Solved! Writing and Entertainment Laptop Recommendation

lilith002

Great
May 21, 2018
14
0
70
I'm looking for a laptop that will be used for writing and very light and quite low demand gaming.

1. What is your budget?
$1000 to $1800 USD including extended warranty and ~$100 in taxes

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13.3" - 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1080 or 4K

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
No less than 5 hours of productivity


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)?
Light, low demand gaming such as most STEAM games; indy, arcade, side scroller and etc. Maybe some old titles with low demand like Final Fantasy VII. I was thinking NVIDIA MX150 GPU.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Writing and general entertainment; streaming movies and T.V. shows, and listening to music.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
512GB would be fine if SSD only. If HDD/SSD, then enough to just run the OS on the SSD will do. The majority of files I will save are text.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Prefer to order from manufacturer

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
My last laptop lasted about 7 years before dying. I'd like a similar life-span.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
None

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.
My only restriction here is no Dell products. After a very negative experience, I will no longer purchase their products

13. What country do you live in?
United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Two relatively subjective points, but as I will be using the laptop mostly for writing, a keyboard with full spacing that provides a comfortable and smooth typing experience is a must. The other being a good visual build quality.

16GB RAM or option to upgrade from 8GB


Thank you ahead,

Lilith



 
Solution
My wife has a 15.4 inch Envy with a 4K display. She is a screenwriter and does a bit of photo/video editing. She REALLY likes it (replaced a similar Toshiba that passed away at an early age). I would recommend the Envy based on her experience.

lilith002

Great
May 21, 2018
14
0
70
Updated Budget

With some looking around, I found HP's new Envy notebook. It is a little smaller than desired, but with the edge to edge design it should work out.

13.3" 4K IPS Edge-to-Edge Glass
Intel i7 8550U
16GB
512GB NVME

~$1690 + ~$100 Tax = $1790 (4K Edge-to-Edge)
or
~1570 + ~$100 Tax = $1670 (1080p thin bezel)



 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
My wife has a 15.4 inch Envy with a 4K display. She is a screenwriter and does a bit of photo/video editing. She REALLY likes it (replaced a similar Toshiba that passed away at an early age). I would recommend the Envy based on her experience.
 
Solution

lilith002

Great
May 21, 2018
14
0
70


It is great to hear that your wife enjoys the laptop a lot being a writer. Coincidentally, my last laptop was a Toshiba as well. It lived a long life, but typing on it wasn't the best as key travel was quite short.

I have decided to go with the new Envy. Thank you for the shared experience.