Laptop Recommendation PLZ

[andy0842]

hi, im trying to buy a laptop for my college

ive gone through my first year with just ipad and it was quite painful.

so i decided to sell it and buy a laptop

im a computer engineering student so quad core and dGPU are almost a must

ive been looking at the new XPS 15 9570, HP Spectre 2-in-1 with that AMD-Intel Collaboration, Surface Book 2, and Razer Stealth

 

i will be doing a ton of coding (of course), little bit of CAD, a lot of photoshop, quite a bit of premier pro, heavy media consumption, and light gaming(LoL, CSGO, and Fortnite)

my priority in order of increasing importance would be keyboard & track pad, IO, screen, battery life, and all three of performance, portability, and versatility ranked equally

versatility as in 2 in 1 that can be laptop and tablet at the same time I value this functionality quite a bit as I would love to have a light weight tablet when im on bed

 

therefore, im really sold on surface book 2, doesnt matter 13 or 15, altho im more leaning towards 13 cuz of its versatility and portability

and i do buy sb2 im going to get the pen as well for sure

 

my budget is virtually limiteless i am very fortunate enough to have a father who is willing to pay for it

i mean he first offered 1k and with my own free money of 1k i was looking at a quality laptop and came across sb2

then he said few hundred more is ok

 

anyways please gimme some recommendation

im trying to go thru rest of my college with this laptop for sure

[CapitalistVN]

Razer Stealth doesn't have a dGPU I think

 

[MaxBunny]

58 minutes ago, andy0842 said:

my budget is virtually limiteless i am very fortunate enough to have a father who is willing to pay for it

https://slickdeals.net/f/11571963-evga-sc15-gaming-laptop-i7-7700hq-16gb-ram-256gb-ssd-gtx-1060-fhd-w-g-sync-1000-shipping?

 

You'd be hard pressed to find better specs for the price. Get that one and keep the $1k for incidentals and other stuff.

[andy0842]

46 minutes ago, MaxBunny said:

https://slickdeals.net/f/11571963-evga-sc15-gaming-laptop-i7-7700hq-16gb-ram-256gb-ssd-gtx-1060-fhd-w-g-sync-1000-shipping?

 

You'd be hard pressed to find better specs for the price. Get that one and keep the $1k for incidentals and other stuff.

i just edited the original question a bit

i just added portability and versatility to my checklist

while im very interested in that evga laptop how is the battery life on that almost perfect laptop on spec sheet?

[andy0842]

1 hour ago, CapitalistVN said:

Razer Stealth doesn't have a dGPU I think

 

it does not and im not planning to buy the eGPU either

i was just listing it as an example

and i was also just saying dGPU WOULD be nice to have

[genexis_x]

SB2 also has issues. Avoid Razer laptops, terrible quality and QC.

[MaxBunny]

1 hour ago, andy0842 said:

while im very interested in that evga laptop how is the battery life on that almost perfect laptop on spec sheet?

No idea. Probably average. For the price and the company even at average that's going to be pretty decent. But it's more of a portable desktop so the SB2 might be more up your alley. Just don't mind the throttling.

[SydneySideSteveSomewheres]

Hello @andy0842

Which iPad did you have (not that you will be buying one for gaming)? As recently I purchased an iPad 2017 (5thGen) 32GB WiFi. It was my first foray into the Apple ecosystem and bought because I had a $300 store credit, so my bomb cost was just $168 for an Apple product which considering the iPod Original retailed at AUD$895 it was a no-brainer!

Last week, after dealing with all the *idiosyncracies that come when you buy into that Apple icon I decided to upgrade to the iPad 2018 (6thGen) 128GB WiFi and Cellular (not for the pencil mostly for the cellular). While I did get burnt pretty hard with the Apple memory TAX that they charge. I found that after buying a clamshell keyboard for it, that machine is ALL I need to take to university. No more lugging my Alienware 14 and power brick, to and from campus, which is fine by me.

BTW I only miss the trackpad when I forget that the iPad has a touchscreen.

 

So my advice would be to perhaps look at buying a machine to take to university and another for the heavy graphical loads especially if your budget is virtually unlimited.

