Have you seen a 17 inch 4k at a reasonable price?

marcbrophy

Howdy folks

I've been thinking of getting a 4k laptop for a while.
Thing is they all seemed to be offering 15 inch models.
I was waiting for 17 inch ones to become common place.

Dell have released an Alienware 17" UHD top of the line machine, with great specs. Problem is it's €2,349 :pac:

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/alienware-17-laptop/pd?oc=n00aw17r406&model_id=alienware-17-laptop

Now, I'm no idiot, I know there's a nice mark-up on these machines from Dell. I also know there's tonnes of part building and custom rig sites out there that may have the same spec machines for a lot less. So many that I don't know where to start

Has anyone here seen a nice spec 17 inch 4k for a reasonable (€1,000 - €1,200) price tag?

mordeith

Is 4K on a laptop worth it? Unless you're outputting to a larger screen of course.

marcbrophy

Do you mean worth as in you'd see a difference in a screen of 17 inches at the typical distance you'd be from a laptop. Or the cost of such an item?

If it's seeing a difference, then I honestly don't know yet, as I can't afford one.
If it's the cost, then see above

I guess it's more a pipe dream than a reality at the given prices. That's why I was wondering if anyone here has seen these things cheaper?

mordeith

marcbrophy wrote: »

Do you mean worth as in you'd see a difference in a screen of 17 inches at the typical distance you'd be from a laptop. Or the cost of such an item?

If it's seeing a difference, then I honestly don't know yet, as I can't afford one.
If it's the cost, then see above

I guess it's more a pipe dream than a reality at the given prices. That's why I was wondering if anyone here has seen these things cheaper?

From what I've read, unless you are doing high-end graphics work the visual difference between FHD and 4K on a laptop is barely noticeable. Certainly not enough to warrant the price differential.

even on the smaller screen sizes there is a significant premium for 4k screens on laptops at the moment.
like most things the tech gets cheaper over time.
could be a year or two before this premium reduces significantly.
as a comparison, for the last 7 years or so the default laptop option has been a 1368 x 768 TN panel screen with a fair premium for a 1080p screen (particularly an IPS one). this (e.g. IPS 1080p appearing at a reasonable price) is only changing now.

marcbrophy

I was more than ok with spending the difference in price between 768p and 1080p with my current laptop. I think was between 150 - 200 of a difference at the time.

The difference between 1080p and 2160p is almost double the cost of the unit. :pac:

You are right though glasso, it'll be another 2 years before there is a fair alignment in the prices.

I'll come back in 2019

but to be honest I wouldn't be too focussed on resolution above 1080p. I would argue that 1080p on a 17.3 screen is enough, unless you're doing some professional photo work.
I'd be more concerned about RGB colour reproduction accuracy of the screen that you're getting on the laptop.
e.g. there is a huge difference between a sh1t TN panel 1080p screen and a good 1080p IPS one.
The colours will be more accurate which makes a HUGE difference. It's hard to explain the difference without either seeing this side by side or moving to a good screen from a crap one.

this will give you an idea. look at IPS vs TN

marcbrophy

Where would I found out the type of screen that I have now?

marcbrophy

marcbrophy wrote: »

Where would I found out the type of screen that I have now?

it's 99% TN.
If it was IPS it would be boasted about in the product spec.
If it doesn't say anything it's TN.
A very small amount of TN panels (mainly on monitors tho) can be "ok". you need to see a review and see what it says about the colour accuracy.
IPS also has a big advantage on viewing angles also, as shown in the pic above.

marcbrophy

87% brightness accuracy is something I saw mentioned on a review site.

I think it's fantastic myself, so I'm really curious about this IPS now, if it so much better

marcbrophy

marcbrophy wrote: »

87% brightness accuracy is something I saw mentioned on a review site.

I think it's fantastic myself, so I'm really curious about this IPS now, if it so much better

well I went from 1368 x 768 TN to 1080p IPS and the difference is amazing. watching a movie is night and day in terms of it looking realistic. some IPS screens may have a downside for gaming in the response time but again check that.

I've never heard of "brigthness accuracy"!

colour accuracy and contrast are the two main things to look for. I guess that some IPS screens can be better than other ones also.

edit brigthness too is important.

always read up in an in-depth review like the display section of something like this.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-13-and-Inspiron-13-Special-Edition-Convertible-Review.141719.0.html

marcbrophy

Sorry, it was brightness distribution :pac:

Under display on this page:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Inspiron-17R-SE-7720-Notebook.80063.0.html

bottom line is that whatever you are considering buying, look at a detailed review if you can find it of the display. most people don't bother looking into the screen and are more concerned about i5 vs i3 etc whereas to take that example of the core i chips there is not much difference between i5 and i3 in the mobile laptop "u" processors which are in 95% of laptops with core i chips, so it's rather pointless.
meanwhile the screen is what you're going to be looking at all the time.

notebookcheck.net are one of the few sites that actually do this properly.

there are tradeoffs on brightness vs contrast etc so there is no "perfect" screen.

if that's the one that you have doesn't seem too bad for the time but brightness and contrast levels would be low for today and these elements can be a lot better.

marcbrophy

glasso wrote: »

bottom line is that whatever you are considering buying, look at a detailed review if you can find it of the display. most people don't bother looking into the screen and are more concerned about i5 vs i3 etc whereas to take that example of the core i chips there is not much difference between i5 and i3 in the mobile laptop "u" processors which are in 95% of laptops with core i chips, so it's rather pointless.
meanwhile the screen is what you're going to be looking at all the time.

notebookcheck.net are one of the few sites that actually do this properly.

there are tradeoffs on brightness vs contrast etc so there is no "perfect" screen.

if that's the one that you have doesn't seem too bad for the time but brightness and contrast levels would be low for today and these elements can be a lot better.

