Hey everyone,
In the market for a new laptop $1400-$2400, would be used for a little bit of industrial programming then just general home use. YouTube/Courses etc.
Looks like I want 16GB Ram, 14 inch plus, after researching kind of set on AMD 7. Over 500gb SSD.
Have come to conclusion this Dell laptop seems to suit pretty well, just wanted to get others thoughts. Otherwise a few of the Lenovo laptops at this price range seem solid however there screens seem to be low NITS?
Not necessarily ultra portable. Wont be used outdoors. Battery life 50wh plus. Yes mainly Rockwell PLC Programming.
If you are set on Ryzen 7 then your choice is quite limited.
The Dell Inspiron you looked at comes with a 250nits 45% NTSC colour gamut screen, which some people are okay with but I would recommend getting something that has at least 300nits and 72%NTSC/100% sRGB if you use your lappy for anything more than light indoor productivity work.
If you are okay with a dim screen, I would suggest you to check out the Lenovo ThinkPad T14. The T14 has an older CPU but better build quality than the Inspiron you looked at.
There are 3 Thinkpad models you can consider
T14 - EOFY $1699, Ryzen 7 pro 4750u, 16GB soldered RAM (with an empty SO-DIMM slot with dual channel support for future upgrade), M2. 2280 Opal 2 512GB SSD, FHD 250nits 45% NTSC Non-touch IPS screen. 50Wh battery, 1.55kg
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-ser…
T14s - EOFY $2049, Ryzen 7 pro 4750u, 16GB soldered RAM(not upgradable), M2. 2280 Opal 2 512GB SSD, FHD 300nits 45% NTSC Multi-touch IPS screen. 57Wh battery, 1.35kg
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-ser…
P14s - EOFY $2079.35, Ryzen 7 pro 4750u, 8GB soldered+8GB so-DIMM RAM (16GB in total), M2. 2280 Opal 2 512GB SSD, FHD 400nits 72% NTSC Low Power Non-touch IPS screen. 50Wh battery, 1.46kg
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p-ser…
The T14 is the obvious budget choice out of the three but the screen is too dim in my personal opinion.
Unless you want a touchscreen, otherwise for the price, I would suggest the P14s over the T14s, if you need a touchscreen then the AMD version of surface laptop 4 is a better option (more on that later).
This Australian version of T14 and P14s are essentially the same machine with different configuration, there is a 32GB version available for the P14s, but 32GB is an overkill for your use case.
If you want a touchscreen then there is a version of Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 that comes Ryzen 7 4980u, 16GB soldered RAM (non-upgradable) , M.2 NVMe 512GB SSD, 2496 x 1664 (201 PPI) 3:2 334nits 100% sRBG Multi-Touch IPS screen. 45.8 Wh battery, 1.54kg. It retails for $2799 but you should be able to get it down to around $2400 if you stack discounted GC with special offer. https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/microsoft-surface-laptop-…
3:2 screen is great for productivity and programming, this screen is likely the best you can get on a Ryzen business laptop at the moment but it is very glossy, which can be a problem if you get any sunlight in your room. All in all, I would recommend this if you need touch screen, if not then the P14s should serve you well.
If you would consider a 13" then there is the S540 going for $1200 on education store, that has a 2k 300nits 100%sRGB screen, 4800u, 16GB/512GB, which is my personal choice for bang for the buck.
HP has a few models that come with Ryzen but I don't see any that fits your requirement entirely. Acer and Asus have some 15" gaming Ryzen laptops that are good value for money but they tend to be bulkier, noisier (fans) and gaming laptops just aren't known for good battery life.
Thanks mate, Purchased the P14s AMD lastnight.
Good choice, how much did you pay?
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p-ser…
got this with 15% off through Lenovo pro with an ABN and 6 percent shopback. Went from $2293 to around $1825
Did you get the one with 400nits or 250nits? The link you posted is for 250nits, should definitely get the 400nits model (much better screen) as the price difference is only $40 before discount.
Price for the 32GB Ram model with 400 nits screen is $1800 on UNIDAYS, shouldn't be hard to borrow an edu email address from family and friends.
Yep 400 nits and 32gb. True i didnt see that, good deal.
Doesnt come with a thunderbolt port though, would this dock still work ? https://www.amazon.com.au/Lenovo-Thinkpad-Thunderbolt-Dock-4…
Thunderbolt is intel technology, which usually isn't available on Ryzen powered laptop.
What exactly do you need a dock for? If it's for monitors, can't you just get a USB-C to DP cable? Both USB-C ports on the P14s support DP and there is a HDMI2.0 port as well, so theoretically you can hook up 3 x 4k monitors without a dock.
Yes correct, but i did this with my last laptop and it destroyed my laptop over a year. Fan got noisy and started to overheat from running my two screens directly through cords. Looks like a USB-C Lenovo dock should do it.
Does it need to be ultra portable? Will you be using it outdoor? Any requirement on battery life? What exact is industrial programming, is it PLC?