Help With Uncommon Choice: Razor Blade Stealth VS. Lenovo P50 Workstation

[MildlyUpsetMax]

I have an uncommon choice to make, and I'm looking for a wider perspective. The skinny is I'm moving internationally and am unable to take my lovely desktop with all that storage and performance. I am a photographer, and spend most of my time fiddling in photoshop. Most of the image files I work with are around 1-1.5 gigs each. I also handle stats work for a university biology dept, primarily running Stata, R, Matlab, and Mathematica. I will obviously have a tower for this, but the capability to do some work on the run is never a bad thing. I had initially liked the idea of getting a mobile workstation (Lenovo P50), because of the 3 drive bays I could stuff with storage, and because it would be less of a downgrade/hangover from my current setup performance wise. It is, however, 3kilo/6lbs/0.45stone with a power brick that would make a nun blush. Not exactly an ultralight, which is trouble because I travel a metric shit tonne. So on the opposite side of the spectrum I'm looking at the Razor Blade Stealth. It has a gorgeous 4k screen(although it is 2.7-ish inches smaller than the lenovo), a solid processor, and the new one has 16 gigs of ram which is good because of the size of the photos I'm chucking into photoshop these days. It's also worlds lighter. Storage would be 1TB internal, and a lightning-bolt 3 drive sometime in the future when it comes out. So what do you think I should do? If you have experience with either system, let me know what you think. 

Lenovo P50, Xeon, 32gb-ddr4-ecc, 6tb, 4k, massive ass but expandable in every way

VS

RazorBlade Stealth, i7, 16gb fixed, 1Tb internal. 4k, light and fluffy but limited expansion. 

 

Cheers, 

M.U.M.

[bgibbz]

i would personally go for the stealth. It should be able to handle all photo editing, and really its designed for things like that. The lenovo seems like its more designed for massive scale video editing on the go. 

[MaxBunny]

Lenovo P50 for sure.

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, bgibbz said:

i would personally go for the stealth. It should be able to handle all photo editing, and really its designed for things like that. The lenovo seems like its more designed for massive scale video editing on the go. 

The Stealth is incapable of handling chrome, how do you expect to it to handle photo editing smoothly?

 

1 hour ago, MildlyUpsetMax said:

I have an uncommon choice to make, and I'm looking for a wider perspective. The skinny is I'm moving internationally and am unable to take my lovely desktop with all that storage and performance. I am a photographer, and spend most of my time fiddling in photoshop. Most of the image files I work with are around 1-1.5 gigs each. I also handle stats work for a university biology dept, primarily running Stata, R, Matlab, and Mathematica. I will obviously have a tower for this, but the capability to do some work on the run is never a bad thing. I had initially liked the idea of getting a mobile workstation (Lenovo P50), because of the 3 drive bays I could stuff with storage, and because it would be less of a downgrade/hangover from my current setup performance wise. It is, however, 3kilo/6lbs/0.45stone with a power brick that would make a nun blush. Not exactly an ultralight, which is trouble because I travel a metric shit tonne. So on the opposite side of the spectrum I'm looking at the Razor Blade Stealth. It has a gorgeous 4k screen(although it is 2.7-ish inches smaller than the lenovo), a solid processor, and the new one has 16 gigs of ram which is good because of the size of the photos I'm chucking into photoshop these days. It's also worlds lighter. Storage would be 1TB internal, and a lightning-bolt 3 drive sometime in the future when it comes out. So what do you think I should do? If you have experience with either system, let me know what you think. 

Lenovo P50, Xeon, 32gb-ddr4-ecc, 6tb, 4k, massive ass but expandable in every way

VS

RazorBlade Stealth, i7, 16gb fixed, 1Tb internal. 4k, light and fluffy but limited expansion. 

 

Cheers, 

M.U.M.

The Blade Stealth has a ULV CPU - that means it's about 1/5 the power of the P50 and less powerful than a desktop i3. It also runs extremely hot and loud due to the absurdly thin chassis. The 4K 12' screen also causes massive scaling issues with most software and will force you to lower the res to be able to even read the menu. It's a very weak product and comparing it to a top-class workstation is not even fair.

The P50 is one of the best portable workstations and is built like a tank. It's MUCH sturdier and higher quality than anything Razer have ever made in their existence. Not to mention the performance is very good thanks to a CPU that essentially matches an i7 4790 and a GPU that is basically a 750 Ti with improved drivers and stability. The P50 is a high end business laptop. The Blade Stealth is a low-end ultrabook.

[MildlyUpsetMax]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

The Stealth is incapable of handling chrome, how do you expect to it to handle photo editing smoothly?

 

The Blade Stealth has a ULV CPU - that means it's about 1/5 the power of the P50 and less powerful than a desktop i3. It also runs extremely hot and loud due to the absurdly thin chassis. The 4K 12' screen also causes massive scaling issues with most software and will force you to lower the res to be able to even read the menu. It's a very weak product and comparing it to a top-class workstation is not even fair.

The P50 is one of the best portable workstations and is built like a tank. It's MUCH sturdier and higher quality than anything Razer have ever made in their existence. Not to mention the performance is very good thanks to a CPU that essentially matches an i7 4790 and a GPU that is basically a 750 Ti with improved drivers and stability. The P50 is a high end business laptop. The Blade Stealth is a low-end ultrabook.

