Looking for next all rounder work/gaming/travel

General Questions

1) What is your budget? $2500

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
a. Ultraportable; 10" - 12" screen
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen (Preferred)
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen (can live with 15")
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen
3) Which country will you buying this notebook? USA

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Lenovo, Dell, Asus
b. Dislike:
5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed? No, unless I can get an accidental damage warranty

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook? Everything, work (browsers based apps, Office 365, large spreadsheets), multimedia (movies and music), moderate gaming.


7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
Both, about 80% on desk though

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? (If so, please state which games or types of games?)
Yes, various types and moderately demanding games like Grand Theft Auto V, Doom eternal, metro exodus, X-Com Chimera.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need? 5+ hours if possible

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK? Without seeing is okay

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Chrome OS, etc.

Screen Specifics

12) What screen resolution(s) would you prefer? (See further below for explanations.) FHD, 1080p, no reason to go higher but not against.

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? (See further below for explanations.) Matte/Non-Glossy Preferred

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you? somewhat, less so than overall thickness

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you need? 1TB minimum but can upgrade if needed.

Timing, Warranty and Longevity

16) When are you buying this laptop? Q3 2020

17) How long do you expect to use this laptop? 3-5 years

18) How long could you afford to do without your laptop if it were to fail? couple months

19) Would you be willing to pay significantly extra for on-site warranty, or would it be acceptable to you to have to ship the laptop to the vendor for repair with perhaps a week or more outage? I'd pay significantly for on-site warranty

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If there is something that is upgradable, that would be great for longevity. I am experienced in building and repairing PCs and laptops. I can do most upgrades and repairs myself but would prefer to have warranty and techs do it. I definitely need a dedicated graphics card.

 

I will recommend GIGABYTE AERO series, I got my AERO 15 last year and is awesome. Now they have a weekend deal on their official online store, selected models have an additional $100 MIR and free one year extended warranty. https://store.gigabyte.us/weekend-deal

 

Easy. Xps of your choice. The device checks pretty well all of your boxes, plus their service plans are great.

 

My recommendation would be Zephyrus G14 with 120Hz 1080p screen. You have a selection between 8, 16 or 32 Gb of RAM, GPU from 1650Ti to 2060 (all max-q), all of that in a 14" chassis. If you want to run some graphics intensive games like Metro Exodus you would probably want the maximum configuration with 2060. Also it has Freesync which is incredible for gaming.

 

Easy:
MECH-15 G3 Ultra Performance 15.6" 10875H RTX 2070 Super 240Hz Laptop Starting at $1999
-or-
Eluktronics MAG-15 Ultra Light Magnesium Alloy 15.6" 9750H 1660Ti 144Hz Gaming Laptop Starting at $1499

Kind of a no-brainer. If you need longer battery life, go with the MAG. Since you'll be using it about 80% of the time sitting on a desk, probably doesn't need to be a major priority.

 

Mag 15's not bad perse, but really can't see why anyone would pay $1,499 for those specs. I paid $999 for an identically specced Maingear Vector.

Is the Mag 15 superior to the Vector in some ways? Yes. But not in enough ways for it to be worth an extra $500 IMO.

 

Maingear Vector is the same thing as a MECH-15 with different branding. You may have gotten a nice deal for $999 but it is listed on their web page (today) for $1299. It might be more or less expensive next week. https://maingear.com/vector/ And, you can get a MECH-15 with 2070 for $1180 at the moment. https://www.eluktronics.com/MECH-15-G2

It's all about timing and getting the best deal. They're all the same machines with different branding, and one brand is always more expensive or cheaper than one another at random points in time. There are some variations you have to be careful about. Some have a chicklet keyboard (which I personally hate) that is not mechanical. Some have the webcam underneath the display instead of above it (which I also think is stupid). But, other than some variations like that you need to pay attention to, there are otherwise no remarkable differences.

I personally feel the Vector/MECH-15/XMG Neo 15, and all the other names it goes by, is a better product than the MAG-15. I had the option of choosing between the two and went with the MECH-15. The MAG-15 looks a little bit nicer, but the lack of a numeric keypad and only one DisplayPort were the two things that made it a less desirable product to me.

 

$1180 with a 2070 seems like a great deal, and I think it's a good laptop in general, I just wouldn't pay $1,499 for ANY laptop with a 1660 TI was more my beef with it.

But yeah, prices do vary a lot. I paid $999 in December from Microcenter. Even at Microcenter it jumped up to $1199 about a month or two ago and hasn't came back down to $999 since then.

 

Yeah, totally agree. Neither would I. That's just too much. I paid $1499 for 9750H and 2060 and that was borderline too much. I think paying that much for a BGA turdbook of any brand or type is technically too much and bordering on absurd. In my opinion, these are all $1,000 low-budget gaming systems regardless of what CPU and GPU they have.

I really like mine. It's built really well. I love all of the metal in the build... way better than plastic. But, I was on the fence about paying this much for it. What made me pull the trigger is everything else cheaper was a less capable plastic pile of garbage, and to get what I actually wanted would have been double, or more. It fit into the top end of my budget (just barely) and I got the highest specs available without going over. So, I guess I shouldn't complain even though I ultimately think it was too expensive.

I have no complaints otherwise. It's a really solid product as long as the GPU and motherboard never die. If that happens, it will most likely be cheaper to replace than repair because of all the crap being soldered together like a damned smartphone.