Looking for: 15,6" Laptop - 16GB RAM - Budget upto 1400 Euro

[Rudy_258]

Hi guys, 

 

Been a long time fan of LTT and this is my first post here. I really hope you guys can help me out. 

 

I'm a Computer Science student in Germany and am currently looking for a laptop. My 6 Year old companion, the Alienware M17x R4 is dying and since it's the cyber weekend, there are many good deals out there and I thought this is the time to buy a new laptop, I've been looking for over 3 days and I am having an extremely hard time to decide. 

 

Here is where things are... I've learned many thing from owning the bulky Alienware. Mainly, heavy laptops are really bad for your back and so I am looking for something up to 2.5 KG. 

 

A typical workload for me would be a 15 open tabs on Chrome, Spotify, Skype, Visual Studio and/or IntelliJ and sometime even Unity 3D. My 6GB Alienware has long been struggling with that, so for that reason, 16GB of RAM are a must. 

 

I am not looking for gaming, however having owned a gaming Laptop for so long, I am worried about having a weak graphics card, but if you guys say onboard Graphics is enough, I'll take your word for it. 

 

Up to this day, I could never take my laptop anywhere with me without a charger, so a long battery life would be welcome. 

 

Another thing is that I am trying to think a bit into the future, and therefore an 8th gen i7 would be welcome. Having said that, if you think an i5 would be able to handle my workload, I'd again take your word for it. 

 

So to sum it all up, I'm looking for:

15,6" Laptop

Up to 1400 Euro in Price

Max 2.5 KG (5.5 Pounds)

16GB Ram

>256 GB SSD and perhaps an HDD ontop of that

8th Gen. i7 processor (Potentially i5)

 

Another very important thing for me is having keyboard backlighting and a numpad, so for that reason Dell laptops are out. (Their 15" models don't have a numpad)  

 

Here are some really good offers that I am considering, if any of you owns any of these devices, I'd appreciate any feedback:

 

HP Omen 15, i7-8750h, 16GB, GTX 1050ti (1060 is sold out atm)1000TB HDD + 256GB SSD for 1089 Euro - 

Lenovo Thinkpad L580, i7-8550u, 16GB, 512GB SDD, Intel UHD Graphics 620 for 1140 Euro - Current favorite, not sure about the battery life though... reviews differ.

Lenovo ThinkPad T580, i5-8250u, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620 for 1430 Euro

 

All have a 15,6" Full HD screen

 

I apologize for the long post, but if anybody could give me some advice, I'd be more than thankful! 

 

Thank you all very much!

 

[Princess Luna]

https://www.amazon.de/ASUS-S530UN-BQ086T-Notebook-I7-8550U-Fingerprint/dp/B07G453B8C/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1543191219&sr=8-12&keywords=vivobook+asus+i7+8550u

 

How about this one?

[Rudy_258]

2 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

https://www.amazon.de/ASUS-S530UN-BQ086T-Notebook-I7-8550U-Fingerprint/dp/B07G453B8C/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1543191219&sr=8-12&keywords=vivobook+asus+i7+8550u

 

How about this one?

Thanks for the reply. 

 

I was actually considering that one earlier today, for me it would cost 1130 Euro, similar to the L580. I read some reviews and they all seemed to indicate a bad battery life of about 3 - 4 hours, which is similar to the HP Omen, however with much worse specs and more or less the same price. 

 

Would you agree with that or do you have personal experience with the laptop?

[Princess Luna]

10 minutes ago, Rudy_258 said:

or me it would cost 1130 Euro,

no that's a 950 euro laptop like it shows there, more than that ain't worth it

[Rudy_258]

4 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

no that's a 950 euro laptop like it shows there, more than that ain't worth it

Oh yes, you're right, I thought that was the US Amazon site. I was checking the laptop on notebooksbilliger. That one has a slightly different model name, but as far as I see it has basically the same specs, but costs more. Edit: The one I was looking at comes with a 1TB HDD + 256 GB SSD, compared to the Amazon one with 512 GB HDD. 

Do you know anything about the battery life? 

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, Rudy_258 said:

A typical workload for me would be a 15 open tabs on Chrome, Spotify, Skype, Visual Studio and/or IntelliJ and sometime even Unity 3D

 

I am not looking for gaming, however having owned a gaming Laptop for so long, I am worried about having a weak graphics card, but if you guys say onboard Graphics is enough, I'll take your word for it. 

 

a long battery life would be welcome. 

 

So to sum it all up, I'm looking for:

15,6" Laptop

Up to 1400 Euro in Price

Max 2.5 KG (5.5 Pounds)

16GB Ram

>256 GB SSD and perhaps an HDD ontop of that

8th Gen. i7 processor (Potentially i5)

 

Another very important thing for me is having keyboard backlighting and a numpad

Do you need good sRGB display? Fine with no dGPU? Prefer min how many hours of battery life?