 

Links:

iPod pricing

Clamshell type keyboard

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, andy0842 said:

while im very interested in that evga laptop how is the battery life on that almost perfect laptop on spec sheet?

Poor battery life. See here for more info: https://www.notebookcheck.net/EVGA-SC15-i7-7700HQ-GTX-1060-Laptop-Review.230932.0.html

[CapitalistVN]

18 hours ago, andy0842 said:

it does not and im not planning to buy the eGPU either

i was just listing it as an example

and i was also just saying dGPU WOULD be nice to have

That's going to add a hefty premium

[Tarun10]

You basically want a system that can do everything well but that's tough to find. Either you will have to sacrifice on tablet functionality or on performance.

Razer isn't worth it. Just ignore it. The HP Spectre x360 with the MX150 will probably get you the versatility, performance, portability and decent battery life.

But I would recommend changing the thermal paste as it overheats on heavy loads. The Surface Book 2 is okay but at the price point, its not a great deal.

If you could forgo the need for a tablet mode(you will get used to it pretty quickly) then the Dell XPS 15 is brilliant. It is also pretty small thanks to the thin bezels.

[andy0842]

22 hours ago, SydneySideSteveSomewheres said:

Which iPad did you have (not that you will be buying one for gaming)?

I had air 2 64gb wifi only version. Like I said I spent a whole college year with it and it was just not enough for me. Also as I progress thru my engineering classes it just won't be enough. Not just performance wise but also OS wise as well. And speaking of the ecosystem, trust me I've tried it I currently use macbook pro 15 with touch bar and radeon 540 pro I also had iPhone 8 and this iPad performance on the laptop is too ridiculous for its price tag and its "pro" name. That ecosystem people talking about is just not enough for me stick with apple. Besides I moved to galaxy s9 recently 

 

 

[andy0842]

22 hours ago, ZM Fong said:

Poor battery life. See here for more info: https://www.notebookcheck.net/EVGA-SC15-i7-7700HQ-GTX-1060-Laptop-Review.230932.0.html

thx

[andy0842]

6 hours ago, CapitalistVN said:

That's going to add a hefty premium

like i said my budget is virtually limitless

[andy0842]

2 hours ago, Tarun10 said:

You basically want a system that can do everything well but that's tough to find.

yes, basically

thats why i really like that sb2 either 13 or 15

 

 

so today i went to local mall with both microsoft and apple stores in it

tried both sb2 versions and decided if i were to go with sb2 i would get 13 model as 15 was just too big to use as a tablet

at apple store i tried 12 inch macbook's keyboard which felt almost identical to my own macbook pro 15 with touch bar

but i decided against it as its performance is just not enough and price addition for more RAM and storage was purely insane

(i really liked the fanless and therefore silent design though and i didnt really care about single usb c port as i already own a lot of dongles for my mb pro 15)

also i tried both surface pen and apple pencil and apple pencil is far better. it just was ages ahead of surface pen

tilt functionality was better, pressure curve was MUCH better and it was nicer to hold its cylindrical shape than surface pen with some angular sides

i also brought one of my graphic design major friends to test along with me she loved the apple pencil

[Tarun10]

2 hours ago, andy0842 said:

yes, basically

thats why i really like that sb2 either 13 or 15

 

 

so today i went to local mall with both microsoft and apple stores in it

tried both sb2 versions and decided if i were to go with sb2 i would get 13 model as 15 was just too big to use as a tablet

at apple store i tried 12 inch macbook's keyboard which felt almost identical to my own macbook pro 15 with touch bar

but i decided against it as its performance is just not enough and price addition for more RAM and storage was purely insane

(i really liked the fanless and therefore silent design though and i didnt really care about single usb c port as i already own a lot of dongles for my mb pro 15)

also i tried both surface pen and apple pencil and apple pencil is far better. it just was ages ahead of surface pen

tilt functionality was better, pressure curve was MUCH better and it was nicer to hold its cylindrical shape than surface pen with some angular sides

i also brought one of my graphic design major friends to test along with me she loved the apple pencil

Well, of you have a limitless budget then just sell your MBP 15, buy yourself the Dell XPS 15 with the GTX 1050 and get yourself the new iPad for when you want to use a tablet. Trust me that's a much better choice than getting the Surface Book 2. QC is OKish, thermals are bad and there are a lot of drawbacks to the design. You will just have a much better experience overall.

