Helping my Mom pick out a new laptop, need advice

[maxfarob]

My Mom needs a new laptop for:

• 
  Media watching
  
  Light gaming: mainly 2D in the same vein as mobile games. The most demanding game she is likely to play would be the Sims 3 or 4.

The laptop needs to by fairly light, not too big (I think 13.3" is about right), and a decent battery life wouldn't hurt.

I am thinking of getting her the Asus UX305 as it seems to check all the boxes, though it may struggle if she attempts to play the sims.

Do you guys have any suggestions? The UX305 is a bit of a budget option, and I'm encouraging her to splurge since she kept her last laptop for about 8 years.

 

[Purpletalon55]

get something with dedicated graphics, at least a 950 or 960m.

 

[maxfarob]

get something with dedicated graphics, at least a 950 or 960m.

Thanks for the reply, but I think that's overkill. My Mom will only be playing simple 2D games and maybe Sims 4, nothing more demanding or in between. Turns out that the minimum graphics requirements for Sims 4 is NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or higher, and it even has a laptop mode.

 

[Purpletalon55]

get something with dedicated graphics, at least a 950 or 960m.

Thanks for the reply, but I think that's overkill. My Mom will only be playing simple 2D games and maybe Sims 4, nothing more demanding or in between. Turns out that the minimum graphics requirements for Sims 4 is NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or higher, and it even has a laptop mode.

I can promise you that integrated or ddr3 based graphics cannot handle sims 4. That is why you will need to get a ddr5 chip.

 

[maxfarob]

get something with dedicated graphics, at least a 950 or 960m.

Thanks for the reply, but I think that's overkill. My Mom will only be playing simple 2D games and maybe Sims 4, nothing more demanding or in between. Turns out that the minimum graphics requirements for Sims 4 is NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or higher, and it even has a laptop mode.

I can promise you that integrated or ddr3 based graphics cannot handle sims 4. That is why you will need to get a ddr5 chip.

Fair enough. I just messaged her and it turns out that it's not a deal breaker though, so she'll only be playing 2D games. She said that a good amount of storage (SSD with 1TB HDD?), good resolution, and good battery life for watching movies on planes (~8 hours) are the main requirements.

 

[Finstar]

Dell xps 13, Macbook air, Lenovo yoga 900.
also i have a laptop with same specs as the asus you mentioned so i can test sims 4 on it if you want.

 

[maxfarob]

Dell xps 13, Macbook air, Lenovo yoga 900.
also i have a laptop with same specs as the asus you mentioned so i can test sims 4 on it if you want.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I've been looking at the Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be a perfect fit (for the most part)! It would be great if you could test the Sims 4, but I understand if you don't want to.
I may have to do some convincing as we've had some bad experiences with Dell in the past (like 10 years ago; mainly with desktops and customer service), but the reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
I'll check out the Lenovo yoga 900 later.

 

[Finstar]

Dell xps 13, Macbook air, Lenovo yoga 900.
also i have a laptop with same specs as the asus you mentioned so i can test sims 4 on it if you want.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I've been looking at the Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be a perfect fit (for the most part)! It would be great if you could test the Sims 4, but I understand if you don't want to.
I may have to do some convincing as we've had some bad experiences with Dell in the past (like 10 years ago; mainly with desktops and customer service), but the reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
I'll check out the Lenovo yoga 900 later.

i'll test it. it will take some time.
i'm personally not the biggest fan of dell either, but so far i haven't heard anything bad about the xps 13, only praising. linustechtips even left it in rain and it survived. https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8211HNs4eY&nohtml5=False

 

[maxfarob]

Dell xps 13, Macbook air, Lenovo yoga 900.
also i have a laptop with same specs as the asus you mentioned so i can test sims 4 on it if you want.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I've been looking at the Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be a perfect fit (for the most part)! It would be great if you could test the Sims 4, but I understand if you don't want to.
I may have to do some convincing as we've had some bad experiences with Dell in the past (like 10 years ago; mainly with desktops and customer service), but the reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
I'll check out the Lenovo yoga 900 later.

i'll test it. it will take some time.
i'm personally not the biggest fan of dell either, but so far i haven't heard anything bad about the xps 13, only praising. linustechtips even left it in rain and it survived. https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8211HNs4eY&nohtml5=False

Cheers for that! Yeah I remember watching that video a while back, maybe it will help convince my Mom.

 

[Finstar]

Dell xps 13, Macbook air, Lenovo yoga 900.
also i have a laptop with same specs as the asus you mentioned so i can test sims 4 on it if you want.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I've been looking at the Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be a perfect fit (for the most part)! It would be great if you could test the Sims 4, but I understand if you don't want to.
I may have to do some convincing as we've had some bad experiences with Dell in the past (like 10 years ago; mainly with desktops and customer service), but the reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
I'll check out the Lenovo yoga 900 later.

i'll test it. it will take some time.
i'm personally not the biggest fan of dell either, but so far i haven't heard anything bad about the xps 13, only praising. linustechtips even left it in rain and it survived. https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8211HNs4eY&nohtml5=False

Cheers for that! Yeah I remember watching that video a while back, maybe it will help convince my Mom.

Took a bit longer than i was expecting but so far the laptop i have (core m 5y10c with 4gb ram) can play sims 4 fine at 1920x1080 with low settings. just note that the cpu does throttle a bit occasionally lowering the fps. (this is edited as the first time i tested it i didn't have vsync on which was causing screen tear that made it look much slower)

 

[maxfarob]

Dell xps 13, Macbook air, Lenovo yoga 900.
also i have a laptop with same specs as the asus you mentioned so i can test sims 4 on it if you want.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I've been looking at the Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be a perfect fit (for the most part)! It would be great if you could test the Sims 4, but I understand if you don't want to.
I may have to do some convincing as we've had some bad experiences with Dell in the past (like 10 years ago; mainly with desktops and customer service), but the reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
I'll check out the Lenovo yoga 900 later.

i'll test it. it will take some time.
i'm personally not the biggest fan of dell either, but so far i haven't heard anything bad about the xps 13, only praising. linustechtips even left it in rain and it survived. https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8211HNs4eY&nohtml5=False

Cheers for that! Yeah I remember watching that video a while back, maybe it will help convince my Mom.

Took a bit longer than i was expecting but so far the laptop i have (core m 5y10c with 4gb ram) can play sims 4 fine at 1920x1080 with low settings. just note that the cpu does throttle a bit occasionally lowering the fps. (this is edited as the first time i tested it i didn't have vsync on which was causing screen tear that made it look much slower)

Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate the effort. I think my Mom is pretty set on the Lenovo Yoga 900 after I laid out the options. It should fare a little better with the Intel HD graphics 520 and i7 processor, plus she can always lower the resolution.