5 Years Later, Same ($900) Budget: How much have ultrabooks improved?

[egemen404]

TL;DR version: I am looking for an ultrabook/Macbook for around 900 dollars (pre-tax). I am concerned that I cannot get on-par performance for the same amount of money that I spent on my laptop in 2015. Here are my specific questions, but all ideas and suggestions will be much appreciated.

1- Will there be an M1-like chipset from AMD/Intel that will bring any Windows laptop to M1 Macbook performance levels (within similar packaging/thermal constraints)?

2- Is this an exceptionally bad time to buy a laptop? Should I delay it by a year if possible?

3- What would be a set of specifications for a laptop ready for the next 5 years?

 

Feb 21 Update: Tentatively decided to wait for Macbook Air/Pro with M2.

--------------------------------Post starts here. -----------------------------

I am looking for something in the same price range as my previous laptop. However, I won't "upgrade" to a new laptop if I won't get a substantially better device, naturally! I also want to treat this as a practice in exploring how much 'newer and faster technology' has become more accessible over the last 5 years. 

 

To establish the baseline, let me quickly go over the specs of my current laptop.

In June 2015, I bought the ASUS UX303L-Signature Edition with the following specs for 800 USD (equiv. to 873 in Dec'20 ¹).

13.3'' 3200 x 1800 with touch

Intel Core i5-5200U

8GB DDR3L 1600 MHz

256GB SSD (around 400 MB/s read and write)

Intel HD Graphics 5500

1.46 kg

 

My review of the device:

It had good(not Macbook level, but satisfactory) battery life. It was an absolute beast for high school. Its construction is rigid. Storage has been fine. Processor has just started feeling sluggish in the last year. Yellows look mustard-y, but it is not bothersome. Great for someone who needs a computer for classes and extracurriculars.

 

Why change it now?

The hinge snapped a few times. For now, it's held together by epoxy. Battery life has gone downhill, too. Also, now that I am deep into the college life, I'm doing more engineering work. That means CAD modeling and MATLAB analysis. Also Python. I am sure thousands of people would understand the workload. Novice engineer work. It is getting laggier by day. Note: I don't have a workstation.

 

Looking at the current market

Note: I still need to carry this device everywhere and use it on battery power. Loads of typing is inevitable, too. I would love to have a 14'' or 15'' display this time. I also don't have good enough Internet connection for any modern Wi-Fi standard to be an issue. 16:10 aspect ratio is preferred, but 16:9 is acceptable. Also, MacOS is fine (well, except Solidworks, and ARM Bootcamp support will be an interesting question, but I may use university computers for SW.)

 

I'd quit following laptop prices after buying mine, and I am shocked to see how much prices have gone up. I've checked out a few competitors (in the ultrabook category) that sprung to mind, and here's what I can get for the same price in Jan'21:

 

---------SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH CURRENT PRICING ON ULTRABOOKS ----------

 

DELL:

  900 USD OLD XPS 13:  i7-10510U , 8GB LPDDR3 2133 MHz , 256 GB PCIe SSD,13'' FHD non-touch ²

1000 USD NEW XPS 13: i3-1115G4, 8GB LPDDR4 4267MHz , 256 GB PCIe SSD,13''FHD non-touch ²

 

ASUS:

1000 USD ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481: i7-10510U, 8GB LPDDR3 2133 MHz, 512 GB PCIe SSD,  14'' FHD touch³

  800 USD ASUS Zenbook UX325JA-XB51: i5-1035G1, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 256GB PCIe SSD,  13'' FHD non-touch³

1000 USD ASUS Zenbook UX325JA-DB71: i7-1065G7, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, 13'' FHD non-touch³

  900 USD ASUS Zenbook UX431FL-EH74 : i7-10510U, 8GB RAM, 512GB PCIE SSD, 14'' FHD touch?,  NVIDIA GeForce MX250³

... similar options at similar prices

  800 USD Asus Zenbook UM433DA-DH75 : Ryzen 7 3700U, 8GB RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, 14.0" FHD touch?³

 

HP:

 835 USD HP ENVY x360 15'' BASE: i5-1135G7m 8GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB Intel(?) SSD, 15.6'' FHD touch⁴

       +60 USD i7-1165G7

       +60 USD + GeForce MX450( still 2gb vram)

       +90 USD 16 GB DDR4 RAM

     +200 USD 4K touch

     +100 USD 512 GB PCIe SSD

720 USD HP ENVY x360 15'' BASE: Ryzen 5 4500U, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB PCIe SSD, 15.6'' FHD touch⁴

       +90 USD 16 GB DDR4 RAM

900 USD HP ENVY X360 13-ay0021nr: Ryzen 7 4700U, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512 GB PCIe SSD, 13'' FHD touch⁴

 

Note: Cheapest 13'' Spectre x360 starts at 1150 USD, so I've skipped them.

Note: I am not sure about the battery life/thickness of Envy series, battery capacity: 51Wh.

