Looking for a laptop

[pbondoer]

Hello everyone!

 

This is my first post here so sorry if I missed anything. I'll try to be as clear and concise as possible, sorry if this results in a rather unusually long request. I'm a (student) software developer and general computer enthusiast. Over the course of the past month I've been severely annoyed with my 4-year-old laptop... the time has come that I need to switch it out. Broken keyboard, bad trackpad, dysfunctional battery... I can't take it anymore!

 

I will be using this laptop for music production, code, and occasional gaming. I also want it to be light and portable enough so it doesn't feel bulky when I'm moving around.

 

I've been looking everywhere for the past couple weeks now and I think I might have one I like, but before making the final move I would like to know if anyone knows of a better option. My budget is 1200 euros and I live in France. This is quite a bit of money for me right now and I really cannot afford to save up more.

 

I'm planning on buying the Acer V Nitro VN7-592G-700E currently at 1099,99 euros over on Amazon. It comes with a nice 2,6Ghz i7-6700HQ, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD and a GTX 960M chip. The full specs are available on Acer's French website.

 

Here's a basic idea of what I'm looking for (yeah, I know it's quite specific):

• Ethernet! The amount of ultrabooks without it staggers me...
• 128GB SSD for boot (going to run dual-boot Arch / Windows)
• 2,5kg max (I will be carrying it around with me daily)
• Thin, around 20-25mm
• i7, preferably Skylake (> 6000 PassMark score)
• 8GB of RAM, upgradable (not soldered)
• 15'' screen (no more, no less)
• GTX 960M or higher dedicated video chip
• 1TB HDD, preferably 7000RPM
• USB3.0 ports
• Battery life is not a huge concern (anything above 4-5 hours of normal use should do)
• 1080p screen, would priviliege battery over QHD
• QWERTY keyboard option would be a plus, but living in France this is quite hard to find

For my workload, CPU and RAM are absolute top priorities, I cannot do with less. I would rather trade off battery life for performance. I believe I may have found the perfect laptop for my needs, but who knows, a fresh set of eyes is better than none! (Wait, is that even a thing?) Is anyone aware of any other offerings that would allow me to have these kinds of specifications without going over budget?

 

Thanks in advance!

[don_svetlio]

That Acer has quite a bit of heat issues - you may want to skip it. CPU under max load reaches 98*C and throttles to 800MHz.
Also, the top panel flexes and hat is bad for the LCD panel, so you'd have to be very careful when handlng it.

I'd suggest either the Dell 7559 or the Asus GL552VW (The one with the grey metal back)

[TrigrH]

Maybe a Razer blade? or Blade stealth + dock?

[don_svetlio]

Just now, TrigrH said:

Maybe a Razer blade? or Blade stealth + dock?

That's double his budget and horrible value - not to mention the constant issues with QC

[pbondoer]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

That Acer has quite a bit of heat issues - you may want to skip it. CPU under max load reaches 98*C and throttles to 800MHz.
Also, the top panel flexes and hat is bad for the LCD panel, so you'd have to be very careful when handlng it.

I'd suggest either the Dell 7559 or the Asus GL552VW (The one with the grey metal back)

Thanks for your reply, @don_svetlio!

 

Do you have a review page where this is mentioned or is this from personal experience?

 

Looked over the Dell, but the model with the dedicated SSD doesn't seem to be available other than on Dell's website, and the price there is slightly over-budget. I feel like if I were to buy it, I'd be getting a bulkier, heavier laptop with similar specifications. I found a Reddit thread which seems to compare them directly, and from what I've been reading, the thermals do seem better. I'm considering this, although I'm not too sure if it's worth the extra 100 euros (plus shipping from Dell!) yet...

 

The Asus one seems okay, but it's over 30mm height. My current laptop is 20mm and I feel it's quite bulky already. I don't think I'll be going for this one.

 

Thanks for the input, it's much appreciated!

