laptop recommendations: If you were buying one today.

El Presidente
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El Presidente Pelo De Oro

El Presidente

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Time to upgrade the laptop (Thinkpad X1 Carbon 16 GB  256 SSD) as it is starting to struggle under load. 

spreadsheets, vid / image editing, streaming, images, 20 tabs open at a time/Zoom/MTS/ good keyboard. 

Need to be able to open it up on occasion in coach.  14 preferable. 15 max. 

Need ports.  Decent sound. 

Not Mac.

 

thank you in advance :ok:

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benfica_77 Campanas

benfica_77

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I'm seriously considering my next laptop to be a high-end chromebook. 

It does all of those things, Prez are you using google sheets? for excel docs etc. If you're in the google/android ecosystem it might be something worth considering. You can do image editing well but only basic video editing. The best video editing device is a Mac and use Final cut pro. 

I just don't like PCs anymore. I use one for work because it's required but if I could I would use my personal Mac. 

I would also echo LordA with the microsoft surface if you want to go PC. 

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gustavehenne Marevas

gustavehenne

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Surface Laptop 4 (think it's a 13.5 inch screen). You can get some Surface hybrids (Surface Book, Studio etc.) which are also great but pricey and break out into tablet and laptop with attached keyboard. The Laptop 4 is the all-in-one laptop.

Dell XPS (13, 15 and 17 inch screen)

... for my money I would go for the Dell XPS, the screen is fantastic and it has some of the highest reviews.

(although I would concur with others and say, change to Mac :))

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cnov Marevas

cnov

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13 minutes ago, stevenhaugen said:

Surface Laptop 4 (think it's a 13.5 inch screen). You can get some Surface hybrids (Surface Book, Studio etc.) which are also great but pricey and break out into tablet and laptop with attached keyboard. The Laptop 4 is the all-in-one laptop.

Dell XPS (13, 15 and 17 inch screen)

... for my money I would go for the Dell XPS, the screen is fantastic and it has some of the highest reviews.

(although I would concur with others and say, change to Mac :))

Been really happy with my XPS, not skipped a beat in about 6 years.

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Bijan Prominentes

Bijan

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Lenovo Thinkpad T14, or one of the 14 inch Dell XPS.

My father has had 3 or 4 Microsoft surfaces so far, major hardware faults and Microsoft will only replace with refurbished units which have been rubbish. Warranty is for 1 year so it is a game of musical chairs getting the broken units replaced with a working one (all refurbished of course) before the warranty runs out.

Edit: I even came across a review aritcle where the reviewer had the same sort of hardware fault and had to get a second review unit sent from Microsoft, but didn't deduct any points because it must have been a rare problem, but again anecdotally I think more common than I'd want to deal with.

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cnov Marevas

cnov

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Bought a Razer Blade for an employee which has been fantastic, probably not what you're after as it's more of a gaming laptop that we use to run AutoCAD etc, but they have a Razer Book that looks fairly decent. Build quality of the Blade is excellent and was recommended by a computer buff, if the Book is like it I think it could be a winner and will be on my watchlist if mine gives in.

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BrightonCorgi Prominentes

BrightonCorgi

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58 minutes ago, LordAnubis said:

ports? for what? i can not recommend microsoft surfaces enough. Really, with what you're doing the cheapest off the shelf will do. ive found Dells to be solid laptops too.

I am fan Microsoft Surface Pro. 

If this laptop is for work & earning a living; get a workhorse.  Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell Precision.  32GB RAM, T2B SSD minimum.  Matt screen.  Get a port replicator to use with traditional keyboard and external monitor.

The workhorses are expensive and on the heavier side.  Like many things, you get what you pay for.   Go business class.  You don't look hurting for money.

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Bijan Prominentes

Bijan

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As for ports, I recommend wireless keyboard and mouse if you use external ones (bluetooth is best that way you don't even need those tiny dongles). I have that for my setup, and it's much more convenient the few times I have to pack up and go somewhere else and don't have to deal with a tangle of wires.

As for external monitors you can run 2 4k monitors off a single USB-C cable with the right USB hub (but you might need to use 2 cables if you want a high refresh rate, at least until the next iteration of USB), and that hub should give you 3-4 USB ports for accessories as well as potentially charge your laptop in the inverse direction.

