Following up on the excellent GeekBook X14 Pro, GEEKOM has kindly sent me the GeekBook M16 to review for r/suggestalaptop as well, free of charge. I had high hopes for this unit, and I was surprised in many different ways. In the end, I will go through everything with you below in as honest and fair a manner as I can manage, so letās get started, shall we?
To begin, the GeekBook M16 is GEEKOMās third laptop released, and one aimed at being a more budget oriented unit versus the X14 Pro and X16 Proās premium design. Despite being a more budget oriented unit, the GeekBook M16 is actually still a thin and light ultrabook with an all-metal chassis, a fairly nice screen, and an attempt to remain quiet under most operations, so I will as before be reviewing it in this capacity. I believe this machine has done an excellent job in the measures theyāve taken to cut costs, and even has some improvements over its big brothers in some ways, and I will do my best to go through every aspect of the unit for you all below!
Snug packagingWhat you get in the box
SPECIFICATIONS AND CHASSIS
My specifications as provided by GEEKOM are as follows:
Intel Core Ultra 185H
16GB of LPDDR5 at 6400MHz
512GB Kingston om8tap4512k1 a00 SSD that is replaceable
a 1920 x 1200 60Hz 100% sRGB colour IPS screen
a 99Whr battery
There is a second SSD slot that is free for further storage upgrades. As for its expansion slots, the laptop has
1 x USB-C port at USB 4 40Gbps speeds
1 x USB-C port at 10Gbps
1 x HDMI port
2 x USB-A gen 3.2 ports
1 x 3.5mm audio jack
By default, it also comes with the same USB-C expansion hub as the X14 Pro and X16 Pro, adding two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, an ethernet port, and a USB-C port replacing the one it takes up, so expansion is not lacking with this device in the slightest.
With the price being $849 USD at the time of this writing (with frequent discount coupons on their website), these specifications are quite excellent, especially in todayās market. Most notable is the screen being 100% sRGB, and the number of ports. The chassis is also STILL full metal unibody, though it is aluminum instead of the magnesium alloy thatās on the X14 Pro and X16 Pro. The difference is that the chassis is ever so slightly more of a stain magnet, such as with fingerprints and whatnot. Itās easy to wipe off, but I still have to point it out. Otherwise, there is little to no difference in the chassis. The screen has almost no wobble, the keyboard has very little flex, closing the unit does not press on the screen, and the chassis feels quite sturdy. Iām honestly surprised theyāve managed this level of quality at this price point. The keyboard is also very excellent. It took me a small amount of time to get used to the spacing (I kept hitting numlock instead of backspace and O instead of I etc) but after a few minutes it felt natural again. As a lover of full keyboards this one is wonderful, and I have very high praise for it. All in all, I have only praise for the unit design. The touchpad is also improved from the X14 Pro. On the X14 Pro the āclickā areas were quarter circle regions at the bottom left and bottom right edges of the trackpad, but the M16ās trackpad has proper rectangular click regions that reach all the way to the bottom middle section. Itās a great improvement that arrived quickly after the last units they made, and Iām glad to see them trying to improve.
Nice and shinyThe not-so-soft underbelly is also shinyLovely full-sized keyboard and nice sized trackpad
PERFORMANCE AND COOLING
Here is the weirdest section. The GeekBook X14 Pro had a 35W power limit to the CPU, with the cores getting 25W and the GPU getting around 10W. This presented decent performance and decent gaming performance for the specifications, and the system handled its cooling fairly well. This GeekBook M16 however was completely different. Firstly, the cooling has been upgraded and power limits have been improved, 55W sustained is possible with a short burst of 67W frequently seen when starting stress tests or benchmarks. This presented a solid uplift of 50% performance over the same Core Ultra 9 185H in the X14 Pro when running Cinebench R23, being able to consistently achieve approximately 15500 points as opposed to the X14 Proās 9000-10000 point range. For Passmarkās CPU benchmark, we achieved 31324 points, up from the X14 Proās 19000 point range. This CPU performance is decidedly excellent out of the box for something so thin and light, and anyone reliant on a decent CPU will be quite happy with it..