 

23 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

Maybe a Razer blade? or Blade stealth + dock?

Unfortunately it is both too expensive and not available in my country. I did consider it at first, but didn't think twice once I saw the high price point. Thanks though!

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, pbondoer said:

Thanks for your reply, @don_svetlio!

 

Do you have a review page where this is mentioned or is this from personal experience?

 

Looked over the Dell, but the model with the dedicated SSD doesn't seem to be available other than on Dell's website, and the price there is slightly over-budget. I feel like if I were to buy it, I'd be getting a bulkier, heavier laptop with similar specifications. I found a Reddit thread which seems to compare them directly, and from what I've been reading, the thermals do seem better. I'm considering this, although I'm not too sure if it's worth the extra 100 euros (plus shipping from Dell!) yet...

 

The Asus one seems okay, but it's over 30mm height. My current laptop is 20mm and I feel it's quite bulky already. I don't think I'll be going for this one.

 

Thanks for the input, it's much appreciated!

 

Unfortunately it is both too expensive and not available in my country. I did consider it at first, but didn't think twice once I saw the high price point. Thanks though!

The Acer has 2 tiny aluminium heatsinks and 2 medium fans with 2 heatpipes
Dell has 3 large aluminium heatsinks with 2 medium fans and 3 heatpipes - cooling is definitely superior.

The Info about the Acer is from a variety of reviews (some local - Bulgarian, others international) but it's an overall loud and hot laptop not meant for heavy gaming or productivity.

The Asus is overall good - the cooling is still good with a LARGE heatsink and beefy fan and 2 heatpipes. As for the rest. Here's a breakdown of them

Dell - better cooling, easier to maintain, lighter and thinner, twice the battery capacity
Asus - better build, better screen, better keyboard, DVD burner included

You could also look at the Lenovo Y700 - it's thin and light but is a hassel to upgrade, cooling is good with a large copper heatsink and 2 fans. Keyboard is solid - build is above average but be gentle with opening and closing the lid as the hinge isn't the best of designs

[don_svetlio]

@pbondoer Razer laptops tend to have terrible Quality Control (QC) so the chances of getting a bricked one are high. Quite a few people on the Notebookreview forums have had 2-3 RMAs before getting a working laptop from Razer.

[pbondoer]

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

The Acer has 2 tiny aluminium heatsinks and 2 medium fans with 2 heatpipes
Dell has 3 large aluminium heatsinks with 2 medium fans and 3 heatpipes - cooling is definitely superior.

The Info about the Acer is from a variety of reviews (some local - Bulgarian, others international) but it's an overall loud and hot laptop not meant for heavy gaming or productivity.

The Asus is overall good - the cooling is still good with a LARGE heatsink and beefy fan and 2 heatpipes. As for the rest. Here's a breakdown of them

Dell - better cooling, easier to maintain, lighter and thinner, twice the battery capacity
Asus - better build, better screen, better keyboard, DVD burner included

You could also look at the Lenovo Y700 - it's thin and light but is a hassel to upgrade, cooling is good with a large copper heatsink and 2 fans. Keyboard is solid - build is above average but be gentle with opening and closing the lid as the hinge isn't the best of designs

Thanks for your input!

 

I've been oriented towards the Asus UX501VW-FY103T:

• 15.6 inch, 1920x1080p IPS display
• Intel i7-6700HQ + 8 GB of RAM
• 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD
• Nvidia GTX 960M with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM
• Price: €1199

It seems to fit my needs better than either what I have been able to find or what you have suggested. Any thoughts? I am seriously considering this laptop now. The only complaint I have is it doesn't seem to include an Ethernet port, although the Amazon page says it does... not so sure about that.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, pbondoer said:

Thanks for your input!

