Good laptops for study/work

[egparadigm]

Hi All,

I am starting a post-grad course in a couple weeks and will be upgrading my computer as the one I have is a few years old. I am in the fortunate position of being offered one as part of my course but there is also an option to upgrade this or purchase my own with some reimbursement. I'm a bit out of touch with tech specs and this will in fact be the first PC I've owned in a about a decade, as I've mainly been a Mac user.

The cheapest ones I've been offered are:-

Lenovo V15 G4 AMN (82YU00U8UK) - only 8GB RAM
HP 255 G9 (9M3P6AT16GB) - 16GB RAM
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (21O-00004) - 16GB RAM

Generally I was thinking to get an i5 equivalent processor, which I think these all are, as this is standard and I'm not planning on doing much gaming on it. However I'd prefer to get 16GB of RAM (upgrading from standard 8GB) as this seemed to make a big difference last time I had a PC.

My current Macbook only has USB-C ports which covers power, video, ethernet. It can only output 1080/2160P at 30Hz though. I have a really good USB-C hub for my Macbook which can support 4K@60Hz if the computer does. Given I've already invested in this, I was hoping that any laptop would support: USB-C: charging, video/ethernet via USB hub, ideally 4K@60Hz output or minimum 1080P@60Hz. I'd like to eliminate the need for separate power/other connections, if possible.

Of the 3 above, the Lenovo support some/all of the USB-C features but is sadly 8GB RAM. The HP doesn't support any of these. The Surface does, but is a bit of an older model and is the most expensive option.

I am therefore thinking of sourcing my own and have asked what the maximum amount of reimbursement is so I can weigh up the options/cost. I believe it will be around £600 in total. I've had a look and found some HP and Lenovo laptops that look like they might do it, although they might be pushing £700.

My questions are:-

• What are good laptop brands or models in that sort of price range?
• Is it realistic to get the USB-C features I was hoping for, or should I just take one of the options given?

Cheers!

[briareos_kerensky]

Yeah, getting a decent laptop is getting more and more difficult.
I wanted something with either two M2 slots or at least 4TB and out of the big companies (Dell, HP, and Lenovo), only Dell offered that, and only on very few models. Then the whole 13th/14th gen Intel CPU instability blows out, and I find myself looking at AMD laptops...which forced me to buy a spanking new Asus ProArt P16, which has better specs than the Dell I was eyeing at a lower price. Also more and better I/O, which seems to be something everyone skimp on because Bluetooh.

For a long time I was eyeing a Framework 16 (https://frame.work/) but ultimately decided against due to the (optional) discrete GPU adding too much to the overall dimensions and some bad comments about heat and noise...but you can configure the I/O as you wish (well, it has some limitations).

Personally I would steer clear of HP. We refreshed the PC pool this year at work, and before many coworkers had batteries bulge enough to dislodge the keyboard, and even new laptops have their fair share of problems. Not to mention their workstations are possibly thee worst pro-level PCs I've ever used, but that's another story.

My last two laptops have been Microsoft Surface Books (Surface 1 and Surface 3 15"), and I loved them to bits. I hear the whole Surface line follows the same build quality, so I would go for that.
Before that, I usually went for Dell and was very close getting a 2024 XPS 16.

After getting the ProArt P16, I would take a look at Asus' lineup, their Zenbook might fit you well.

[Brad]

ThinkPads are good but I don't know about any other Lenovo laptops. I agree about avoiding hp devices (all devices, not just laptops)..my work laptop is a dell and it's very expandable..I have 2 M2 drives in there and 80gig of ram but it weighs an absolute ton and won't charge via either usb c port, requiring a dedicated psu, which I don't like.

[egparadigm]

Thanks for your replies briareos_kerensky and Brad.

Definitely good to get your takes on HP. I used an HP similar to the one above at work (albeit 8GB), had it from new for about 1 year, and honestly I was disappointed with it. It seemed to struggle with things sometimes, hanging randomly/apps not responding. But I don't know if that's definitely down to the laptop. As I knew my job was ending I never got to the bottom of the problems. I think I will try a different brand given they have low repute.

I certainly like the look of the Surface laptops. My only problem there is cost. The surface laptop which has been offered involves me having to pay the supplier about £120 and, worse still, appears to not be the most recent model (it's been discounted, too).

One factor I am concerned about is that whatever I get is as recent a release as possible as I want my machine to last 5+ years if possible. I have been surprised how much laptops I've used (Macbook at home, work laptop) seem to have struggled so quickly.

I had come across Zenbooks and Thinkpads on my searches so it's good to know they are potentially good options.

If anyone knows what to look out for in terms of expand-ability, i.e. adding more solid state storage and RAM, I'd be grateful for a explanation. I've heard the term NVMe, is that the best/premium option, or is there an even newer thing?