Alternatively you can wait till the Surface Book 3 comes out and hope its better, I believe it launches in October.

[SydneySideSteveSomewheres]

2 hours ago, andy0842 said:

I had air 2 64gb wifi only version.

 

 

 

Assuming that was the 2014 Air 2 iPad, did it have support for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

 

This was the clincher for my use case scenario as I already have two Microsoft Office software licences, there was no way I wanted to buy a standalone Apple OS one as well.

You are quite correct too, for the price that you are paying for the iPad Pro that same money would pay for quite a good pre-built PC, which was why I kept to the lower specification device.

[andy0842]

11 hours ago, Tarun10 said:

Well, of you have a limitless budget then just sell your MBP 15, buy yourself the Dell XPS 15 with the GTX 1050 and get yourself the new iPad for when you want to use a tablet. Trust me that's a much better choice than getting the Surface Book 2. QC is OKish, thermals are bad and there are a lot of drawbacks to the design. You will just have a much better experience overall.

Alternatively you can wait till the Surface Book 3 comes out and hope its better, I believe it launches in October.

I've already used surface pro from microsoft

its form factor was functional the price was very justifiable imo

ive also used LG gram with 7th gen intel chip its portability was obviously superior

but the performance was mediocre at best i would not use that as my daily mobile driver

MBP i have right now is obviously still not enough for my use as i explained earlier so im just giving it to my sister in jr high instead of selling it

(yes i know jr high kid with $3k+ laptop is ridiculous i agree but this was a family decision so lets not talk about it anymore thank you)

 

 

SO lets talk about SB2

what you claim about the product is it outta experience?

i can't talk about QC as ive only watched reviews of it

but everything else you've said seems just mere personal speculation to me

i would like at least links or personal experience to back up your statements

 

and yes ive thought of purchasing the new XPS 15 9570 as its performance to price is really good

I KNOW, 45W 6-core 12 thread cpu instead of U-series cpu and with gtx 1050 Ti? and pair that up with still pretty good 1080p display, far above avg battery life, far superior IO, and decent enough portability? jeez, the technology has advanced so much the early ages of ultrabooks from intel look like nothing

and ALL OF THAT for less than $2k if u configure it correctly? OMG that sounds so sweet to me

 

so i dont know man i just dont know

 

thank you for your help though regardless of what i or you say

[andy0842]

9 hours ago, SydneySideSteveSomewheres said:

 

Assuming that was the 2014 Air 2 iPad, did it have support for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

 

This was the clincher for my use case scenario as I already have two Microsoft Office software licences, there was no way I wanted to buy a standalone Apple OS one as well.

You are quite correct too, for the price that you are paying for the iPad Pro that same money would pay for quite a good pre-built PC, which was why I kept to the lower specification device.

i believe yes there were MS office apps for ipad but that would mean a separate keyboard just for the tablet which i didnt buy at the time

nor will i ever decide to invest in a cheap bluetooth keyboard or ridiculously priced apple ipad pro keyboard. just hell no

 

[ono]

I'm looking for a laptop similar to OP so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. I've been mulling over the SB2 as well. I'll need to visit an MS store and get a feel for both sizes to figure out which one I want. I want the 1060 in the 15" for a better gaming experience, but that ain't what this machine is primarily for in my case so I'll go with whichever feels better to me in tablet mode. The 1050 in the 13" SB2 would be an upgrade to the 750M in my MBP that basically can just play indies at this point. It sounded like the 1050 should get me PS4-ish quality, which is fine with me.

 

11 hours ago, Tarun10 said:

Well, of you have a limitless budget then just sell your MBP 15, buy yourself the Dell XPS 15 with the GTX 1050 and get yourself the new iPad for when you want to use a tablet. Trust me that's a much better choice than getting the Surface Book 2. QC is OKish, thermals are bad and there are a lot of drawbacks to the design. You will just have a much better experience overall.