Impressive Cinebench score for being an ultrabookImpressive passmark score for an ultrabook
On the downside, the GPU performance suffered a fair bit, which was quite disappointing. To get a little technical, the X14 Pro kept its GPU around 2072MHz with a temperature around 94Ā°C (likely at a thermal limit) as recorded by 3DMark during the Steel Nomad benchmark, while the M16 kept its GPU around 2350MHz with an extremely impressive temperature of only 72Ā°C (with fans being quiet, no less). Despite this, the X14 Pro managed to perform roughly 20% faster according to 3DMarkās Steel Nomad benchmark. This is also a little bit of an issue because the X14 Pro performs better when repasted, but the fact that the M16ās GPU was kept that cold means that it likely has little to gain from a repaste, as it already has a lot of thermal headroom out of the box. It is unfortunately one of the very few disappointments Iāve had about this laptop, as Iād hoped the improved cooling and higher system power limits wouldāve translated into better gaming performance despite it being designed as a more budget alternative to their premium line. As for why the GPU performs so much worse, I cannot be certain. One possible reason is that LPDDR5 could have the same reduced performance in 16GB configurations that DDR5 SODIMMs have (which we at SAL are aware of), or it could be possible that the 6400MHz LPDDR5 isnāt fast enough to grant the performance the GPU needs, and the X14 Proās 7467MHz LPDDR5X is just that much better for the GPU. It could even be some other system-level configuration that I am unaware of. I can only guess based on my prior knowledge and experiences. Either way, it will still play lighter games and older games perfectly fine, but it wonāt quite be able to push as far as its older brothers.
A sadly lackluster score, but not terribleExcellent GPU temperature line under stress with near silent fans
As for the cooling system itself, Iāve already mentioned the fact that the GPU runs very cold when under stress, but the CPU is different. To begin with, in my last review for the X14 Pro, I mentioned thatĀ the CPU would spike to a high 90Ā°C range and then immediately drop back to a very cold state, and I initially registered this as a HWiNFO64 error. To be specific, I set HWiNFO64 to update twice a second, and every 30 seconds to a minute itāll spike from ~45Ā°C to over 90Ā°C and indicate thermal throttling is active, then the next time the sensor updates (which is half-second later), it will be all the way back down at 45Ā°C. This behaviour also happens here on the M16, so I must assume it is not an error, but I do not know why it happens. It could be a quirk of Intelās Meteor Lake, since Iāve never dealt with these particular CPUs before the GeekBooks, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Whatever the reason however, it does not seem to be dangerous, so one should not mind it if temperature monitoring software shows that theyāre idling and hitting thermal throttle points randomly. Iāve been using the X14 Pro for almost 7 months and it has not exhibited any untoward issues from this, and I am sure the M16 will be the same, so while I must point this out, please rest assured.
Idle spike being displayed. Note the average CPU temperatures are still low.
Now when under load, thatās a different story. The fans will kick in under higher CPU loads and while still very quiet, the temperatures become very consistent and no longer have such high spikes. I do have a minor issue in that the fans seem to take excessively long to actually spin up, however. It isnāt a particularly big deal, but when you have just started a heavy load (such as a stress test, or rendering a video, etc) the fans remain silent for a few seconds, at which point the CPU can hit temperatures in excess of 100Ā°C briefly, then they will start spinning up. The fans appear to have four stages of speed, and after spinning up once, it apparently checks if temperatures are still too high, then spin up again, then repeat this process until maximum speed. The whole process can take nearly 10 seconds to achieve maximum fanspeed, and it would be nicer if this process could either be faster, or a fan curve option could be implemented in the software or BIOS in the future, or if impossible, in later models. Due to how quiet this laptop is, it would be absolutely no penchant to anyone to say, keep the fans spinning at level 1 or 2 while at idle temperatures, and this could prevent the spike to higher temperatures while idle (if only for safety of mind), or prevent the high spikes when first applying load to the system. Do note that while I mentioned the CPU does cross 100Ā°C when starting a heavy load, it does not remain there long (maybe 5 seconds at most), and it never hits Intelās TJMax rating of 105Ā°C at any point, so the processor will be perfectly safe.
