Looking for new laptop

@milford: I have to agree with Steve C, above. Consumer laptops are crap. Get a business (or as he says, "professional") laptop.

Ignore the warranties. They're largely worthless.
Ignore the "support". It's largely worthless.

If you buy a good laptop you won't need a warranty and you won't need support.

Also ... you haven't said what you'll use the laptop for.
Lacking that, the search for a "laptop" is like the search for a "Ford".

Just as with Fords, there's a great range of laptops. Do you need a "Ford Falcon" or a "Ford GT"?

O.K. If that link didn't work,, how about...

Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 15 15.6" Laptop Computer - Blue; Intel Core i5-1135G7 Processor 2.4GHz; 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM; 512GB - Micro Center


Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 14 14" 2-in-1 Laptop Computer - Grey; AMD Ryzen 3 4300U Processor 2.7GHz; 8GB DDR4-3200 Onboard - Micro Center

milford said:

O.K. If that link didn't work,, how about...

Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 15 15.6" Laptop Computer - Blue; Intel Core i5-1135G7 Processor 2.4GHz; 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM; 512GB - Micro Center

Good CPU; 4 cores, 8 threads, introduced recently.

Passmark score 9905; single thread score 2742. Those scores are noticeably higher than my Intel i5-6600k desktop.

I'd try to find online reviews of that specific Lenovo, particularly re build quality, durability, customer support, screen issues.

Can't tell much just by looking at that Microcenter page.

Scores for the AMD in your link; 7697; single thread 2337; very close to my 6600k.

Either of them is plenty strong enough to do your stated tasks well...........both have SSDs and 8 gb of RAM. But I have NO idea of other characteristics/peculiarities/shortcomings.

I like the laptop with the Intel CPU, mainly because it has a 512GB NVME SSD. I'm not sure how common that is in with a laptop of that price.

The last laptop I purchased for my own use had an optical drive. Force of habit, mostly. I'd probably just get an inexpensive external drive at this time to serve the laptop and my desktop PCs.

You have no interest in a touchscreen or a 2-in-one laptop (that can be used as a tablet)? I wouldn't, but others may want that.

bobkn said:

I like the laptop with the Intel CPU, mainly because it has a 512GB NVME SSD. I'm not sure how common that is in with a laptop of that price.

The last laptop I purchased for my own use had an optical drive. Force of habit, mostly. I'd probably just get an inexpensive external drive at this time to serve the laptop and my desktop PCs.

You have no interest in a touchscreen or a 2-in-one laptop (that can be used as a tablet)? I wouldn't, but others may want that.

There's also the difference in size to maybe want to consider: 15.4 inch versus only 14 inch. Here's the full specs for that IdeaPad 5i 15. IdeaPad,IdeaPad 5 15ITL05,Model:82FG000QUS
8GB memory might be enough for the intended use, but nevertheless I think it's still worth noting that the memory is directly soldered to the motherboard, therefore upgrading the memory will not be possible. But I have the same exact Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU in mine, and, you can bet both shoes on that it paints circles around AMD Ryzen every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

- - - Updated - - -

Another thing is that the Iris Xe that is integrated into this CPU outperforms an Nvidia GeForce MX330 in spite of the fact that the latter is a discrete GPU.

It is worth checking that it wont restrict things you might want to do.

Hi there
Loads of decent stuff on the market -- Personally for a laptop I'd chose one with an INTEL processor rather than AMD - but that's your call. Make sure these days that it has a decent size SSD (they are often now those Nvme.m2 or equivalent things - also good) and I'd go for 32GB RAM - memory is relatively cheap these days.

The latest processors are very power efficient too.

If you travel a lot then I'd get one with a smaller screen -- lighter etc -- the video output of any decent laptop these days is capable also of 4K UHD output so if you have an enormous 60 inch monster of a screen it will work perfectly.

HP envy laptops with i7 processor and 17 inch screen (bit big screen size for me though) and 1TB SSD can be had for around 1,100 EUR (that includes tax) - if buying in the USA probably cheaper but remember that USA prices in general don't include the sales tax.

If you want a laptop for gaming -- I'll pass as that's not my area of expertise.

BTW I have a donkeys years old HP envy with 12.5 inch screen and i5 core processor - still runs rings around any AMD RYZEN powered one that I've seen - and this laptop only has 250GB SSD and 8GB RAM !!! but it's an old model -- has Bang and Olufsen sound too -- I think build quality was a bit better back then. I also can still run 2 - 3 VM's concurrently on it with decent performance !!! -

The laptop has been dropped and thrown around by security in so many airports that I'm amazed it still works -- no probs currently.

Cheers
jimbo

margrave55 said:

@milford: I have to agree with Steve C, above. Consumer laptops are crap. Get a business (or as he says, "professional") laptop.

Ignore the warranties. They're largely worthless.
Ignore the "support". It's largely worthless.

If you buy a good laptop you won't need a warranty and you won't need support.

Also ... you haven't said what you'll use the laptop for.
Lacking that, the search for a "laptop" is like the search for a "Ford".

Just as with Fords, there's a great range of laptops. Do you need a "Ford Falcon" or a "Ford GT"?

Or what about one of these !!!! That's how I view AMD processors currently !!!!



(Old East German trabant, 2 cylinders ran on two-stroke oil and even a smoke bomb would have emitted less smoke than these things did - and people had to wait 20 years to get them --incredible !!!).

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks for the help. I've been looking at reviews, and I wish I hadn't. I don't know what it means but some reviews say this laptop has a TN (?) display which is considered poor, while other websites mention an IPS which is better.

milford said:

Thanks for the help. I've been looking at reviews, and I wish I hadn't. I don't know what it means but some reviews say this laptop has a TN (?) display which is considered poor, while other websites mention an IPS which is better.

TN is a Twisted Nematic LCD (liquid crystal display). It's about the most primitive LCD on the market. The main downside to it is viewing angle. It has brightness changes and color shifts off axis. TN displays may also have relatively poor bit depths, which could lead to banding when viewing pictures or movies.

LCDs use a backlight; the LCD itself functions as a light valve. The backlight used to be fluorescent tubes, but may be LEDs (light emitting diodes) now.

IPS is In Plane Switching (also an LCD). It is better than TN, especially as regards viewing angle, and used in more professional displays. TN sometimes offers a faster response time, mostly relevant for gaming.

OLED is Organic LED. Unlike an LCD, there are no light valves. The pixels themselves emit light, also known as being self-luminous. Most laptops don't use OLED, although it's not rare in phones. (Or in expensive flat panel TVs.)

It may be that both of the laptops you provide links for have RAM that isn't upgradeable. I used to think of 8GB as adeqaute for everything, but for some current applications (e. g., Photoshop Elements), it's the recommended minimum.