Looking for a good portable laptop for everyday tasks, work and games

[sean_97]

Hello

Can anyone help recommend me a laptop? I'm looking for a laptop that meets this description.

I currently live in the US, so I'd like something that can be used there.

Under 1000 US$.

Windows 10

I'd like it to be portable, less than 5 lbs, and have a screen size of 15 in or less.

I would hope for it to last 5+ years.

It has a 1080p or higher resolution.

I would like to be able to play games. Playing on higher settings would be nice but not necessary. I'm more interesting in good performance, which would be 30fps+ for me. The most intensive games I'm interested in now are probably Total War (Rome 2, Attila) and Cities: Skylines.

I'd like to be able to do other things, like visiting websites, watching videos, MS word + Excel and other non-intensive work and everyday tasks without the laptop getting too hot or noisy and with decent battery life (5+hours ideally).

If I cannot find a good balance between the last two points I'd lean towards the second.

Anyway, I did some research and this laptop from amazon seems like the best I could come up with:
ASUS K501UW-AB78 15.6-inch Full-HD Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i7, GTX 960M, 8GB DDR4, 512GB SSD) Glacier Grey
Does that look good for what I'm looking for? My biggest concern here is that I couldn't find anything official on the battery life or video ram (not sure how important that is). Can anyone think of something better? I would also be comfortable with a Toshiba, just because they've worked very well for me in the past, though I know quality isn't consistent in any brand so I don't want to restrict myself to that. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[GreyCatz]

Hello

Can anyone help recommend me a laptop? I'm looking for a laptop that meets this description.

I currently live in the US, so I'd like something that can be used there.

Under 1000 US$.

Windows 10

I'd like it to be portable, less than 5 lbs, and have a screen size of 15 in or less.

I would hope for it to last 5+ years.

It has a 1080p or higher resolution.

I would like to be able to play games. Playing on higher settings would be nice but not necessary. I'm more interesting in good performance, which would be 30fps+ for me. The most intensive games I'm interested in now are probably Total War (Rome 2, Attila) and Cities: Skylines.

I'd like to be able to do other things, like visiting websites, watching videos, MS word + Excel and other non-intensive work and everyday tasks without the laptop getting too hot or noisy and with decent battery life (5+hours ideally).

If I cannot find a good balance between the last two points I'd lean towards the second.

Anyway, I did some research and this laptop from amazon seems like the best I could come up with:
ASUS K501UW-AB78 15.6-inch Full-HD Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i7, GTX 960M, 8GB DDR4, 512GB SSD) Glacier Grey
Does that look good for what I'm looking for? My biggest concern here is that I couldn't find anything official on the battery life or video ram (not sure how important that is). Can anyone think of something better? I would also be comfortable with a Toshiba, just because they've worked very well for me in the past, though I know quality isn't consistent in any brand so I don't want to restrict myself to that. Any help would be appreciated.

Hello, Sean:

Here's a link to some more information about the ASUS:
http/laptopsuggest.com/reviews/asus-k501uw-ab78-laptop-review
Video RAM, or GPU, is 2GB and battery life is tested at 7 hours - the testers weren't too impressed with that.

Alternatively, this 14" Lenovo Y700 might also be relevant:
http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y700-series/y700-14-inch/?menu-id=y700-14-inch
Scroll down and find the $800 version. You'll get a 4GB GPU but the CPU is 'only' i5 and Lenovo lists battery life at "up to 5 hours", which is probably closer to 3.5 hours in real life.

Then there's this Dell:
https/www.amazon.com/Dell-i7559-5012GRY-Touchscreen-Generation-Microsoft/dp/B015PYZI8E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=laptopunderbudget-20&linkId=3403b547ac0dcbebad76c6fc9e32a86d
4K touch-display, 4GB GPU, and 8 hours of battery life. The hybrid harddisk is its only weak point. But at $983 it's a bargain, in my opinion.

Best of luck,
GreyCatz.

 

[jaguarskx]

The Dell is good but there are two caveats:

- It is over 5lbs, according to Notebookcheck.net, the laptop is about 2.7kg or about 6lbs. The advertised weight on Amazon is wrong.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-15-7559-Notebook-Review.154635.0.html

- Battery run time is going to be rather short. A 4K screen uses a lot more power than a 1080p screen. The linked review shows that surfing while using WiFi, battery life under 4 hours. Other sites that reviewed the Core i5 version and 1080p screen stated that based on "average usage" battery life is roughly 7 hours; but not 7 hours of surfing using WiFi.