Laptop Advice Wanted

[JSD10]

I'm a soon-to-be highschool graduate with some money saved up who is looking for a new laptop to last me through the next 5+ years if possible. I'm an avid gamer, and while I do usually do that on a desktop I am unlikely to have as much access to that as I do now so some mobile power would be good. I also do music and audio production and recording which can get pretty CPU intensive. I'm going to be taking it places a lot so being thin and light is definitely a priority. On top of that I'll be starting college as an engineering major so I'll be using it for all things related to that. I'ts being bought partially as a gift and partially for myself so the budget is around $1500, although a little cheaper than that definitely wouldn't hurt. I've basically narrowed it down to two options: The Razer blade stealth 13 with a gtx 1650, FHD screen, and 512gb SSD, this is currently selling for $1400 on the Razer website. My other option is some version of a Dell xps 13. From what I've gathered the Razer blade has better IO and a dedicated gpu, but the Dell is a little thinner and a little lighter (and maybe has the potential of having a 6 core CPU?). I was leaning towards Razer but I was just wondering if anyone here has any advice about this. I've heard some concerns about Razer laptops dying early and other QC problems and I was wondering if anyone here knew anything about that. Dell is a much more known quantity for me when it comes to laptops so I was wondering if that, along with the slightly lower weight and smaller size, would out-way the performance and IO gained from the blade. Any and all other advice is also definitely appreciated.

 

 

Thank You!

[DarkEnergy]

If you want it to last, I wouldn't get the Razer. I've also heard of QC issues with that laptop and I have personally had QC issues with two computer mice from them. I've also heard about issues with the XPS series laptops specifically with Dell but less so. Personally I'd look at a Lenovo thinkpad series or even something from microsoft. The lenovo thinkpad T495 has the ryzen processor and you can customize it to have a 512gb SSD, 1920x1080 IPS, 16gb ram for at or around $1500. Go for the ryzen 5 3500u. You could probably save money going for the older Surface book 2 from microsoft as well.

[marmour]

Could get the ASUS Zephyrus g14. It's 14" so not as small and the build quality won't be quite as a good, but the 4900hs and 2060 max q  will be vastly more powerful than the XPS or blade