Guidance choosing a new laptop

simon_mtl

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
6
0
10,510
I am looking to replace my Toshiba Satellite A200 ~ 7 y.o.; with either a Lenovo Y580 or Asus S56CM.


1. What is your budget? approx $1000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15 inch

3. What screen resolution do you want? h.d.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? portable

5. How much battery life do you need? 5 hours

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? I am not a gamer

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Stream movies/ Research/BOINC projects

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? ~750GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
http://www.costco.ca/Asus-S56CM-QH71-CB%2c-Bilingual-Ultrabook%2c-Intel%c2%ae-Core%e2%84%a2-i7-3517U.product.100017968.html

http://www.costco.ca/Lenovo%c2%ae-IdeaPad%c2%ae--Y580-Bilingual-Notebook-Intel%c2%ae-Core--i7-3630QM.product.100018232.html


10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
as long as possible

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?DVD R/R - BLURAY

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

From reading reviews I have narrowed my choices to ASUS and LENOVO

13. What country do you live in? CANADA (Montreal)

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
 
Solution
Personally I would take the Lenovo over the Asus.

Asus:
* 1366 x 768 Screen resolution (don't like this low resolution to be productive)
* nVidia 635 GPU
* 6 gb's RAM
* 2 Year Warranty

Lenovo:
* 1080p Screen Resolution (1920 x 1080)!!
* nVidia 660 GPU
* 8 gb's RAM
* Backlit Keyboard, so you can work in a dark environment and not disturb roomates or other people.
* 2 yr. warranty for Costco members

The Lenovo would last longer with it's spec's and also it has a bit more ports than the Asus, but usually isn't that critical.

simon_mtl

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
6
0
10,510


Thanks for your input!

Simon
 

simon_mtl

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
6
0
10,510



Hi Emperor

Never tried to customize (I am not that well informed in building my own).
Will check out your suggestion

Thx

Simon
 

whyso

Distinguished
Jan 15, 2012
253
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18,960



Five hours is a little uncommon but certainty not unheard of.

Two hours is before we have integrated graphics.

Look at the Anandtech reviews of the Alieware 17 inch laptops, they get on average about 4 hours on battery.

Many ultrabooks will get more than that while browsing.

Y580 gets about 4-5 hours during casual use, more for just word processing.
 

lunyone

Distinguished
Moderator
Feb 22, 2006
158
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18,660
Personally I would take the Lenovo over the Asus.

Asus:
* 1366 x 768 Screen resolution (don't like this low resolution to be productive)
* nVidia 635 GPU
* 6 gb's RAM
* 2 Year Warranty

Lenovo:
* 1080p Screen Resolution (1920 x 1080)!!
* nVidia 660 GPU
* 8 gb's RAM
* Backlit Keyboard, so you can work in a dark environment and not disturb roomates or other people.
* 2 yr. warranty for Costco members

The Lenovo would last longer with it's spec's and also it has a bit more ports than the Asus, but usually isn't that critical.
 
Solution

simon_mtl

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
6
0
10,510


Thanks Whyso

I should cut down to two hours - more realistic
 

simon_mtl

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
6
0
10,510


Hi Lunyone,

This is really a great !!!

thanks so much