Buying a Laptop: The current Generation

LillyIsland · 29-12-2020 11:52pm

glasso wrote: »

this was a bit cheaper before xmass (by 100) but is the sort of spec that you should look at imo

best deals for laptops are in the Nov / pre-Christmas timeframe usually

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/gaming/pc-gaming/gaming-laptops/lenovo-legion-5p-15-6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-rtx-2060-256-gb-ssd-10205989-pdt.html

solid build, great cpu, good gpu. good colour-accurate 144Hz screen

RTX 2060 gives you DLSS (AI upscaling that is quite good) and RTX (ray-tracing)

the cards lower than this don't have those features

Also the 2060 in the legion is the refresh higher-power 115W version. many laptops will have the lower-power 80W version. (not stated usually, have to research to find this out)

Thanks Glasso! Probably would need to upgrade SSD and RAM but looks a good bet, well reviewed too.

30-12-2020 1:34am

yes it is very solid overall with good thermals as well as good specs (screen, gpu, cpu) in all departments

40 euro for 8gb ram so not a big cost

spare m.2 slot for a second ssd - no need to buy the fastest (more expensive) ssd for game storage in that slot - you'll have the included fast one for boot up.

eh i dunno · 30-12-2020 6:49pm

glasso wrote: »

ah ok.

could have said that you were restricted to currys....

for their selection looks ok

nearest to the 4500u spec they have is 739. (does have 1gb ssd)

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-swift-3-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-1-tb-ssd-silver-10208152-pdt.html

Sorry to bother you again glasso but would this be a decent purchase? https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-14-ce3510sa-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-silver-10212900-pdt.html

It's only light use and for streaming Netflix and sky go.

30-12-2020 11:39pm

eh i dunno wrote: »

Sorry to bother you again glasso but would this be a decent purchase? https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-14-ce3510sa-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-silver-10212900-pdt.html

It's only light use and for streaming Netflix and sky go.

will meet those needs fine

seems decent enough overall

IPS screen nicer to look at that a TN panel

battery life may not be as long as claimed but that's par for the course - assume 2/3's of manufacturers claims usually

eh i dunno · 30-12-2020 11:49pm

glasso wrote: »

will meet those needs fine

seems decent enough overall

IPS screen nicer to look at that a TN panel

battery life may not be as long as claimed but that's par for the course - assume 2/3's of manufacturers claims usually

Thanks, I very rarely use a laptop battery anyway. Screen is always much brighter when plugged in.

31-12-2020 5:58pm

Have been following the recommendations in here for awhile now and was going to order the Huawei Matebook X Pro today...until I saw this review.

https://youtu.be/L-g1khau0WU

It basically says although the more expensive matebook x pro has a newer chip and light graphic card, it isn't given access to it because of over heating.

On numerous tests it performed worse than the cheaper matebook 13.

As so many reviews are paid for, I kinda believe this guy as it seems to be the I ky one saying not to get one (Matebook X Pro)

Any thoughts on it?

31-12-2020 7:55pm

yes, take a look at the matebook non-x

between the matebook d and the x

x a little pricey really imo and if there are thermal issues then maybe avoid

eh i dunno · 31-12-2020 8:57pm

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/microsoft-12-5-surface-laptop-go-intel-core-i5-128-gb-ssd-platinum-10214688-pdt.html

Anyone got any experience of this Microsoft surface laptop go?

RedB · 04-01-2021 11:51pm

Anyone interested in buying a high end gaming laptop?

My son won one but would rather the cash

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/new-alienware-m15/spd/alienware-m15-r3-laptop/n00awm15r304

Dell ALIENWARE M15
Original Price €2,139.38 ~ Any reasonable offer considered
10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (6-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 5.0GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Windows 10 Home 64bit
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 6GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)
16GB DDR4 2666MHz
512GB PCIe M.2 SSD

05-01-2021 1:04am

RedB wrote: »

Anyone interested in buying a high end gaming laptop?

