Decision between two laptops...

[MrLawlessGaming]

I need some help deciding between two laptops. They are the Spectre X360 13" (Kaby Lake model) and the new Alienware 13 R3. (GTX 1060, FHD screen). My usage scenarios will be school (note taking and what have you) and some on the go gaming. Whatever one I get, I will get 16 GB RAM included.

Pros of Spectre:
Longer battery life
about 1/2 the weight
touch screen
convertible
2x TB3 ports
13.3" FHD screen
cheaper (even with an eGPU solution)

Cons of Spectre:
ULV CPU potential bottleneck for gaming
low total amount of USB ports
only has integrated graphics. Would need TB3 eGPU for gaming.
smaller storage solution (1 M.2 slot)

Pros of AW 13:
Quad core CPU with Hyperthreading
GTX 1060 built in
EGPU solution is cheaper (if needed)
Has good battery life for its class
13.3" FHD screen
a metric butt load of ports
has 2 M.2 slots for storage

Cons of AW 13:
Lower battery life
double the weigh (approx 6 lbs)
non touch screen
more expensive
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There ya have it folks. I am stuck between portability and power. And yes I know and eGPU is not overly portable because it needs power from a wall.... But so a gaming laptop if you want to use it to its best potential.
Thanks is advance!

 

[drkatz42]

I checked prices on both laptops and found the Alienware for around $1600 and the HP for $1500(without an egpu). based on that price point, I'd opt for the Alienware.

 

[MrLawlessGaming]

I checked prices on both laptops and found the Alienware for around $1600 and the HP for $1500(without an egpu). based on that price point, I'd opt for the Alienware.

Spectre's are pretty cheap refurbed or used on ebay. I have no problem buying used, as long as it works. However, without price in mind, how would you lean?

 

[drkatz42]

I checked prices on both laptops and found the Alienware for around $1600 and the HP for $1500(without an egpu). based on that price point, I'd opt for the Alienware.

Spectre's are pretty cheap refurbed or used on ebay. I have no problem buying used, as long as it works. However, without price in mind, how would you lean?

Alienware is my pref between the two. 4 cores and no need to carry around an egpu.

 

[kookie3010]

this is easy.alienware 13 ftw.that ulv cpu is going to be a big problem in the long run even if you go for a bad ass 1080 with the egpu solution.

 

[nvincent_08]

I need some help deciding between two laptops. They are the Spectre X360 13" (Kaby Lake model) and the new Alienware 13 R3. (GTX 1060, FHD screen). My usage scenarios will be school (note taking and what have you) and some on the go gaming. Whatever one I get, I will get 16 GB RAM included.

Pros of Spectre:
Longer battery life
about 1/2 the weight
touch screen
convertible
2x TB3 ports
13.3" FHD screen
cheaper (even with an eGPU solution)

Cons of Spectre:
ULV CPU potential bottleneck for gaming
low total amount of USB ports
only has integrated graphics. Would need TB3 eGPU for gaming.
smaller storage solution (1 M.2 slot)

Pros of AW 13:
Quad core CPU with Hyperthreading
GTX 1060 built in
EGPU solution is cheaper (if needed)
Has good battery life for its class
13.3" FHD screen
a metric butt load of ports
has 2 M.2 slots for storage

Cons of AW 13:
Lower battery life
double the weigh (approx 6 lbs)
non touch screen
more expensive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There ya have it folks. I am stuck between portability and power. And yes I know and eGPU is not overly portable because it needs power from a wall.... But so a gaming laptop if you want to use it to its best potential.
Thanks is advance!

well basically if you dont mind with the portability, i suggest to go with the alienware, but as what be the common problem, gaming laptop have such bad battery life and portability. meanwhile with thin laptop as usual, the trade off is with the performance in game or heavy software&application, and even the x360 can use tb3 external gpu, the cpu have such big potential in bottlenecking at some game that were cpu intensive, also the cpu can probably throttle because the cooler itself might be bad especially in thin laptop

 

[velo3100]

I would go with the alienware as it has good battery life when not game and it should be able to play games with easy and as it is smaller the games should look better than on larger screen due to the pixels being closer together. This means that you don't have to put the games at high settings for it to look good which should mean lower temps and noise.

Thats another thing, the alienware will have better cooling as it is a gaming laptop first.