Gaming laptop considerations

[rgkig]

Yet another of these...sorry, it is quite long! I was somewhat set on the G14 but I'm not sure I'd like the keyboard and the screen seems poor, so now I'm trying to get some group think, especially if others have hands-on experience with these, to see if I'm overblowing it. I get the drawbacks of gaming laptops -- I'm mostly ok with that as there is a chance I just retire my desktop fully since I value mobility more and may just never use it. And finally, thing and lights seem usable as daily machines. I also travel a lot when the world is normal.

 

TLDR: Same question everyone has. I added all my info below and tried to categorize it for ease

 

Budget: Very flexible, USD. Ideal ~1500 but comfortable in mid 2000s if it's the better fit.

Uses: Games, photo editing, programming, watching movies

Games: COD:MW, LOL, Quake Live, Anno 1800, random less-twitchy AAA off and on (e.g., SOTR or Metro)

Timeline: ASAP. I know something better is about to come out and that is ok.

Plan to keep: 3-5 years

 

Current desktop: i4790k OCed, GTX 970 <-- might upgrade the card in <=1 year, may never really go back to desktops...

Current "Laptop": Surface Pro that is 3 years old. Good for what it is, but it is very limited and I use it a TON. This will be replaced by this laptop

 

Ideals (will be tough to not have these): 15-inch, not gamer-y looking, good keyboard (layout and feel), good screen (response and color), 1080p only

Nice to haves: 2070+, Ryzen 9, SD Card slot, ethernet port, quiet if mechanical (e.g., browns), camera

 

My general non-game use: I leave tons of Chrome tabs open, Pycharm, Android emulators, Lightroom/Photoshop etc. For regular tasks, I multitask a ton so I think RAM and probably CPU are important (so I'd rather Ryzen 9 of course). I also will use this often on my lap or actually somewhat mobile, so when not gaming, battery life, thermals not burning my legs, and volume are important. Probably the most strenuous thing it would do in this unplugged situation is like Anno 1800 or photo editing (+ multitasking with that). I'm not playing any reflex or AAA games from my lap

 

Gaming considerations: I probably won't use an external monitor for at least 6 months, so I want a good screen. 120/144hz is ideal as it should be better bang for the buck and I doubt I'll appreciate 240/300. If I upgrade my desktop to a newer card it will outpace this one day (depending on 4790 bottleneck). Gaming on laptop would be interim and during travel -- which is 2-4 nights/week non-COVID. I'm not with my desktop for the next few months so it will be my only PC for a while, and I may get used to the portability and let the desktop gather dust forever. When I play something a little more intense and slow like Metro, I like graphics up to high or ultra and lower frames is fine. For FPS/ online, I'm go with low-graphics, high frames.

 

It'd be very easy if Ryzen 9 was in a decent laptop. So here are the contenders:

 

1) G14, 2060 Max Q- Good R9, but it is smaller at 14inches, and the 2060 gives it only 50-70% frame rates of the others and probably limits to lower graphics. Great multi-tasker, decent battery, and is great for most of my tasks. Slow and small screen, high temps, and it kind of feels like it is a waste of the great CPU. Also, the keyboard is pretty bad.

 

2) Eluktronics Mech 15, 2070 Super MaxP, i7 10875 - Seems like this will be a beast (Max-P!) and hard to beat the specs for the price of 2200 and this one could be great. But drawbacks are: not shipping until early June, heavier, may be hot to touch in lap given the extra power, lack of brand, Intel CPU is weaker and I am probably more of a CPU user daily. Also the build quality is unclear since it's a new chassis and there seem to be zero reviews on the new tongfangs. Oh and a chincam. So dumb.

 

3) Aorus 15G i7 10875, 2070 super max q- Overall, this seems like a good machine, is available now, and the numerous reviews and backing by a bigger brand has some advantages over the Eluktronics, and it likely has the better display though 240hz doesn't seem worth the premium. Also, the keyboard seems perfect. Specs are worse than the Eluk for the same price, but maybe the lower power use is better. Chincam is still dumb. This seems like a great machine but obviously the gpu is getting power throttled so that sucks. I may even drop to 2070 (-$300) on this one. Seems a little more gamer-y looking

 

[Bombastinator]

My take away from that is:

looking for a high end do everything high core count laptop. Can afford 2500 but would prefer to pay a thousand less.  Been vaccilating between models for some time. 
g14 was considered inadequate for multiple reasons.  2 other options offered.