Laptop recommendations

[DebatED Nothing]

   So I'm going to be going to university in september and to use in lectures and stuff my parents are going to be getting me a laptop. Because my older Brother went for a mac book pro my budget is around about a £1500 maximum, though because I already have a gaming PC my laptop doesn't need to be capable of much gaming (probably just some light stuff to get me through the most boring lectures :P). Anyway, because the performance doesn't need to be stellar, and I'd like it to be portable I'm thinking of getting an "ultrabook" of basically just a thin laptop. Current contenders are the dell XPS 13, the HP spectre, the razer blade stealth (thought this was out already but the razer site says "notify me"?) and maybe a thinkpad of some type because they look alright (my dad has one). 

   My main considerations are that it should be reasonably well built, perform well enough for light gaming and productivity tasks (I'm doing aero engineering so I'm anticipating large spreadsheets will be involved at some point), should have a nice keyboard and stuff. Really though I'm just not very informed in the laptop market because it's been about 6 years since I bought one, so any recommendations would be much appreciated.

[Lukiewookie]

If you don't really need that gaming performance, and you want portability, durability and battery life, no laptop comes even close to the ThinkPad x260. With the extended battery, it lasts 15 hours medium workload EASILY.

 

It is not the prettiest laptop, but for ideal for uni; magnesium alloy chassis, carbon body, spillproof keyboard, etc...

 

I turned out to be too expensive for me in the config I found acceptable, and I went for a Zenbook UX303 instead. But the x260 is a great choice...

[DebatED Nothing]

2 hours ago, Lukiewookie said:

If you don't really need that gaming performance, and you want portability, durability and battery life, no laptop comes even close to the ThinkPad x260. With the extended battery, it lasts 15 hours medium workload EASILY.

 

It is not the prettiest laptop, but for ideal for uni; magnesium alloy chassis, carbon body, spillproof keyboard, etc...

 

I turned out to be too expensive for me in the config I found acceptable, and I went for a Zenbook UX303 instead. But the x260 is a great choice...

That looks quite interesting actually, how does the swap-able battery work, their site has very little information (and no pictures) about it.

[Hamako]

The X260 is an excellently balanced machine. It will hold up much better at uni than most regular Ultrabooks. The battery life easily surpasses the competition as well.

 

The swappable battery works just like you would expect it to. You push two latches and simply slide it out. You can take several batteries with you or just opt for the extended 72Wh version. Coupled with the internal 23Wh battery, you will easily get 15+ hours of battery. If you stick to office, even 20 hours won't be an issue. You can also swap the battery without powering the machine down, so it doesn't interrupt your work flow. The keyboard on ThinkPads is outstanding and definitely one of their main selling points. Make sure you go with the FHD IPS display on the X260 if you order one.

[DebatED Nothing]

2 hours ago, Hamako said:

The X260 is an excellently balanced machine. It will hold up much better at uni than most regular Ultrabooks. The battery life easily surpasses the competition as well.

 

The swappable battery works just like you would expect it to. You push two latches and simply slide it out. You can take several batteries with you or just opt for the extended 72Wh version. Coupled with the internal 23Wh battery, you will easily get 15+ hours of battery. If you stick to office, even 20 hours won't be an issue. You can also swap the battery without powering the machine down, so it doesn't interrupt your work flow. The keyboard on ThinkPads is outstanding and definitely one of their main selling points. Make sure you go with the FHD IPS display on the X260 if you order one.

Looking like a real contender, thanks

[DebatED Nothing]

On 4/11/2016 at 5:07 PM, Hamako said:

-snip-

 

On 4/11/2016 at 0:25 PM, Lukiewookie said:

-snip-

I'm really torn between the XPS 13 and the X260. I don't really need eGPU performance to be honest but with the same configuration the XPS 13 has a better eGPU, though the X260 has an I7 6600u and the the XPS 13 has an I7 6560u (which I think makes the X260 slightly better?) both have the same RAM, and when configured for the same storage the X260 is about £100 cheaper.  Basically I'm torn between the stellar battery life and apparrently really good keyboard on the X260 and the nicer build, appearance and screen of the XPS 13. Any advice?

[Hamako]

You'll need to figure out what's more important to you. Personally, I would prefer the X260 for its keyboard alone, but then I do quite a lot of typing. There aren't many reviews of the X260 at the moment, so it's hard to get a few opinions. You can look at some X250 reviews though. Just keep in mind that the X260 will have more performance, battery life and better speakers than the X250.

 

If you do some graphics work like drawing or watch movies very frequently, the better screen and speakers of the XPS 13 are definitely a big advantage. It's not like the XPS 13 has bad battery life either. Quite the opposite in fact. The difference really is that the X260 is more modular, so you can opt for an extended battery that will get you close to the 20h mark and exchange batteries on the go without powering down the machine.

 

What you need to consider is the fact that the XPS 13 is a consumer notebook, while the X260 is a regular business notebook. That means it will be easy to upgrade and repair, with easy and cheap access to spare parts and very long support. 5-10 years from now, people will still be using the X260. You also get to be part of an incredible community that can help you with almost any problem. Linux support is also excellent.

 

While all that is great, the XPS 13 doesn't have to hide behind the X260. Its build quality is great as well, it has excellent battery life and you can get it with a stronger GPU than the X260, which does make a noticeable difference in games. Some XPS 13's ship with Ubuntu, so it stands to reason that it runs fairly well with Linux as well. Not to mention the superior multimedia capabilities of the XPS 13.

 

Essentially., the major difference in my opinion, and what it boils down to for me, really is the keyboard. I don't know if you've had the comparison or been able to type on a recent ThinkPad keyboard, but the XPS 13 will be put to shame by it. If you do a lot of typing, you will certainly appreciate it.

 

If you are still unsure, then try to get your hands on both machines. The XPS 13 shouldn't be hard to find, but the X260 is only sold by special retailers who don't usually have models on display. If you google a bit you might be able to find a shop not too far from you that stocks ThinkPads.