 

I've been oriented towards the Asus UX501VW-FY103T:

• 15.6 inch, 1920x1080p IPS display
• Intel i7-6700HQ + 8 GB of RAM
• 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD
• Nvidia GTX 960M with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM
• Price: €1199

It seems to fit my needs better than either what I have been able to find or what you have suggested. Any thoughts? I am seriously considering this laptop now. The only complaint I have is it doesn't seem to include an Ethernet port, although the Amazon page says it does... not so sure about that.

Temperatures will be an issue - the GPU is thermally locked to 75*C so games won't exactly be playable. CPU is also locked but at 85*C I believe - maybe a bit higher. At any rate, cooling is poor and build isn't great.

[pbondoer]

12 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Temperatures will be an issue - the GPU is thermally locked to 75*C so games won't exactly be playable. CPU is also locked but at 85*C I believe - maybe a bit higher. At any rate, cooling is poor and build isn't great.

I've been looking around but none of the reviews I find seem to make mention of this. The build quality seems better than the other laptops that I have mentioned. Thermals also seem better than on other laptops from what I could gather. Could you link me?

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, pbondoer said:

I've been looking around but none of the reviews I find seem to make mention of this. The build quality seems better than the other laptops that I have mentioned. Thermals also seem better than on other laptops from what I could gather. Could you link me?

Considering the fact that the CPU already operated at reduced frequencies when stressed independently, combined stress of the CPU and GPU results in even more constrained performance: we recorded the same GPU clock rate of 1.2 GHz, but coupled with a CPU frequency of just 1.8 GHz—which is below the base frequency. Temperatures of 84 °C and 85 °C for CPU and GPU respectively suggest that the limitations are instead firmware-imposed, possibly due to TDP constraints, but more likely hard-capped at the 85 °C and set to throttle as necessary to keep temperatures below that point (we witnessed the same sort of capping on the G501JW we reviewed last week).

From Notebookcheck - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501JW-Notebook-Review.142308.0.html

[pbondoer]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

Considering the fact that the CPU already operated at reduced frequencies when stressed independently, combined stress of the CPU and GPU results in even more constrained performance: we recorded the same GPU clock rate of 1.2 GHz, but coupled with a CPU frequency of just 1.8 GHz—which is below the base frequency. Temperatures of 84 °C and 85 °C for CPU and GPU respectively suggest that the limitations are instead firmware-imposed, possibly due to TDP constraints, but more likely hard-capped at the 85 °C and set to throttle as necessary to keep temperatures below that point (we witnessed the same sort of capping on the G501JW we reviewed last week).

From Notebookcheck - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501JW-Notebook-Review.142308.0.html

 

That review is for an older model. I am looking at the UX501VW, not the UX501JW!

Quote

Running Unigine Heaven shows consistent Boost for both the CPU and GPU with core temperatures leveling off in the mid 70 C range. Of particular note here is that the GPU core will settle at around 1137 MHz compared to 1189 MHz on the Lenovo Y700. This gives the Lenovo a thin edge over our Asus in synthetic benchmarks, though any actual frame rate advantages in gaming are unnoticeable.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW-Notebook-Review.158762.0.html

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, pbondoer said:

 

That review is for an older model. I am looking at the UX501VW, not the UX501JW!

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW-Notebook-Review.158762.0.html

Firmware is the same across the UX501 series - Asus don't create individual BIOSes for each laptop. The same way the G551 and N551 share a bios and a thermal cap at 82*C

In that review I don't exactly see the stress test numbers, they only mention the temps of the surface which, as we all know, have nothing to do with the actual core temps of the CPU and GPU. It WILL thermal throttle - it has 2 small aluminium heatsinks, 2 extremely thin heatpipes and 2 small fans.

[pbondoer]

1 hour ago, don_svetlio said:

Firmware is the same across the UX501 series - Asus don't create individual BIOSes for each laptop. The same way the G551 and N551 share a bios and a thermal cap at 82*C

In that review I don't exactly see the stress test numbers, they only mention the temps of the surface which, as we all know, have nothing to do with the actual core temps of the CPU and GPU. It WILL thermal throttle - it has 2 small aluminium heatsinks, 2 extremely thin heatpipes and 2 small fans.

