Problems for a university laptop - Urgent

[Thanzex]

Hi there everybody! 

I'm looking for a laptop here, i initially started looking for the Inspiron 15 7559:

• i7 6700HQ
• 960m 4GB
• 1TB HDD
• 800 - 900 €

But then i analyzed what i needed better. I'm going to use this laptop almost every day for a few years and do at least a half hour trip every day to get to my university, so portability became a key, the Inspiron weights in at a whopping 2.57Kg / 5.67 pounds, here i have another 15" laptop that weights 2.6Kg and i definitely don't think i'm willing to carry that thing ever day.

So i started looking for some more portable laptops, and i found an offer for an XPS 15. Used for just four months:

• i7 6700HQ
• 960m 2GB
• 512 GB NVMe
• 1300€

It's actually a great offer, here in italy that same configuration goes for 1750€ on the official website, and the laptop looks to be in perfect conditions.

It's a quite big bump in the price though.

I would be willing to spend this money, as it's a quality laptop that has good battery life, tops specs, very portable ( almost one full Kg less and smaller than a regular 15" ) and that has to last a few years, but there's one problem.

I'm going to do Computer Engineering in one of the best universities in my country, to do that i have to move quite far away from home and my girlfriend is coming with me. The fact that, economically speaking, she's struggling a bit to follow me makes me think more than twice about getting a 1300€ laptop.

 

What do you think? Is it overkill? should i get something else? What would you have done?

 

[don_svetlio]

2.5kg is nothing man.... I carry around a 3kg laptop with 0 issues. Really, get the Inspiron 7559 or Lenovo Y700

[Mark77]

Not really a fan of carrying around something so large.  And personally I think most students are better served with the "business" laptops, ie: the Dell Latitude series, rather than the consumer-focused XPS. 

 

Don't know if they have "Dell Outlet" in Europe/UK, but in the US, you can get a nice Latitude E7470 with 1080p screen for under USD$1000 with 3-year on-site warranty. 

[Thanzex]

I forgot to mention, another big thing that's keeping me from buying the 7559 is the quality. For 800-900€ and those specs you get what you pay for, and many many long term reviews mention the crappy quality touchpad and keyboard, low color reproduction and backlight bleed on the screen, etc..

I don't want the absolute best, but as a  laptop that i'll be using everyday i need a bit more quality.

[don_svetlio]

36 minutes ago, Thanzex said:

I forgot to mention, another big thing that's keeping me from buying the 7559 is the quality. For 800-900€ and those specs you get what you pay for, and many many long term reviews mention the crappy quality touchpad and keyboard, low color reproduction and backlight bleed on the screen, etc..

I don't want the absolute best, but as a  laptop that i'll be using everyday i need a bit more quality.

Then look at the Lenovo Y700 or Asus GL552 (the grey metal version - the black version is plastic)

[Thanzex]

2 hours ago, don_svetlio said:

Then look at the Lenovo Y700 or Asus GL552 (the grey metal version - the black version is plastic)

They are both a bit clunky, i think, isn't there a more business oriented solution?

[don_svetlio]

15 minutes ago, Thanzex said:

They are both a bit clunky, i think, isn't there a more business oriented solution?

With a 960M? No, unless you are willing to pay 1700 Euros or more. You can't have a high-end business laptop with a powerful dGPU for cheap - the world doesn't work like that.

For that kind of budget - Y700 and GL552 are the best options available. They are the same size and weight as the 7559 but have better features (screen, audio, keyboard, trackpad, build quality)