My son won one but would rather the cash

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/new-alienware-m15/spd/alienware-m15-r3-laptop/n00awm15r304

Dell ALIENWARE M15
Original Price €2,139.38 ~ Any reasonable offer considered
10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (6-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 5.0GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Windows 10 Home 64bit
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 6GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)
16GB DDR4 2666MHz
512GB PCIe M.2 SSD

can you not get a cash alternative?

wouldn't see you getting anywhere near that asking price

you can get a better laptop for 1300 euro really, notwithstanding the "retail" price.

themacdaddy · 05-01-2021 3:34pm

Hi all,

I am looking for a good laptop which looks nice and thin, can play games to a decent level (CS GO etc), good screen and touch screen, can use for some photo editing for around €1500 or less. Does that exist? I did some research over the last few days and a lot of the laptops I like have the Intel Irish/UHD graphics which I am not sure of. I was looking at the Dell outlet at an XPS and realised it was 'scratch and dent', not sure I would take the risk. Alternatives I was thinking of was the Macbook M1 but it would be a change to Apple and it struggles to run some games at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't really have a clue. thanks

sdp · 05-01-2021 4:48pm

Help please, looking to upgrade to a newer laptop. ( currently HP elitebook 6930p, using it since 2009 , updated ram and other bits over the years) an old girl, but still hanging in there

,

looking for something with better screen, and speed, as its finding it hard to run win 10 pro, price bracket €500/€600. any ideas can you get a decent laptop for that price?
Needs to be able to run office,with planty of storage, emails, and Netflix,
No idea what to look for, any help gratefully received .

05-01-2021 6:26pm

themacdaddy wrote: »

Hi all,

I am looking for a good laptop which looks nice and thin, can play games to a decent level (CS GO etc), good screen and touch screen, can use for some photo editing for around €1500 or less. Does that exist? I did some research over the last few days and a lot of the laptops I like have the Intel Irish/UHD graphics which I am not sure of. I was looking at the Dell outlet at an XPS and realised it was 'scratch and dent', not sure I would take the risk. Alternatives I was thinking of was the Macbook M1 but it would be a change to Apple and it struggles to run some games at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't really have a clue. thanks

cs:go is a low-end game that will run well on most ryzen 5's, new intel core i5's with intel iris xe

the macbook air with m1 should run cs:go fine but it's only for light gaming

on the windows side look for 4500u amd, 4700u, 4600h, 4800h cpus or the iris xe enabled tiger lake cpus

for photo-editing look for a colour-accurate screen (sRGB near or over 100%)

for lightness, good cpu power and colour-accurate screen the macbook air is not bad (no touch screen)

05-01-2021 6:28pm

sdp wrote: »

Help please, looking to upgrade to a newer laptop. ( currently HP elitebook 6930p, using it since 2009 , updated ram and other bits over the years) an old girl, but still hanging in there ,

looking for something with better screen, and speed, as its finding it hard to run win 10 pro, price bracket €500/€600. any ideas can you get a decent laptop for that price?
Needs to be able to run office,with planty of storage, emails, and Netflix,
No idea what to look for, any help gratefully received .

storage is usually smaller now due to much faster ssds coming in laptops which are of smaller size due to being more expensive per gb

don't store a lot of media files on your laptop is the answer

the speed factor is worth it tho

look for the matebook d 14

although hard to get in ireland and a lot of sellers are not selling to ireland yet after the brexit changes (e.g. on amazon) so hard to find

eh i dunno · 05-01-2021 6:40pm

glasso wrote: »

storage is usually smaller now due to much faster ssds coming in laptops which are of smaller size due to being more expensive per gb

don't store a lot of media files on your laptop is the answer

the speed factor is worth it tho

look for the matebook d 14

although hard to get in ireland and a lot of sellers are not selling to ireland yet after the brexit changes (e.g. on amazon) so hard to find

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/huawei-matebook-d-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-512-gb-ssd-space-grey-10205034-pdt.html?istCompanyId=fbc6ef6d-ab18-45e3-927a-0cb677794424&istFeedId=0959f117-9faa-4499-80bd-c0265bb2950e&istItemId=irwrtalwm&istBid=t&gclid=CjwKCAiAudD_BRBXEiwAudakX7GekHM_sy35cxXhTTEpM94njn3NW2K0NuGCGr6xMmHdvPNrYhupoRoCtnoQAvD_BwE