Edit: I have 2 cables connected to my work laptop, one HDMI monitor and one USB-C to a hub, which has another HDMI monitor connected, as well as all my other random peripherals.

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Fsonicsmith Perlas

Fsonicsmith

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Your inquiry is like asking "recommend a new car for me". It all depends on what you need it for and what you like. 

I have four laptops all for different uses. All of them are high-end. For pure computing power it is hard to beat a top gaming laptop. They have multiple ports, a dying breed. 

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Jack Marevas

Jack

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I've been using HP Elitebooks (Business class laptops) for years now.  Used from ebay or new straight from HP.  New ones have a 3-year warranty that can be upgraded to on-site for fairly cheap.  There are "docking" stations available that give most of the ports anyone would want.  The newer ones are USB C so you can power the laptop from the dock connection also.  Older ones you actually mount the laptop into the slim dock and it acts as a port replicator.  I'm on an older model 850 now, but if I had a business write-off I'd upgrade to the newest.

Literally never had a complaint or problem with the business line.  Learned the hard way to stay away from lower priced consumer items.  Going to be five years (come February) on this 850 G2 I bought used.  Use Adobe Creative Suite, full MS Office, have something stuffed into every port, no issues - except the older ones wont tolerate the update to Windows 11.

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Meklown Campanas

Meklown

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2 hours ago, cnov said:

Razer Blade

I have the 15 too, and it's pretty good for most things and probably including video editing. but the battery in mine started expanding and when I fought to get it replaced, they gave me a newer model for a minimal charge, and I noticed a couple of months back that the battery is expanding again. Really unfortunate because I like everything else about that laptop. Apparently it's a problem others run into as well.

Otherwise, I like the Dell XPS as others mentioned. 

I think surface may suffer from overheating if doing heavy graphic work. No experience with it so don't quote me on this. 

And no, don't switch to Mac 😂

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cnov Marevas

cnov

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8 hours ago, Meklown said:

I have the 15 too, and it's pretty good for most things and probably including video editing. but the battery in mine started expanding and when I fought to get it replaced, they gave me a newer model for a minimal charge, and I noticed a couple of months back that the battery is expanding again. Really unfortunate because I like everything else about that laptop. Apparently it's a problem others run into as well.

Otherwise, I like the Dell XPS as others mentioned. 

I think surface may suffer from overheating if doing heavy graphic work. No experience with it so don't quote me on this. 

And no, don't switch to Mac 😂

Thanks for the heads up, I'll get him to keep an eye on it.

 

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Ryan Prominentes

Ryan

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Dell XPS 15 9510 (the current model). 15.6" screen.

Comes with 16gb ram (up to 32 gb at least) and a 1TB ssd. Durable with aluminium casing and carbon fibre palm rest.

It comes with NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti graphics card as standard which should easily handle all your video editing needs. I have a two year old model with an older graphics card and it handles DaVinci Resolve 17 (a brilliant free, but graphics intensive video editing suite, I can't recommend it highly enough)

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/whatsnew

As for ports, a cheap enough USB port replicator (portable) should handle anything you need if you need more ports.

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Fuzz Prominentes

Fuzz

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Just make sure that whatever USB-C hub you get, it has a high enough pass through rating to charge your laptop.

  • EZQuest USB-C Multimedia Hub
  • Kingston SD1650P
  • Kingston Nucleum
  • HyperDrive 7-in-1 USB-C Hub Stand
  • Aukey CB-C78 12-in-1 USB-C Hub
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traveller Marevas

traveller

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I had a XPS 15, sure it could have a lot of tabs open and do all the editing I needed but the build quality didn't live up to the price point and solving the hardware problems I had with Dell was an absolute nightmare, it was my first dell in years and I regretted it. Dell support is not great not only in terms of customer service but in terms of continuing firmware and software support once they release the New Years model, nothing is updated. Also Battery life was quite bad talking about 3-4 hours just browsing the internet, it you get an xps make sure you have some replacement insurance for it.

Now I switched to a m1 MacBook Pro, different issues but I can use the computer for 3 days without charging, can have a hundred tabs open and can do my quick pass photo editing. Have my windows desktop for all of my heavy lifting.

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