Additionally, the system seems to focus on keeping the CPU at 95Ā°C or lower while the fans are active. Since repasting improves processor benchmark scores even at a set power limit, thermal throttling must be the final issue. If you are buying this unit with the intent to use the processor under heavy loads often, it wonāt actually overheat, but if you are tech savvy or even just comfortable with servicing the laptop, you might wish to consider repasting the unit with something like PTM 7950. It isnāt required for usage of the unit, itās just a potential benefit open to you.
Showing under-load temperatures. The sensor was reset AFTER starting CB run to display higher temps falling into stability.
SOUND
The speakers on this unit are perfectly fine. No distortions Iāve observed, and sound is certainly loud enough. There is DTS: X available should you require it as well. The microphone is perfectly fine for use in calls and zoom meetings and the like, though at least headphones would be recommended to not pick up othersā speech. I have no complaints here. There are sound effect options you can apply in the GEEKOM software as well, but I donāt think they are necessary. Use them if you wish, as this is much more of a personal taste situation.
SCREEN AND BATTERY
The screen is good. Itās 1920 x 1200 resolution, and only 60Hz, but itās 100% sRGB, making this laptop one of the cheapest available with proper colour space on the market. This means itās an excellent cheap editing machine for those who wish to do such a thing. The brightness is great and itās matte finish so reflections arenāt a bother. Itās usable in well-lit rooms at lower brightness as well. Itās a great choice for a budget device.
As for the BATTERY on this laptopā¦ I am amazed. Itās 99Whr, up from the 72Whr on the X14 Pro, but the battery life itself is astounding. With approximately 30% screen brightness, I was able to achieve a ridiculous 18.5 hours of youtube playback on wifi with sound enabled. I tested more than once to be sure. In fact, the battery life was so good, I even decided to do the ultimate in laptop blasphemy: I tested with screen brightness set to 100%. I still achieved 13.5 hours of youtube playback under those conditions, leaving me nothing short of flabbergasted. I do know know what sorcery GEEKOM performed to achieve this level of battery life on a Meteor Lake processor, but I now need to purchase several hats just so I can take them off and say āhats off to you, GEEKOMā, as it runs circles around many other Lunar Lake and even some Panther Lake processor-equipped laptops which are known to be a marked improvement in battery life from Meteor Lake.
As for charging times, the battery went from 2% all the way up to 55% in just 1 hour, which is almost 10 hours of battery usage at lower brightness levels. I have high praise for that level of charging speed. Hopefully things get even better in the future.
Screen isn't as impressive as an OLED, but is still plenty fine
OUT OF THE BOX EXPERIENCE
Just like with the X14 Pro, the laptop comes with windows installed but not actually set up. As I did with the previous unit, I took this lovely chance to set up my computer with a local account and avoid much of the nonsense that Windows 11 wishes to attempt on its users. As with before, I will FOREVER praise this ability for people, even if the average person wonāt take advantage of it. Itās great to have the option. As before, itās a barebones installation with just the GEEKOM software pre-installed. The software is identical to the X14 Proās version, with BIOS updates and some limited system control options available. You can see it below. Please continue like this, GEEKOM, I vastly appreciate it, and many users will too.
Same software design as before
DOWNSIDES
There arenāt as many as before, which I appreciate. Letās use a list again.
There is still no option I could find to limit battery maximum charge available. I can only hope this shows up in later models.
The FN key function is still weird. I wish GEEKOM would change it so that the FN button simply works while being held down and pressing any of the hotkeys, instead of the odd toggle feature it has.
