New laptop - 2000$ Usd, Portability, productivity, too much choices

1) What is your budget?

2000 us taxes and shipping included

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

15 inches but this could be flexible depending
3) Which country will you buying this notebook?

Canada

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

About everything I'm not so picky as long as the quality is good

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?


No I need it new.

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

I would use it as a daily computer for productivity stuff. I have a Desktop for my gaming needs so it would not be important for the laptop.

I am looking for a portable, silent and well-built laptop. I want it to be responsive as much as possible.

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

It will be for portability first.

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? (If so, please state which games or types of games?)

Not really it would be games like rimworld, factorio or the like.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?

As much as 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?

Online is fine

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

I would like to dual boot windows and linux on it

Screen Specifics

12) What screen resolution(s) would you prefer? (See further below for explanations.)

High resolution

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

Matte would be nicer for me but this would be flexible also.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?


Very flexible also, I am looking for quality rather than looks.

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you need?

I would like to go all out ssd. 512 gb to 1 TB.

Timing, Warranty and Longevity

16) When are you buying this laptop?

In the next weeks.

17) How long do you expect to use this laptop?

For as long as it’s gona survive. I am still using a acer 3830TG which is starting to show some gray hairs.

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

Indefinitely

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?

Shipping is fine for me.

Personal research:

Currently I have looked at the surface pro and I am not sure how it would cope in daily uses. I am a bit scared that it would miss some responsiveness.

I looked at Lenovo’s T480s and I quite like it but I find it a bit expensive. The X1 is also nice but the same point applies. To contrast it I also look at Razer and Msi GS65 and they seem to offer so much bang for your buck with dedicated GPU and better all-around hardware it seems. For them I am scared about the noise and the heat throttling…

As you can see I’m a bit all over the place. I wouldn’t care about buying a gamer laptop if they offer better hardware for the price, on the other hand I don’t care about the gpu and I do care about sound and heat.

I have never had a Lenovo before, I must say they look nice, but they do look expensive compared to other options. I’m not sure if the surface pro would fit my style also. I do not like their IO.


What do you guys think?

 

I suggest you the Dell XPS 15 from HIDevolution and get their thermal mods. While configuring it, under the CPU section, choose Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut + Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads for better cooling so it own't overheat or thermal throttle.

It has a large 97wHR battery so it should last very long and you can choose whatever SSD capacity you want in the configurator

This needs 1-3 weeks to ship as they have to get it from Dell, do the quality checks, then build it with the components that you want to give you a quality product so I suggest you order it now:

Custom Built Dell XPS 15 9570 - FHD or 4K UHD Touch - GTX 1050Ti - i7-8750H

Another option would be the MSI GP63 Leopard 8RE-602 15.6" w/ nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 , not as great of battery life as the Dell XPS but it's a steal at that price as it's on a discount right now.

Before you order it, if you email donald@hidevolution.com you can get the NBR Forum Discount

 

There are no silent notebooks. If you push them, you'll get fan noise. Unless it's fanless, but those can't offer much performance. Yes, you're all over the place, which makes it hard to help.

If you're not gaming or running CPU intensive applications, spending money on a 1060 GPU or 8750H CPU is not using your money wisely because you're spending money for something that's not needed. Just get one of the low watt quad cores and Intel integrated GPUs. You'll have performance aplenty.

I would suggest, if your priority is portability, getting a smaller 14" notebook, which can offer significantly lower weight. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th gen starts at 2.5 pounds, where most 15" notebooks will be at least four pounds or more. Perhaps ThinkPads are more expensive compared to other notebooks with regard to specs, but the better design, sturdiness, materials, service, ergonomics, etc., don't show up in the specs, though are much appreciated while using them.

I know you said you wanted new, but one way to combat higher prices is to buy from the manufacturer outlet. It's essentially the same thing as buying new with a nice discount over new as long as it's not marked scratch and dent. At least that's been my experience buying from the Dell, HP, Lenovo and Apple outlets. My last four notebooks have been bought this way. You sometimes don't get the fancy packaging, but it looks and performs as new. You'll also get at least a year of warranty directly from the manufacturer too. Good luck and welcome to NBR.

