Laptop for programming and general use

[NoNameHF]

I'm looking for a small, reliable laptop to use at university (computer science) and while traveling. It's going to be used for programming, MS Office, web browsing, Netflix and Hearthstone from time to time. 

Requirements:

- Screen <14 inch

- As good battery life as possible (over 10 hours)

- 16 GB RAM

- Min. 256 GB SSD, pref 512
- Budget: ~1500£, though the cheaper the better

 

My pics:

- Dell XPS 13 9300 i7/16GB/512GB (1400£)
- MacBook Pro 13 i5 8th gen/16GB/256GB (1400£)

- Dell XPS 13 7390 i7/16GB/512GB (1250£)

- HP Spectre 13 x360 i7/16GB/512GB (1200£)

- HP Envy 13 x360 R7-4700U/16GB/512GB (1000£)

I'd love to hear your advice and I'm open for other suggestions. 

[svmlegacy]

6 minutes ago, NoNameHF said:

I'm looking for a small, reliable laptop to use at university (computer science) and while traveling. It's going to be used for programming, MS Office, web browsing, Netflix and Hearthstone from time to time. 

Requirements:

- Screen <14 inch

- As good battery life as possible (over 10 hours)

- 16 GB RAM

- Min. 256 GB SSD, pref 512
- Budget: ~1500£, though the cheaper the better

 

My pics:

- Dell XPS 13 9300 i7/16GB/512GB (1400£)
- MacBook Pro 13 i5 8th gen/16GB/256GB (1400£)

- Dell XPS 13 7390 i7/16GB/512GB (1250£)

- HP Spectre 13 x360 i7/16GB/512GB (1200£)

- HP Envy 13 x360 R7-4700U/16GB/512GB (1000£)

I'd love to hear your advice and I'm open for other suggestions. 

Honestly the i7/R7 is complete overkill for your use case. Especially since batterylife goes downhill with high performance CPU's.

[marmour]

9 minutes ago, NoNameHF said:

I'm looking for a small, reliable laptop to use at university (computer science) and while traveling. It's going to be used for programming, MS Office, web browsing, Netflix and Hearthstone from time to time. 

Requirements:

- Screen <14 inch

- As good battery life as possible (over 10 hours)

- 16 GB RAM

- Min. 256 GB SSD, pref 512
- Budget: ~1500£, though the cheaper the better

 

My pics:

- Dell XPS 13 9300 i7/16GB/512GB (1400£)
- MacBook Pro 13 i5 8th gen/16GB/256GB (1400£)

- Dell XPS 13 7390 i7/16GB/512GB (1250£)

- HP Spectre 13 x360 i7/16GB/512GB (1200£)

- HP Envy 13 x360 R7-4700U/16GB/512GB (1000£)

I'd love to hear your advice and I'm open for other suggestions. 

Check out this video

Josh also has other videos that often cover programming so i would check out his channel. Bare in mind also that Renoir was released after this video, so laptops like the Envy x360 are definitely worth considering

[NoNameHF]

2 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

Honestly the i7/R7 is complete overkill for your use case. Especially since batterylife goes downhill with high performance CPU's.

I'm aware of that and I'd love to get an i5/R5 version instead, but neither of the options I'm considering offers them with 16gb of ram

[Nocte]

I would honestly go for an ever reliable ThinkPad.

[svmlegacy]

7 minutes ago, NoNameHF said:

I'm aware of that and I'd love to get an i5/R5 version instead, but neither of the options I'm considering offers them with 16gb of ram

Many manufacturers will let you customize at their website. Try Lenovo's T14s?

[NoNameHF]

T14s looks like a great idea, thanks for that! Currently my picks are:

 

- Thinkpad T14s R5-4650U/16GB/512GB (£1100)

- HP Spectre 13 x360 i7/16GB/512GB (£1200)

- HP Envy 13 x360 R7-4700U/16GB/512GB (£1000)
 

Do you have any other suggestions?

[NoNameHF]

What about MacBook Air 2020 (i5/16gb/256gb)? 

I've heard it has some overheating issues, are they really such a big deal as everybody on YouTube makes it sound like?

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, NoNameHF said:

What about MacBook Air 2020 (i5/16gb/256gb)? 

I've heard it has some overheating issues, are they really such a big deal as everybody on YouTube makes it sound like?

The overheating is, well, overstated, and mainly just means that the system gets particularly hot if you're maxing out the CPU for a sustained period.

 

With that said: I probably wouldn't get the Air in the OP's situation. If you're programming for computer science classes, you want a system that will compile code fairly quickly. The Air wouldn't be terrible, but the Pro will be noticeably faster. That and I would rather play Hearthstone on a Pro if possible.