Сhoosing used/new laptop for office and graphic design

[Naum Krotkov]

Hi!

 

I'm a dedicated fan of desktop PC, but recently I decided to travel while working.

I need: a well-built machine for Excel, media consumption and occasional graphic design works in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Gaming not really important for me right now.

Budget: up to 800USD.

 

Used options:

1) MacBook Pro 2015 13" 2.9GHz 16GB for (700USD)

2) Surface Book 2 13" i7-8650U 1.9GHz 8Gb (800USD)

Both models have less than 300 charge cycles so I guess battery must be good for a long time.

Both options compel me because of build quality and display.

Surface has dedicated graphics and other features like Windows Hello and pen support that might be fun.

 

New: 

I know that in last years AMD offered great CPU performance in mid-tier laptops so maybe someone can suggest newer laptops/cpus that might be better in long run.

 

Any advice ?:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jaslion]

Neither. You can get a refurb m1 air for that money andit DESTROYS both in all regards.

 

Either way the mac is quite weak here so 100% skip also has the guaranteed to fail keyboard design.

 

Book 2 is fine but 8gb of ram is very limiting.

 

A thinkpad 14s with a ryzen 5000 chip should fit right in you budget together with 16gb of ram

[Naum Krotkov]

6 hours ago, jaslion said:

Neither. You can get a refurb m1 air for that money andit DESTROYS both in all regards.

 

Either way the mac is quite weak here so 100% skip also has the guaranteed to fail keyboard design.

 

Book 2 is fine but 8gb of ram is very limiting.

 

A thinkpad 14s with a ryzen 5000 chip should fit right in you budget together with 16gb of ram

Thanks for the suggestion! I've researched what is currently available in regards to Ryzen 5 5000 models.

Unfortunately all TP14s are overpriced(850+), but I found Asus VivoBook 14 OLED with Ryzen 5 5600H, 512 gb NVMe, and 16gb of RAM for 680USD.

If everything goes well and it's in good shape I think it's a great deal.

 

What do you think about 5500u vs 5600u?

I'm curious what's the difference between Zen 2 and Zen 3 in same generation of CPUs.

Haven't fount any comprehensive research in this regards.

 

 

[jaslion]

38 minutes ago, Naum Krotkov said:

Thanks for the suggestion! I've researched what is currently available in regards to Ryzen 5 5000 models.

Unfortunately all TP14s are overpriced(850+), but I found Asus VivoBook 14 OLED with Ryzen 5 5600H, 512 gb NVMe, and 16gb of RAM for 680USD.

If everything goes well and it's in good shape I think it's a great deal.

 

What do you think about 5500u vs 5600u?

I'm curious what's the difference between Zen 2 and Zen 3 in same generation of CPUs.

Haven't fount any comprehensive research in this regards.

 

 

Don't get the oled vivobook the screen WILL burn in severly. This is not avoidable. The none oled one is totally fine.

 

Difference between zen 2 and 3 is about a 30% performance boost and about 20-30% better battery life.

[Darkseth]

Thinkpad T14 = Thinkpad P14s. Maybe it's cheaper, here in Germany, the P14s starts at 950-1100€, while the T14 with same SSD/Ram costs 1400€+.

 

Vivobook 14 Oled does sound good on Paper, but it's a Plastic build, and does NOT support Displayport over USB-C, nor Power Delivery. And the HDMI is only 1,4b. That means: 2560x1600 @ 60 Hz is possible, or 4k at 30hz.

 

5500u vs. 5600u: Ignore that. Maybe <20% difference in Multicore Benchmarks. Decide by the remaining Notebook, not just the Chip.

 

i'd still prefer the Macbook Air M1. No Windows Device will give you a similar batterylife, you can maybe expect half of that only.

And... Working while having perfect silence at all times.

 

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Difference between zen 2 and 3 is about a 30% performance boost and about 20-30% better battery life.

