Gaming laptop (€900-1200)

[eaves]

I'm currently looking to buy a gaming laptop for med-gaming and cad work. I've got a price range of €900-€1200.
Atm i'm confused between Lenovo Ideapad Y700 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop Core i7-6700HQ 8GB RAM 1TB+128GB SSD(or 256GB) GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5 OR acer aspire Vx15 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Processor (Up to 3.8GHz)
15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) widescreen IPS display
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM
16GB DDR4 Memory, 256GB SSD
Windows 10 Home. I'd appreciate if any1 can give me a second opinion or even suggest a different laptop.
Thanks.

 

[GreyCatz]

There are at least 2 ways to approach this issue:

1. Going by specs, the Acer simply blows the Lenovo out of the water - are these machines really in the same price range? If yes, get the Acer.

2. Going by brand, Acer routinely offers generous specs at affordable prices, but the machines are nowhere near Lenovo, let alone other dedicated gaming brands, in terms of build quality. This may explain why these 2 laptops (apparently) compete with each other.

Suggested alternative: Here's a 15.6" Lenovo Yoga 720 priced at €1,200 (I'm using Lenovo DE as an example):
http/www3.lenovo.com/de/de/laptops/yoga/700-series/Yoga-720-15/p/88YG7000828

This Yoga will give you a 2K IPS panel, a quad-core Kaby Lake i7 for CAD work and a 2GB dedicated GTX 1050 card for medium-gaming. And you get a superior quality feel in this Yoga compared with the Acer.

But if your options are down to the Y700 and the Acer, I'd say go for the Acer because of the IPS panel. From your data it would seem that the Y700 comes with a TN panel and they are bottom of the barrel - stay away from Lenovo's TN panels!

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.

 

[sicily428]

Lenovo y520
Acer vx15
Clevo w650kk1
Clevo n850hk1

 

[eaves]

Thanks for replying. Tbh im kinda leaning towards acer as well but the only problem is that i can't find that paticular one in store amywhere in ireland. I found one on amazon
https/www.amazon.com/dp/B01N12YZ7B?th=1&psc=1
But idk if i can trust the purchase like and also that €200 shipping cost is a lot to ask. Any opinions on this?
Thanks

 

[GreyCatz]

Thanks for replying. Tbh im kinda leaning towards acer as well but the only problem is that i can't find that paticular one in store amywhere in ireland. I found one on amazon
https/www.amazon.com/dp/B01N12YZ7B?th=1&psc=1
But idk if i can trust the purchase like and also that €200 shipping cost is a lot to ask. Any opinions on this?
Thanks

Buying PCs on Amazon ought to be a reasonably safe thing to do - occasionally you have to check the vendors, especially if the price seems way too good to be true. In this case, it seems OK.

A €200 shipping charge is rather steep, but I would have to pay $300 to have the laptop shipped to my country, so it seems there's no way around that.

So it's $1,000 for the Acer and €200 for shipment - all told, $1,224 or €1,093. You still get a 4GB 1050 card, a Kaby Lake i7 and 16GBs of RAM with an IPS panel. I'd say it's worth $1,224.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[eaves]

*Well just an update.*
I researched around a bit for aspire vx15, turns out a lot of people are having problems with it ranging from nvidia card not reading to total software failure. Acer customer service is also fairly poor and because its coming from US, it takes months for them to repair/exchange.
Considering i can find lenovo y700 in a store close to me it would be handier in case something went wrong.
NOTE: lenovo also has IPS and im gonna upgrade ram to 16gb at purchase.

Whats your take on this?

Much appreciated.

 

[GreyCatz]

It's always good to do some research and/or ask around, and I have to say the feedback on the Acer rather confirms my opinion under 2 above.

With your added info about the IPS panel and a local dealer, the Lenovo Y700 emerges as much more attractive proposition. I don't have hands-on experience with an Acer Aspire (I did use regular Acers some 10 years ago and I can't recall having had any problems then), but I do own a Lenovo Y50 - the 'granddaddy' of the Y700. It's close to 3 years old by now and it soldiers on without problems.

If you google images of both Lenovos you'll see they are still very similar in design. Of course, the newer Y700s offer better GPUs and CPUs and even with an IPS panel they are often reasonably priced, too. They are also still very repair-and-upgrade-friendly, so if you decide to wait with a RAM upgrade, it won't be a problem installing new modules later on. I installed an IPS panel on Y50 myself and I have messed with almost all the components (new thermal paste, dusting off the system fan etc.) and the Y50 remains a very user-friendly device overall.

And finally, Lenovo have placed a significant portion of their supply chain in Ireland so it's likely going to be easier for you to find other Lenovo users and Lenovo components within a reasonable physical distance compared with owning an Acer.

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.

 

[eaves]

Sound lads.

 

[sicily428]

Panel display is not so good in that lenovo y700

https/www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Ideapad-Y700-15ISK-80NW-Notebook-Review.155878.0.html

https/www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Ideapad-Y700-17ISK-80Q0-Notebook-Review.156808.0.html