It is yeah, now from the pics, I can see the limits of the display when you look at it obscure angles. When looking at it straight on though it's grand though.

I will keep it in mind when specing the next machine to buy to review the screen anyway

For Forks Sake

marcbrophy wrote: »

Howdy folks

I've been thinking of getting a 4k laptop for a while.
Thing is they all seemed to be offering 15 inch models.
I was waiting for 17 inch ones to become common place.

Dell have released an Alienware 17" UHD top of the line machine, with great specs. Problem is it's €2,349 :pac:

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/alienware-17-laptop/pd?oc=n00aw17r406&model_id=alienware-17-laptop

Now, I'm no idiot, I know there's a nice mark-up on these machines from Dell. I also know there's tonnes of part building and custom rig sites out there that may have the same spec machines for a lot less. So many that I don't know where to start

Has anyone here seen a nice spec 17 inch 4k for a reasonable (€1,000 - €1,200) price tag?

Similarly speced 17" 4k HP with additional SSD over the Dell) on the UK store, but only slightly cheaper £1899/c.€2230

http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=1DN38EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

marcbrophy

For Forks Sake wrote: »

Similarly speced 17" 4k HP with additional SSD over the Dell) on the UK store, but only slightly cheaper £1899/c.€2230

http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=1DN38EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

A nice machine alright, but a grand more than I'd consider paying

Looks like I'll be compromising on something or other for my next laptop!

nice 15.6 dell with UHD screen, i7 HQ 4 cores, 16gb ram, large 512gb ssd. decent enough 960m graphics card also.

about a grand all in. you don't really need 17 inches!

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&key=a1ObhLc4JJHCOeQUo7VbmyBGKf8cdvDb&puid=25a48fd7

(if sold, link will be dead).

marcbrophy

glasso wrote: »

nice 15.6 dell with UHD screen, i7 HQ 4 cores, 16gb ram, large 512gb ssd. decent enough 960m graphics card also.

about a grand all in. you don't really need 17 inches!

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&key=a1ObhLc4JJHCOeQUo7VbmyBGKf8cdvDb&puid=25a48fd7

(if sold, link will be dead).

Link is dead!

Shít, that was fast haha.

marcbrophy

Actually, I think I found the one on the UK outlet site!

marcbrophy

This one is €1300 or so.

More the price range that I'd be thinking, if not a touch too high

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EVOC-P870DM-4K-AUK11-Overclocked-Replacement-i7-6700K/dp/B01DZTCGOA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1485385936&sr=8-5

marcbrophy

marcbrophy wrote: »

This one is €1300 or so.

More the price range that I'd be thinking, if not a touch too high

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EVOC-P870DM-4K-AUK11-Overclocked-Replacement-i7-6700K/dp/B01DZTCGOA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1485385936&sr=8-5

beast of a pc - 4.8 kg tho! once that doesn't bother you looks good. will even run VR as it has a 980 desktop card. could be noisy tho. make sure you research the brand and their support record. never heard of them personally b4. says 2 year warranty so once they are around in the next 2 years, no worries.

seems actually very good for the price, given the specs. or even too good - see that it's a new seller. if you buy it let us know how it goes.

marcbrophy

glasso wrote: »

beast of a pc - 4.8 kg tho! once that doesn't bother you looks good. will even run VR as it has a 980 desktop card. could be noisy tho. make sure you research the brand and their support record. never heard of them personally b4. says 2 year warranty so once they are around in the next 2 years, no worries.

Oh yeah, with a desktop cpu and gpu, that thing is going to be noisy as all hell

It looks like a PC undercarriage with a monitor glued to the side, then called a laptop.

But I do reckon, that I'd need to go off brand to get the good specs, without applying for a mortgage

Skill Magill

You could try https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk to build you a bespoke one?

For Forks Sake

Skill Magill wrote: »

You could try https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk to build you a bespoke one?

They don't seem to offer 4k on all the 17" gaming notebooks. Cheapest series that I could see it available on (Octane III) seems to be about €2500 when you configure it to the same spec as the HP or the Dell above.

beauf

I think the Dell gaming inspiron 15" is the best bang for buck for a 4k screen at about 999. Personally I'd prefer the 1080 screen. It's a lot lighter, a lot easier on battery.

For me the main problem is that it's impossible to judge the screen quality until you've looked at it yourself.