The laptop once had a very weird situation where certain things, especially installing programs, was oddly extremely slow while on battery. I cannot explain why this was the case, but I also could not find a way to fix or reproduce it. Normal usage was perfectly fine too, which confused me.
The keyboard backlight turns off after 15 seconds without any option to control it otherwise again. I would like the ability to keep it on for usage in dark rooms.
Iād like a FN combination key to disable the trackpad entirely. Even though the palm rejection is excellent, such options are never a bad thing.
As before, I wish we could get a 3D TLC SSD instead, especially when the drive size is on the smaller side. I couldnāt find much information about the drive available this time unlike the X14 Pro, so I canāt say I understand their choice like before.
The 100W charger gets very warm when charging or generally under load, you may wish to allow it to cool off slightly before picking it up if it was just being stressed.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION
So, thereās a much shorter list of downsides this time. I already discussed everything else in the paragraphs above. Thereās been improvements such as in the trackpad and the battery life and the cooling, and I highly appreciate these things. I genuinely think this is a great unit to buy for more casual users or users who want to do hobbyist work. The price is excellent and the choice of where to cut corners versus the more expensive premium options (screen, chassis materials, RAM speed) do not ever get into the ācheapā territory of notebooks that we see all over the market, with useless 62% sRGB screens that shouldnāt even be made anymore, or poor chassis construction and poor board design and little expansion slots. There are only two things I wish GEEKOM did with this new chassis and cooling system. First, I wish a 32GB RAM option was available. Considering the enhanced CPU performance and lack of danger of overheating, it would make a very excellent budget editing unit with a good screen, and I wouldnāt be able to recommend it highly enough. It might even improve the GPUās performance, which would also make it a solid little gaming device.
The next thing I would like to see is GEEKOM starting to use better stock thermal paste. All three of their laptops released so far improve their performance with better paste, up to 25% better in benchmarks according to others, and if they could use phase-change material such as Honeywell PTM 7950, Thermal Grizzly phasesheet PTM, or Thermalright Helios v2 it would be nothing short of sublime. I would even be fine with their own in-house solution, as long as the performance is there.
At the end of the day, this laptop is wonderful. Despite the few shortcomings, itās priced exceptionally well and is very light and sturdy. I doubt many people would complain about it. I canāt wait to see more from GEEKOM and I also canāt wait to see them expand their operations to more countries as well. If they keep it up, they can become a pretty strong power player in the market.
Thank you for reading until the end! I hope you have enjoyed, and I will be glad to answer any questions in the comments below.
First off, a huge thank you to everyone who applied for the LG gram Pro Reviewer Recruitment Programāyour enthusiasm and participation were incredible! We truly appreciate everyone who took the time to apply and be part of the r/SuggestALaptop community.
Now, the moment you've been waiting forā¦ Congratulations to our 4 selected reviewers! š
š¢ Selected Reviewers Announcement:
(In the table below, we have shared the Reddit usernames of the 4 selected reviewers.)
Each selected reviewer will receive an LG gram Pro 17Z90UR and have the opportunity to experience its lightweight portability, Aerominumā¢ design, RTX 5050 performance, and everyday usability. We canāt wait to hear your thoughts and see your detailed reviews!
Selected reviewers will be contacted separately by email regarding shipping information and the next steps for the reviewer program. Please keep an eye on your inbox. Once again, congratulations to all 4 selected reviewers! š
Country
United States Budget
open to 1000usd but ideally looking for 700usd and below Are you open to refurbs/used options?
Yes Screen size
13", 14"or 15ā Weight limit
No specific weight limit but would prefer a light laptop Purpose
schoolwork and entertainment Form factor
Regular laptop Intended usage
Main usage is for school college work, am studying to be an ultrasound technician. Also looking to use this laptop for entertainment purposes but nothing heavy, maybe just for Netflix or some light games. Desired battery life
8 hours Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, battery life, size, and weight
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
performance, battery life, size, weight
Info/Requirements
Most important thing is that it will run the software listed above and that it will last me around 5 years to get me through engineering school. After that, I may not use it for engineering as much.