Any links of online stores?

 

FYI i5 and i7 don't have significant performance difference in ULVs due to thermal and firmware limitations. Also, you can upgrade RAM/storage in some cases

[BaneOfKnoll]

https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-edge/ThinkPad-E580/p/20KSCTO1WWENAU2

 

If you're looking for a work station I wouldn't look any further than a lenovo thinkpad. Great build quality.

[genexis_x]

36 minutes ago, TopHatTom said:

https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-edge/ThinkPad-E580/p/20KSCTO1WWENAU2

 

If you're looking for a work station I wouldn't look any further than a lenovo thinkpad. Great build quality.

Thinkpad E series is actually consumer laptop rebrand

[Rudy_258]

11 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Do you need good sRGB display? Fine with no dGPU? Prefer min how many hours of battery life?

Any links of online stores?

 

FYI i5 and i7 don't have significant performance difference in ULVs due to thermal and firmware limitations. Also, you can upgrade RAM/storage in some cases

I would like to have a decent display, as I will also be using the laptop to watch Netflix and such. dGPU is not very important. Preferrably at least 5 - 6 of actual battery life. 

 

For online stores, I've been mainly looking at a German store called notebooksbilliger.de which has a really great "Campus" program for students, where you get some really good deals. 

 

9 hours ago, TopHatTom said:

https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-edge/ThinkPad-E580/p/20KSCTO1WWENAU2

 

If you're looking for a work station I wouldn't look any further than a lenovo thinkpad. Great build quality.

I've actually considered that one, but if I do get a Lenovo I would most likely spend the extra 100 Euros and get the L580 rather than the E580, as everybody seems to agree the L Series is much better. Potentially I could add another 400 Euros and get a T580, which is outside of my budget, at about 1600 Euros. I would consider the T580 if I was eligible for a 12 month 0% Interest payment plan, which technically I would be, as I tested it out, and was approved, before I committed to buying. 

 

The only thing putting me off from the Lenovos is their bad screen and audio quality (as far as I heard). Any thoughts on the matter?

 

For slightly less than the T580, I could get this beast of a laptop: https://www.notebooksbilliger.de/studentenprogramm/notebooks/hp/hp+campus/zbook/hp+zbook+15v+g5+156+4k+i7+16+gb+ram+2512+gb+ssd

HP Zbook 15v G5, 5,6" 4K Screen, i7-8750H, 16 GB RAM, 2TB HDD + 512 GB SSD, nVidia Quadro P600.

This one seems like WAY overkill though, and with those specs, I'd be surprised if the battery lasts more than 2.5 hours. It does have a 70Wh battery though, and weighs 2.15 KG only.

[genexis_x]

54 minutes ago, Rudy_258 said:

snip

Business laptops usually have low sRGB IPS display (default) and don't have great audio quality. You're actually right

 

One last question, prefer regular laptops/Ultrabooks or gaming/performance laptops?

[Rudy_258]

Just now, GeneXiS_X said:

Business laptops usually have low sRGB IPS display (default) and don't have great audio quality. You're actually right

 

One last question, prefer regular laptops/Ultrabooks or gaming/performance laptops?

More like a regular but powerful laptop, I'm willing to let go of a dedicated GPU to have more battery life. 

[BaneOfKnoll]

18 hours ago, Rudy_258 said:

bad screen

I disagree, the screen on mine is pretty  damn good. Not overly bright, but good colours .

18 hours ago, Rudy_258 said:

audio quality

Yeah, speakers are shit, but i just use my BT speaker anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

18 hours ago, Rudy_258 said:

, I'd be surprised if the battery lasts more than 2.5 hours.

My E580 will last me like 8 hours of battery doing moderate work. So yeah...

[Rudy_258]

23 minutes ago, TopHatTom said:

I disagree, the screen on mine is pretty  damn good. Not overly bright, but good colours .

Yeah, speakers are shit, but i just use my BT speaker anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

My E580 will last me like 8 hours of battery doing moderate work. So yeah...

Hey thanks for the reply, this is exactly what I was looking for. First hand experience. 

The part about the Battery was referring to the HP ZBook workstation, not the Thinkpad. 

 

I am currently leaning very heavily to the Thinkpad L580, should be similar to the E580 but even better from what I've heard and costs only slightly more with the same specs. 

[genexis_x]

If you really want a good display, Legion Y530 with 144Hz IPS might be a good choice, though battery life is only ~5 hrs. Fits the rest of your requirements