked (though I'm not 100% sure) the color coverage should be alright). 

Also, I probably should've been more clear on the "last me long" part. I'll be taking good care of it so I don't need it to be really well built or durable. I meant more in the sense of usability down the line.
 

 

On 8/16/2019 at 5:51 AM, GeneXiS_X said:

Any links of online stores? Is is possible to buy from another country?

There's ceneje.si which is a price comparison website, though it has fairly poor filtering. To my knowledge it covers all major stores here so that might be a good starting point.
I can generally order things from DE amazon, but it's a gamble on which products ship here or not, and the prices often aren't that much better (when counting in shipping) than most stores here anyway. Other than that, there are a couple of other sites like notebooksbilliger.de that I could probably order from as well, but again, it's a gamble as to whether or not something can ship or not. 
Germany is pretty much the main and only EU based place I can order stuff from, maybe IT amazon as well but I haven't checked much there. The main problem with ordering from DE sites would be the keyboard layout, as they would all come shipped with the german layout. I don't need a slovene layout, but I'd much prefer a standard qwerty as it's relatively more directly usable than the german one with all it's special symbols. with that said, I'm well aware I can just get keyboard layout stickers, but those probably wouldn't work with the backlights (which I find important as I tend to use my rigs late at night and I haven't memorized everything yet so I can't type completely blind), as well as from a purely aesthetic standpoint as they would look pretty bad. I suppose it's still a sacrifice I'm willing to make though, if everything else works out well from DE amazon or some other german store.

[genexis_x]

Lenovo Legion Y540 81SY0046SC with 300 nits 72% NTSC IPS, below €1000