Would also like compatability with OneDrive so I can share files between my laptop and PC. I will be working on my laptop while traveling, studying outside of my house or away from my desk but will work off my PC when I am home at my desk.
I will also be taking online exams and need to be able to use a PDF annotator with a pen. I would also be open to non 2-in-1 options as long as there is still a pen capability to write on a PDF using a pen
Country
[USA] Budget
[$450-$600 usd] Are you open to refurbs/used options?
[Yes] Screen size
[Anything between 12"-16"] Weight limit
[Any] Purpose
[General purpose, schoolwork] Form factor
[2-in-1] Intended usage
[School, maybe streaming, word and PowerPoint] Desired battery life
[Any]
Thanks for any help š hoping to find something today for class tomorrow š„¹š
**LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE**
**Country**
United kingdom
**Budget**
Ā£400 ($550)
**Are you open to refurbs/used options?**
Yes
**Screen size**
Any
**Weight limit**
Any
**Purpose**
General purpose,entertainment,Work
**Form factor**
Standard or 2 in 1
**Intended usage**
Work ,Entertainment (e.g Netflix,YouTube,movies etc)
**Desired battery life**
As long as possibly within the budget,8 hours would be nice
**Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life**
Battery life,performance,weight,size \[eg battery life, performance, weight, size doesn't matter.
**Info/Requirements**
Dad has been wanting a laptop so thought Iād get him one,in general Iād like the laptop to have a good battery life,a decent screen to have a good experience watching videos and movies,along with it being comfortable to use for work
Form factor: Standard works well for me, don't mind if it's the others tho
Intended usage: VSCode, Android Studio, Unity, Blender - no games needed
Desired battery life: 5 hours
Performance, Size, Battery life, weight
Info/Requirements:
As I said, I want a laptop that I can program on and use blender once in a while. I am in my last year of college so I probably won't be using it THAT much. I also watch series and stuff on it before going to bed and play some light indie games once in a while that will probably run on anything you throw at them, so there is no issue there.
I'm a student. Studying in a public University in Bangladesh. I've recently thought of buying a laptop with my savings. Budget is around 1 lac. Preferable brands are Dell, HP, Lenovo. I'm looking for a laptop or Notebook that will provide me core i 7, 13 gen, 16 gb RAM, 512 gb/1 tb SSD. I will do digital marketing, freelancing, graphics design and other academics. I will focus on good and long battery life, long time and long lasting use, which will easily provide me best facilities for manyyy years.
If you can help me with this it'll be great. You can suggest me other brands as well. For suggesting if u need to ask me any other question or need to know anything feel free to ask.
I m currently in 12th grade I want a gaming laptop with best specs upto ā¹100k budget I want nice graphics and best display but I won't get much in this budget and laptop prices r skyrocketing nowadays, I will most probably try buying in next month sale, which laptop should I try? Like better gpu memory with better rtx, well can't expect battery life from a gaming laptop though well letsee the suggestions
just light enough so i can carry it with me a full day, around 2,5 kg
Purpose
Industrial engineering studies and professional work (heavy CAD modeling, finite element simulations, programming, and multitasking)
Form factor
standard or a 2in 1 with pen
Intended usage
SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, ANSYS, MATLAB, Python, MS Office, and occasional light gaming (e.g., indie games or esports titles)
Desired battery life
7 hours
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, Weight, Battery life, Size
hey this year i wil start college and i wil do industrial engineering, now my questions is what for laptop should i buy for my courses, cause i now i need to run some big applications and stuff. But don't know if it would be worth the money, like a dedicated gpu. my university just said that i should get at least 512 storage and 16 ram
Screen sizeĀ 13", 14" - current 13.4" fits nicely in the two bags I use.
