Laptop recommendation for a contractor

onrail

So I'm leaving the comfort of steady employment to work as a self employed consultant (Civil Engineering) so have to buy my own IT equipment for the first time in about 10 years! I've a couple of ideas, but advice would be welcome.

Important
Reliability (I can't afford down-time)
Ability to occasionally handle AutoCAD, possibly SketchUp and some 3D modelling software but not every day.
Longevity
Reliability!

Not important
Style
Screen (I'll be using a monitor primarily)

I'm no expert, but I gather that I'll be looking for 16GB of RAM. A 2-in-1 looks inviting, maybe useful for checking drawings on site, but could be gimmicky and affect reliability?

Budget is tricky - the expense will be tax deductable, but I still don't want to spend an absolute fortune - maybe somewhere in the region of €1300-1400 but would listen to alternatives.

It's probable that I'll be returning to employment in 12-18 months, so the laptop might be relegated to personal use with occasional nixers at that stage.

this solidly built metal chassis but still portable (1.6 kg) and powerful laptop (the cpu will easily do all you need and the integrated graphics are capable) should do the job.

Huawei make great reliable laptops.

Amazon do Irish VAT so should be covered there

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HONOR-MagicBook-Multi-screen-Collaboration-Fingerprint/dp/B08HNDT366/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=magicbook+pro&qid=1605306128&sr=8-2

amazon have some extra / extended warranty options also at time of purchase

review

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/honor-magicbook-pro-2020-16-inch-laptop#:~:text=Final%20verdict&text=On%20the%20whole%20though%2C%20the,rounded%20and%20polished%20computing%20experience.

another choice - more expensive

also powerful and portable and metal but with a graphics card

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zephyrus-G401IA-Gaming-GeForce-Windows/dp/B084N1HKRV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=g14%2Blaptop&qid=1605306336&sr=8-1&th=1

onrail

glasso wrote: »

this solidly built metal chassis but still portable (1.6 kg) and powerful laptop (the cpu will easily do all you need and the integrated graphics are capable) should do the job.

Huawei make great reliable laptops.

Amazon do Irish VAT so should be covered there

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HONOR-MagicBook-Multi-screen-Collaboration-Fingerprint/dp/B08HNDT366/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=magicbook+pro&qid=1605306128&sr=8-2

amazon have some extra / extended warranty options also at time of purchase

review

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/honor-magicbook-pro-2020-16-inch-laptop#:~:text=Final%20verdict&text=On%20the%20whole%20though%2C%20the,rounded%20and%20polished%20computing%20experience.

another choice - more expensive

also powerful and portable and metal but with a graphics card

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zephyrus-G401IA-Gaming-GeForce-Windows/dp/B084N1HKRV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=g14%2Blaptop&qid=1605306336&sr=8-1&th=1

Thanks a million. The Huawei looks good. How long would a decent laptop be expected to last these days?

Any opinions on 2 in 1s?

no reason why that well-built and powerful Huawei wouldn't run well for 6 years + easy

2-in-1s imo are most useful for people who need the tablet aspect like the microsoft surface pro and /or artists for drawing (where you have the higher quality screen designed for drawing)

most laptops are not really light enough to be held as a tablet (excepting ones like the surface)

if you want to be pulling it out at sites a lot you'd ideally want one of those rugged ones (anti dust, drops etc) but they are very expensive.

onrail

glasso wrote: »

no reason why that well-built and powerful Huawei wouldn't run well for 6 years + easy

2-in-1s imo are most useful for people who need the tablet aspect like the microsoft surface pro and /or artists for drawing (where you have the higher quality screen designed for drawing)

most laptops are not really light enough to be held as a tablet (excepting ones like the surface)

if you want to be pulling it out at sites a lot you'd ideally want one of those rugged ones (anti dust, drops etc) but they are very expensive.

Thanks for the advice - you might have saved me a fair few €€!

Akrasia

If you want something futureproof, this one is about in your budget
https://www.laptopsdirect.ie/asus-tuf-fa706iu-ryzen-7-4800h-16gb-1tb-ssd-geforce-gtx-1660ti-17.3-inch-wi-fa706iu-h7015t/version.asp

Latest version Ryzen 7 (best processor at the moment by far in this price range)
16gb ram
17 inch screen - loses some portability but if you're designing things, you want a bigger screen and a full size keyboard
1tb SSD, should last you years without needing to expand.