I am considering this as well. XPS 15 with 1050 Ti (I thought; need to double check now) or G7 with 1060 MQ. Their 16 GB of RAM configs are 1500 USD. Probably go XPS for the lower weight and sacrifice the GPU. And pair that with a iPad Pro 13", which is about 1000 USD, so yeah, price is about the same as an 16 GB SB2 that's in a single, overall lighter weight package. (Ok, little more on SB2 since I'd need to pick up a USB-C to HDMI adapter too)

 

I'm already doing the dual thing with my current gear of a MBP and iPad Air. I find lugging around both with me a pain. But if the SB2 truly is unreliable... 

 

Side note: Both SB2 and iPad Pro don't come with their respective pen. Ugh.

[Tarun10]

12 hours ago, andy0842 said:

I've already used surface pro from microsoft

its form factor was functional the price was very justifiable imo

ive also used LG gram with 7th gen intel chip its portability was obviously superior

but the performance was mediocre at best i would not use that as my daily mobile driver

MBP i have right now is obviously still not enough for my use as i explained earlier so im just giving it to my sister in jr high instead of selling it

(yes i know jr high kid with $3k+ laptop is ridiculous i agree but this was a family decision so lets not talk about it anymore thank you)

 

 

SO lets talk about SB2

what you claim about the product is it outta experience?

i can't talk about QC as ive only watched reviews of it

but everything else you've said seems just mere personal speculation to me

i would like at least links or personal experience to back up your statements

 

and yes ive thought of purchasing the new XPS 15 9570 as its performance to price is really good

I KNOW, 45W 6-core 12 thread cpu instead of U-series cpu and with gtx 1050 Ti? and pair that up with still pretty good 1080p display, far above avg battery life, far superior IO, and decent enough portability? jeez, the technology has advanced so much the early ages of ultrabooks from intel look like nothing

and ALL OF THAT for less than $2k if u configure it correctly? OMG that sounds so sweet to me

 

so i dont know man i just dont know

 

thank you for your help though regardless of what i or you say

I can understand your situation now. I highly think separate devices for both will be more useful especially since if you buy the SB2 now it will become outdated soon. It won't last you through college.

If you like the feel and form factor of the SB2 try to get a good deal for it. Don't pay over 2200$ for it depending on your configuration.

Read reviews from Dave Lee, LTT and also from websites like notebookreviews, etc.

 

Just think about it. Your best choice is to go to local stores and have a feel for all the shortlisted devices. Then just think about it for a few days or a week. Count the number of scenarios that would actually require the flexibility of the SB2. If its limited or you can get along without it then get an ultrabook and a tablet.

[Tarun10]

10 hours ago, ono said:

I'm looking for a laptop similar to OP so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. I've been mulling over the SB2 as well. I'll need to visit an MS store and get a feel for both sizes to figure out which one I want. I want the 1060 in the 15" for a better gaming experience, but that ain't what this machine is primarily for in my case so I'll go with whichever feels better to me in tablet mode. The 1050 in the 13" SB2 would be an upgrade to the 750M in my MBP that basically can just play indies at this point. It sounded like the 1050 should get me PS4-ish quality, which is fine with me.

 

I am considering this as well. XPS 15 with 1050 Ti (I thought; need to double check now) or G7 with 1060 MQ. Their 16 GB of RAM configs are 1500 USD. Probably go XPS for the lower weight and sacrifice the GPU. And pair that with a iPad Pro 13", which is about 1000 USD, so yeah, price is about the same as an 16 GB SB2 that's in a single, overall lighter weight package. (Ok, little more on SB2 since I'd need to pick up a USB-C to HDMI adapter too)

 

I'm already doing the dual thing with my current gear of a MBP and iPad Air. I find lugging around both with me a pain. But if the SB2 truly is unreliable... 

 

Side note: Both SB2 and iPad Pro don't come with their respective pen. Ugh.

I think the XPS comes only with the 1050 not the 1050TI. The G7 is pretty thick and bulky and if PS4ish quality is enough the GTX 1050 should do fine.

I don't understand your need for the iPad Pro over the regular iPad. Is it the extra screen size or any other features.

 

You could go all out on a laptop and get the new iPad for 400$ I think..... It depends...…. What are your uses for the laptop and the tablet???? How much do you game and which games do you play exactly????

