New Laptop, need help in choosing it

[42thgamer]

Hello all

I am going to university and need a new laptop. Here is a list of things I would like:

 

Budget: max 1350 (would like it to be lower, but even a little above it is okay)
Area: I live in Belgium (West Europe)
Build quality: I will travel with it a lot, almost daily. So build quality is really important
Use: I will use it for basic stuff (watching movies etc), and a lot of programming and some virtual machine and stuff like that, some gaming would also be nice. I will need to take it to class a lot so some battery life is needed.

Size: I like big screen so around 15" would be good

Would also like a numpad but not that badly

Don't really now what else to say.

 

Hopefully some of you have some good advice for me. I am getting a bit lost in all the options out there.

Thanks in advance

42thgamer
 

[42thgamer]

On 8/6/2021 at 4:59 PM, Betterthanever said:

Hi, First of all I wanted to ask you whether you have considered Clevo based builds?

I havn't really, but I might. Do you recommend it?

[Noodle 1]

The Asus Flow X 13" is a good fit although it only comes with a 1650 and is slightly above your budget. LTT did a review or unboxing on it a few months ago and recommended the FHD+ version (there's also a 4k option but 4k at 13" is a waste). A few hundred dollars more will net you an entry level Asus G14, G15, Acer Triton 500 SE, or a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro which have an RTX 3060/3070 for around 1500 to 1600 if you could get one at msrp. The battery life will obviously be worse especially the Legion but the Asus G14 and G15 are noted for their great battery life considering their high end hardware (11 and 8.5 hours respectively). The Triton 500 SE has the largest battery I've seen recently with 99.9Whr (legal limit for aircraft is 100Whr) but the battery life isn't as good as the Asus options due to their superior battery management software. The Legion option is the only one with a numpad but reviews have complained about its trackpad location which is offset to the left and could take some getting used to. The G14 is 14" and everything else is 15" or 16" but it's important to note that the 16" have the same footprint as the 15" due to their smaller bezels so there's no increase in size. The G14 is also more expensive than the G15 for the same level of hardware with a lower resolution screen (FHD vs QHD). Also, the taller aspect ratio of the Triton and Legion is really nice and their screen are significantly brighter but you are giving up battery life.

 

Some might recommend non-traditional manufactures like Clevo which have better specs but for gaming notebooks, their battery life is significantly worse. Another thing you might have to consider is a webcam with the delta variant and all (idk how it is in Belgium). I'm shopping for a laptop for college as well so you have to consider if you're ok with lugging around an external camera  which will take up an extra USB port (it obviously will have better video quality but it's college, so blurry 720p is more than enough, it's not a Hollywood production).

[42thgamer]

11 hours ago, Noodle 1 said:

The Asus Flow X 13" is a good fit although it only comes with a 1650 and is slightly above your budget. LTT did a review or unboxing on it a few months ago and recommended the FHD+ version (there's also a 4k option but 4k at 13" is a waste). A few hundred dollars more will net you an entry level Asus G14, G15, Acer Triton 500 SE, or a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro which have an RTX 3060/3070 for around 1500 to 1600 if you could get one at msrp. The battery life will obviously be worse especially the Legion but the Asus G14 and G15 are noted for their great battery life considering their high end hardware (11 and 8.5 hours respectively). The Triton 500 SE has the largest battery I've seen recently with 99.9Whr (legal limit for aircraft is 100Whr) but the battery life isn't as good as the Asus options due to their superior battery management software. The Legion option is the only one with a numpad but reviews have complained about its trackpad location which is offset to the left and could take some getting used to. The G14 is 14" and everything else is 15" or 16" but it's important to note that the 16" have the same footprint as the 15" due to their smaller bezels so there's no increase in size. The G14 is also more expensive than the G15 for the same level of hardware with a lower resolution screen (FHD vs QHD). Also, the taller aspect ratio of the Triton and Legion is really nice and their screen are significantly brighter but you are giving up battery life.

 

Some might recommend non-traditional manufactures like Clevo which have better specs but for gaming notebooks, their battery life is significantly worse. Another thing you might have to consider is a webcam with the delta variant and all (idk how it is in Belgium). I'm shopping for a laptop for college as well so you have to consider if you're ok with lugging around an external camera  which will take up an extra USB port (it obviously will have better video quality but it's college, so blurry 720p is more than enough, it's not a Hollywood production).

That's a lot of usefull information.

It's difficult here to find most of the pcs you mentioned, but I will look them up and compare the prices and specs.

Thanks!

[Noodle 1]

1 hour ago, 42thgamer said:

That's a lot of usefull information.

It's difficult here to find most of the pcs you mentioned, but I will look them up and compare the prices and specs.

Thanks!

I'm afraid it's difficult to find stock in the US as well.

 

I should mention that my prices were in USD at MSRP so convert that to Euros. Also, in the US, we don't include VAT in our prices, idk if Belgium does and whether or not the 1350 you quoted for your budget includes VAT. Prices for you might be much higher than the $1500-1600 USD range I quoted once you include VAT so have fun with that.