Screen should have good clarity brightness and resolution and colour reproduction and the keyboard and trackpad should be decent too (although a wifi or bluetooth mouse is essential for anything other than light browsing)

review of this laptop here
https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/asus-tuf-gaming-a17

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-TUF-A15-with-AMD-Renoir-and-Nvidia-Graphics-in-Review.469570.0.html#:~:text=Excellent%20value!&text=With%20eight%20physical%20cores%2C%20the,games%20at%20the%20native%20resolution.

Asus are a great brand in terms of reliablility
I have had direct experience with asus laptops of all price ranges that have lasted 6+ years. My mother in law is still running a budget Asus 10 years later and apart from the battery, its as good as new (slow as a wet weekend by modern standards, but everything still works perfectly)

not sure he wants to be carrying around a heavy gaming laptop tbh

besides there are better gaming laptop options for the money really

there is a better built legion 5 with a 4800h and a more powerful nvidia 2060 going for £999

onrail

How does this look?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B088HW9M2C?pf_rd_r=K5Y6J41W7FZFJKS8W1TK&pf_rd_p=b1f0fb82-34c4-4290-8c13-535fb29d84d5

Towards the top end of my budget, but the specs seem decent?

cpu is a good bit less powerful than the 4600h in the magicbook pro

and the 4600h integrated graphics would pretty much match the mx250

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-10510U+%40+1.80GHz&id=3549

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+5+4600H&id=3708

https://www.notebookcheck.net/i7-10610U-vs-R5-4600H-vs-i7-10510U_12200_11679_11457.247596.0.html

you can see that in the multicore benchmarks the 4600h is over twice as powerful

onrail

glasso wrote: »

cpu is a good bit less powerful than the 4600h in the magicbook pro

and the 4600h integrated graphics would pretty much match the mx250

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-10510U+%40+1.80GHz&id=3549

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+5+4600H&id=3708

Great. Seems like I'd be a fool to pass up the Magicbook pro!
Possibly a stupid question, but how would it handle something like 2d AutoCAD occasionally? I use it a bit, but nowhere near enough to justify splashing out on a proper workstation.

Seeing as this is for your contractor role consider ability to reclaim VAT.

You sound like you are in the provision of services (as opposed to goods). You will need to register for vat if your projected sales in the next 12 Mths are expected to exceed €37.5k

Why am I telling you this, because you are better of registering for vat before buying the laptop so it’ll be 21% cheaper for you. This also means you should only buy from a retailer who will provide an Irish vat invoice (Amazon is irl vat registered and will provide an irl vat number once you ship to rep of irl, ie don’t use parcel motel). There is an option to get a uk registered retailer to zero rate invoice but a bit messier.

Regarding registering, you can elect to register even if you will not exceed the €37.5k. You should consider this as you can claim vat from work expenses especially on the assumption that your end customer are builders where it’s makes no difference to them if you invoice plus vat or without vat

onrail

onrail wrote: »

Great. Seems like I'd be a fool to pass up the Magicbook pro!
Possibly a stupid question, but how would it handle something like 2d AutoCAD occasionally? I use it a bit, but nowhere near enough to justify splashing out on a proper workstation.

Autocad will definitely run pretty well for you. It's actually more about CPU than GPU for that program, especially for 2D

And ram is also important - but 16gb is enough.

onrail

Mayo_fan wrote: »

Seeing as this is for your contractor role consider ability to reclaim VAT.

You sound like you are in the provision of services (as opposed to goods). You will need to register for vat if your projected sales in the next 12 Mths are expected to exceed €37.5k

Why am I telling you this, because you are better of registering for vat before buying the laptop so it’ll be 21% cheaper for you. This also means you should only buy from a retailer who will provide an Irish vat invoice (Amazon is irl vat registered and will provide an irl vat number once you ship to rep of irl, ie don’t use parcel motel). There is an option to get a uk registered retailer to zero rate invoice but a bit messier.

