Help on Buying Laptop between $3000- $4000

Lmcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 10:51
Last edited 13/11/2021 - 12:22

i have been looking at the following laptop recently

razer blade 13
dell xps 13 9310
Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 9

not for gaming. mainly to use for productivity.
i sometimes will need to open adobe illustrator and photoshop file that is around 500mb in size

13 or 14 inch screen .. nothing bigger
less that 1.5kg weight is a must
1 tb ssd (or even 2tb or expandable to 2x 1tb is preferable but not a requirement)
16gb ram minimum
need a very nice screen resolution with nice nits.. oled is only available on dell xps 13 i believe

dedicated gfx is preferable but not requiring rtx3060 or anything powerful..

i think budget of $3000-$4000 can get the one i require

been reading reviews for the above laptops.. any thoughts on other brands i missed?

not too concern on getting on specials/ discounts… company is paying for it.. so not needing it to be a bargain.. as long as top specs good quality

EDIT: no macbook !!!!!

Razer Blade 14" QHD 165Hz Ryzen 9 5900HX RTX3070 Laptop
$2999
14-inch QHD 165Hz, 2560 x 1440
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX Processor
16GB DDR4-3200MHz, 1TB SSD
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 (8GB VRAM), Per key RGB Powered by Razer Chroma
Windows 10 Home, 1 Year Warranty
Weight 1.78 kg

Dell XPS 13
$3398 for 16gb RAM / $3798 for 32gb RAM
Processor 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1195G7 (12 MB cache, 4 cores, 8 threads, Base Speed 2.90 GHz. up to 5.00 GHz)
Intel® Iris® Xe GraphicsDisplay
13.4" OLED 3.5K (3456x2160) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 400-Nit Display
1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
16 GB, LPDDR4x, 4267 MHz, integrated
Starting Weight: 1.27kg for touch screen

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 14" WQUXGA i7-1165G7
$3699
14.0" WQUXGA (3840x2400) IPS 500nits Glossy, HDR 400
11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (4C / 8T, 2.8 / 4.7GHz, 12MB)
32GB Soldered LPDDR4x-4266, 1TB M.2 2280 SSD
Windows 10 Pro, 3 Years Onsite Warranty
Weight 1.133 kg

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • FIVEDOLLAR on 13/11/2021 - 11:50
    +2

    If you don't have any OS restrictions, the new MacBooks with M1 Pro/Chips are great.

    • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 12:09

      i forgot to mention .. NO mac !!!

      i have a macbook pro .. love it .. but certain programs cannot run on macOS
      i have run windows on parallel on macOS .. its annoying

      have to be windoze system (and gosh i hate the mac key)

  • FreshPrinceofKP on 13/11/2021 - 11:50
    +1

    Hey, have you thought/ checked out the new Macbook? I have ordered a 16" Pro, after watching many reviews, there is a 14" too. The perfomance should do what you are looking to do. I am getting for productivity and some video/ photo editing. My first Mac!

    • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 12:09
      +1

      sorry no mac

      • FreshPrinceofKP on 13/11/2021 - 12:40

        I am using a Razer Blade Stealth (original one) as my personal laptop and can say it was good but now its so dated, just been holding on. For work I use a Lenovo Thinkpad X280 and really like it a lot in comparison. For me I don't use a laptop without keyboard and mouse and its mainly just there as a 2nd screen using a 34" monitor. Thats why I went 16" it will just sit there and be a good 2nd screen.

        I have heard great things about that Dell XPS 13, but I would say if I wasn't getting a Mac I would look at Lenovo, its just so nice to use (when I hot desk or something) keyboard and overall build quality is what I like about it. - I asked work if I could buy from them as its now scheduled for upgrade but no go… we are getting Dell in December so that will be new to me.

        • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 12:47

          good info there. thanks

      • HeWhoKnows on 14/11/2021 - 08:48

        "not for gaming. mainly to use for productivity.
        i sometimes will need to open adobe illustrator and photoshop file that is around 500mb in size"

        You only need to spend around the $1,000 mark

        Look for one with 16GB of RAM or more

        Thats it

  • meowsers on 13/11/2021 - 12:26
    -3

    I think you should buy a Mac.

    • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 12:28
      +1

      sigh

  • ZDC on 13/11/2021 - 12:32
    +1

    Have a look at the ThinkPad P14s (AMD) as well. Gen 1 or Gen 2 whichever you can get. Get the 400 nits screen for the better colour gamut. Battery life is pretty meh and doesn't have dedicated graphics, but neither does the X1. So between these two I'd definitely pick the P14s over the X1.

    • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 12:44

      thank you. will look into it

  • Muzeeb on 13/11/2021 - 12:54
    -3

    Have you considered a Mac?

    • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 12:57
      +1

      🙄

  • trippple on 13/11/2021 - 13:55

    Have a look at aftershock, I was looking for something similar and although they do specialise in gaming rigs I’m really happy with my (non-gaming) laptop from them.

  • mickyb80 on 13/11/2021 - 18:50

    Why not HP Spectr x360?

    • mcvic2k on 13/11/2021 - 22:25

      i forgotten about HP.. shall research.. thx

      • mickyb80 on 13/11/2021 - 23:39

        I've got a x360 Spectr w/i7, 16G 1TB, NVidia etc… Use it as my everyday workhorse…
        Its a reasonable bit of gear - 12 months old now, and I flog the Fark out of my tech gear and its still kicking on.

        I did have a screen issue not long after I bought it and it was replaced.
        Sadly think the tech caused something else to fail, or a FW update on the GPU didnt go to well - whatever caused a further issue and (BSOD) was not SW and HP were more than happy to change out the MB recently. Mind you, I did have so chase them a few times as I have an onsite Carepack, and the tech didnt want to come to site due to covid. Got sorted and all well since. (Except the user).

        I dont rate much reasonable or highly, but this is a good bit of gear despite the handful of issues ive had. Lenovo - wouldnt touch it, still have a device here that they couldnt fix and its still under warranty, just gave up fighting with them pr1(ks in the end.

        Some of the Dell units are not to bad at present either. Have a i7 16bg thing for work (employment) use and its pretty rock solid. Did have a BT issue at one stage, but a FW and driver update sorted that. For a personal device, i'd not use a Dell though.

        Would go Asus in the past, but not great ATM.
        Loved Fujitsu as a 'quality' product in the past, however, they have become Lenovo's now… and for a higher spec unit, you will be needing to burn a hole in that pocket! The older S Series were a 5#17 hot piece of gear…

        Just MPO on current devices..

        • mcvic2k on 14/11/2021 - 11:30

          hmmmm i forgotten about support for aftersales.. i better get one of those warranty pack if available

          thanks for sharing
          definitely will take into consideration

  • Qazxswec on 13/11/2021 - 18:55
    -3

    Whatever you decide on, look towards getting an Apple computer, they are the Daddy Mac!!

  • Ramrunner on 19/11/2021 - 15:35

    I would discard the Razer - I've had 2, (well 4 if you count the two I had to return) and they both had issues bad enough for me not to get one again.

    The XPS is very nice I have one but the headphone jack did not work. It was under warranty and fixed on-site the next day so no problem but does make me worry for the QC. Make sure everything works before warranty runs out or get extended. My son also has one now he's had 0 issues.

    Both my wife and brother have X1s - never any issues.

    Definitely consider the new Asus Zenbook Duo or ProArt models. I've only ever owned an Asus Zenbook U31A but it is STILL running strong today (2012 model).

    Also definitely consider the HP Spectre x360 or Firefly models - my daughter has the Spectre and it's one of the most beautiful notebooks I've ever seen, super practical (TB ports, 2-in-1 with touchscreen etc). Also no issues after BIOS upgrade to fix heaphone detection state.

    That's what I would go with.

  • Inzo on 19/11/2021 - 22:13

    we use a lot of these at work for this precise thing: https://www.dell.com/en-au/work/shop/workstations/precision-…
    might also be able to get the same hardware from lenovo cheaper, they tend to outbid del for business - https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p-ser…

  • qvinto on 19/11/2021 - 22:20

    You can get the XPS OLED with the specs you listed for not much more than 2K on ebay when Dell has their 20% off sale

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