Thin and Light Laptop for Adobe Suite with Good Battery

[KeoB]

Hey. I am joining college next month and I need a laptop. My old one suffered water damage and well, it died. 

 

Here is a usage checklist:

 

1. Thin and Light Laptop with good battery life as a priority (since I would be required to carry my laptop for classes, assignments)

2. I am engaged in UI/UX design, content creation and branding as a hobby and I use the Adobe Suite extensively. (Photoshop, Illustrator, XD, After Effects) I want a good experience with the Adobe Suite.

3. College would involve programming, MATLAB and AutoCAD, for the answer-writer's knowledge.

4. I would be playing Rocket League, CS:GO and FIFA "casually" on the laptop with my mates. I just want them playable.

5. USB-C, USB 3.0 ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack would be a necessity.

 

 

I live in India and my budget is 90,000 Indian Rupees (approx. 1225 USD). My preferred online retailers are Flipkart (www.flipkart.com) and Amazon India (www.amazon.in)

 

Please help me find a good laptop for my needs. Thank you.

[XAIXER]

A Thinkpad with a Ryzen 4000 series CPU should cover everything nicely.

[KeoB]

17 minutes ago, XAIXER said:

A Thinkpad with a Ryzen 4000 series CPU should cover everything nicely.

Okay, can you please give me a specific laptop model?

[Hackentosher]

Any XPS would be good. Probably an XPS 13 for that money?

[KeoB]

10 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

Any XPS would be good. Probably an XPS 13 for that money?

Here in India, XPS 13 is out of my budget

[Hackentosher]

8 minutes ago, KeoB said:

Here in India, XPS 13 is out of my budget

Dang, you can get a really well specced xps 13 for $1200 USD. If not, I guess the best option is as much Thinkpad as you can afford.

[KeoB]

2 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

Dang, you can get a really well specced xps 13 for $1200 USD. If not, I guess the best option is as much Thinkpad as you can afford.

Hey, I found one from the Lenovo Yoga series. It's called the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14IIL05. Here's a purchase link from my preferred retailer for reference.

 

https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-yoga-slim-7-core-i7-10th-gen-8-gb-512-gb-ssd-windows-10-home-2-graphics-14iil05-thin-light-laptop/p/itme4a02830c33e2?pid=COMFS9YWHRY7KVFK&lid=LSTCOMFS9YWHRY7KVFKQOAFUQ&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&otracker1=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=880671dc-b723-4a0a-9421-9dfb0052b2cc.COMFS9YWHRY7KVFK.SEARCH&ppt=sp&ppn=sp&ssid=6haj0nqmog0000001603060342276&qH=8fef2c862a916f8d

 

Check this out and please let me know whether it's suitable.

[Hackentosher]

39 minutes ago, KeoB said:

Hey, I found one from the Lenovo Yoga series. It's called the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14IIL05. Here's a purchase link from my preferred retailer for reference.

Check this out and please let me know whether it's suitable.

Yeah that looks pretty good, but I doubt it's as well built as a Thinkpad. The only laptop I've ever had fail on me (screen failure) was a Yoga 720 13". I liked the machine a lot when it was working, but it wasn't nearly as well built as my XPS or a Thinkpad. I tend to favor build quality in a laptop because school can be really hard on laptops.

 

This one is a little bit out of your budget, but I think it would be worth it over the one you linked. https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-thinkpad-core-i7-10th-gen-16-gb-512-gb-ssd-windows-10-pro-l14-thin-light-laptop/p/itmc35d52d10fa03?pid=COMFWBZWFHZ3PPQG&lid=LSTCOMFWBZWFHZ3PPQGJ0UDMQ&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_8&otracker=search&otracker1=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=49a0f10e-2f6f-422c-80d9-1784efa455ba.COMFWBZWFHZ3PPQG.SEARCH&ppt=sp&ppn=sp&ssid=gtbjxvz10g0000001603064187924&qH=3b80a171380b579f

I'm not overly familiar with this specific Thinkpad, but the Thinkpad line as a whole is incredibly solid. Thinkpads are also remarkably rugged and repairable especially compared to competing machines on the market. This maintenance and repair guide (native from Lenovo, wow!) shows how to upgrade the storage and memory. https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-l-series-laptops/thinkpad-l14-type-20u1-20u2/solutions/ht510453-removal-and-replacement-videos-thinkpad-l14-20u1-20u2-thinkpad-l14-amd-20u5-20u6. What I did with my XPS was buy the cheapest i7 model available, then upgrade the storage and memory later. I saved about $700 USD that way.

 

Edit: apparently a RYZEN 4000 version of the L14 is coming soon, I would definitely wait for that one if you can because RYZEN 4000 chips are amazing.

