Another laptop recommendation thread

IanC

IanC

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Ian
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Hello can anyone recommend a new laptop for me please, I have a budget of £1kish and it would be nice to take it on my travels but it will mainly sit on a desk in my office plugged into a monitor. It will be my editing laptop for PS, affinity photo etc, don't mind trying an apple machine but I'm more used to windows.
 
For Windows or Linux, I'd suggest looking at the LG Gram series.

I'm very pleased with my 17" model, which is smaller and lighter than you might think possible. I have several laptops (a legacy of being an IT consultant for many years) and this is very much the best I've found for personal use. Despite its bigger screen and a keyboard with a number pad, it's lighter than my 15" Macbook. Full disclosure: I still go to my Macs for picture editing but that's because the built in Preview application has worn grooves in my brain and anything else seems like too much trouble! :naughty:

MacBook and LG17 TZ70 P1030675.jpg
 
Might be worth looking at Lenovo - they sometimes have good offers, and their laptops are usually robust.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
For Windows or Linux, I'd suggest looking at the LG Gram series.

I'm very pleased with my 17" model, which is smaller and lighter than you might think possible. I have several laptops (a legacy of being an IT consultant for many years) and this is very much the best I've found for personal use. Despite its bigger screen and a keyboard with a number pad, it's lighter than my 15" Macbook. Full disclosure: I still go to my Macs for picture editing but that's because the built in Preview application has worn grooves in my brain and anything else seems like too much trouble! :naughty:

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Thanks for this :)
 
I subscribe to Computeract!ve and their current recommendation is the Acer Swift 3 14in £799 so under budget :) They say "Comes with a powerful 12th generation Intel processor and 1TB SSD to make Windows tasks feel incredibly fast. Also has a decent 2560x1440 pixel IPS screen and comes with plenty of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 - compatible USB-C"
I'm a newbie here and can't post a link if I read things right but you might look at:
www. snipca .com / 44950
I've put gaps in so that it (hopefully) won't look like a link and get me banned :-|
 
Boxy said:
I subscribe to Computeract!ve and their current recommendation is the Acer Swift 3 14in £799 so under budget :) They say "Comes with a powerful 12th generation Intel processor and 1TB SSD to make Windows tasks feel incredibly fast. Also has a decent 2560x1440 pixel IPS screen and comes with plenty of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 - compatible USB-C"
I'm a newbie here and can't post a link if I read things right but you might look at:
www. snipca .com / 44950
I've put gaps in so that it (hopefully) won't look like a link and get me banned :-|
Click to expand...
Great thank you I'll take a look at this tonight
 
Boxy said:
I subscribe to Computeract!ve and their current recommendation is the Acer Swift 3 14in £799 so under budget
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Acer is another good make.

I use a Travelmate as my main system backup, having put a 2TB SSD in place of the original, rather slow 1TB HDD. However, they are inclined to be heavy, going by the four or five I've used over the years.
 
OK, there's a couple for below the grand mark:

Yoga Slim 9i Gen 7 (14″ Intel) | Powerful, carbon-neutral 14" laptop

Portable, sustainable, & smart, the powerful Yoga Slim 9i is certified carbon-neutral. Ultraslim and crafted from—and packaged in—recycled materials.
www.lenovo.com

IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 (16″ AMD) | 16″ AMD Ryzen™-powered laptop

Whether gaming or creating, beat the pros with the IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 laptop powered by AMD Ryzen™ & up to NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4050 graphics.
www.lenovo.com

IdeaPad Flex 5 Gen 8 (16" AMD)

www.lenovo.com

I recently bought a Flex 5 16, and it's not bad - not as good as a Dell XPS in terms of finish and build quality - but around half the price. OTOH my wife's S530 felt just as well built. All 3 of these have decent screens available, though you may need to use the 'build your PC' to choose it. Unfortunately Lenovo aren't doing some of their better offers on smaller machines with good screens right now.
 
ancient_mariner said:
OK, there's a couple for below the grand mark:

Yoga Slim 9i Gen 7 (14″ Intel) | Powerful, carbon-neutral 14" laptop

Portable, sustainable, & smart, the powerful Yoga Slim 9i is certified carbon-neutral. Ultraslim and crafted from—and packaged in—recycled materials.
www.lenovo.com

IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 (16″ AMD) | 16″ AMD Ryzen™-powered laptop