Regarding registering, you can elect to register even if you will not exceed the €37.5k. You should consider this as you can claim vat from work expenses especially on the assumption that your end customer are builders where it’s makes no difference to them if you invoice plus vat or without vat

Not as straightforward unfortunately (a whole other thread in itself). I'm based in the UK but will be contracting in Ireland so planning to work under a Umbrella (Director) so plan to submit as a business expense.

another option if you fancy a smaller size

same manufacturer.

higher res 2k screen - could be useful for autocad

16gb ryzen h - actually the more powerful 4800h one here

£950

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HR3CS4L/ref=twister_B08KK8V4PM?th=1

review

apparently it's touchscreen actually even though it doesn't say so on amazon

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/huawei-matebook-14-2020-amd-3796198/

crossvilla

If you are self-employed you will likely have to do video calls with clients. The webcam placement on Huawei or the Honor is not suitable for this purpose.

It is down on the keyboard and not a natural place for professional calls. They took it out of the bezel to reduce the size. You can of course add a cheap webcam to one of your usb but can be finnicky if you're moving locations or doing multiple calls.

it's not the best angle but the rest of the Huawei laptops are so good

if you are really doing a lot of video calls you'd really want a better quality webcam that what comes in a laptop anyway - one with autofocus, full 1080p and a better angle (wide angle)

you can a laptop clip on one with that for 30 euro or so

a laptop stand will also sort out the upwards angle if you're using one

onrail

onrail wrote: »

Not as straightforward unfortunately (a whole other thread in itself). I'm based in the UK but will be contracting in Ireland so planning to work under a Umbrella (Director) so plan to submit as a business expense.

Tax deductible over 8 year deprecation cycle iirc.

onrail

glasso wrote: »

it's not the best angle but the rest of the Huawei laptops are so good

if you are really doing a lot of video calls you'd really want a better quality webcam that what comes in a laptop anyway - one with autofocus, full 1080p and a better angle (wide angle)

you can a laptop clip on one with that for 30 euro or so

a laptop stand will also sort out the upwards angle if you're using one

Yes I noted the ridiculous positioning of the camera alright, but ultimately, if the machine itself is saving me €400 from a similar alternative, I'm happy to spend €30 on an external cam!

onrail

Augeo wrote: »

Tax deductible over 8 year deprecation cycle iirc.

Working under the assumption at the moment that its a 4-year straight-line depreciation...? If working under an umbrella, I probably have little choice regardless.

onrail

onrail wrote: »

..............If working under an umbrella, I probably have little choice regardless.

Indeed, I'm not sure tbh, thought it was 8 but that'd be Ireland.

onrail

I'm likely to go for the Huawei, but a last option to throw out there:

Lenovo ThinkPad P15s

From my 15 minutes of expertise, a dedicated graphics card is useful (necessary?) if I ever feel the need to use SketchUp. Not something I use professionally, but I enjoy occasionally modelling house plans in my spare time and found it useful to visualise my own new build. Bit of a trade off with processor speed from what I can see.

ED E

Discovered a couple a hiccups with the Honorbook (same as Matebook really):

- Aforementioned webcam position
- USB-C Power passthrough doesnt work on a dock, either extra displays or power but not both
- Strange keymap issue that makes no sense (No, the language isnt wrong)

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Discovered a couple a hiccups with the Honorbook (same as Matebook really):

- Aforementioned webcam position
- USB-C Power passthrough doesnt work on a dock, either extra displays or power but not both
- Strange keymap issue that makes no sense (No, the language isnt wrong)

that's not the model being discussed here tho

the following are all different

magicbook same as matebook d

magicbook pro

matebook (non d - higher up version than matebook d)

onrail

ED E wrote: »

Discovered a couple a hiccups with the Honorbook (same as Matebook really):

- Aforementioned webcam position
- USB-C Power passthrough doesnt work on a dock, either extra displays or power but not both
- Strange keymap issue that makes no sense (No, the language isnt wrong)

Does the price/spec make up for the drawbacks in your opinion?

ED E

Noting what Glasso says above, Im not sure the issues impact all models.

The docking issue is a deal breaker for me. Webcam, eff it. Used my laptops webcam once. Thats it. Need a good docking solution in my eyes.

