Best Thin and Light 14-15 inch for CAD, Photoediting, and Battery Life

[Speedbird 48]

I just exchanged my XPS 13 2 in 1 due to unbearable coil whine. I am hoping the replacement doesn't suffer it either. If it does, I am honestly going to try a 15 inch instead. I am a college student who has no idea what he wants to do with his life. I do expect a computer to be a big part in whatever it is, so I would like to get a laptop that I can use as a mobile workstation when I am not around my desktop for light work. As I am in college at the moment, my immediate needs are for it to be reasonably light and thin, and to at least give me 6 hours of battery life web browsing and note taking. I don't want to regularly buy a new laptop, so longevity is a must too. As is a quality feel and keyboard/trackpad. The XPS15 IPS 4K is high on my list, but I hear it suffers really bad thermal throttling, also falls victim to coil whine, AND has quality control issues. Honestly at that point I might as well buy a MBP. The Razer Blade 15 would be next on my list despite the worse screen, but the battery life leaves much to desire. I hate the feel of the HP Spectre, and I have a hard time finding Lenovo laptops outside of their website. Do you guys have any recommendations with me? Anyone had a better experience with the XPS? Honestly I have yet to see any other OEM beat Razer, Dell, Microsoft, or Apples quality feel, and it's a damn shame every single one of the mentioned offerings have a gotcha.

[schwellmo92]

I have an XPS 15, it does thermal throttle if you have long sustained loads on both the CPU and GPU but you'll never experience that in day-to-day work, only if you try gaming on it.

[Speedbird 48]

12 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

I have an XPS 15, it does thermal throttle if you have long sustained loads on both the CPU and GPU but you'll never experience that in day-to-day work, only if you try gaming on it.

Any coil whine?

[Super Spartan]

14 hours ago, Speedbird 48 said:

I just exchanged my XPS 13 2 in 1 due to unbearable coil whine. I am hoping the replacement doesn't suffer it either. If it does, I am honestly going to try a 15 inch instead. I am a college student who has no idea what he wants to do with his life. I do expect a computer to be a big part in whatever it is, so I would like to get a laptop that I can use as a mobile workstation when I am not around my desktop for light work. As I am in college at the moment, my immediate needs are for it to be reasonably light and thin, and to at least give me 6 hours of battery life web browsing and note taking. I don't want to regularly buy a new laptop, so longevity is a must too. As is a quality feel and keyboard/trackpad. The XPS15 IPS 4K is high on my list, but I hear it suffers really bad thermal throttling, also falls victim to coil whine, AND has quality control issues. Honestly at that point I might as well buy a MBP. The Razer Blade 15 would be next on my list despite the worse screen, but the battery life leaves much to desire. I hate the feel of the HP Spectre, and I have a hard time finding Lenovo laptops outside of their website. Do you guys have any recommendations with me? Anyone had a better experience with the XPS? Honestly I have yet to see any other OEM beat Razer, Dell, Microsoft, or Apples quality feel, and it's a damn shame every single one of the mentioned offerings have a gotcha.

First choice is MBP but it is expensive if you wanna get a fully specced out one especially with a Vega 16 or 20 GPU

 

My next choice would be the Lenovo ThinkPad Extreme

 

I recommend you get it from HIDevolution to get their free for life tech support which is way better then the OEM tech support + their quality is control is superb so you are sure to get a laptop that works great out of the box.

 

When you're in the laptop customization page, I recommend that you choose "Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut + Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads." That reduces your CPU/GPU temps by as much as 15C which is a must in today's laptop which sport fast CPUs/GPUs to prevent over-heating and thermal throttling.

 

If you email donald@hidevolution.com , you might be able to get a small discount. He's the salesman I dealt with when I ordered my laptops and what I like about him is that he never tries to over-sell you on anything just to make a bigger sale but treats you like a friend and gives genuine advice. He even saved me a few bucks sometimes when I chose upgrades that I didn't necessarily need. 

[schwellmo92]

8 hours ago, Speedbird 48 said:

Any coil whine?

None.

[DrMacintosh]

Photo editing and Battery life? A 15" MBP. Thin, light, and powerful. The RX 555X model should be enough for your CAD needs tbh. 

[genexis_x]

Location? Budget?