Laptop Recommendation - Ultrabook ~$2,000

frowny on 16/08/2020 - 12:06

Looking for a recommendation for an ultrabook / thin and light laptop around the $2,000 range with the following specs:

  • Good/Very good screen (this almost entirely rules out the Lenovos with 4xxx series AMD due to being 250/300 nits and 45% of the colour gammut);
  • Good battery life
  • Thin and light
  • Decent/Good build quality
  • Good effective life (hope to use it for many years to come)
  • USB C Charging

Honestly given the fact that Dell slapped a 100% Australia tax on their new XPS13 I'm currently looking at the Macbook Air 2020 with an i5 processor (after education discounts it comes to about $1.7k). The ASUS Zephyrus G14 is also interesting but appears to be impossible to find in Australia and having dedicated graphics will more likely than not simply suck more power than I would prefer.

Processor/graphics performance honestly isn't a huge deal to me, the more the merrier of course, but this will mostly be used for content consumption, lots of Microsoft Word/Excel and very very light photo/video editing (1080p max).

Cheers

Computing

Comments

  • RobBoss on 16/08/2020 - 12:30

    I’m in the same situation as you. The G14 design doesn’t appeal to me too much. Have you look into the HP Spectre 360X? the OLED version comes down to $2500 I think via Unidays

    • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 12:34

      Yeah I've had a look, but $800 more for a laptop that might not last as long is a hard pill to swallow.

      If the XPS13 wasn't so bloody expensive it might be the perfect option.

      • RobBoss on 16/08/2020 - 12:58

        Same, the only reason I haven’t bought the XPS13 is the price. I’ m now waiting for Black Friday to pull the trigger. Meanwhile, I’ll just make do with an iPad Air 3 for uni this sem.

        Have you thought about waiting for ARM Macs to come out? Whilst Apple will still support intel Macs for “years to come”, it will be a thing of the past soon.

        • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 13:01

          Not too fussed about "future-proofing" because I can't imagine that Intel Macbooks will stop playing Netflix on Chrome/Safari or will not run Office Word in years to come honestly.

          With the ARM Macs I'm honestly expecting an entire generation of bad UX and paying the early adopter tax before they become a good idea for the ordinary consumer.

          • RobBoss on 16/08/2020 - 13:04
            +1

            @frowny: Yeah true, it’s gonna be bad as always with first gens. I reckon your choices are limited like mine haha. XPS or Mac Pros

  • donnot on 16/08/2020 - 12:41

    The 13" MacBook Pro base model is worth a look at $1849 (education discount). Much better sustained performance than the Air (better cooling and higher TDP for the processor). Ticks all the boxes (battery, thin, reasonably light, will last/has good support and quality control, and USB C).

    • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 12:43

      Yeah, that is definitely the second place, the only fear I have is regarding the touchbar and longevity.

      • donnot on 16/08/2020 - 12:46

        Touchbar definitely takes some getting used to if you're used to the F keys - I like it but it isn't 'mind-blowing' or anything. What are the concerns with longevity out of interest?

        • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 12:48

          Just concerned about the touchbar's longevity ins 3/4 years, will it even work. I've owned an old Lenovo X1 carbon with capacitive function buttons and after 2 years the screen just broke and I wished I had physical F-row buttons.

          • donnot on 16/08/2020 - 12:51

            @frowny: The touchbar has been an option since the 2016 MacBook Pro's and I haven't read of any reported issues, but F keys are obviously the more reliable choice.

            • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 12:55

              @donnot: Yeah that's a fair point, might take a look, would you know if the base model Macbook Pro (with the 2 TB3 ports) has the P3 display?

              • RobBoss on 16/08/2020 - 13:02

                @frowny: All of them has P3. What bothers me is the 8th gen intel, I read that it runs quite hot with the Mac Pros thermal

                • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 13:12

                  @RobBoss: Great, seeing the screen in person can say it's a beauty of a screen.

                  Not too fussed, the Macbook Air runs at 100 degrees on the CPU if you throw anything heavy at it as well. Most of the benchmarks like Cinebench and Blender is 100% not my use-case (or honestly the use-case of anyone that buys the 13").

                  I think if you stay realistic with expectations about what you're paying for and what you're going to be doing on it, shouldn't be too much of an issue.

                  • RobBoss on 16/08/2020 - 13:29
                    +1

                    @frowny: yeah true still beats my gaming laptop which sounds like a jet engine taking off

      • SydStrand on 16/08/2020 - 13:09

        I'd be wary about buying one, now that Apple is seemingly moving to ARM-based Macs.

        • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 13:13

          Yeah as above, not too fussed, not like it'll stop playing Netflix or Microsoft Office in the coming years.

  • serpserpserp on 16/08/2020 - 14:33

    Dell seem to be having some decent sales on the run out XPS13's just a touch over 2k though.

    • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 18:02

      Yeah, considering picking up a refurbished XPS13 2020 9300 from the Dell Outlet, it'd definitely have better performance but from sussing the Dell subreddit there's daily QC issue threads on the XPS13/15/17, or someone saying don't buy and worried about how the laptop will age in 3/4 years.

      • serpserpserp on 16/08/2020 - 21:42
        +1

        I have a near 6 year old XPS13, back then everyone complained about the QC issues and coil wine too. But mine has been spot on. I don't even have a reason to get rid of it now unless it died.

        • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 21:54

          Cheers for the insight - how is the battery life and system speed nowadays?

          • serpserpserp on 21/08/2020 - 15:08
            +1

            @frowny: Its fine. Battery life is between an hour or two at full speed brightness. Given its age that is pretty good!

  • hakkenuh on 16/08/2020 - 17:16

    razer blade stealth!!!

    • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 18:00

      QC aside, the specs to price is a fat yikes:

      $3,000 for:
      - i7-1065G7 (same processor in the XPS line);
      - Integrated graphics;
      - Meh FHD screen;
      - 16gb of RAM;
      - 256gb NVMe SSD; and
      - 53.1 Whr.

      • hakkenuh on 16/08/2020 - 18:17

        That would be for the 2021/2020 version yes. However I'm talking older razer blade stealth's which can still be purchased such as 2018/2019 models which are well worth their money.

        Don't forget the RGB Keyboard!!!!!

  • knightslay2 on 16/08/2020 - 18:54

    Lenovo X1 Carbon or T Series
    Hp Probook or Elitebook

  • frowny on 16/08/2020 - 19:40
    +1

    Quick spreadsheet with specs that I made to help people make their decision

    Includes a couple of student discounts through UniDays

    • zinga77 on 23/08/2020 - 10:50

      Which one did you end up getting? The 16gb X1 Carbon looks good for the price

  • Ramrunner on 18/08/2020 - 16:01
    +1

    I just bought the XPS 13 with i7, 16Gb and 512Gb SSD off another post here on special for less than $1600.

    Not sure if it's still active but LOVE the notebook.

    My daughter's i5 Spectre x360 is also pretty awesome. We picked that one up for around the same price on special.

    Bit of a bargain hunter here I only buy when I find an amazing special. Thank you OzBargain!

    EDIT That special is over :(

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/556192

    • frowny on 23/08/2020 - 10:59
      +1

      Ended up getting an XPS13 9300 (2020) from the reburb store - the Dell is a great pickup for sure and meets the needs really well.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join