Looking for laptop suggestions (for gaming/editing/designing)

[Jarvice]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some suggestions for my next laptop. With this huge market and my basic knowledge of computers it has become pretty hard to make a good choice.

In short: The kind of laptop that I'm looking for looks minimalistic but is still able to run heavy programs. I will mostly use it for Adobe software, rendering of video/3D projects, and gaming.

In detail:

1. What is your budget? Around €1000,-

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 16 or 17 inch screen

3. What screen resolution do you want? Atleast 1920 x 1080

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

5. How much battery life do you need? About 1 or 2 hours is fine

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)? Battlefield 1 on medium to high settings would be great! But I also want to be prepared for future games.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) I'll use pretty much all the Adobe software for photo and video editing. I also use 3D software.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Atleast 200gb. I have an SSD in my old laptop that I can use too.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. I don't have anything in mind.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? Atleast 4 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? I don't necesarrily need one, I replaced it on my old laptop for more storage.

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. Definitely no Alien Ware, MSI or something similar. Those laptops look too flashy and are often very thick and heavy.

13. What country do you live in? The Netherlands

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I will use it outside too, so I need a matte screen.


Thanks for any of your advice!

 

[Amboss]

Hi there - due to the long list of requirements, it makes it very hard to fulfill all of them. After a couple hours digging I have found some laptops which meet almost or most of your requirements.

1. https/www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBook-K556UQ-DM1023T-Notebook-Processor/dp/B01N32SX8G/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1499901408&sr=1-4&keywords=gaming%2Blaptop&th=1

Pros:
This laptop has a very good processor which would allow you to do all of your 3D rendering etc. (Intel i5)
It has a screen that meets your requirements. (1920 x 1080)
The laptop is very portable coming in at only 2.3 kg.
It has a solid battery life of 6 hours.
It has a respectable graphics card which will allow you to easily play battlefield at your desired settings. (Geforce 940 MX)
It has a 256 GB SSD for lightning quick file transfers and combined with your other SSD you will have plenty of storage.
The latest generation processor will ensure the laptop lasts you quite a while.
This laptop is plain, which means it is not flashy. It was hard to find laptops with good gaming specs. because most of them are flashy...

Cons:
It does not have a matte screen but you can get an anti-glare screen protector for your laptop here:
https/www.amazon.co.uk/Protector-Notebook-345x194mm-Universal-reflection/dp/B0055KJ78G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499901687&sr=8-2&keywords=anti+glare+laptop+screen+protector

Summary:

This laptop seems almost perfect for what you need to do. I could not find it on Amazon.nl but I am sure there are plenty of websites in the Netherlands that you know that sell this laptop.

2. This laptop is the final laptop I could find with most of what you need, here is the link for it

https/www.amazon.co.uk/HP-15-ay110na-Laptop-i5-7200U-Windows/dp/B01MT119HM/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1499902098&sr=1-4&keywords=gaming%2Blaptop&th=1

Why this laptop is better than the first option:

It is cheaper coming in at 560 euros.
It has a longer battery life.
It has 1TB of storage on a hard drive
It is 300g lighter


Why it is worse than the first option:

It has a lower resolution screen (1366 x 768)

Conclusion:

This laptop is cheaper than the first, and does not have many cons compared to the first one

Overall:

To be honest, either of these laptops will suit your needs. I would personally get the first laptop as it comes with a graphics card for gaming whereas the second one does not, but it is up to you.

If you are struggling to find people in the Netherlands who sell these laptops, then I am happy to send them to me in England, via Amazon UK and then mail the laptop to you, if it works out cheaper than you ordering straight from Amazon UK.

I hope I helped your search a bit...

 

[Jarvice]

Hi there - due to the long list of requirements, it makes it very hard to fulfill all of them. After a couple hours digging I have found some laptops which meet almost or most of your requirements.

1. https/www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBook-K556UQ-DM1023T-Notebook-Processor/dp/B01N32SX8G/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1499901408&sr=1-4&keywords=gaming%2Blaptop&th=1

Pros:
This laptop has a very good processor which would allow you to do all of your 3D rendering etc. (Intel i5)
It has a screen that meets your requirements. (1920 x 1080)
The laptop is very portable coming in at only 2.3 kg.
It has a solid battery life of 6 hours.
It has a respectable graphics card which will allow you to easily play battlefield at your desired settings. (Geforce 940 MX)
It has a 256 GB SSD for lightning quick file transfers and combined with your other SSD you will have plenty of storage.
The latest generation processor will ensure the laptop lasts you quite a while.
This laptop is plain, which means it is not flashy. It was hard to find laptops with good gaming specs. because most of them are flashy...