[briareos_kerensky]

NVMe drives are SSDs that connect over PCIE rather than SATA; they are the de-facto standard nowadays, and even if the SSD is soldered onto the mainboard, the connection is the same. If you buy a laptop from 2023 or 2024, the standard drive will be a NVMe drive.

If you are worried about longevity, I would suggest to check the manufacturer's website for disassembly manuals and/or iFixIt to see what can be upgraded on with how much fuss. A lot of laptops have soldered RAM and/or SSD to make them thinner and lighter, but thanks to the variety of right to repair bills in the US and EU, the situation is getting better with newer models. For example the P16 I've bought has a dedicated manual for swapping parts and everything is within the user's reach if they know their way around computers.

A laptop can very well last 5 or so years. I got the Surface Book 3 in 2020 and I wouldn't have changed it if it wasn't for the anemic 1TB drive...or me getting a 40MP camera able to shoot 4K video. If you start right away with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB drive, I don't think you'll have to upgrade it for the next four/five years, but your mileage might vary, laptops for me are something I only use when travelling.

[egparadigm]

Thanks briareos_kerensky, very helpful.

After speaking to the supplier I am starting to think about accepting their offers and keeping costs low with a view to just upgrading at some nearer point at my own expense. There are some downsides to sourcing your own I wasn’t aware of. However still need to further details.

I’d probably go with the Surface were it not not the Go model. Apparently that’s as old as 2020 and is their budget release. That’s according to wikipedia. The supplier themselves told me they couldn’t give me any additional info.

[egparadigm]

I've now got (nearly) all the info. I am just waiting for my uni to confirm if they'll cover £200 of the cost. If they do, I'm thinking of getting this laptop which exceeds the specs of all the others I've seen in the price range/offered:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D1DKM1CC?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&th=1

It looks like it has more USB-C compatibility, also, which would be a nice perk.

If the Uni won't cover the £200 then I think it would be too costly an upgrade and I'll just take the HP.

[egparadigm]

Uni confirmed rebate so I went ahead with the Dell. Dell did a price match with Amazon, and managed to get 5% off as a student + 9% cashback TBC through quidco. So it should work out closer to £500 and roughly £100 from my pocket after rebates. Pretty happy with that.

[Anpanman]

Well done, sorry only noticed this discussion. Looks like a good model, if you go to Dell's website and search for the model number you should be able to download the service manual.
Good luck with it.

[egparadigm]

Got my laptop already. And pleased to find it does support at least 1080@60hz (possibly 4k if I set it up correctly) via USB-C, as well as Power Delivery. It complains about the wattage from my PD brick, not sure why as it’s more powerful than the supplied charger, could be the mysteries (annoyances) of GaN.

[Anpanman]

Very nice, I've not gone well into the specs but you do have Display Port on the USB so yes you will more than likely be ok on a 4K - fingers crossed anyway.

[egparadigm]

Very nice, I've not gone well into the specs but you do have Display Port on the USB so yes you will more than likely be ok on a 4K - fingers crossed anyway.

Yeah, thanks, I managed to do 4K but it's defaulting to like 24Hz. Not sure if this is down to my conservative power (saving) settings or if I need to upgrade my HDMI cable. I can in fact do 120Hz at 1080p which is more than good enough. Mainly it's just so I can watch some streaming services via 4K TV and, in the case of Netflix in particular, I don't think it can output 4K anyway due to the membership tier.

[Anpanman]

Might not be your HDMI cable, your port I think is a v1.4, ideally for 4k you want HDMI v2
That said your DP (Display Port) on USB C should support 4k so that might be your best bet.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/inspiron-16-5645-laptop/inspiron_16_5645_owners_manual/external-ports?guid=guid-b8f739cc-a41e-4ac9-b3f8-ff6d9c6d8c19&lang=en-us

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000023004/graphics.html

[egparadigm]

Good,links Anpanman.

The above referred to is on my USB-C hub’s HDMI port (not the laptop’s HDMI port), so is that HDMI or Display Port?

[Anpanman]

Aah sorry for the confusion, my fault. I was talking about your laptop USB-C port, that also has a DP logo which means it's 4k compatible as it has the Display Port gubbins on your motherboard..

If you have a separate USB-C hub I'm unsure what spec the HDMI port would be I'm afraid but I'm fairly sure HDMI and DP are two separate entities. So HDMI is HDMI only. On your laptop your HDMI won't support 4K (apart from stills probably) as you really need a v2 port.

Display Port has it's own connection too but more recently it's been connectable via a USB-C as long as your USB-C has the Display Port logo like your laptop does. In essence it saves you having another port on your PC.

It does get confusing as we have HDMI, Display Port, Display Port connecting via USB-C and also Thunderbolt over USB-C too.