I understand what you mean. I've looked over the Y700 you suggested, however it seems it is impossible to buy the same model as in the US here so we're stuck with SSD or HDD only models. I guess I could buy a separate HDD and put it in (since the SSD models will only use the M.2 slot) however that would cost me at least 60 euros if I can find a cheap hard drive, plus the time to service it. The laptop having a base price of 1129 euros, that would be just under my budget of 1200. I have compared both reviews from NotebookCheck, and the Y700 seems to perform better although not by a whole lot. It is however much heavier (2.9kg vs 2.1kg) and larger (25mm vs 22mm). It does run cooler internally (case temps are about the same) even though somehow core clocks are lower under load on the Y700. There is however one big tradeoff, and it is the battery life, and I think if I'm going to carry it around with me everywhere I go I would rather have it last a bit longer than slightly outperform the other. I'll be getting the last Asus model I mentioned, I think in the longer run that is the better option for me.

Thanks for your help, it's very much appreciated!

[Dominius]

Hi Pbondoer, 

 

I have been looking for something myself and then stumbled across this topic so thought I would give my 5 pence worth.

 

If you are looking at getting your best "bang for buck" and can't go any higher than the £1,100 mark then I would suggest looking at a few of the main companies refurb / outlet sections. I have been keeping an eye on Dell's outlet for a while and there are a few gems on there from time to time. Usually with GTX960 / GTX970 GPU's.

 

Try the following location if you haven't made your mind up yet and see if there is something there that you can see. I know on the UK one they have free shipping on pretty much everything they are selling so that doesn't become an issue, not so sure about the France side of things though. 

 

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1

 

 

[don_svetlio]

40 minutes ago, pbondoer said:

I understand what you mean. I've looked over the Y700 you suggested, however it seems it is impossible to buy the same model as in the US here so we're stuck with SSD or HDD only models. I guess I could buy a separate HDD and put it in (since the SSD models will only use the M.2 slot) however that would cost me at least 60 euros if I can find a cheap hard drive, plus the time to service it. The laptop having a base price of 1129 euros, that would be just under my budget of 1200. I have compared both reviews from NotebookCheck, and the Y700 seems to perform better although not by a whole lot. It is however much heavier (2.9kg vs 2.1kg) and larger (25mm vs 22mm). It does run cooler internally (case temps are about the same) even though somehow core clocks are lower under load on the Y700. There is however one big tradeoff, and it is the battery life, and I think if I'm going to carry it around with me everywhere I go I would rather have it last a bit longer than slightly outperform the other. I'll be getting the last Asus model I mentioned, I think in the longer run that is the better option for me.

Thanks for your help, it's very much appreciated!

The Y700 has a 60Wh battery - that is bigger than the Asus - not sure what you mean when you say the Asus will last longer. If you want battery life, then the Dell 7559 is best with it's 74wH battery which lasts 7 hours. Weight isn't that big of a deal and 3mm thickness is not going to be noticeable. The Y700 does, however, have vastly superior speakers. Also, you mentioned editing, under load the Asus will throttle to 1.8GHz whereas the Y700 has the same CPU running at 2.9GHz - that means the Y700 will perform literally 50% better.

[Thecomputerman]

Surface pro 4??

[don_svetlio]

2 minutes ago, Thecomputerman said:

Surface pro 4??

Gaming and Editing - the lowly Celeron-like Dual-core on the SP4 won't be able to do shit

[pbondoer]

On 3/30/2016 at 2:23 PM, Dominius said:

If you are looking at getting your best "bang for buck" and can't go any higher than the £1,100 mark then I would suggest looking at a few of the main companies refurb / outlet sections. I have been keeping an eye on Dell's outlet for a while and there are a few gems on there from time to time. Usually with GTX960 / GTX970 GPU's.