Currys have it in stock

05-01-2021 7:51pm

eh i dunno wrote: »

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/huawei-matebook-d-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-512-gb-ssd-space-grey-10205034-pdt.html?istCompanyId=fbc6ef6d-ab18-45e3-927a-0cb677794424&istFeedId=0959f117-9faa-4499-80bd-c0265bb2950e&istItemId=irwrtalwm&istBid=t&gclid=CjwKCAiAudD_BRBXEiwAudakX7GekHM_sy35cxXhTTEpM94njn3NW2K0NuGCGr6xMmHdvPNrYhupoRoCtnoQAvD_BwE

Currys have it in stock

true but is / was available for 600 euro or so in UK

but currently hard to get stuff from UK due to Brexit just happening and a lot of sellers (including those on amazon) not having adapted to the short notice of the new measures

this crowd used to sell direct to Ireland - maybe they still do

https://www.box.co.uk/products/keywords/magicbook+14/ex/true

although probably worth the bit extra for this one with the newer more powerful 4500u cpu

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUAWEI-MateBook-Ultrabook-Fingerprint-Windows/dp/B08HR3W84V/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3A0VDEHPWU351&dchild=1&keywords=matebook+4500u&qid=1609872581&sprefix=4500u+mate%2Caps%2C287&sr=8-1

(seems to be selling to Ireland)

that's the best option imo

tosspot · 06-01-2021 1:16am

Hi, looking to get a laptop for my partner roughly around the 500 mark. Started a new college course so will need Microsoft for assignments. Apart from that will be mainly used for netflix and general browsing. Was looking at greenit.ie also. Anyone any dealings with them or is it better to just go for new? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

sdp · 06-01-2021 5:20am

glasso wrote: »

storage is usually smaller now due to much faster ssds coming in laptops which are of smaller size due to being more expensive per gb

don't store a lot of media files on your laptop is the answer

the speed factor is worth it tho

look for the matebook d 14

although hard to get in ireland and a lot of sellers are not selling to ireland yet after the brexit changes (e.g. on amazon) so hard to find

Hi Glasso, Thank you for that, but my max is €600, is there anything else you would recommend?

06-01-2021 11:31am

the matebook d at 550£ from box.co.uk if they are still selling to Ireland (ask) and applying Irish VAT correctly is close to 600.

I'd recommend that over the inferior options tbh

djan · 06-01-2021 11:32am

glasso wrote: »

the matebook d at 550£ from box.co.uk if they are still selling to Ireland (ask) and applying Irish VAT correctly is close to 600.

I'd recommend that over the inferior options tbh

Will you not get whacked with import duty as its over 150?

06-01-2021 11:43am

djan wrote: »

Will you not get whacked with import duty as its over 150?

no duty - the over €150 charge - on computers if not made in uk - posted elsewhere on boards and see list on this page

https://www.moneyguideireland.com/irish-customs-duty-on-uk-online-purchases.html

pretty much no laptops / computers are made in the UK - all asia

06-01-2021 11:57am

sdp wrote: »

Hi Glasso, Thank you for that, but my max is €600, is there anything else you would recommend?

this is ok

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-14-ce3514sa-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-purple-10212902-pdt.html

but as one typically owns a laptop for years I'd go the extra 10% cost to get the 4500u matebook d on amazon (they cover irish vat etc all hassle free)

djan · 06-01-2021 12:06pm

glasso wrote: »

no duty - the over €150 charge - on computers if not made in uk - posted elsewhere on boards and see list on this page

https://www.moneyguideireland.com/irish-customs-duty-on-uk-online-purchases.html

pretty much no laptops / computers are made in the UK - all asia

Thank you for that link, an excellent resource! Looking to get a projector but that seems to not be covered as the likes of Amazon/eBay are just adding Irish VAT on without taking UK off leading to a 30% price increase.

To stay on topic, I would highly recommend the Huawei Matebooks, excellent value but do not that the webcam is on the bottom of screen rather than top so offers a less than flattering angle!

