Another laptop recommendation thread

Dell seem to have the XPS 13 on offer for £999 right now.

There may also be another £250 off with XPS250
 
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Are the I7 processors better than the I5's for photo editing?
 
I think I'm going to place an order for a latitude, just checking if anyone is aware of any discount codes available at the moment?
 
Does anyone know how often Dell upgrade their models? The XPS 13 is what I'm seriously considering but can't find a valid discount code and don't want to regret buying one now if they are due a price drop soon?
 
It used to be with each round of Intel processor generations, so annually. If you don't mind waiting till the autumn you might get a discount, but otherwise grab one now. Worth noting that the price of NVME storage has gone through the floor with 2TB coming in under £100 now got a gen 4 stick, so you can save a few bob with a smaller SSD and then upgrade later.
 
ancient_mariner said:
It used to be with each round of Intel processor generations, so annually. If you don't mind waiting till the autumn you might get a discount, but otherwise grab one now. Worth noting that the price of NVME storage has gone through the floor with 2TB coming in under £100 now got a gen 4 stick, so you can save a few bob with a smaller SSD and then upgrade later.
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Can you upgrade the SSD on a laptop easily enough yourself? Or do you mean external SSD's?
 
IanC said:
Can you upgrade the SSD on a laptop easily enough yourself? Or do you mean external SSD's?
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It depends on the particular laptop - some are easy to do, others harder, the potentially difficult part is accessing the existing ssd - with the trend for thin and light laptops, everything tends to be sealed in place a lot more.
 
IanC said:
Can you upgrade the SSD on a laptop easily enough yourself? Or do you mean external SSD's?
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As others have said you need to check the individual laptop.

I have a previous model XPS 15 9510 and the RAM was upgradeable and there was a spare SSD slot. However the SSD needed a Dell heatsink that had to be acquired separately - and also needed to be checked it was the correct part (different for the two SSD slots).

The XPS 15 that I had before that was a 9575 which had fixed RAM and only a single SSD slot.
 
Getting the base off is the main problem. They tend to be clipped around the edges as well as screwed so a collection of old credit (etc.) cards is useful to work round, popping the latches then leaving in place to keep them open.
 
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Snapsh0t said:
Getting the base off is the main problem. They tend to be clipped around the edges as well as screwed so a collection of old credit (etc.) cards is useful to work round, popping the latches then leaving in place to keep them open.
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Bases vary. My XPS comes off with zero struggle. My new Lenovo needs help with a nylon guitar pick. There's lots of disassembly channels on YouTube.


MickC said:
Hate HP, full of bloat, bought one for other half, sitting round gathering dust, so slow she wont use it.
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Chuck Linux on it: Mint Cinnamon with 'non-free' (as in thought) codecs and drivers for video playback etc will make it faster and useful again.
 
IanC said:
Why a second one?
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The XPS range has been out a long time, so I'd guess wanting more recent hardware. My XPS is from either 2013 or 2014 (4th gen i7 processor) and I've been aware of its age in the last couple of years.
 
ancient_mariner said:
The XPS range has been out a long time, so I'd guess wanting more recent hardware. My XPS is from either 2013 or 2014 (4th gen i7 processor) and I've been aware of its age in the last couple of years.
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Oh I thought the XPS 13 was the latest model
 
IanC said:
Oh I thought the XPS 13 was the latest model
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13 is the screen size. ;)

The XPS has been out a VERY long time. A friend bought his XPS at the same time I bought a Macbook at the end of 2008. He was still using it without upgrade or rebuilds in 2015 and 2016 after I'd replaced the Macbook as my main computer. Current XPS machines are a lot nicer than the early versions, which were very light but 'plastic-fantastic' for the era. A few days back I used my old XPS again, and it's just a really nice machine: great keyboard and trackpad, super screen (QHD 15") and feels comfy on my lap. Wish I'd spent the extra and bought another 15.