Reddit says the Matebook D does work, Magicbook I cannot get to work for the life of me, Matebook 14 not clear. Id want to verify first.

matebook 14 has 2 usb a 3.2 ports that can take hubs

magicbook pro has usb-c passthrough

https://www.reddit.com/r/Honor/comments/j5hldz/honor_magicbook_pro_usbc_display_port_out_charging/

re the magicbook 14 can you not just use a usb a 3.0 dock?

onrail

onrail wrote: »

I'm likely to go for the Huawei, but a last option to throw out there:

Lenovo ThinkPad P15s

From my 15 minutes of expertise, a dedicated graphics card is useful (necessary?) if I ever feel the need to use SketchUp. Not something I use professionally, but I enjoy occasionally modelling house plans in my spare time and found it useful to visualise my own new build. Bit of a trade off with processor speed from what I can see.

Any thoughts on the Lenovo? ( esp if Sketchup should become a requirement)

that graphics card is very very little ahead of the integrated gpu in the magicbook

not much difference at all running your sketchup

try to find the Asus G14 version with 4600h and 1650 card would be a better bet imo

was about 980 on amazon but out of stock

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-ga401ih-bm057t-moonlight-white-60hz-fhd-ryzen-5-gtx-1650-8gb-ddr4-512gb-ssd

use addresspal etc

add in 8gb ram yourself

very nice metal build machine with decent screen and good battery life

no buit-in webcam on this laptop so usb one needed if required

I think that the g14 is the best match for you overall tbh

it's pretty much universally acknowledged as an excellent laptop

can get a bit warm with prolonged intensive gaming but as you won't be using it for that I would not worry and even if you do it just means that it can get get warm to the touch on certain parts of the chassis that's all - won't damage it or anything

as you are based in the uk - no problems with ordering

onrail

glasso wrote: »

I think that the g14 is the best match for you overall tbh

it's pretty much universally acknowledged as an excellent laptop

can get a bit warm with prolonged intensive gaming but as you won't be using it for that I would not worry and even if you do it just means that it can get get warm to the touch on certain parts of the chassis that's all - won't damage it or anything

as you are based in the uk - no problems with ordering

Excellent, thanks a million - after looking through the reviews, it seems ideal.

I don't know much about adding RAM (cost?) but is a youtube DIY installation feasible?

8gb ram is cheap to buy - ddr4 3200mhz sodimm is the speed and size you need

1 slot free - you could even add in a 16gb sodimm for a bit more if you wish

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT8G4SFRA32A-PC4-25600-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B08C4Z69LN/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=3200mhz+ram+8gb+sodimm+ddr4&qid=1605883122&quartzVehicle=29-411&replacementKeywords=3200mhz+8gb+sodimm+ddr4&sr=8-1

simple to add in - check youtube - screwdriver to open case and clicks in

onrail

90% set on the Asus mentioned previously, but someone recommended certified refurbished laptops can offer good value so I had a look before pulling the trigger on anything.

Dell XPS 15 9570 InfinityEdge

Seems like a nice premium machine for the money...

not a bad option but more expensive even 2nd hand

have to buy ram also obviously

G14 is more portable and more powerful and has better battery life

there were some built-in thermal problems leading to throttling on that model 9570 afaic

e.g.

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9570-shameful-performances/td-p/7639575

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/9imrha/xps_15_9570_i7_did_everything_still_have/

onrail

glasso wrote: »

not a bad option but more expensive even 2nd hand

have to buy ram also obviously

G14 is more portable and more powerful and has better battery life

there were some built-in thermal problems leading to throttling on that model 9570 afaic

e.g.

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9570-shameful-performances/td-p/7639575

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/9imrha/xps_15_9570_i7_did_everything_still_have/

Thanks - thats some serious knowledge there! I'm obviously a sucker for a brandname - if that G14 you linked to was a HP or a Dell, I'd have bought it 3 days ago.

I've thought since that a 15" might be a better job as I only have one additional screen in my office - the XPS had the advantage of a bigger screen while remaining fairly portable. Screen size Vs portability a trade-off that I'm yet to make my mind up on.

onrail

Am I missing something, or is the Lenovo Legion 5i very good value and tick nearly every box?

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-5-series/Lenovo-Legion-5-15ARH05/p/88GMY501444

it's grand as a gaming laptop but

it's heavy, chunky and not very portable at 2.5 kg (vs 1.6kg for say G14 so over 50% heavier)
it's plastic chassis (but decent build)
don't buy the worst screen one as it's dim and colour inaccurate