What do I look for? I'd like something powerful enough to run games, just in case I'm away from my console, but it'll mostly be used for work. Ideally I'd like it to be durable, because I'll probably have to take it on flights when Covid eventually burns out.
What's the lesser of two evils with Intel and AMD? One is run by a woman, the other talks about the future belonging to women.
I suppose I could buy used and negate that issue.
What's a good brand to get? I always had Lenovo before, except for a Surface Laptop that barely lasted a year.
Running games on any laptop, no matter how powerful or well-designed, is going to deplete its lifespan.
That said, Asus makes the best gaming laptops as far as I'm concerned. I got one for uni and gamed on it everyday, whether it was Civ V and VI, Borderlands II or DragonAge: a lot of high-graphics games for their era. That laptop lasted 6 years, and it only got too sluggish to run those games during its last year of life.
I have an Asus gaming laptop that's about 4 years old, and it's probably the flimsiest laptop I've ever had. Bunch of the bottom screws stripped, and chunks of plastic regularly break off the case.
I had the laptop it replaced for 8 years, so it's not like I abuse my computers. But it'll be a miracle if this thing survives another year. Which is sad because performance-wise it's pretty solid.
Do you lug it around a lot? I'm on my third Asus and I've never had that problem, but I do tend to just leave it on my desk and not carry it around anywhere and I don't travel like I used to.
The one I have now is 3 years in, and works just as well as the day I got it.
No I rarely do any traveling with it. Most of the time I'm just carrying it up and down the stairs at my house.
There's your problem.
If that's a daily occurrence, the thing is going to break. Laptops made in the last 10 years are just junk. Leave it sitting on a desk and it'll be fine; treat it like a portable device and you're going to have a piece of broken garbage in a couple of years.
My work laptop is about the same age and put up with the same abuse, including me throwing it in my carry-on and slogging it around the airport and in planes multiple times per year. The only damage it suffered was a dead pixel on the screen.
I meant durable as in not fragile, rather than lifespan length. I'd rather not have to replace it because it got damaged during a flight or fell from a small height.
https://durabilitymatters.com/durable-laptops/
or, you could just get protective case and not throw laptop itself around
Probably an uhelpful extreme, but since you want durability, you can check the Toughbook line of laptops. I think it's standard for them to have shock absorbers around the hard drive. Some models are bullet-proof. I had one for a few years, loved it - but I was playing DOS games on it. Rubber keyboard sucks, though.
I used to use a Durabook laptop. Picked it because it was what cops used at the time, and doubled as a bullet-resistant shield. Very durable thing. Battery life was poor, though, and it really didn't run vidya all that amazingly, but you should use a desktop for proper vidya anyways.
The ROG stuff? I've never tried them, but I hear good things.
AMD has less track record of throwing away money at DIE causes vs. Intel. Not that they are perfect given recent announcements.
Most laptop brands aren't that great now (if they ever were). For gaming you have to compromise on size, heat/noise, and battery life, and of course cost. I would travel with an ultrabook and Nintendo Switch, felt that gave me the best balance. Now I might be tempted to go with a Steam Deck and ultrabook.
The Lenovo Legion line is probably where I would go if I was in the market. Razer have tempted me as well, but they have poor long term track record (buy extended warranty for sure).
Good luck.
If you care about battery life and you are going to be hauling it thru airports frequently, and maybe using it in an airplane seat - get a non-gaming laptop with 15” screen. Get a used dell off of a corporate lease program. Play some fallout2 or GOG downloads on it.
A heavy hot bulky gaming laptop with bad bat life is a real PIA for traveling. Their more like semi portable desktops that fail quickly and cost too much.
asus rog, msi alpha
the latest 4xxx and 5xxx processors from amd make great gaming devices
you dont get good battery life from devices that are good at gaming
Friends I've known with gaming laptops, I wouldn't even dream of doing any sort of travel with it. They are all absolutely MASSIVE and would be so much of a pain to carry around it wouldn't be close to worth it. So, I just go thin and light and put up with whatever games I can play on it.
I've got a ThinkPad X1 with some sort of Core i5 in it. I've run games like Slay the Spire, Age of Empires, etc. on it. I've tested out some 3D games and they work if not the latest and greatest games. If you jerk off to Digital Foundry videos there's no way you'd be happy with the performance, but they are totally fine to me. Don't really find myself playing those type games on the go, prefer point and click or just play old emulated stuff.
I had a Surface before the ThinkPad, it wasn't bad either. Good construction. If you want to upgrade or repair it then you're totally out of luck there. Only reason I picked the ThinkPad over the Surface 7 is I never really used it as a tablet in any way. You can get some pretty decent specs from a tiny form factor.
If I was to spend $1500 and wanted "modern" gaming and a laptop, I'd just buy a Switch and the best $1000 thin and light laptop I could find.
Funny story about the Switch. I technically have one.
It's still sitting in the packaging, because it was a gift from someone I cut off over BLM support after knowing them for years. I don't even want to know how much the shipping was, to get it from the United Femdom to me.
Anyway, yeah, what I've gathered from this thread is that gaming laptops are heavy, fragile and impractical. I guess I'll just use xCloud instead and get something light and easier to take around with me.
I think I remember you mentioning that Switch before. I don't even have a Switch and still there I was recommending. Maybe I go to Nintendo if they ever make a Switch successor, but I'm hoping to not get too mad at Microsoft in the meantime. I'm way too invested in Xbox games.
Yeah, I've had it a while. I feel like opening it would be like accepting her apology, so it just sits on a shelf near my desk as a reminder of my principles of never giving second chances.
Microsoft will probably announce a ton more awful exclusives in the next few days, so be ready for that. I've kind of realized I could never try to boycott MS on top of everything else I already avoid.
Dont see a reason not to go lenovo.
Heard these are goid but no fisthand experience https://www.sagernotebook.com/home.php
I have liked my 3 Razers. I have heard other people complain, but that's true of every brand. I always buy a warranty on every brand, and/because something goes wrong on every laptop I buy. Razer has been easier to work with than Gigabyte was. Razer fixed mine even when I spilled a drink and ruined the keyboard LEDs and when the batteries expanded. That stuff can happen to any laptop, and those are the only problems I've had.
Previously I used to use Aorus (Gigabyte), and I had a less good experience with those, tho they are fuckin neat when they work.
For work and durable... I remember HP have Probook/EliteBook series. Lenovo had one which is good, I think it's the thinkpad series. Don't pick IdeaPad, it's not durable. You can get one of these refurbished, because these machines are costly and company loans like these machines for 3 years then change to another one. Don't buy at Wal-Mart or Best-Buy, get to a computer store.
For CPU, if you are going Intel, try to get a i5, or better if you have the money. if you are going AMD, Ryzen or A10 or A12 (if it still exists).
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$1500 or so.
I had an MSI I liked. They specialize in gaming laptops. The battery life wasn't great but that was to be expected on something that powerful.
Battery life is pretty important, unfortunately.
In that case I'd suggest getting a gaming laptop for gaming and a cheaper one for work. Any laptop powerful enough to run the most demanding games is going to consume a lot power, even when it's not running the games. There's just no way around it. I don't know what you do for a living, but I can't imagine there's anything you would be doing for work that would come close to exceeding what even a cheap piece of shit could handle. With the cheap work laptop you could focus on finding something with decent battery life since the other specs wouldn't be an issue.
Edit: I also wanted to add that gaming laptops are meant to be plugged in when running games. Trying to game on battery power will a) cause the battery to last than an hour on a full charge as opposed to the usual 3 or 4 and b) the game will run too slow to be playable as part of the computer's attempt to conserve power.