 

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1

Hi! I looked over at the link you gave me, unfortunately my budget is of 1200 euros and not 1100 pounds (which would be a little under 1400 euros). At that price, I couldn't find anything that fulfilled all of my needs. It's a shame, because if I had a bit more money I would definitely have considered an XPS 15!

 

On 3/30/2016 at 2:37 PM, don_svetlio said:

The Y700 has a 60Wh battery - that is bigger than the Asus - not sure what you mean when you say the Asus will last longer. If you want battery life, then the Dell 7559 is best with it's 74wH battery which lasts 7 hours. Weight isn't that big of a deal and 3mm thickness is not going to be noticeable. The Y700 does, however, have vastly superior speakers. Also, you mentioned editing, under load the Asus will throttle to 1.8GHz whereas the Y700 has the same CPU running at 2.9GHz - that means the Y700 will perform literally 50% better.

You're only half right about the battery, I was looking at a review which was the same model with a heavier 90Wh battery, which is why there was such a difference in the numbers I saw. I checked again and according to Materiel.net this particular model has a 60Wh battery and since it runs with similar hardware, I would expect it have a more or less similar battery life.

 

Weight is a big deal to me. I'm going to be carrying my laptop with me everywhere I go and I travel often on foot and public transportation. When you take into account the weight of the laptop and the power brick, the Y700 weighs 3.49 Kg whereas the UX501VW weighs 2.52 Kg, which is almost a whole kilogram difference! I am already carrying other things with me and would be happy to trade off a bit of performance for a lighter bag.

 

As for performance, according to NotebookCheck, it does not cap at 1.8Ghz but 2.7Ghz when running Prime95 + FurMark, and even boosts in Unigine Heaven at 3.1Ghz. They even compare it directly to the Y700:

Quote

Of particular note here is that the GPU core will settle at around 1137 MHz compared to 1189 MHz on the Lenovo Y700. This gives the Lenovo a thin edge over our Asus in synthetic benchmarks, though any actual frame rate advantages in gaming are unnoticeable.

Therefore while the Y700 is slightly better in some cases, the weight tradeoff for me is too important to disregard.

 

On 3/30/2016 at 3:35 PM, Thecomputerman said:

Surface pro 4??

On 3/30/2016 at 3:37 PM, don_svetlio said:

Gaming and Editing - the lowly Celeron-like Dual-core on the SP4 won't be able to do shit

Yeah, while it is available with a (mobile) i7 chip, it will be too slow to run my music production software comfortably. It also lacks a dedicated graphics card (and goes for Intel integrated graphics instead) which won't be able to run the games I would like to be able to play. Thanks for your input though!

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, pbondoer said:

Hi! I looked over at the link you gave me, unfortunately my budget is of 1200 euros and not 1100 pounds (which would be a little under 1400 euros). At that price, I couldn't find anything that fulfilled all of my needs. It's a shame, because if I had a bit more money I would definitely have considered an XPS 15!

 

You're only half right about the battery, I was looking at a review which was the same model with a heavier 90Wh battery, which is why there was such a difference in the numbers I saw. I checked again and according to Materiel.net this particular model has a 60Wh battery and since it runs with similar hardware, I would expect it have a more or less similar battery life.

 

Weight is a big deal to me. I'm going to be carrying my laptop with me everywhere I go and I travel often on foot and public transportation. When you take into account the weight of the laptop and the power brick, the Y700 weighs 3.49 Kg whereas the UX501VW weighs 2.52 Kg, which is almost a whole kilogram difference! I am already carrying other things with me and would be happy to trade off a bit of performance for a lighter bag.

 

As for performance, according to NotebookCheck, it does not cap at 1.8Ghz but 2.7Ghz when running Prime95 + FurMark, and even boosts in Unigine Heaven at 3.1Ghz. They even compare it directly to the Y700:

Therefore while the Y700

 

Yeah, while it is available with a (mobile) i7 chip, it will be too slow to run my music production software comfortably. It also lacks a dedicated graphics card (and goes for Intel integrated graphics instead) which won't be able to run the games I would like to be able to play. Thanks for your input though!

