Looking for Laptop Recommendations

The Great Kamek · February 26, 2021

For my next laptop, I want to make it full use of work load and light gaming (nothing intensive). Here are my criteria for my desire need: My

Budget: $500 less or around that range
Any CPU with at least 4 cores
SSD storage type, 128GB or higher
8GB RAM
Laptop size must be less than 15 inches

lboolaka_33 · March 1, 2021

On 2/26/2021 at 11:43 AM, The Great Kamek said:

For my next laptop, I want to make it full use of work load and light gaming (nothing intensive). Here are my criteria for my desire need: My

Budget: $500 less or around that range

Any CPU with at least 4 cores

SSD storage type, 128GB or higher

8GB RAM

Laptop size must be less than 15 inches

The Latitude 5490 and ThinkPad T480 may be good candidates. Pretty thin and light, but the processors will handle some very light gaming if need be. They'd get pretty foo battery life, especially the T480.

The T480 has the option of a bridge battery (meaning you can total 96Wh, which is very respectable), and you can upgrade the heatsink to the dGPU model for better cooling. That said, they cost more than the 5490 and have issues with the Thunderbolt/charging ports failing due to bad firmware. If you decide to get one make sure you can return it and update the firmware ASAP. You probably won't find an MX150 model for under $500, but the iGPU models can be found for less if you look hard enough. Latitude 5490s can be found for about $3-400.

The ThinkPad E495 isn't as durable as the T480 or 5490, but they're much better than the older models, and you get Ryzen 3xxxU processors. These aren't as great as the 4000 series chips, but you still get the iGPU boost over Intel. Unfortunately, these are somewhat hard to find under $500, however there are a couple around that price.

I hope this reply can help you out with your search.