 

ACER:

800 USD Acer Swift 3 : i7-1165G7, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM , 256GB PCIe SSD, 14'' FHD non-touch⁵

 

LENOVO:

940 USD IdeaPad Slim 7 82A40012US : i7-1065G7, 16 GB DDR4R AM, 512 GB PCIe SSD, 14'' FHD touch⁶

 

-----------------------BORING PRICE AND SPECS LISTS ARE OVER, YOU CAN CONTINUE ----------------

 

Looking at these prices, I see that I can get a 10th or 11th gen i5 processor, 256 GB of faster SSD, and 8 GBs of faster RAM for the same price. If I sacrifice on battery life/build quality/ thin-and-light aspect, I can get an i7/Ryzen 7, 16 GB of RAM for a bit above my budget.

 

That makes me concerned about how future-proof my new laptop would be. I bought my ultrabook when 12 GB RAM was the absolute maximum on an ultrabook and SSD had just gotten cheaper. It has served me well, but now I need something that will serve me equally well for at least another 5 years. I also have another option- getting my brother's 2016 Macbook Pro (i5-6267U, 256 GB SSD, 8GB DDR3 2133 Mhz, Iris 550) to use for a year.

 

I know benchmarks are not perfect. Especially across operating systems. But here's one comparison list:

PassMark (Multi-thread) - CPU

i5-5200U : 2,512 (Current)

i5-6267U : 3,236 (Loaner Mac)

i3-1115G4 : 6,465

i7-10510U : 6,997

i5-1035G7 : 8,414

i7-1065G7: 8,967

i5-1135G7 : 9,774

i7-1165G7 : 10,414

Ryzen 5 4500U : 11,267

Ryzen 7 4700U : 13,802

 

PassMark shows significant increase in performance. However, I'm not sure what that would mean for me, the workloads I have do not benefit drastically from more cores/threads. I feel that RAM would be a bigger factor, for example. Or maybe I should consider a -weak but still much better than integrated- GPU.

 

Main Question:

I feel insulted about waiting 5 years and still getting a laptop with 8GB of RAM. Looking at the rate of development at desktops, I feel terrible about paying so much when a desktop would be 10 times faster, more reliable and future proof. But I need a laptop. I am open to all ideas, all suggestions, all recommendations. Specifically, I also want to ask:

1- Will there be an M1-like chipset from AMD/Intel that will bring any Windows laptop to M1 Macbook performance levels (within similar packaging constraints)?

2- Is this an exceptionally bad time to buy a laptop? Should I delay it by a year?

3- What would be a set of specifications for a laptop ready for the next 5 years?

 

 

SOURCES

[1] https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

[2] Dell USA Pricing

[3] Amazon pricing

[4] HP USA Pricing

[5] Acer USA Pricing

[6] Lenovo USA Pricing

 

 

Thanks for reading my long post. Sorry for any grammatical errors, typos, and other mistakes. I'll proofread it when I get up.

 

Cheers,

egemen404.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by egemen404
phrasing, update

[Tcalp]

Quote

 

I'm going through the same battle on my side, except I don't want touch screen

 

I'd say it's easily worth your while to go with the new Tiger lake to get TB4 / USB4 support, these are massive upgrades for external device communication (displays  / eGPUs , external storage / docking stations / etc).

 

What country are you looking to buy in ?

[Tcalp]

1- Will there be an M1-like chipset from AMD/Intel that will bring any Windows laptop to M1 Macbook performance levels (within similar packaging constraints)?  No, not anytime soon

2- Is this an exceptionally bad time to buy a laptop? Should I delay it by a year?  Not really a bad time, no.  ~2-3 years away from Wifi7, which will be the next 'big' hardware push.  Even then it will be a replaceable component on most laptops

3- What would be a set of specifications for a laptop ready for the next 5 years?  Really depends on how you use it.  I'd say an i5/i7 Tigerlake, with 16GB Ram, TB4/USB3 would be the top '3 things'

[egemen404]

6 hours ago, Tcalp said:

I'm going through the same battle on my side, except I don't want touch screen

 

I'd say it's easily worth your while to go with the new Tiger lake to get TB4 / USB4 support, these are massive upgrades for external device communication (displays  / eGPUs , external storage / docking stations / etc).

 

What country are you looking to buy in ?

The US. I don't think i will have any use for external storage faster than what I can get today. Similarly, I won't push any high performance displays with this device. So I don't see the relevance of Tiger Lake. Thanks for the input, though. I'll look into TB4.

[ACEHACK]

10 minutes ago, egemen404 said:

The US. I don't think i will have any use for external storage faster than what I can get today. Similarly, I won't push any high performance displays with this device. So I don't see the relevance of Tiger Lake. Thanks for the input, though. I'll look into TB4.

if you can wait for Ryzen 5000, do that. it should be coming out in a couple of weeks. it should be way more power efficient and better performance. as for TB4 its not really anything special, its the same as 3 just more certified. so as long as you get usb gen3.2 2x2 (basically TB3 40Gb) your fine. 

