Looking for laptop recommendations

TheMidnightNarwhal · January 29, 2024

I need a 15 inch laptop for generic everyday use (browsing, videos) and to run some BMW diagnostic software and little games if I ever need to leave my home for an extended period of time, games that don't really need a dedicated GPU like Worms, Lethal Company, Golf with friends, etc. So I don't need any crazy specs and I think modern day iGPUs are pretty decent to right. That said, I was still targeting for 16gb ram with a minimum Ryzen 5 CPU (or intel equivalent although I am team red now )just so overall the laptop is snappy. I hate when you get random freezes and things like that and in my experience, going for low performing CPUs despite not needing their power for my day to day tasks, tends to cause this as the hardware ages and time goes on and Windows updates. Oh and I want a backlit keyboard as well.

I was really set on buying this LENOVO IdeaPad Slim 3 currently for 700$ CAD (521 USD$) with a Ryzen 5 7520U and 16gb RAM but I saw reviews that mention how bad the screen is despite being IPS, both in terms of brightness and color representation and that really threw me off considering that's the main thing the laptop is used for, watching videos and normal tasks. What other similar laptop models would you recommend in the price range? I would say my max budget is around 850$ CAD (633$ USD).

I also saw a HP Victus which I know is a gaming laptop and I don't need it, but the price VS hardware seems pretty interesting and I like how it looks. If this is a good price/deal I might pull the trigger on it. It's 899$ CAD (670$ USD) and it has a Ryzen 5 5600H with a RTX 3050 Ti, 16gb RAM. On the plus side, this would allow me to play most of my games away from home if I ever.

TheMidnightNarwhal · February 2, 2024

Alright well I ended up with getting the Victus with the RTX 2050 and Ryzen 5 7535HS with 8GB RAM. The reason is that I had a pretty killer deal, only 450$ USD for it. The Acer Aspire 5 that I was originally looking at was all 500$ USD+. I guess I'll be able to do some light gaming if ever need to.