 

If you don't play too many demanding games the XPS 15 with the GTX 1050 and the iPad Pro is a nice combo compared to the SB2. However, if you want to game a little more or have any demanding programs to run, I would consider getting a more powerful laptop with a GTX 1060 or 1070 Max-Q and cutting back on the iPad Pro. The new Dell XPS 15 is also available on their website for 1600$ with an CFL-H processor and GTX 1050TI so consider that for an extra 100$.

I need to know your use case before I can recommend anything.

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, Tarun10 said:

Read reviews from Dave Lee, LTT and also from websites like notebookreviews, etc.

Dave Lee and LTT? Nope, their reviews aren't detailed enough. Too simple. Notebookcheck and Ultrabookreview are good laptop review websites. Notebookreview forum also not bad, though you need to spend a lot of time doing research there.

[Tarun10]

28 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

Dave Lee and LTT? Nope, their reviews aren't detailed enough. Too simple. Notebookcheck and Ultrabookreview are good laptop review websites. Notebookreview forum also not bad, though you need to spend a lot of time doing research there.

Oh I know LTT is not that accurate but sometimes their stuff like build quality and keyboards are reviewed well. Will keep these websites in mind. Dave Lee is okay for stuff like benchmark scores but I guess its better to get them in one place.

[ono]

8 hours ago, Tarun10 said:

I think the XPS comes only with the 1050 not the 1050TI. The G7 is pretty thick and bulky and if PS4ish quality is enough the GTX 1050 should do fine.

I don't understand your need for the iPad Pro over the regular iPad. Is it the extra screen size or any other features.

 

You could go all out on a laptop and get the new iPad for 400$ I think..... It depends...…. What are your uses for the laptop and the tablet???? How much do you game and which games do you play exactly????

 

If you don't play too many demanding games the XPS 15 with the GTX 1050 and the iPad Pro is a nice combo compared to the SB2. However, if you want to game a little more or have any demanding programs to run, I would consider getting a more powerful laptop with a GTX 1060 or 1070 Max-Q and cutting back on the iPad Pro. The new Dell XPS 15 is also available on their website for 1600$ with an CFL-H processor and GTX 1050TI so consider that for an extra 100$.

I need to know your use case before I can recommend anything.

Yeah, I was referring to the new XPS 15 so that's why I was thinking 1050ti. I wrote a little more of what I was looking for on the laptop side of things in a previous thread. My thoughts have shifted toward light weight over gaming though, so the G5/G7s are out and the new XPS 15 and SB2 is now what I'm considering. The laptop would mostly be at home, which is why I initially thought thick and bulky would be ok, save for occasionally bringing it to work (never tried iPad with keyboard for my job; need to investigate SSH and remote desktop capabilities of iPad for data analysis and programming... Not sure how touch friendly RStudio Server is) and travel. A big G5/7 along with an iPad is a heavier load than I do now and I already don't like my current load (15" MBP + iPad Air), so yeah, forget gaming laptops for me. Roughly away from home for 1-1.5 months total out of the year. Not a large amount so prioritizing GPU is probably a bad idea.

 

The new iPad that has pen support definitely reduces the value prop of iPad Pro. Is it just the screen size and refresh rate that's the difference now? I have an iPad Air prior to Pro and the Apple Pencil existing and ended up using it mostly for web browsing, media consumption, and PDF reading. I did buy some sort of pen for it but wasn't good enough for marking up PDFs or notes so I never use it for work stuff and instead have a ton of scientific papers printed out, scattered all over my desk to markup. The new/Pro iPad or SB2 would change that. Also opens the door to do creative stuff with the pen for fun. I'm considering the 13" screens (I tried the 15" SB2 yesterday and it's a bit unwieldy) since that's closer to letter and A4 sizes and therefore more comfortably readable and markable for me. I don't think the higher refresh rate is key to what I'd do.

 

I'm not completely opposed to two devices (been doing that with two iterations of MBP + iPad for like 10 years I guess), from what I've seen reviewers have been positive on the SB2, with the top criticism being the price. But I don't know, doesn't seem far off from my current 2 device plan.