Whether gaming or creating, beat the pros with the IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 laptop powered by AMD Ryzen™ & up to NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4050 graphics.
www.lenovo.com

IdeaPad Flex 5 Gen 8 (16" AMD)

www.lenovo.com

I recently bought a Flex 5 16, and it's not bad - not as good as a Dell XPS in terms of finish and build quality - but around half the price. OTOH my wife's S530 felt just as well built. All 3 of these have decent screens available, though you may need to use the 'build your PC' to choose it. Unfortunately Lenovo aren't doing some of their better offers on smaller machines with good screens right now.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for this :)
 
I have two Lenovo models. An Ideapad 5 14" and a Legion 5 Pro 16", both with AMD 5xxx series CPUs and am currently looking at a Yoga Pro 7 14" to replace the Ideapad.
As Toni says, Lenovo isn't doing its best offers at the moment so it may be worth waiting if you are interested in the brand as they'll probably pop up again soon.
 
I would usually suggest an M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM, but there aren't any on the Apple refurb store at the moment.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I would usually suggest an M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM, but there aren't any on the Apple refurb store at the moment.
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Are they still fast enough and for the foreseeable future? I was thinking to get 32gb ram
 
M1 macbook air has max of 16gb of ram but much more efficient than the norm. Lovely & light to carry, used to have one but changed for a MacBook Pro.
Worth reading a few reviews on the MB air - great laptop imho.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I would usually suggest an M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM, but there aren't any on the Apple refurb store at the moment.
Click to expand...
You can see price histories and set alerts for specific refreshes of the Apple refurb page via this great website: https://www.refurb.me/gb


Helped me out when looking for a new mbp (although I ended up going eBay, it was useful resource for negotiation!)
 
IanC said:
Are they still fast enough and for the foreseeable future? I was thinking to get 32gb ram
Click to expand...

nog said:
M1 macbook air has max of 16gb of ram but much more efficient than the norm. Lovely & light to carry, used to have one but changed for a MacBook Pro.
Worth reading a few reviews on the MB air - great laptop imho.
Click to expand...
As @nog said, comparing an Apple SoC RAM with PC RAM is like comparing apples and oranges because the memory is closer to the processor i.e. on the same chip I have got an M1 MBA with 16GB RAM and that runs many VMs and associated software development tools all day without issue, I also have a M1Pro MBP with 16GB RAM and that runs the software development tools, VMs and Lightroom/Photoshop at the same time, without any issues. If I was spending my money again for an Apple editing machine, I would still go for 16GB RAM.
 
I think the conclusion you can draw so far is that there are many laptops which please their owners.

I sympathise with you trying to find the best one for your own needs! :wideyed:
 
Craikeybaby said:
As @nog said, comparing an Apple SoC RAM with PC RAM is like comparing apples and oranges because the memory is closer to the processor i.e. on the same chip I have got an M1 MBA with 16GB RAM and that runs many VMs and associated software development tools all day without issue, I also have a M1Pro MBP with 16GB RAM and that runs the software development tools, VMs and Lightroom/Photoshop at the same time, without any issues. If I was spending my money again for an Apple editing machine, I would still go for 16GB RAM.
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Thanks for this, do you know if I can plug them into a standard PC monitor or do they need a special apple monitor?
 
IanC said:
Thanks for this, do you know if I can plug them into a standard PC monitor or do they need a special apple monitor?
Click to expand...

Normally a standard monitor, though sometimes with an adapter. I would expect it to plug straight in if the monitor has a display port.
 
You may need an adapter - my Philips monitor at home plugs in to the Mac via USB-C and acts as a docking station and charges the Mac. However, the Dell monitors at work just connect via HDMI, so I need to use an adapter.
 
Can anyone offer any opinions on the above laptop options please?
 
If I had to choose from those I think I'd go for the Asus as it has the best CPU and screen, albeit the screen is the smallest. But you should consider whether you'll need a discrete GPU for PS to work well - I don't use it so I don't know if it needs one like LR does.
 
The Acer looks OK on paper - IPS 100% SRGB screen, 16GB RAM. Processor isn't stunning and FHD isn't wonderful, but is OK for a 14" screen. Nice & light. Acer *used* to have a very bad reputation, although I've used some of their more recent kit for work and it was OK if nothing special.