1 - Unigine Heaven doesn't touch the CPU so that's not going to matter to you as you will be stressing the CPU at 100%.
2 - P95 is a torture test - according to your info, the CPU performs better when tortured than under normal operation - that makes 0 sense. It's like saying a car goes faster when going up a hill.
3 - UX501 also has an adapter - the difference will be about 500g at most and even then it's not substantial as the weight is spread out and not concentrated in a single spot. If you want portable and ultra light, then neither of these is the right option and you should look at 14' laptops with quad-core CPUs.
4 - can't speak for Asus but Lenovo bundle a nifty Energy Manager utility which allows you to really lower power draw and extend battery life but if you want battery performance then a ThinkPad T450S is what you need. It runs 10 hours under MAX load and draw

[pbondoer]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

1 - Unigine Heaven doesn't touch the CPU so that's not going to matter to you as you will be stressing the CPU at 100%.

Yep, running only Prime95 gave the reviewer 2.9Ghz:

Quote

The UX501VW will settle at 2.9 GHz when subjected to Prime95 stress, which is 200 MHz slower than its rated maximum for all active cores. Consequently, its CPU benchmark scores are slightly lower than many other gaming notebooks sporting the same i7-6700HQ CPU. 

 

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

2 - P95 is a torture test - according to your info, the CPU performs better when tortured than under normal operation - that makes 0 sense. It's like saying a car goes faster when going up a hill.

When did I say that? The CPU is an i7-6700HQ which runs at 2.6Ghz (3.5Ghz turbo) speeds. Those results look pretty normal to me?

 

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

3 - UX501 also has an adapter - the difference will be about 500g at most and even then it's not substantial as the weight is spread out and not concentrated in a single spot. If you want portable and ultra light, then neither of these is the right option and you should look at 14' laptops with quad-core CPUs.

Yes, I took into consideration the weight of both adapters. The Y700 alone weighs more than the UX501 with no adapter. I have to disagree with you when you say it's substantial, I think a 1Kg difference is pretty noticeable when you're already carrying around other things and have to walk 2 hours on average with it every day

 

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

4 - can't speak for Asus but Lenovo bundle a nifty Energy Manager utility which allows you to really lower power draw and extend battery life but if you want battery performance then a ThinkPad T450S is what you need. It runs 10 hours under MAX load and draw

The thing is, I don't want battery over performance or performance over battery or weight over other things. I want a compromise between all of those things. I don't need it to be super light, but I don't want it to be too heavy either. I want it to be powerful enough to run my software normally without trouble. I want to be able to play a few games that aren't very demanding. There is no perfect laptop at the price I'm looking for. Even if I put 1000 euros more I wouldn't be able to find it. I looked at all the laptops and the one which fits me best is the UX501VW-FY103T. It's much better than my initial choice, it's a bit more expensive but I think it will be worth it.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, pbondoer said:

Yep, running only Prime95 gave the reviewer 2.9Ghz:

 

When did I say that? The CPU is an i7-6700HQ which runs at 2.6Ghz (3.5Ghz turbo) speeds. Those results look pretty normal to me?

 

Yes, I took into consideration the weight of both adapters. The Y700 alone weighs more than the UX501 with no adapter. I have to disagree with you when you say it's substantial, I think a 1Kg difference is pretty noticeable when you're already carrying around other things and have to walk 2 hours on average with it every day

 

The thing is, I don't want battery over performance or performance over battery or weight over other things. I want a compromise between all of those things. I don't need it to be super light, but I don't want it to be too heavy either. I want it to be powerful enough to run my software normally without trouble. I want to be able to play a few games that aren't very demanding. There is no perfect laptop at the price I'm looking for. Even if I put 1000 euros more I wouldn't be able to find it. I looked at all the laptops and the one which fits me best is the UX501VW-FY103T. It's much better than my initial choice, it's a bit more expensive but I think it will be worth it.