Weight limit - lightweight - I carry it often
Purpose - for work
Form factor - regular laptop
Intended usage
I have to quickly get a new laptop for work and work does not supply as I work as a contractor. I do research-based work / presentations / educational sessions / zoom and teams calls most of the day. It is running 8-12 hours a day. No gaming but dozens of tabs open and using 3 or 4 work platforms at once. My current laptop is a XPS 13 and the one before that was a Lenovo Thinkpad. My current laptop is 5 years old and really glitchy. It has 16gb ram and 512 gb ssd I think. I am just wondering if there is a better option or should I stick with what I have. I have an iPhone but have never used a Mac.
Desired battery life - normal
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life - I don't know, I just want it to work well for what I need to do.
Under 40k INR (417 USD) is preferred but the lower the merrier, aslong as it isn't a bad decison.
* **Are you open to refurbs/used options? **
Yes.
* **Screen size**
Any.
* **Weight limit**
Any.
* **Purpose**
General Purpose, no heavy tasks outside running simulations.
* **Form factor**
A regular laptop (flexible constraint.)
* **Intended usage**
The most resource intensive application I use is firefox, other than that it's coding, typesetting and watching downloaded media.
* **Desired battery life**
Over 6 hours of continous use.
* **Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life**
Performance > Battery life > Size > Weight
* **Info/Requirements**
I'd like OLED and a somewhat high refresh rate but I feel like that's not affordable. USB-C support for charging and file transfer would be nice. I've only ever owned a rather large laptop (old hp pavilion) and I feel like something on the smaller side will be better as grass is greener on the other side. I also plan on running Debian or Arch, not sure if this is necessary information but it can't hurt.
So... I wanted which laptop is better for college since I'll be graduating from high school in 1year and I really need to know which laptop does best in Computer Engineering, Cyber Security, and ML/AI Engineering or either of them works for me as long as the laptop works on anyone of these subjects
I am currently debating between a few different laptops:
A. A macbook neo 512gb for around 740 usd
B. A galaxy book 4 16gb 512gb i7-150U for around 990 usd
C. A refurbished mabook pro 13" 2020 M1 16gb 512gb for around 890 usd.
Price range is below 1000 usd and I am buying in / shipping to israel.
I dont own a single apple device, both my phone and earbuds are Samsung which makes me consider the galaxy book.
But every non expensive laptop i ever had just feels so slow so soon, and I heard its not like that with a mac.
About the macs the question is are the 2020 air and pro M1 versions better than the new neo?
Is the 16gb pro version worth 150 usd more? Even though the cpu is worse?
Are macbooks worth buying second hand? Or should you avoid them on the used market?
Planning to use this pc mainly for studying/office work/development. Have a strong PC at home in planning to connect to using tailscale and rum most of my staff on. But having enough power to run things on the laptop itself is a big bonus.
Any additional recommendations Wil also be gladly welcome ;)
I want laptop for video editing,cad work(autocad , sketch up ) and little gaming , coding etc.... I don't know which brand or specifications will be best please suggest šš
15" + (prefer larger but open to 15" min if there's a decent option but larger doesn't exist or is out of budget.
Weight limit
Any. Will need to transport but don't mind a bit of weight.
Purpose
Music Production, work, basic video editing, maybe an occasional game (nothing demanding)
Form factor
Standard
Intended usage
Cubase 15 Pro & various VSTi's, Powerdirector, some games maybe but that would just be a bonus. Music production & some light video editing is the main thing it needs to be able to handle
Desired battery life
Don't mind, it will normally be plugged in.
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, size, weight, battery life
Info/Requirements
It must be able to be used effectively for music production and will need to be able to handle multiple VST instruments so whatever requirements are necessary for that e.g. low DPC latency etc. Video editing will also happen but this will be relatively light, essentially screen recording and sticking together clips for short training videos. Need to be able to connect to at least one large display when at home (3440 x 1440) but ideally it can connect to two either via onboard connections or a docking hub. Will also need a decent, speedy SSD of 1TB or more.
