Source
r/SuggestALaptop•
Element123

USA buyer seeking 13" laptop for about $1500

Valid Form
  • Total budget and country of purchase:

$1,500 before tax, living in USA. Very happy to spend less if possible :)

  • Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply.

I do prefer the 2-in-1 form factor and the best specs within my budget. Ideally I’m hoping to find i7,16gb ram, 512gb SSD, QHD(UHD?) screen with a thin bezel.

  • How important is weight and thinness to you?

Pretty important. I’ll be carrying this laptop around along with my regular bulky work laptop so the less weight and more portability the better.

  • Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux.

Widnows.

  • Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A.

Between 13” preferred, willing to go up to 14”

  • Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run.

I’ll mostly be using this for daily driving (emails, reddit, some light gaming) but I’ll also have AutoCAD 2017 on it. I don’t do any extensive 3D rendering just mainly looking at/editing 2D floorplans.

  • If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?

If I do play a game on it I’ll be playing either World of Warcraft or League of Legends although it’d be a rare thing.

  • Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)?

Build quality is obviously important but I’d also like to have “bells & whistles” like the finger print scanner, cool tablet mode, excellent screen quality, thunderbolt, that windows hello thing, and a quality touchpad (as mac-esque as can be). Noise is very important to me, if the fan sounds like a jet engine I’ll go crazy.

  • Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion.

I feel like I often overthink this but a few things I’m concerned about are:

For the type of CAD work that I do, will a Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 experience bottleneck since it is the “Y” CPU?

Is there that big of a difference between the Intel HD 620 vs the Iris Plus 640 and will I notice it at all with the 2D CAD stuff I do or the toaster-friendly games that I play?

I’ve been debating between the HP Spectre X360, Dell XPS 13 (9365), as well as the Lenovo 910 but I’m definitely open to other options.

Thank you all for your help!

Posted May 17, 2017, 4:15 PM UTC

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LonerIM2Affiliate Links | LaptopLegend.com•

Can you link the configurations you have in mind ? also what about this Spectre x360 because it comes with everything you need , 7th gen i7 dual core CPU which is one of the best in the market and great for your usage, 16 GB of ram for smooth multitasking, Good SSD storage of 512GB for faster boot up and loading, 2 in 1 Full HD 13.3 inch screen like you wanted, 2 USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 2/Thunderbolt™ 3 , and it is within your budget.

2
Element123OP•

Hi,

Thanks for the reply! For the x360 I was looking at one like this! I was hesitant because I’m wondering if the 7500U with the integrated Intel HD graphics was too limited and to look for something that had the 7560U with the Iris Plus 640 graphics (which I hear is a big boost) or is the 620 just fine for 2D CAD?

Thank you,

1
LonerIM2Affiliate Links | LaptopLegend.com•

I know you wanted UHD so the one you linked makes it a better option, but I disagree, imo UHD on such a small display is rather pointless, it consumes more battery, it needs more power to run, it adds to the price (yours are 100 more expensive), and windows still has some scaling issues, so it can be annoying, not sure about the difference in performance between HD 620 and Iris, I would have to look into it further.

2
Element123OP•

That is a lot of what I've been hearing about the UHD on these small displays but I'm worried I might be doing the opposite of "future proofing" if I went with the FHD (sort of like buying a 720p laptop when a 1080p was newer)

My logic is that if I'm going to spend 1500+ on a laptop it should be prepared for at least 3 years down the road and, to me, thats more what the UHD display provides. Or am I reading too much into it?

A benchmark test here shows the comparison between the HD 620 vs the Iris 640.

Thanks!

1
OrangematzModerator •

IMO 1080p is the standard right now - there's nothing dated about it.

Anyways, yeah, you may want to avoid the XPS 13 2 in 1; the slower CPU may slow you down in some areas.

My suggestion would probably be the T460s/T470s.

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