1 - The reviews here (Laptop.bg) say it throttles under load. Not sure why theirs doesn't.
2 - Trust me 1kg isn't a lot - unless your shoulders are extremely weak, I've been carrying around similar weight laptops with no issue. Just get a proper bag for it.
3 - There is no way to get a good compromise - the UX has terrible cooling for the hardware. Combined with the low thermal limit you WILL have heat issues and will likely have to buy an external cooling pad and carry that around and those also add to the weight. Saying this as laptops get dusty VERY fast and unless you want to disassemble and clean yours ever week or two, you WANT some headroom. Cleaned mine after 2 months of usage and dropped from 80*C to 70*C on the CPU under the same load. If you are already running at 80*C then getting to 90*C will happen over the course of a month MAX and then you will have to clean it and that voids the warranty most of the times as it involves removing the heatsink.

[pbondoer]

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

1 - The reviews here (Laptop.bg) say it throttles under load. Not sure why theirs doesn't.

Maybe they're not reviewing the same model? The only one I could find reviews an older model with a 4th gen i7.

 

4 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

2 - Trust me 1kg isn't a lot - unless your shoulders are extremely weak, I've been carrying around similar weight laptops with no issue. Just get a proper bag for it.

Unfortunately I've had my share of weight with my current laptop and I often wouldn't take it with me because it was so much extra weight. We're not all the same!

 

9 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

3 - There is no way to get a good compromise - the UX has terrible cooling for the hardware. Combined with the low thermal limit you WILL have heat issues and will likely have to buy an external cooling pad and carry that around and those also add to the weight. Saying this as laptops get dusty VERY fast and unless you want to disassemble and clean yours ever week or two, you WANT some headroom. Cleaned mine after 2 months of usage and dropped from 80*C to 70*C on the CPU under the same load. If you are already running at 80*C then getting to 90*C will happen over the course of a month MAX and then you will have to clean it and that voids the warranty most of the times as it involves removing the heatsink.

If that happens then I will return it to my retailer or Asus. There's a standard 1 year warranty for all products bought in France, and there's 2 years hardware warranty for Asus products. If it heats up too much, I will simply ask the store to get a different laptop. If it's out of warranty, 2 years is already a pretty good time before it gets too hot, and I can just open and clean it up like you said !

[don_svetlio]

6 minutes ago, pbondoer said:

Maybe they're not reviewing the same model? The only one I could find reviews an older model with a 4th gen i7.

 

Unfortunately I've had my share of weight with my current laptop and I often wouldn't take it with me because it was so much extra weight. We're not all the same!

 

If that happens then I will return it to my retailer or Asus. There's a standard 1 year warranty for all products bought in France, and there's 2 years hardware warranty for Asus products. If it heats up too much, I will simply ask the store to get a different laptop. If it's out of warranty, 2 years is already a pretty good time before it gets too hot, and I can just open and clean it up like you said !

1 - Possible
2 - Hmm, I have a friend that could help with muscle mass in the shoulders via a diet. He works at Herbalife.
3 - The warranty doesn't cover dust. You can return it for 2 weeks after purchase and then you are stuck with it unless there is a hardware issue (dust and heat don't count, have tried). Your only option would be to brick it every few months.

[pbondoer]

15 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

2 - Hmm, I have a friend that could help with muscle mass in the shoulders via a diet. He works at Herbalife.

I think I'm doing quite fine, I don't think I need a diet !

 

15 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

3 - The warranty doesn't cover dust. You can return it for 2 weeks after purchase and then you are stuck with it unless there is a hardware issue (dust and heat don't count, have tried). Your only option would be to brick it every few months.

Amazon has a 1 year warranty, so you can return your products up to 1 year after purchase and get a replacement for no charge as long as you didn't break your device or intentionally damaged it. I'm not too concerned right now.