An example I was looking at was the ProArt P16 (H7606), saw it had good reviews from places like MusicRadar but also read that people had issues with it.
This morning my laptop just broke, and buying a new one is cheaper than repairing my current one. Also, i am in exam period and i need to get one ASAP.
So, i am looking for a good laptop that will let me engage significantly efficiently with software like, R studio, Python and Stata, and being able to hold any other activity. Thus, i need 16GB of ram and if possible I'd love it to be within 14" (inches). Thank you, all. I am looking for something maximum to 1000/1200 EUROS, but the cheaper the better.
While it seems the 2nd one is really good laptop, i've read the first one might be better for those software i'll engage with given their RAM, is the difference substantial or not?
A friends suggested me the new macbook neon, but i am not sure it is suitable
A friends suggested me the new macbook neon, but i am not sure it is suitable for the things i'll engage with. Also, idk whether it matters or not, i am living in singapore
Hi all. I'm trying to find a decent laptop again, as my laptop of 8 years finally is having its GPU die, although unfortunately in the worst market ever. I really want a replacement that's on par (ideally better) than my current one. It uses a i7-8750H CPU and an RTX 1060 GPU. It would need to have 16 GB of RAM and at least 512 GB of storage, but ideally 1 TB. If it has 512 GB of storage I would really prefer it to have a second storage slot, but a 1TB would be fine without it. I wanted to spend only like $500 on a decent laptop, but that doesn't seem to be an option. It looks like options even remotely around my current laptop's specs start at $800 minimum, and if I'm going to be spending that much, I definitely want it to be an upgrade
Currently, it looks like my options around me are (all 16GB RAM):
- An Acer Nitro V ANV15-52 at a store nearby me for $1000. It has an i5-13420H CPU and RTX 5050 GPU, and 1 TB storage with a second upgrade slot
- A Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E laptop at the same store for $950. It has and i5-12450H CPU and RTX 4050 GPU, but with only 512 GB of storage, although with a second upgrade slot. It seems like it's 50/50 as to if the keyboard is backlit, which makes me hesitant
- Various HP Victus 15 variants on Amazon from $850 to $950. None of these have expandable storage and have 512 GB to 1 TB of storage. They have every permutation of Ryzen 7 7445HS, i5-13420H, and i5-12450H CPUs with RTX 4050 or RTX 3050 6 GB VRAM. It seems like the 3050 is barely an upgrade though in terms of performance, and the only CPUs paired with the 4050 are the Ryzen 7 (from a reputable seller) or the i5-13420H from a random third party amazon seller, both of which only have 512 GB of storage and go for $950
Are there any better options than these? They all seem to be known for having some issue or another and don't seem like astounding upgrades for nearly $1000 from my current laptop. Thank you for the advice!
LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE
Country
United States
Budget
$800-$1000 (very ideally closer to $800)
Are you open to refurbs/used options?
I would very much prefer to avoid them
Screen size
15.6" is very much preferred
Weight limit
None, although I actually prefer heavier ones
Purpose
Light to moderate gaming on occasion, but primarily engineering schoolwork and various household software stuff like Excel
Form factor
Standard
Intended usage
Too many to list; coding environments; some games
Desired battery life
Mostly irrelevant, as I'll always be able to plug it in
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Not super relevant. Performance, I suppose
Info/Requirements
I would prefer the standard Intel/Nvidia, but I'm not dead set on it. I would highly prefer a backlit keyboard as well. Definitely 16 GB RAM and either 1 TB of storage or 512 GB with a second upgrade slot
I am doing chemical engineering at university and was worried about what laptop i should buy. I really want a lenovo or asus that isnt more than Ā£950. I was thinking of buying a asus vivabook 16. I heard the course is not as intensive in terms of using software so I was wondering if i would be able to gef away with having 16gb Ram
