Help Choosing New Laptop

[Aragnier]

I am right now looking for a new laptop, after having an old thinkpad for 6 years. My budget is between 500 and 700 euro (the closer to 500 the better). Right now I am looking at a refurbished Lenovo Xi Yoga gen2 and a new Asus Zenbook 14 UM425.

I have always loved the Thinkpad red mouse, but I fear that a refurbished model would be obsolete sooner and I want it to be usable 4-5 years from now.

I want a 13-14 inch screen, 8gb ram and a cpu that can stand the test of time. A 2-in-1 would be nice but not required, the same for touch screen.

Any recommendation is appreciated 

[DANK_AS_gay]

1 hour ago, Aragnier said:

I am right now looking for a new laptop, after having an old thinkpad for 6 years. My budget is between 500 and 700 euro (the closer to 500 the better). Right now I am looking at a refurbished Lenovo Xi Yoga gen2 and a new Asus Zenbook 14 UM425.

I have always loved the Thinkpad red mouse, but I fear that a refurbished model would be obsolete sooner and I want it to be usable 4-5 years from now.

I want a 13-14 inch screen, 8gb ram and a cpu that can stand the test of time. A 2-in-1 would be nice but not required, the same for touch screen.

Any recommendation is appreciated 

You are gonna want 16gb of RAM in order to "stand the test of time". You also are gonna want something a bit bigger, 15inch or thereabouts, as the smaller machines are intentionally weak af in order to have a good battery life. Also, if you want something that will "stand the test of time", and this is just for personal/work use, and you don't need any specific programs, a MacBook Air may be a better option, as Apple supports their products for 8 years average, and the build quality is very nice. Going cheap on laptops is not a great idea, as a new cheap laptop that breaks every 2 years is more expensive than an expensive laptop every 6-8. I have found myself hating the person who ever thought that the Lenovo Ideapad that I got for 400 USD new (technically for sale for 200 USD) was a good idea to design. It had the AMD A9-9425, 2 cores 2 threads, and 4gb of RAM. It lasted about a year before the various cracks chips and missing plastic pieces made it finally succumb to the trash pit it belonged in. The integrated graphics had 84MB of ram dedicated to them. it barely ran Crysis at lowest settings. A game from 2007. 20 FPS AVERAGE. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

[Aragnier]

Should have written what I need it for. I just need it for research, web-browsing, watching movies and for writing (basic student stuff). The most demanding it would be used for is a gameboy emulator or something like that. I want something smaller than 15inch as they tend to be heavy and bulky and after having had a 15inch the last 6 years, I hate the size. Mac is a no-go for me, I just hate them. Had the displeasure of using one for a year and I did not like it. 16gb ram would be nice as I tend to have many chrome tabs open when researching, but I have found it hard to find it within my other specifications. Problem with pricing is that I just don't have the money (and for personal reasons am unable to work) and I just can't justify a higher price for what I need it for. My old Lenovo g50 could still go on for a year or two, but its speed, or lack thereof, is frustrating.

[rikitikitavi]

45 minutes ago, Aragnier said:

I just need it for research, web-browsing, watching movies and for writing (basic student stuff). The most demanding it would be used for is a gameboy emulator or something like that.

Have you ever tried a Chromebook? Plenty of people swear by them, at least the ones that came out in recent couple of years. Given the 'typical' workload and the budget looks like it might fit you well, unless you are willing to go into secondhand territory.

 

Another possibility, and might just be the best one - a tablet.

 

45 minutes ago, Aragnier said:

Mac is a no-go for me, I just hate them. Had the displeasure of using one for a year and I did not like it.

That's a veeery surprising experience.

 

Edit:

45 minutes ago, Aragnier said:

My old Lenovo g50 could still go on for a year or two, but its speed, or lack thereof, is frustrating.

Forgot to add the third option - the cheapest one.

1. If you have HDD, upgrade to SSD - this will speed up boot time and overall responsiveness when loading os/apps/files.

2. Check you RAM usage - if you see constant maxing out, then upgrade RAM.

3. Windows might be too bloated for you. It is a good option to install some stable Linux distribution, which simply won't be as heavy on the system. And again, given your workload, I doubt you would have problems switching.

[Aragnier]

Found a refurbished Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen. 5 with 16gb of ram and more than enough storage but would an i7-7500U be enough for the coming years?