Edit2: looked a little more out of my own interest on Lenovo's website, the Thinkpad T14 is available with RYZEN 4000. That would be my choice.

[KeoB]

6 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Yeah that looks pretty good, but I doubt it's as well built as a Thinkpad. The only laptop I've ever had fail on me (screen failure) was a Yoga 720 13". I liked the machine a lot when it was working, but it wasn't nearly as well built as my XPS or a Thinkpad. I tend to favor build quality in a laptop because school can be really hard on laptops.

 

This one is a little bit out of your budget, but I think it would be worth it over the one you linked. https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-thinkpad-core-i7-10th-gen-16-gb-512-gb-ssd-windows-10-pro-l14-thin-light-laptop/p/itmc35d52d10fa03?pid=COMFWBZWFHZ3PPQG&lid=LSTCOMFWBZWFHZ3PPQGJ0UDMQ&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_8&otracker=search&otracker1=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=49a0f10e-2f6f-422c-80d9-1784efa455ba.COMFWBZWFHZ3PPQG.SEARCH&ppt=sp&ppn=sp&ssid=gtbjxvz10g0000001603064187924&qH=3b80a171380b579f

I'm not overly familiar with this specific Thinkpad, but the Thinkpad line as a whole is incredibly solid. Thinkpads are also remarkably rugged and repairable especially compared to competing machines on the market. This maintenance and repair guide (native from Lenovo, wow!) shows how to upgrade the storage and memory. https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-l-series-laptops/thinkpad-l14-type-20u1-20u2/solutions/ht510453-removal-and-replacement-videos-thinkpad-l14-20u1-20u2-thinkpad-l14-amd-20u5-20u6. What I did with my XPS was buy the cheapest i7 model available, then upgrade the storage and memory later. I saved about $700 USD that way.

 

Edit: apparently a RYZEN 4000 version of the L14 is coming soon, I would definitely wait for that one if you can because RYZEN 4000 chips are amazing.

Edit2: looked a little more out of my own interest on Lenovo's website, the Thinkpad T14 is available with RYZEN 4000. That would be my choice.

Yes, the T14 looks good and the budget is achievable too. However, we have a discrete MX350 GPU on the Yoga. How much of a difference would that make, compared to the integrated graphics on the T14?

[Hackentosher]

12 hours ago, KeoB said:

Yes, the T14 looks good and the budget is achievable too. However, we have a discrete MX350 GPU on the Yoga. How much of a difference would that make, compared to the integrated graphics on the T14?

iirc the MX350 GPUs are barely better than intel integrated graphics. If it was my money, I'd prefer to have a laptop without a discrete GPU to save power.

[KeoB]

4 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

iirc the MX350 GPUs are barely better than intel integrated graphics. If it was my money, I'd prefer to have a laptop without a discrete GPU to save power.

Okay. Just a little more help. Between the 'Intel i7-1065G7 + MX350' and 'Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U + Integrated Graphics', can you help me compare them both in terms of

 

1. gaming,

2. use of Adobe Suite (say rendering 4K video or using Photoshop and Illustrator simultaneously for a project) and

3. battery life

 

Thanks in advance.

[Hackentosher]

2 minutes ago, KeoB said:

Okay. Just a little more help. Between the 'Intel i7-1065G7 + MX350' and 'Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U + Integrated Graphics', can you help me compare them both in terms of

 

1. gaming,

2. use of Adobe Suite (say rendering 4K video or using Photoshop and Illustrator simultaneously for a project) and

3. battery life

 

Thanks in advance.

Most workloads I face are primarily CPU bound (not games), and primarily single threaded as well. So, I generally choose the machine with the best single thread performance. Judging by Passmark, that appears to be the 4750U. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-1065G7+%40+1.30GHz&id=3466 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+7+PRO+4750U&id=3740. Games generally need more GPU horsepower, so the intel machine will probably be better for games. Personally, I use a Razer Core and a GTX 970 for games when I have time so GPU performance isn't that important to me. For Adobe suite, again I believe this is primarily CPU and memory based, so probably the 4750U machine would be better here. Battery life might be a toss up. Both chips are rated at the same TDP, but that's basically meaningless. I would look at reviews of both machines to see if you can get some real data on actual battery performance. 

 

If it was my money, I would get the Ryzen machine, but I get the sense that my needs and workflow are pretty different than yours.

[genexis_x]

https://www.amazon.in/ASUS-Zephyrus-Graphics-Windows-GA401II-HE022TS/dp/B08CG3L3G7/ref=sr_1_31?dchild=1&keywords=r5-4600h&qid=1603179627&s=computers&sr=1-31
add 8GB RAM and good to go