New laptop for school

[The Sweetroll]

Hi,

 

I made a thread earlier about getting a new laptop and I'm still a bit undecided even though I got some good advice. Today I saw that there was a -15% sale on all laptops at a store here in Finland ( that is including macbooks, mind blown). So I would be able to get a macbook for less than ever before.

 

What I'd use a laptop for:

-I mainly need it for just normal office work and taking notes.

-I need it to be portable and easy to use on the go

-Good battery life

-Good build quality

-I do want to play some games on it from time to time but I do not demand anything more than a playable experience, I don't mind turning down graphics. I mostly play Dota2,Civ 5 V, Chivalry, Diablo 3 and other games that don't require that much.

 

To make it easier to recommend a laptop I'll give some examples of the prices here:

 

Macbook pro retina 8gb/256gb - 1275€

Macbook pro retina 4gb/128gb - 1020€

Surface pro 3 i5 8gb/256gb - 1140€ (without typecover)

Surface pro 3 i5 4gb/128gb - 875€ (without typecover)

Asus UX32LN (i7, gt840m, 8gb, 128gb) - 1099€

Lenovo yoga 2 pro i5, 8gb, 256gb - 1300€ 

Lenovo 2 U430 gt730, i7, 8gb, 256gb - 1025€ (touchscreen)

 

My biggest dilemma is how usefull something like a touchscreen or tablet mode is? Something like a macbook is a very conservative laptop when compared to something like a surface pro 3 but how usefull are touchscreens, styluses or laptop modes when you actually want to get stuff done?

 

 

[ZacDaMan72]

Since you wanna play games on it, get the ASUS. You could go for the Gigabyte P series.

[The Sweetroll]

Since you wanna play games on it, get the ASUS. You could go for the Gigabyte P series.

Thanks for answering. The Asus does offer very good specs for the money but I'm questioning if  a dedicated GPU is worth it compared to a better screen and better battery life? Wouldn't the  integrated GPU deliver a playable experience (30fps<) on  lower graphics? Gaming is far from my main priority since I have a desktop for that but it might be fun when traveling or going to my summer place. 

[Scionyde]

Thanks for answering. The Asus does offer very good specs for the money but I'm questioning if  a dedicated GPU is worth it compared to a better screen and better battery life? Wouldn't the  integrated GPU deliver a playable experience (30fps<) on  lower graphics? Gaming is far from my main priority since I have a desktop for that but it might be fun when traveling or going to my summer place. 

 

My only potential concern would be trying to play Chivalry on integrated graphics. I'm not saying it can't (because I have no personal experience with it), but it's not like Chivalry is a game that gets benchmarked consistently by people, so it's hard to say.

 

BTW, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to these ultrabooks. Is the 128/256 GB SSD storage all you get, or is there room to install an extra HDD, typically?

[The Sweetroll]

My only potential concern would be trying to play Chivalry on integrated graphics. I'm not saying it can't (because I have no personal experience with it), but it's not like Chivalry is a game that gets benchmarked consistently by people, so it's hard to say.

 

BTW, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to these ultrabooks. Is the 128/256 GB SSD storage all you get, or is there room to install an extra HDD, typically?

As far as I know 99% of ultrabooks don't have room for extra drives, atleast none of the ones I've listed. I don't really need that much storage but 128gb can still be a bit too small in the long run.

 

BTW did the mobile haswell refresh processors bring anything worth mentioning?

[Scionyde]

As far as I know 99% of ultrabooks don't have room for extra drives, atleast none of the ones I've listed. I don't really need that much storage but 128gb can still be a bit too small in the long run.

 

BTW did the mobile haswell refresh processors bring anything worth mentioning?

 

The i7-4710/4810 was released recently, but they only offer small bumps in clock speeds over the Haswell mobile processors that were released last year. Nothing too special. I don't believe mobile CPUs have an IHS, so improved TIM wouldn't come into play here.

 

Anyway, yeah, 128 GB seems a little too small for me. You could always get an external hard drive, but that kind of defeats the purpose of trying to get something ultraportable in the first place. I'd definitely get something with 256 GB, but aside from that I'm more familiar with gaming laptops than I am with ultrabooks.

[The Sweetroll]

I am very tempted by the MBPr with 8gb of ram and 256gb ssd storage, mostly because of the battery life but also because of the looks. My main concern is the lack of a touchscreen and some kind of tablet mode. How useful do you generally find these features?

[steffen_anywhere]

I am very tempted by the MBPr with 8gb of ram and 256gb ssd storage, mostly because of the battery life but also because of the looks. My main concern is the lack of a touchscreen and some kind of tablet mode. How useful do you generally find these features?

 

Yeah this would be the best choice... If you look at my sig, you can see that I have the maxed out model of the 13". Great machine. Plays AC 4 Black Flag well on high settings if that is a concern (at 720p, but that scales the best on that 2560 x 1600 display for some reason and tbh on an 13" screen, 720p is still a high resolution when you're not looking at text. Basically picture 720p movies...they look almost the same as 1080p at that screen size).

 

Tablet mode for me would be pointless since I have an iPad for that, and touchscreen, while some like it, the huge trackpad makes up for it.

[The Sweetroll]

Yeah this would be the best choice... If you look at my sig, you can see that I have the maxed out model of the 13". Great machine. Plays AC 4 Black Flag well on high settings if that is a concern (at 720p, but that scales the best on that 2560 x 1600 display for some reason and tbh on an 13" screen, 720p is still a high resolution when you're not looking at text. Basically picture 720p movies...they look almost the same as 1080p at that screen size).

 

Tablet mode for me would be pointless since I have an iPad for that, and touchscreen, while some like it, the huge trackpad makes up for it.

The damn store just bumped the price pack up to 1400€ even though it said that the offer will be until 20.7. I also plan to keep the laptop for several years and I somehow believe macbooks age more gracefully, they don't look outdated as fast as windows machines IMO. And the long battery life should add to the laptops life span once the battery starts to degrade with age.

[steffen_anywhere]

The damn store just bumped the price pack up to 1400€ even though it said that the offer will be until 20.7. I also plan to keep the laptop for several years and I somehow believe macbooks age more gracefully, they don't look outdated as fast as windows machines IMO. And the long battery life should add to the laptops life span once the battery starts to degrade with age.

 

Have a 2010 13" MacBook Pro and the battery is now at 75% capacity. That is with around 650 charge cycles. Basically used it almost every day in school. Still in perfect condition and now my dad's computer. You'll be happy with a MacBook Pro i think.