Laptop for College

[Noodle 1]

I'm split between a couple of gaming laptops from various manufacturers. It will mainly be used for college but I do want to have the ability to game on the side so battery life and noise will also be very important. I also need some help with GPU selection since the RTX 3070 seems to be the sweet spot for thin-and-light gaming notebooks but with the performance so dependent upon wattage, I'm not sure if the performance upgrade of a 3070 is worth the price increase over 3060 SKUs. I am aware of supple issues and price inflation but I'm only considering these devices at or around MSRP even if I have to wait. 

 

 

Considerations:

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Legion-5-Pro-16-Gaming-Laptop-AMD-Ryzen-7-16GB-RAM-NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3070-512GB-SSD-Windows-10-Home-Gray-82JQ008NUS/231609645)

- The Walmart variant seems to be the only one with any stock but it appears to be the best bang for the buck config at MSRP 

- I am concerned about battery life since many reviews have pointed to it as the main downside

- No Windows Hello but I can live with that at this price

 

 

Acer Triton 500 SE (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-predator-triton-500-se-16-2560x1600-165hz-laptop-intel-11th-gen-i7-geforce-rtx-3060-16gb-ddr4-512gb-ssd/6463843.p?skuId=6463843)

- Similar to the Legion 5 Pro but with a spec downgrade

- HUGE 99.9 Whr battery but for some reason (maybe bc of the Intel chip), the battery life is significantly worse than the G15 which has a smaller battery but more powerful specs

- There is a 3070 variant but the $500 price increase doesn't seem to justify it

- Plus the other SKUs aren't even available yet

 

 

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15

RTX 3060 SKU: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-15-6-qhd-laptop-amd-ryzen-9-16gb-memory-nvidiageforcertx3060-512gb-solid-state-drive-eclipse-gray/6451627.p?skuId=6451627

RTX 3070 SKU: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-zephyrus-15-6-qhd-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-9-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-1tb-ssd-eclipse-grey-eclipse-grey/6448848.p?skuId=6448848

 

- Great specs and brilliant battery life as many reviews have pointed out (8-11 hours for office work)

- Display isn't as good compared to the "budget options", it doesn't even hit 400 nits

- I can't decide between the 3060 and 3070 versions

- The 3060 variant is much cheaper ($1500 vs $1850) but I don't know about the performance uplift since everyone only compared the 3070 and 3080 when the wattage thing became known

- It doesn't have an integrated webcam but the whole package is too good to ignore

- On Asus's website, it lists a gaming mouse, headset, and external FHD camera as included although I don't know if they're included with Best Buy's since it depends on the retailer but free stuff (especially the webcam and headset) is always nice

 

 

Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-16-wqxga-165hz-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i9-16gb-memory-nvidia-rtx3060-1tb-ssd-off-black/6464203.p?acampID=0&cmp=RMX&loc=Hatch&ref=198&skuId=6464203)

- Basically the same as the G15 with a significantly improved screen, better keyboard, and internal webcam

- Only the 3060 variant is available in the US for now

- The 3060 version costs as much as the G15 with a 3070 and doesn't have the free goodies

- The screen is much larger as replaces the large chin on the G15 and gets MUCH brighter at 500 nits plus a taller aspect ratio which would be useful

- It has the same battery size as the G15 at 90Whrs but has 20-30% less battery life bc of the Intel CPU (M16 owners, if it's not that significant please let me know, the screen is just SO good) 

- The CPU can be undervolted but IDK if that'll have a significant enough effect on battery life to make up for Intel's inefficiency compared to AMD

- At this price point I would like a 3070 so I might wait for that if it ever comes

 

 

Or am I completely going the wrong way here and go for professional notebooks/ultrabooks like the Dell XPS, Lenovo ThinkPad, or even the M1 MacBook Air? I've never had any experience with Apple products so I don't know how much storage I'll need and the lack of upgradeability makes me really uncomfortable but I'm not so far into the Windows ecosystem that I can't switch. Plus, Apple has a $200 student discount and free airpods which will make the M1 one of the cheaper options. It seems that Apple has big plans for their own silicon and the next generation will probably be announced in a few months (M1X or M2) and those chips will be a significantly upgrade over M1 which has basically been a public beta test. The XPS is the closest windows competitor with some of the best trackpads, keyboards, and screens in an ultrabook.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Noodle 1
Changed title