[egemen404]

1 hour ago, ACEHACK said:

if you can wait for Ryzen 5000, do that. it should be coming out in a couple of weeks. it should be way more power efficient and better performance. as for TB4 its not really anything special, its the same as 3 just more certified. so as long as you get usb gen3.2 2x2 (basically TB3 40Gb) your fine. 

Thanks for the Ryzen news. I've read the article at anandtech , seems that there are only 2 Zen3 15W chipsets, the rest are rebranded Zen 2. I hope that OEMs use these new ones, but at my pricepoint, I'm afraid they'll stick with the lower-end Zen2 rebadges.

 

How do you feel about holding out for an M1X or M2 Macbook? Macbook Pros are out of my price range, but the current Air only comes with 8GB of ram.

 

[Stockholmes]

Wow, that's actually pretty sad how little ultrabooks seem to have evolved in 5 years in the same price range. You're going to basically just get a better processor for a grand. That sucks. If I were you, I'd probably try to get one of the Ryzen APU's. Their integrated graphics are pretty OK from what I've glanced. Though if I remember right, Intel has also upped their game with the iGPU with their new laptop processors.

[egemen404]

3 hours ago, Stockholmes said:

Wow, that's actually pretty sad how little ultrabooks seem to have evolved in 5 years in the same price range. You're going to basically just get a better processor for a grand. That sucks. If I were you, I'd probably try to get one of the Ryzen APU's. Their integrated graphics are pretty OK from what I've glanced. Though if I remember right, Intel has also upped their game with the iGPU with their new laptop processors.

Unfortunately so. Thanks for the advice.

[genexis_x]

On 1/15/2021 at 11:14 AM, egemen404 said:

TL;DR version: I am looking for an ultrabook/Macbook for around 900 dollars (pre-tax). I am concerned that I cannot get on-par performance for the same amount of money that I spent on my laptop in 2015. Here are my specific questions, but all ideas and suggestions will be much appreciated.

1- Will there be an M1-like chipset from AMD/Intel that will bring any Windows laptop to M1 Macbook performance levels (within similar packaging/thermal constraints)?

2- Is this an exceptionally bad time to buy a laptop? Should I delay it by a year if possible?

3- What would be a set of specifications for a laptop ready for the next 5 years?

I'm too lazy to read the full version so I'll just reply these

1. What kind of performance you prioritize? Single core? Multi core? GPU?

2. For now it's mixed. Many models are out of stock, and Ryzen 5000 is coming

3. It depends on your usage. Also how to take care of the laptop since laptop lifespan is generally 3-5 yrs IMO

 

Laptop CPU has made a performance leap thanks to Ryzen 4000 so you don't have to worry about that. Though every laptop model is configured differently, you will get perf difference in 2 different laptops with same specs

 

Also, are you buying in US?

[egemen404]

3 hours ago, genexis_x said:

I'm too lazy to read the full version so I'll just reply these

1. What kind of performance you prioritize? Single core? Multi core? GPU?

2. For now it's mixed. Many models are out of stock, and Ryzen 5000 is coming

3. It depends on your usage. Also how to take care of the laptop since laptop lifespan is generally 3-5 yrs IMO

 

Laptop CPU has made a performance leap thanks to Ryzen 4000 so you don't have to worry about that. Though every laptop model is configured differently, you will get perf difference in 2 different laptops with same specs

 

Also, are you buying in US?

1- No idea, I'll just do some basic programming and engineering work (nothing professional grade). What I can say is that my current laptop chokes when I have Zoom and MATLAB open, which is not desirable. Python seems to focus on single-core, while MATLAB is multi-core. GPU performance is of secondary importance, for sure. Especially considering my budget.

 

2-Mobile 5000 series is announced, and excepting 2 'higher performance- Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips, they are rebranded Ryzen 4000 chips (anandtech). I think the successor to  Ryzen 4500U will be Ryzen 5500U, which is just a rebrand. (just as 4600U is not available at this price range, i don't except to see 5600U, which is Zen3). Perhaps 4000 series devices will get cheaper?

 

3- Honestly I think I just want more RAM at this point. When I bought my Asus 5 years ago, the most RAM a phone had was 2 GBs. Now, I can buy a phone for 900 USD with more ram and a higher resolution screen than a laptop at that pricepoint. Surely there should be some benefit to less miniaturization? If not, why not go the Apple route and just slap in a mobile cpu and all the battery in the world and call it a laptop?

 

Extra- Yes!

 

Also, thanks a ton for the reply!

 

 

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, egemen404 said:

they are rebranded Ryzen 4000 chips (anandtech)

5600U and 5800U are Zen3, not rebrand

1 hour ago, egemen404 said:

Also, thanks a ton for the reply!

No prob. I'll reply with some options later when I have the time.

[egemen404]

7 hours ago, genexis_x said:

5600U and 5800U are Zen3, not rebrand

No prob. I'll reply with some options later when I have the time.

 

 

9 hours ago, egemen404 said:

excepting 2 'higher performance- Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips,

And as I've said before, 4500U cpu's will most likely be updated with 5500U, which IS a rebrand. It would be great if that wouldn't be the case, though. Let's hope the Zen3's will find their ways into these 'cheaper' options.