The Asus looks lovely although the screen is a bit small. A concern with the 100% DCI-P3 OLED screen is screen burn and also the colours being over-gaudy if you're planning to use it for photos. Gaudiness can be fixed with calibration, but concerns over burn actually stopped my buying one. If you change computers every 3 years then it may be fine, but my laptops last 9-10 years.

Lenovo Yoga has a 12th gen Intel i7 processor, LPDDR5 memory, thunderbolt 4 ports and 100% SRGB screen (though a little dim at 300 nits). We have 3 lenovos as a family now, it's a brand I've used for a long time with work too, and although this isn't a thinkpad, it's likely to still be good. This is probably the machine I'd have bought if I'd had another £100 in my budget.
 
ancient_mariner said:
The Acer looks OK on paper - IPS 100% SRGB screen, 16GB RAM. Processor isn't stunning and FHD isn't wonderful, but is OK for a 14" screen. Nice & light. Acer *used* to have a very bad reputation, although I've used some of their more recent kit for work and it was OK if nothing special.

The Asus looks lovely although the screen is a bit small. A concern with the 100% DCI-P3 OLED screen is screen burn and also the colours being over-gaudy if you're planning to use it for photos. Gaudiness can be fixed with calibration, but concerns over burn actually stopped my buying one. If you change computers every 3 years then it may be fine, but my laptops last 9-10 years.

Lenovo Yoga has a 12th gen Intel i7 processor, LPDDR5 memory, thunderbolt 4 ports and 100% SRGB screen (though a little dim at 300 nits). We have 3 lenovos as a family now, it's a brand I've used for a long time with work too, and although this isn't a thinkpad, it's likely to still be good. This is probably the machine I'd have bought if I'd had another £100 in my budget.
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Thanks a lot for this :) are the ThinkPad a better model than the yoga? I want my laptop to last a long time too, not one for upgrading all the time :)
 
Snapsh0t said:
If I had to choose from those I think I'd go for the Asus as it has the best CPU and screen, albeit the screen is the smallest. But you should consider whether you'll need a discrete GPU for PS to work well - I don't use it so I don't know if it needs one like LR does.
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What is a GPU haha, I'm a novice, I guess this is what people choose macs because they just know they will work
 
IanC said:
What is a GPU haha, I'm a novice, I guess this is what people choose macs because they just know they will work
Click to expand...

Macs have GPUs too. ;)

IanC said:
are the ThinkPad a better model than the yoga?
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Thinkpads are really the business/professional range especially the T and P series, yoga is the upper-mid range consumer unit, usually with a 360 degree hinge (which that one didn't seem to have). Bear in mind that the machines are designed for different things, so a thinkpad should be a tough, long-lived machine (a lot of older ones come up in the used/refurb channels) but may not be tailored for photography.
 
@IanC

I'm in the same position as you currently considering laptop options.

I think for the £1300 we will probably be told to buy one of these:

£1,399
Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 7‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
13-inch Retina display with True Tone
Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
30W USB-C Power Adapter
Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - British

Or

£1649
View gallery
Apple M2 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone
1080p FaceTime HD camera
MagSafe 3 charging port
Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
30W USB-C Power Adapter
Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - British
 
I'm actually considering this one for myself but with most of the better hardware selected in the configurator so it comes out at £1260.

Configure Your PC

www.lenovo.com
 
Adamcski said:
@IanC

I'm in the same position as you currently considering laptop options.

I think for the £1300 we will probably be told to buy one of these:

£1,399
Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 7‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
13-inch Retina display with True Tone
Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
30W USB-C Power Adapter
Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - British

Or

£1649
View gallery
Apple M2 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone
1080p FaceTime HD camera
MagSafe 3 charging port
Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
30W USB-C Power Adapter
Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - British
Click to expand...
Thanks for this, there are some windows alternatives though right?
 
Snapsh0t said:
I'm actually considering this one for myself but with most of the better hardware selected in the configurator so it comes out at £1260.

Configure Your PC

www.lenovo.com
Click to expand...
Thank you, will this last the test of time compared to a more professional model like the ThinkPad though?
 
Thinkpads have a different balance of components and I can't find one that I'd actually want compared to the Yoga.
The Yoga should last well if treated sensibly but it's not designed for all day, every day hammering like the Thinkpad. I've had an Ideapad, very similar to the Yoga range, for the last three years and it's still as new. I just want something with a little more oomph, better screen and discrete GPU.
 
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