Yeah, I am not comparing the two in terms of capabilities. There's a pretty obvious gulf there. More looking at what the prevailing opinion is, go light and be able to scrape by or go heavy and enjoy life. Just looking for perspectives on both sides. Thanks for the heads up on the screen scaling, that was helpful.  

[don_svetlio]

Just now, MildlyUpsetMax said:

Yeah, I am not comparing the two in terms of capabilities. There's a pretty obvious gulf there. More looking at what the prevailing opinion is, go light and be able to scrape by or go heavy and enjoy life. Just looking for perspectives on both sides. Thanks for the heads up on the screen scaling, that was helpful.  

Well - the Blade Stealth runs at 90*C under load on a 15W chip - the cooling is loud and poorly designed so expect shorter device life due to that as well as poor acoustics - if you are going to be working on a lot of tabs and multi-tasking in a classroom - you may be asked to leave or stop due to the loud fans.

[Dackzy]

This is like comparing a cheap toy car, that little kids can drive around in to a real car. Sure both can get you from A to B, but one is going to be a lot better at doing it.

 

The blade is the cheap toy car here.

[MildlyUpsetMax]

3 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Well - the Blade Stealth runs at 90*C under load on a 15W chip - the cooling is loud and poorly designed so expect shorter device life due to that as well as poor acoustics - if you are going to be working on a lot of tabs and multi-tasking in a classroom - you may be asked to leave or stop due to the loud fans.

Hahaha fair mate, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. 

[don_svetlio]

Just now, MildlyUpsetMax said:

Hahaha fair mate, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. 

Also - if you need a good keyboard, you'd need an external one with the Blade.

[MildlyUpsetMax]

10 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

This is like comparing a cheap toy car, that little kids can drive around in to a real car. Sure both can get you from A to B, but one is going to be a lot better at doing it.

 

The blade is the cheap toy car here.

My concern is more about carrying a "real car" on my back all over the continent. Obviously P50's the ideal in terms of build quality and power, I'm looking for opinions on if people are making do on lighter hardware and not hating it. 

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, MildlyUpsetMax said:

My concern is more about carrying a "real car" on my back all over the continent. Obviously P50's the ideal in terms of build quality and power, I'm looking for opinions on if people are making do on lighter hardware and not hating it. 

How much power do you need?

If you just need a quad core CPU, then look at the T460p, it runs hot out of the box, but you can fix the heat problem with a bit of undervolting the CPU, it is a ThinkPad so it is really well build, with a really good keyboard.

.

GS40, Y700 14 is also a option for smaller laptops with quad cores, they are not going to be as good as the P50 in anyway.

[GArmyHD]

Just looking at this thread... I can't even.... But anyway, getting onto topic, Blade Stealth is so loud and hot, but the P50 is better in every way except for portability. Also, if you had a backpack, I don't think the weight would be as much of an issue unless prolonged standing sessions are inevitable. If it is, perhaps find a middle ground, with better specs and heat/noise than the blade, but lighter and slightly worse specs than the P50. But I would recommend listening to @Dackzy and @don_svetlio's advice and not get the blade.

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, MildlyUpsetMax said:

My concern is more about carrying a "real car" on my back all over the continent. Obviously P50's the ideal in terms of build quality and power, I'm looking for opinions on if people are making do on lighter hardware and not hating it. 

Check out the Dell XPS 15 and Asus UX501VW

[Pendragon]

4 hours ago, MildlyUpsetMax said:

My concern is more about carrying a "real car" on my back all over the continent. Obviously P50's the ideal in terms of build quality and power, I'm looking for opinions on if people are making do on lighter hardware and not hating it. 

Grab something like a E5470 if you want more CPU power. Photoshop is CPU and memory intensive. You don't need a dGPU for any of those applications. Nor do you need them for MATLAB or anything. All those are CPU bound. You can grab a i7-6820HQ + 1080p for like 800 dollars on Dell Outlet. RAM and storage are easily upgradable so if you won't find the right combo just upgrade it urself. Only the CPU and Display need to be the exact ones. 

 

[Squirrel724]

It sucks to be your back when you are carrying a P50 with you. I notice my XPS 15 in my backpack and it is on the lighter side of 15" laptops.

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, Squirrel724 said:

It sucks to be your back when you are carrying a P50 with you. I notice my XPS 15 in my backpack and it is on the lighter side of 15" laptops.

I've carried around a 3kg laptop in the past and have never noticed it. Are people nowadays so out of shape?

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, don_svetlio said:

I've carried around a 3kg laptop in the past and have never noticed it. Are people nowadays so out of shape?

^ a good pack is all you need. Or a suitcase like me. 

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Pendragon said:

^ a good pack is all you need. Or a suitcase like me. 

I used to carry it around in a cheap bag I found lying around. Did I also mention I was 14 at the time? - seriously - people nowadays are too wimpy.

[Pendragon]

14 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

I used to carry it around in a cheap bag I found lying around. Did I also mention I was 14 at the time? - seriously - people nowadays are too wimpy.

LOL 1 laptop is okay. I carry 3 ): 

I tell myself I should probably just learn to dual boot Linux and Windows and learn Linux on a profession level but I've never taken the time. 

[Hamako]

The P50 weighs 2.67Kg with the big battery, which is pretty good considering what you get. You can reduce the weight to 2.55Kg if you opt for the smaller 4c battery.

[MildlyUpsetMax]

Sounds good everyone, P50 is ordered and should be here in 10 ish days.