 

The thing is that I've won a laptop which can go up to 2000$ in value. So I need to buy new and I would like to use the whole amount since I wont get the difference if I buy a 700$ laptop.

This is also the reason why im all over the place since I was not expecting to change laptop right now.

 

Hi,

Firstly, if you are not going to game, then getting a portable gaming laptop like the MSI GS65 or Aero 15 would be a terrible waste of your money.
For your budget and needs, it's obvious you should be getting a business grade machine. Business grade machines are more expensive than consumer grade laptops, they seem to offer less for the money, but that's not true. Business grade machines are primarily built for reliability and long-term use. They are better to build, better tested and use better components then consumer grade laptops, hence why they are more expensive. This article should help you out understand: https://noteb.com/?content/article.php?/2018/06/14/why-get-a-business-laptop/
If I am not mistaking, the Acer you have was geared more towards business users than consumer users.

So I searched here for business grade machines that match your specs. There are a lot more options, but since you have $2000, you should get one with a 4K display, it will improve productivity.
Here are my results.
You can see and change the search parameters using the "Refine results" button in the upper-left part of the search results page. You can also click on the laptops for more information.

I guess my recommendation is to go for a Lenovo Thinkpad T580 with the MX150. Otherwise, the HP Elitebook 850 G5 is also a good option. The HP can also be bought with an AMD RX 540 which is similar in performance to the MX150.

 

The T480 does look really nice. This config looks pretty good. You can always get a SSD and RAM upgrade to install yourself.

I would specifically look for models without any dedicated graphics card. Those cards only add heat, weight, noise, and decrease battery life unless you micro manage them. It also makes Linux installs more complicated because you have to deal with Optimus.

 

I'd checkout overpowered at Walmart

• 15.6 144Hz Screen
  
• Intel i7-8750H CPU with 2.20 GHz speed
  
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB VRAM
  
• Mechanical RGB LED Keyboard
  
• 16GB RAM with 2667 MHz speed
  
• 1TB HDD
  
• 256GB SSD
  
• Windows 10
  
• 1080p/ 144Hz Display Panel
• 14" x 9.5" x 0.75"
• 4.55lbs
• 2 Year Warranty
• 1x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB C
• 1x SD Card Slot
• 1x HDMI Slot
• As a qualifying device in the Intel Game/eSports Pack, buying the OVERPOWERED Gaming Laptop 15+ allows you to receive $150 in gaming software, including full download of Paladins, PUBG, Last Tide and more!
  

$799

or

• 17.3 144Hz Screen
  
• Intel i7-8750H CPU with 2.20 GHz speed
  
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB VRAM
  
• Mechanical RGB LED Keyboard
  
• 32GB RAM with 2667 MHz speed
  
• 2TB HDD
  
• 256GB SSD
  
• Windows 10
  
• 1080p/ 144Hz screen
• VR Ready
• 2 Year Warranty
• 1x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB C ports
• 1x SD Card Slot
• 1x HDMI slot
• 2x HDMI Port
• 15.5" x 10" x 1"
• 5.65lbs
• As a qualifying device in the Intel Game/eSports Pack, buying the OVERPOWERED Gaming Laptop 17+ allows you to receive $150 in gaming software, including full download of Paladins, PUBG, Last Tide and more!

$999

I have read in reviews that these may have 2-Nvme slots, if this is true this is huge

Good Luck on your quest

 

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? (If so, please state which games or types of games?)

Not really it would be games like rimworld, factorio or the like.


hint he doesn't want to game....stop recommending gaming laptops.

go for the x1 carbon from lenovo. it is by far the best laptop you can get for 2000

 

Check these:
Custom Built Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme

 

+1

Assuming you can count an extra warranty toward the $2000, you might even sacrifice some top-end capability (GPU in particular, CPU next) for a 3-year or even 5-year on-site warranty, which you can get for at least Dell and Lenovo business-grade and workstation laptops. Then they'll dispatch a technician to your site to repair it if anything goes wrong, including swapping the motherboard if necessary. You don't need to ship it back or anything. Or you could get an extended depot warranty, where you ship it back. I don't buy extra warranties myself, but there's no question that they can be of value.