Choosing a laptop for $1000 - Ideapad 700 / Y700?

[scorer]

I'm choosing a new laptop and would love to get some advice/suggestions/opinions. I'll try to keep this short and simple, so here are the bullet points..

 

Price range: $800 - $1000 (USD) It's a little tricky since prices in my region can differ from the US prices, but this should cover it.

What will I use it for: I'm a programmer. I focus mainly on mobile development and so I need to be able to comfortably run an emulator. A typical workload would mean the following applications are running: two IDEs, one instance of 1GB RAM VM (emulator), 10 tabs in Chrome, Spotify and a couple of instances of TotalCommander/Explorer. I want to be able to connect it to an external monitor (1440p or even 4K) over HDMI or DP. I will not be gaming on this laptop. As for other requirements, a Full-HD screen is a must, I don't care about color accuracy, but it should have decent viewing angles. I also need fast storage, an SSD is a must. I don't, however, need much storage space. A 120GB SSD + like 250GB HDD or even a single 240GB SSD would be more than enough space for me. Last thing is the keyboard. I know I can't expect much from a laptop keyboard, but I want to select the best one for me. I don't have much experience with laptop keyboards, so I would love to hear your opinions here, though I realize they will be subjective.

 

Summary of my own research: I decided that I should probably get the best possible processor in this price range. That's the i7-6700HQ. This eliminates the option of small form-factor aluminium laptops (or ultrabooks) which use the U-series dual core chips. Even though I don't intent to game on this laptop at all, I think that I need one with a dedicated GPU since I want the option of connecting a 4K monitor. I know for a fact that integrated graphics on i5 and i7 Haswell desktop chips have trouble handling dual 1440p panels, stuttering when resizing/moving complex apps or choppy animations when switching desktops in Windows 10. I am not sure, however, how integrated graphics compare on deskop vs. mobile processors.

 

My selection: Lenovo Ideapad 700 w/ i7-6700HQ, GTX 950M, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD and 8GB of RAM.

 

Would you suggest another laptop that fits my requirements? How does the Ideapad 700 compare to the more gaming oriented Y700 (The price here is almost the same)?\

Any suggestions and opinions are highly appreciated. Thanks

[don_svetlio]

960M is 20-25% more powerful than the 950M. Go for the Y700.

[don_svetlio]

The Y700 also has a 60Wh battery compared to the 45Wh one in the normal 700 (non-Y). Keyboards are both good.

[Pendragon]

12 minutes ago, scorer said:

I will not be gaming on this laptop.

You can go for a more business oriented laptops such as T460P or E5470. Though if they're not second hand you're not going to find them at good prices new.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Pendragon said:

You can go for a more business oriented laptops such as T460P or E5470. Though if they're not second hand you're not going to find them at good prices new.

He needs a quad-core CPU though. Those have dual-cores.

[Pendragon]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

He needs a quad-core CPU though. Those have dual-cores.

Both of these can have quad cores. 

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Pendragon said:

Both of these can have quad cores. 

T560 maybe?

[Pendragon]

13 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

T560 maybe?

THATS WHAT I THOUGHT RIGHT? A T560 with a quad core would be the perfect laptop BUT NOPE. They decide to put quad core options in T460p and E5470 the 14inch ones. GG Lenovo and Dell. 

 

You have a i7-6820HQ in both of these 14in but you're stuck with a dinky ULV ship on the T560. Sigh. 

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

THATS WHAT I THOUGHT RIGHT? A T560 with a quad core would be the perfect laptop BUT NOPE. They decide to put quad core options in T460p and E5470 the 14inch ones. GG Lenovo and Dell. 

Honestly, I kinda think the Y700 might be what he needs. 5 hours battery life, good cooling, 15.6' screen, good keyboard.

[Pendragon]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

Honestly, I kinda think the Y700 might be what he needs. 5 hours battery life, good cooling, 15.6' screen, good keyboard.

Yea, the business ones are really really expensive outside of the US. If he finds a good deal on them refurb or second hand it's a good option, but for sure you're getting more value from the Y700.

[CostcoSamples]

17 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Yea, the business ones are really really expensive outside of the US. If he finds a good deal on them refurb or second hand it's a good option, but for sure you're getting more value from the Y700.

Yeah, for value it's a good way to go.

 

I will say this though:  Lenovo business laptops have some of the nicest build quality I've ever seen on a laptop.  I had a W500 for a while - that thing was built to last!

[scorer]

Yes, the business laptops are a lot more expensive, so I'm still deciding between the 700 and Y700. Any other laptops I should take a look at?

[don_svetlio]

57 minutes ago, scorer said:

Yes, the business laptops are a lot more expensive, so I'm still deciding between the 700 and Y700. Any other laptops I should take a look at?

Go for the Y700. It's the only mid-range gaming laptop with decent battery life aside from the Dell 7559 but that one is a budget option in most regards. It's a step down from the Y700.