Nah: https://www.notebookcheck.com/R5-5500U-vs-R5-5600U-vs-R7-5700U_12981_12983_12978.247552.0.html

it's more like +18% faster in 100% Multicore Benchmarks, and +14% "overall" (50points vs. 57 points)

 

Power consumption (way down at the bottom) is pretty much the same and within 5%. 

 

Example: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-G2-AMD-Laptop-Review-Ultrabook-Efficiency-Meets-Workstation-Power.609959.0.html#toc-5

Scroll down to batterylife, and add a T14s G1 with Ryzen 7 4750U.

This is basicly Zen2 vs. Zen3 in an otherwise identical Laptop.

The older Zen2 model has 5% lower Batterylife. And that's probably just random.

 

AMD (and especially Intel) put every Efficiency gain directly into maximum performance. Power consumption stays the same, so they can increase performance as much as possible.

 

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

Either way the mac is quite weak here so 100% skip also has the guaranteed to fail keyboard design.

The 2015 Model has the last good Keyboard.

Macbook Pro 2016 had the Butterfly Keyboard.

[jaslion]

12 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Thinkpad T14 = Thinkpad P14s. Maybe it's cheaper, here in Germany, the P14s starts at 950-1100€, while the T14 with same SSD/Ram costs 1400€+.

 

Vivobook 14 Oled does sound good on Paper, but it's a Plastic build, and does NOT support Displayport over USB-C, nor Power Delivery. And the HDMI is only 1,4b. That means: 2560x1600 @ 60 Hz is possible, or 4k at 30hz.

 

5500u vs. 5600u: Ignore that. Maybe <20% difference in Multicore Benchmarks. Decide by the remaining Notebook, not just the Chip.

 

i'd still prefer the Macbook Air M1. No Windows Device will give you a similar batterylife, you can maybe expect half of that only.

And... Working while having perfect silence at all times.

 

Nah: https://www.notebookcheck.com/R5-5500U-vs-R5-5600U-vs-R7-5700U_12981_12983_12978.247552.0.html

it's more like +18% faster in 100% Multicore Benchmarks, and +14% "overall" (50points vs. 57 points)

 

Power consumption (way down at the bottom) is pretty much the same and within 5%. 

 

Example: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-G2-AMD-Laptop-Review-Ultrabook-Efficiency-Meets-Workstation-Power.609959.0.html#toc-5

Scroll down to batterylife, and add a T14s G1 with Ryzen 7 4750U.

This is basicly Zen2 vs. Zen3 in an otherwise identical Laptop.

The older Zen2 model has 5% lower Batterylife. And that's probably just random.

 

AMD (and especially Intel) put every Efficiency gain directly into maximum performance. Power consumption stays the same, so they can increase performance as much as possible.

 

The 2015 Model has the last good Keyboard.

Macbook Pro 2016 had the Butterfly Keyboard.

Late 2015 had butterfly too

[Imbadatnames]

Just get an M1 MacBook Air they’re on sale for around that price or you can get a refurbished one 

[Darkseth]

On 5/4/2022 at 12:00 PM, jaslion said:

Late 2015 had butterfly too

only the 12", not the 13,3" Pro.

[Naum Krotkov]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I have decided to stick with AMD this time.

For the same price I have a options between Ryzen 7 4700u and Intel i5 1145G7.

All other specs are identical like 512GB SSD, and 16 GB of RAM.

With this in mind I'm willing to sacrifice Thunderbolt ports in favor of 4 more cores.

I ended up choosing ThinkPad E15 Gen 2 (20T80020RT) with Ryzen 7 4700U .

Price is 700USD.

I also liked that it has both best keyboard layout for Excel and numpad(my friend, who is an auditor recommended ThinkPad specifically for this keyboard).

 

One more thing - while researching I found interesting niche laptop.

HP ZBook 17 G3 Xeon E3-1535m v5/32gb/512SSD Quadro M4000M

It's roughly the same price, but I think someone can benefit form such build if their demands revolve around CAD or Solidworks.