900 - 1000 euro thin and light gaming laptop with decent battery life

[jan-pieter14]

Hello,

 

My laptop's life is slowly coming to an end. So I am starting to look around for another one.

This year I'll finish uni though so I'd prefer to spend a bit less and get something less powerful because next year I'll live on my own and I might buy a desktop. So why buy a gaming laptop now? Next year I'll still need a laptop for when I'm not at home, and at least some form of dedicated graphics is nice for playing the occasional game when I'm away (and ofcourse it'll be my only gaming machine until I buy a desktop, if it ever comes to that).

 

So the required specs:

 

Screen: 14 or 15 inch 1080p, 60 hz is ok, more is better

CPU: 4 cores (or more)

GPU: at least 1650 max q

Battery: I want at least 7 - 8 hours of regular usage (browsing, watching twitch and youtube etc.) so probably 70 + Wh

Build: metal

Weight: < 2 kg (at the moment I have a 2.3 kg laptop and it should definitely be less)

Thickness: < 2 cm (or something similar, weight is more important I guess)

Ports: a thunderbolt 3 port would be nice because it might allow me to buy an egpu next year, instead of a whole new desktop.

Price: less then 1000 euros, this is quite firm...

Country: Belgium (we use a special variation of AZERTY keyboards but I've used others on internships for months so I wouldn't mind a QWERTY layout)

Current choice:

- Lenovo S540-15IWL (I'm looking at the one with an I5-8265U for 799 euro. I would undervolt it to almost match the I7-8565U, which is 150 euro more): checks pretty much all the boxes except the thunderbolt port. It also comes with only 1 usable m.2 2280 slot which means I'd have to sell the 256gb ssd to use my 512gb one which is unfortunate.

- Dell Inspiron 7590: I5-9300H version with 1650 (non max q) was on sale on black friday for 999 euro but is back up to 1200 euro since then. The pro's compared to the s540 are the better CPU and thunderbolt 3 but it apparently has some overheating issues and QC looked worse then s540 (at least that's the impression i got from reviews).

 

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. I'm following CES quite closely but didn't see anything which is in my price range. 

 

Thanks for your help!

[jan-pieter14]

GPU doesn't match and you can't post your own ads here. I also didn't mention anything about wanting second hand stuff. You may have noticed I live in Belgium so this will add hunderds of euros import tax.

Edited January 9, 2020 by wkdpaul

[WkdPaul]

* thread cleaned *

[genexis_x]

S540 15 is probably the best bet for your requirements, can't think of any other decent options at this price range

[jan-pieter14]

4 hours ago, genexis_x said:

S540 15 is probably the best bet for your requirements, can't think of any other decent options at this price range

Nothing you've seen at CES either?

[genexis_x]

33 minutes ago, jan-pieter14 said:

Nothing you've seen at CES either?

Need to wait for new models to come then only can tell

[jan-pieter14]

9 hours ago, genexis_x said:

S540 15 is probably the best bet for your requirements, can't think of any other decent options at this price range

And if I raise my budget to 1200 at the most? Any other contenders you know of? 1060's are ok as well because they have the same performance (as long as their battery life is still reasonable).

[genexis_x]

20 hours ago, jan-pieter14 said:

at least 7 - 8 hours

< 2 kg

< 2 cm

these are the limiting factors, even for 1200 euro you'll still stuck with Ultrabooks with 1650MQ. If you want more powerful GPU, it will be thin and light gaming laptop which costs even more

[jan-pieter14]

33 minutes ago, genexis_x said:

these are the limiting factors, even for 1200 euro you'll still stuck with Ultrabooks with 1650MQ. If you want more powerful GPU, it will be thin and light gaming laptop which costs even more

Which ones are those other ultrabooks with these specs? MSI PS63 I suppose, any others (with thunderbolt or a H-series CPU)?

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, jan-pieter14 said:

any others (with thunderbolt or a H-series CPU)?

For H series CPU: Ideapad S740 15 / S940 15 (if available), Mag-15u chassis (not sure who is selling this chassis in EU though)

 

Avoid XPS 15

[jan-pieter14]

16 hours ago, genexis_x said:

For H series CPU: Ideapad S740 15 / S940 15 (if available), Mag-15u chassis (not sure who is selling this chassis in EU though)

 

Avoid XPS 15

Those are 1500 at least, in the EU it's the XMG Fusion 15. In your opinion, should I wait until the usb 4 laptops are released (with built in tb3)?

[genexis_x]

3 hours ago, jan-pieter14 said:

XMG Fusion 15

It's the same with Mag-15 not Mag-15u

3 hours ago, jan-pieter14 said:

should I wait until the usb 4 laptops are released (with built in tb3)?

no

[jan-pieter14]

Any new interesting laptops with these specs?