Anyway, deal:

XPS 13" Laptop - i7-1250u, windows 11 pro, 16gb ram, 512gb ssd £999.01 @ Dell | hotukdeals

www.hotukdeals.com www.hotukdeals.com
 
ancient_mariner said:
13 is the screen size. ;)

The XPS has been out a VERY long time. A friend bought his XPS at the same time I bought a Macbook at the end of 2008. He was still using it without upgrade or rebuilds in 2015 and 2016 after I'd replaced the Macbook as my main computer. Current XPS machines are a lot nicer than the early versions, which were very light but 'plastic-fantastic' for the era. A few days back I used my old XPS again, and it's just a really nice machine: great keyboard and trackpad, super screen (QHD 15") and feels comfy on my lap. Wish I'd spent the extra and bought another 15.

Anyway, deal:

XPS 13" Laptop - i7-1250u, windows 11 pro, 16gb ram, 512gb ssd £999.01 @ Dell | hotukdeals

www.hotukdeals.com www.hotukdeals.com
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Thanks a lot for this again :) which screen would you recommend from the 3 options? The tight ass part of me wants to pick the base model, actually I will mostly be using the laptop connected to a monitor anyway
 
At 13" 1920*1200 is quite high res and much better than the old 15" STD of 1368. The top end screen will be fabulous, but that's nearly £400 more. If you use an external monitor then get the base level screen. Touch is generally unimportant.
 
I was in a similar position to you and picked up a Lenovo Legion on offer. It's a gaming laptop, but hear me out...

I specifically went for the Lenovo Legion as the style is understated so it looks professional (you can disable the LEDs with an app).
Plenty of RAM and CPU grunt, and good cooling.
Plenty of connectors.
A strong graphics card - if you anticipate using AI at all in your workflows (e.g. Topaz Denoise) then you're going to be very grateful of a proper graphics card for speed.

I say all this having come from a 2020 Dell XPS 13, and I don't regret the move at all (although the Legion weighs a LOT more!).
 
Yes, the Legion is an excellent choice, especially the 16" Pro as the screen is extremely good. I've had mine for nearly two years and it's only GAS that makes me want to upgrade, not performance.
 
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LancsMak said:
I was in a similar position to you and picked up a Lenovo Legion on offer. It's a gaming laptop, but hear me out...

I specifically went for the Lenovo Legion as the style is understated so it looks professional (you can disable the LEDs with an app).
Plenty of RAM and CPU grunt, and good cooling.
Plenty of connectors.
A strong graphics card - if you anticipate using AI at all in your workflows (e.g. Topaz Denoise) then you're going to be very grateful of a proper graphics card for speed.

I say all this having come from a 2020 Dell XPS 13, and I don't regret the move at all (although the Legion weighs a LOT more!).
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How do you find it in terms of noise? Thanks for this btw :)
 
Yea, mines a 7i 16" Gen6, 3080, 16gb.

General desktop use it's pretty much silent, the fan doesn't often kick in. When you start loading it then there's noticeable fan noise, but there's no whine, just air rushing. For the power it represents in a laptop I have no qualms at all about the noise, but if you're after less power and more silence then better options would exist.
 
Interesting suggestions here, I take it you are using a main desktop in your set up Ian? You can always check out ebay for used and refurbished to make your money go further or even save some.
 
nocturnalphotoguy said:
Interesting suggestions here, I take it you are using a main desktop in your set up Ian? You can always check out ebay for used and refurbished to make your money go further or even save some.
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Yeah I'm using a desktop but I've decided that I should have a laptop to give me the portability when I need it but most of the time it will be sitting on my desk. The WiFi strength on my current desktop is shocking, I have tried an adaptor usb thing but it didn't seem to make much difference
 
IanC said:
Yeah I'm using a desktop but I've decided that I should have a laptop to give me the portability when I need it but most of the time it will be sitting on my desk. The WiFi strength on my current desktop is shocking, I have tried an adaptor usb thing but it didn't seem to make much difference
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Bit off topic for this thread but try either upgrading your router if it's the standard one from your ISP, or looking at a wireless access point or mesh wifi system.
 
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