Cons:
It does not have a matte screen but you can get an anti-glare screen protector for your laptop here:
https/www.amazon.co.uk/Protector-Notebook-345x194mm-Universal-reflection/dp/B0055KJ78G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499901687&sr=8-2&keywords=anti+glare+laptop+screen+protector

Summary:

This laptop seems almost perfect for what you need to do. I could not find it on Amazon.nl but I am sure there are plenty of websites in the Netherlands that you know that sell this laptop.

2. This laptop is the final laptop I could find with most of what you need, here is the link for it

https/www.amazon.co.uk/HP-15-ay110na-Laptop-i5-7200U-Windows/dp/B01MT119HM/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1499902098&sr=1-4&keywords=gaming%2Blaptop&th=1

Why this laptop is better than the first option:

It is cheaper coming in at 560 euros.
It has a longer battery life.
It has 1TB of storage on a hard drive
It is 300g lighter


Why it is worse than the first option:

It has a lower resolution screen (1366 x 768)

Conclusion:

This laptop is cheaper than the first, and does not have many cons compared to the first one

Overall:

To be honest, either of these laptops will suit your needs. I would personally get the first laptop as it comes with a graphics card for gaming whereas the second one does not, but it is up to you.

If you are struggling to find people in the Netherlands who sell these laptops, then I am happy to send them to me in England, via Amazon UK and then mail the laptop to you, if it works out cheaper than you ordering straight from Amazon UK.

I hope I helped your search a bit...

Thanks for taking the time to give me some suggestions!

The first laptop looks pretty good but this specific model isn't sold in The Netherlands. I did find some similar Vivobook models like this one: Asus VivoBook R558UQ-DM1225T

This seems like a very solid laptop, but I think I would like to invest a little bit more. I think I could use a better graphics card and maybe an i7 CPU, but I'm not sure what the pros and cons are of an i7 in my case. The Geforce 940 MX might run Battlefield 1 pretty well, but I want to be prepared for future games too (probably should've added that earlier). That's why I would like a slightly better graphics card.

I've also found 2 laptops myself that I'm considering:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y700-17ISK - This one is kind of flashy and pretty big too, but I might make an exception for it. I think this laptop may look acceptable in a workplace, and it has JBL speakers which is fun to have. This one is a bit more expensive than I had in mind too.

HP Pavilion 15-bc235nd - This one is a lot smaller and looks simple, but it has some pretty good specs too. The thing I don't like about this one are the big borders around the screen. But that's something I can get used too (hopefully).

I would love to know what you think, and thanks again for taking several hours to find those laptops! I really appreciate it.

 

[Amboss]

Hi there, yes I would be more than happy to look at those laptops and tell you what I think of them - I was unsure of your absolute price limit which is why I stuck to the low end of 1000 euros.

1. Lenovo IdeaPad Y700-17ISK looks perfect for what you need. The keyboard is a bit flashy, but I am sure you could turn off the backlit LED lights to tone it down a bit. The processor is a step up, which will be good for your work in addition to the improved graphics card which will run your games considerably better. The screen is a lot bigger, which is always nice.

However - it is quite heavy coming in at 3.5 grams and has a battery life of only four hours, but if you are happy to live with these slight drawbacks, then this laptop is a very good option.

2. This HP Laptop looks like another strong contender. I am using google web page translator to translate it from .nl to .uk so if my facts are not 100% accurate then this is why.

Why it is better than option 1 - it has a matte display (from the translation that I can see). It has a fully-fledged graphics card which will be better for gaming. It is more than 1kg lighter. Also, it is less flashy which will allow it to 'blend in' to your workplace.

Why it is worse than option 1- slightly more expensive but if you are prepared to bear the cost then it is fine. Also, it has a better intel i7 core - this might be the poor translation quality?

Either way, both of these laptops are a great choice and I look forward to hearing what you buy. If you have any other laptops which you are considering, send them to this thread and I will be sure to have a look at them.

 

[Jarvice]

Hmm the weight difference is actually a good point. I'm really leaning towards an HP laptop now.

There's actually a bunch of different HP Pavillion models with slight differences. I think I'm going for an HP Pavilion Power 15-cb040nd now. It has pretty much the same specs as a Dell XPS 15 9560, but it's a lot cheaper.

I can't find a lot of reviews on these laptops yet so I'm a bit worried about build quality and the color accuracy. But I guess I can return the laptop if it's really bad.

Anyway, thanks a lot for helping me out here! You have helped me by far the most compared to other people on this website

 

[Amboss]

Hi there - no problem, I'm glad to have helped. Yes - that laptop looks like a good choice for what you need.

Yeah - overall the community on Tom's is friendly, although, with every forum site, some people are not that helpful...

I hope you enjoy your new purchase!