14" Productivity Laptop Recommendations - Budget $1500

gilbert151 on 10/02/2022 - 12:01
Last edited 10/02/2022 - 12:37 by 1 other user

What are the best deals going around for a new laptop, requirements:

  • 14" screen (could do 15" even)
  • Netter than 1920x1080 resolution
  • 16gb ram
  • No idea if dedicated GPU is needed, ideally yes if it fits into the budget range so I can run external monitors at high resolutions
  • Quiet, not too heavy, battery life needs to be "ok" ideally >50Whr

Was looking at the Lenovo Yoga deal that just expired, wasn't that keen on the 6 week+ dispatch time though.
Anything else to look at? Lenovo Ideapad?

Moving from an old Dell XPS13 which has been OK but just too slow with only 8gb ram.

Would appreciate any thoughts!

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • CrispyChrispy on 10/02/2022 - 12:09
    +2

    What exactly do you define as 'productivity'? Word docs? Video editing? Photoshop?

    If you're editing types of graphical media (videos, photos, etc.), yes, a graphics card would be very important. If you mean 'productivity' as in school/uni work (G Suite, Microsoft Office, etc.), you won't have to aim to get a decent GPU.

    Moving from an old Dell XPS13 which has been ok but just too slow with only 8gb ram.

    RAM doesn't necessarily make a computer slow - if you need more RAM, see if you can upgrade. If your computer is being slow, then it's the HDD/CPU that's bottlenecking your performance, not the RAM.

    • Baysew on 10/02/2022 - 12:38
      +1

      What exactly do you define as 'productivity'?

      One that doesn't access OzBargain?

  • FireRunner on 10/02/2022 - 12:42
    +1

    Agree with CrispyChrispy, look into possible upgrades/maintenance of the older model before getting a new one. Particularly if it's just general productivity (browsing, MS office, etc.) you don't need cutting edge specs for a good experience.
    What's your laptop specs?

    • Zackeroo on 11/02/2022 - 23:53
      +1

      Hey!! Funny to see you here on a 14" laptop thread.

      Not sure if you remember but you told me about this excellent deal on a G14 a while back. Well, I'm typing on that G14 right now and it's amazing :)

      Thanks once again lol.

      It actually fits so well for this specific thread if another deal like that was to come around. 14" screen, 1440P screen, 16GB RAM, 1660Ti, quiet (when manually controlling fans), 1.6KG, 76Wh battery.

  • gilbert151 on 10/02/2022 - 12:57
    +1

    Thanks, productivity being:
    - a lot of chrome tabs
    - large pdf files
    - several large excel sheets open, word docs, and powerpoints
    - several java based software apps open
    - ArcGIS mapping software on occasion

    Right now my old XPS13 sits on 95% memory use, soldered ram so can't upgrade, and sits on 50% CPU usage
    It has Intel i5-10210U @ 1.6ghz and only 8gb of RAM which clearly isn't enough

    • Hybroid on 10/02/2022 - 13:13
      +1

      Switch away from Chrome (known huge resource hog) to Firefox and from Adobe Acrobat to Foxit or PDF-XChange and you'll have far less resource issues.

      Also disable unnecessary add-ons that Office suite loves to add in recent versions.

      There's no saving Java though.

      To answer your original question, look at the MS Surface lineup.

      • gilbert151 on 10/02/2022 - 13:21

        Thanks, yeah already use firefox and I use Nitro PDF (needed for measuring and marking up/signing PDFs). 8gb soldered ram just is not enough but will look into the MS Surface thanks

        • FireRunner on 10/02/2022 - 13:25

          I think Edge is the most memory efficient browser but 8GB is tight I must admit.
          Shame memory isn't upgradeable since everything else is fine

  • Bisah1342 on 10/02/2022 - 12:59
    +1

    M1 macbook air. edu discount. Will be the best laptop for the money, esp on battery and speed.

  • djkelly69 on 10/02/2022 - 13:09

    If this or a similar deal for the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5 Pro 14" comes back again, it seems like it ticks all of your boxes. It can ship in as little as 2 days when they have the prebuilt version in stock, or up to 6-8 weeks if not.

    It usually has the option to add a MX450 for $99 or so, although not sure if you need it.

  • MrThing on 10/02/2022 - 16:14
    -1

    whats a "productivity" laptop?

    like 5 wanks in 1 hour, thats pretty productive?

    • djkelly69 on 10/02/2022 - 16:41
      +1

      thats pretty productive

      *painful

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