Looking for a high-spec 15" laptop with good battery life. [Specs listed]

STBR

Hey everyone, I'm looking for a new laptop which will be my primary computer and possibly be used for college. When I'm at home I hook it up to external monitor/keyboard/mouse/etc. so I don't need a large screen. I've found a few machines which match my needs but they all have terrible battery life and/or weight a ton.

It will be used for almost everything you can think of, from browsing to programming, playing video, etc. I don't play games any more, but I'd at least like the option to anyway.

Budget isn't too important as long as it meets my needs, because I've been saving for this for a long time. I'd like it to be reasonably light as well.

Specs:

• <= 15.6" 1920x1080p screen
• Core i7
• Minimum 4GB RAM
• 500GB 7200RPM HDD [would of course prefer SSD if at a good price]
• 1GB Video Memory

All I want is these specs with decent battery life, 2 or 3 hours at least, and some sort of portability.

Seems like it shouldn't be a very difficult task, but it seems so hard to find!

The new MacBook Pros seem to basically meet my requirements, especially with the battery life/weight, it's just the fact they're running OSX/cost a bit over the top. Could always throw on Bootcamp/Parallels Desktop and be away though I suppose.

Thanks a huge amount in advance!

Voodu Child

The i7 Quadcores are 45W processors, so you don't find them in that many 15" laptops. There are a few....HP DV6, Alienware M15x, Acer 5940, MSI GT640 etc, but as you've found, they tend to be quite chunky/heavy. Thats just the way it goes, if you put a 45W processor into a laptop, you need to keep it cool.

HP Envy 15 is one I can think of that has a slimline chassis, and they've had to leave out the optical drive to achieve that. That's where i'd start looking anyway. Dell Studio XPS 16 might be another that ticks some of your boxes.

Tbh, you'd need to be more specfic than saying you want 1GB video ram. That means very little these days. There's plenty of cards with 1GB ram that only have so-so performance. You need to decide whether you're looking for high-end, mid-range or low-end performance.

The new MBPs use the i7 dualcore (i7-620M). And even then, they seem to run very hot. If you are going to consider an i7 dualcore, you might as well consider the high-end i5s also.

seraphimvc

if you are not using intense video performance, want a reliable machine,light, long battery - you take a look at those business range laptop,go laptopdirect.ie have a look around.

if money is not an issue i am defo recommending the Thinkpad X-series :pac: but i think atm there is only a 12'' model, so maybe you can take a look of those 14'' T-series too,all of them are very light with high end cpu machines capable of high performance/heavy duty. also the Dell Latitude Z(slow cpu/16') and E6510(heavy) look good too.

you can go here you can find alot of students like you have the problems to buy which laptop for them

also fyi the difference between i5 or i7 is just i7 is more energy saving,unless you are businessman need to carry the laptop in and out all day,you wont find the difference between them.get the highest i3 or standard i5 is sufficient.

STBR

Voodu Child wrote: »

The i7 Quadcores are 45W processors, so you don't find them in that many 15" laptops. There are a few....HP DV6, Alienware M15x, Acer 5940, MSI GT640 etc, but as you've found, they tend to be quite chunky/heavy. Thats just the way it goes, if you put a 45W processor into a laptop, you need to keep it cool.

HP Envy 15 is one I can think of that has a slimline chassis, and they've had to leave out the optical drive to achieve that. That's where i'd start looking anyway. Dell Studio XPS 16 might be another that ticks some of your boxes.

Tbh, you'd need to be more specfic than saying you want 1GB video ram. That means very little these days. There's plenty of cards with 1GB ram that only have so-so performance. You need to decide whether you're looking for high-end, mid-range or low-end performance.

The new MBPs use the i7 dualcore (i7-620M). And even then, they seem to run very hot. If you are going to consider an i7 dualcore, you might as well consider the high-end i5s also.

Yeah I've looked at the Envy 15 and the only thing that stopped me buying it is the lack of optical drive.
Also looked at the Stuidio XPS 16 and that's currently what I'm most likely to buy, the only thing with that is the protruding battery if you go with 9 cell, and also the odd placement of the air vent.

I haven't got a lot of knowledge in the GPU area so I'm not sure what to ask for. Mid-to-high range performance would be most preferable as I also do graphic work.

Will definitely take on board about the i5s. Thanks!

seraphimvc wrote: »

if you are not using intense video performance, want a reliable machine,light, long battery - you take a look at those business range laptop,go laptopdirect.ie have a look around.

if money is not an issue i am defo recommending the Thinkpad X-series :pac: but i think atm there is only a 12'' model, so maybe you can take a look of those 14'' T-series too,all of them are very light with high end cpu machines capable of high performance/heavy duty. i search up a thread for you.

fyi the difference between i5 or i7 is just i7 is more energy saving,unless you are businessman need to carry the laptop in and out all day,you wont find the difference between them.get the highest i3 or standard i5 is sufficient.

Thanks for the points!
I was also under the impression that the i7 was better for running multiple intense processes, whereas the i5 was more for just 1 or 2. Is this untrue?

seraphimvc

SirDarren wrote: »

Thanks for the points!
I was also under the impression that the i7 was better for running multiple intense processes, whereas the i5 was more for just 1 or 2. Is this untrue?

this generation of intel laptop cpu board is fairly 'simple' because they are all way powerful than the last gen,i3 for general consumer,i5 for (slightly) high performance demand,i7 is kinda equal to i5 but more energy saving. this gen of cpu can all do intense multitasking(s)!

i edited the post just now so check out the different link too:D

Voodu Child

SirDarren wrote: »

I was also under the impression that the i7 was better for running multiple intense processes, whereas the i5 was more for just 1 or 2. Is this untrue?

All but one of the mobile i7s are quadcores. That means they have 4 cores, which is certainly an advantage in many scenarios.

The only spanner in the works is the i7-620M as mentioned. Thats a dualcore, meaning it only has 2 cores. So it is better to think of it as 'one above' the highest-end i5 (i5-540M), rather than to group it in with the proper i7 CPUs.