I'm looking to help my sister & brother in law get a new laptop, I live in NZ so don't know what stores you have over in Melbourne, or if you have anything similar to pricespy.co.nz
Laptop gets used to run a home business, office work, some photo editing and possibly light video editing,
It is hooked up to a Titan Army 34" Curved UltraWide Monitor , 3440X1440 75hz (so needs to be able to drive this sufficiently) to be used as a desktop computer as well.
They were looking at 2nd hand upto $1000 but told them they could get new for around that or a bit more. So ideally spending less is better, but do want good build quality, not falling apart 2-3 years later
Having a look around under $900 seems to be pretty crap stuff, most seem to come around the $900-1400 mark pre "deals" pricing..
I've written this as sort of a guide for them to look around with, its overly simplified but makes it easy for non tech persons.
I haven't bought a laptop in a while so need a check for correction/missing info.
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Price $900-1300
Cpu: AMD 4500u/4600u/4700u/4800u or 4600H/4800H
U is low power, H series is more powerful. But both AMD 4000 U/H is more powerful than most other things on market atm, while being cheap and affordable.
Also AMD 4000 series uses less power mostly so stays cooler more often.
Ram: 16GB
Have to have 16GB of Ram, 8GB will not be enough going forward. They'll try sell you 8GB so they can clear stock. Since 16GB will become the normal as desktop is moving to 32GB
You might be lucky and find a laptop that has 8GB ram, upgrade-able to 16GB, but make sure it's not soldered on otherwise its useless.
HDD: 256GB/512GB/1TB NVME
Order of speed/performance, must get a drive that has at least 256GB of NVME storage for Windows, make sure it's not soldered on.
NVME > SSD > HDD
GPU: None/GTX 1650/GTX 1650TI/2060
U Series Cpu laptops might not come with a separate gpu, but that's ok it , all AMD 4000 series has onboard gpu that's quite powerful for office use.
Screen Resolution: FHD (1920x1080)
Colour Accuracy: 70%+
Colour accuracy means how accurate colours are to life, especially matters in photos/videos and editing or even just watching tv/movies.
You want something thats at least 70% or more,
Brightness: 250+ nits, Anti-glare
Need brightness higher than 250, otherwise can't really use in daytime, bright areas/outside
so the table goes as follows:
220nit might be just OK, but best to avoid
250nit passable, could be enough for you, but not for everyone, Ok inside if you're sitting far from a window on a sunny day or almost ok if sitting next to a window on a cloudy day
300nit golden standard,will allow you to use laptop mostly comfortably anywhere inside regardless of lighting
400nit and up most likely you don't need it, but some people do, gives you enough headroom for more situations - good for people who travel a lot, can have a little meeting at a cafe table outside, work outside.
Battery: 42-70w/hr or higher
The higher the watt/hr the longer the battery last without charging generally, small cheap laptops generally will hold under 40 w/hr midrange in the 40-70w/hr are and high end around 90+w/hr
But often you'll find at the sacrifice of extra storage space you may get to upgrade battery size to a higher level.
Keyboard:
No flex or very little when typing. (can't tell unless you find a model in stores to test or see reviews)
Backlit with at least 2 levels (dim/bright) and off
Similar to this, this is very good value for money.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/567264
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Laptops-&-Notebooks/Lapt…
if you can find someone who's studying you can order from education sites much cheaper , Since they will need @.edu.au email for registration
Prices then start $700-1100 for these same laptops
Lenovo Education Site: https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/education/gatekeeper/showpage?t…
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I think spec wise it is a good starting point to get them started. Personally I like the Asus Vivobook S15 with the Ryzen processor.
The Titan Army 34" I believe have HDMI and Display port interfaces, so either the Lenovo and Asus that you were looking at are fine to drive that display. Though it would have been nice if the Vivobook had Thunderbolt 3 and Type C charging but o well. The Lenovo Ideapad Flex/Slim and the Game have very good performance with that Ryzen Processor but again the poor screen (bightness & colour accuracy, contrast ratio is pretty poor) is a shame.
I would also add in a colour accurate screen since they do some editing. But they are hooking it up to a large 34" ultrawide monitor that has decent colour accuracy so I think this may be less important if it is hooked up to that larger quality display. The Lenovo has good specs but that screen is a bit too dim for my liking and the colour accuracy is not good. The Asus Vivobook is the better option with decent brightness and colour, it is a better panel.
From what you have suggested the Lenovo Ideapad Game VS the Asus Vivobook S15 I would prob go the Vivobook S15. It has the RAM, processor, is much lighter than the Lenovo, screen colour accuracy is good & brightness is decent. The Lenovo has decent spec but that screen is not that great and it is rather heavy.