06-01-2021 12:26pm

djan wrote: »

Thank you for that link, an excellent resource! Looking to get a projector but that seems to not be covered as the likes of Amazon/eBay are just adding Irish VAT on without taking UK off leading to a 30% price increase.

To stay on topic, I would highly recommend the Huawei Matebooks, excellent value but do not that the webcam is on the bottom of screen rather than top so offers a less than flattering angle!

some products could possibly be UK Vat exempt and be liable for Irish Vat

don't know and not saying that's the case with a projector

also some products may not be updated properly yet

particularly if it's only "fulfilled by Amazon" for another seller

ebay is likely to be worse / more inaccurate than amazon I would have thought

agree the webcam is an unusual angle but would also say that if you're actually making a lot of video calls get a proper wide angle, autofocus, full hd usb webcam as the ones that come in laptops are pretty rubbish for constant use

sdp · 06-01-2021 1:11pm

glasso wrote: »

this is ok

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-14-ce3514sa-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-purple-10212902-pdt.html

but as one typically owns a laptop for years I'd go the extra 10% cost to get the 4500u matebook d on amazon (they cover irish vat etc all hassle free)

Thank you so much for your time and help.
so looking at Amazon..
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUAWEI-MateBook-2020-Multi-screen-Collaboration/dp/B083T5HFPX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=huawei%2Bmatebook%2Bd14&qid=1609934135&refinements=p_76%3A419158031&rnid=419157031&rps=1&s=computers&sr=1-1&th=1 this is €608 but coming up as used with free delivery. all others seem to be €800/€900 or more, Thank you again.

sdp · 06-01-2021 1:15pm

just had a look at currys, coming in at €649, would I be better going with that?
ok, thats the d15 in currys, have put the d14 in basket on amazon,
Order Summary
Items: EUR 507.45
Postage & Packing: EUR 44.89
Total: EUR 552.34
Gift Certificates: -EUR 12.12
Order Total: EUR 540.21
Payment Total: GBP 487.91
is it worth going with this? as still coming up as used (Item used Good. Will come in its original box and charger. Some packaging might be missing.)
Many thanks again

06-01-2021 1:29pm

the 4500u cpu model d14 is the one that I was recommending - it's no longer for sale at the £590 price that was yesterday tho.

the 3500u one is also decent - (same laptop except for cpu)

buying from amazon will give you better cover than you'd get from pcworld more likely and it's cheaper so I'd go for there (if new)

else email box.co.uk or webchat them about the magicbook 14 (same exact laptop)

or else just pay the bit extra from pc world if you wish

also less of a good deal over the hp when it's the 3500u version.

it has better build quality than the hp but cpus are similar or hp one a bit more on cpu but down on gpu (vs 3500u matebook / magicbook)

4500u version would beat it on cpu and build quality

sdp · 06-01-2021 1:41pm

glasso wrote: »

the 4500u cpu model d14 is the one that I was recommending - it's no longer for sale at the £590 price that was yesterday tho.

the 3500u one is also decent - (same laptop except for cpu)

buying from amazon will give you better cover than you'd get from pcworld more likely and it's cheaper so I'd go for there (if new)

else email box.co.uk or webchat them about the magicbook 14 (same exact laptop)

or else just pay the bit extra from pc world if you wish

also less of a good deal over the hp when it's the 3500u version.

it has better build quality than the hp but cpus are similar or hp one a bit more on cpu but down on gpu (vs 3500u matebook / magicbook)

4500u version would beat it on cpu and build quality

thank again! the amazon one in basket is saying used /good, so not sure what to do, Really appreciate your help,

06-01-2021 1:43pm

better to go new from point of view of guarantees etc I suppose

and it's not sold by amazon either (third party) so not as good coverage

Long Turn · 06-01-2021 2:02pm

Hi Glasso,

I would appreciate your advice on a new laptop.
I currently have a Toshiba P75 A7200 . 17.3 screen, 1920 * 1080

I use excel, word and other programs that I have installed.
I carry it for work so it gets lugged around a good bit.

What would your suggestions be?

Thanks

Buying a Laptop: The current Generation

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