Seeking recommendations on a new laptop!

[wardnine]

Looking to replace a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 laptop (that I've had for the better part of a decade). Haven't even looked at laptops in several years so a bit overwhelmed by the choices.

 

Budget is $400-$1,000 USD. Not open to refurbished laptops.

 

Highest priority to have fast processing laptop with long battery life. Laptop will not have heavy usage - only occasional medium/light usage (e.g., mainly for travel honestly as I use my PC much more frequently than my laptop when I'm at home). Laptop will not be used for gaming on video editing purposes.

 

Don't want anything smaller than 13-14”. Current 14” laptop has been great size-wise.

 

Prefer touchscreen though it's not a necessity. Also prefer lighter weight and thinner, though that is also not critical.

 

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

 

[saturnotaku]

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-flex-series/ideapad-flex-5-gen-8-(14-inch-amd)/len101i0066?sortBy=priceUp

 

Lenovo Slim Pro 7: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-slim-pro-7-14-90hz-2-5k-touch-screen-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-7735hs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-with-16gb-memory-512gb-ssd-storm-grey/6533954.p?skuId=6533954

 

Dell Inspiron 14: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-14-0-2-in-1-touch-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-7730u-16gb-memory-1tb-solid-state-drive-lavender-blue/6539907.p?skuId=6539907

 

Asus Vivobook Flip 14: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-flip-2-in-1-laptop-14-fhd-touch-display-amd-ryzen-7-16gb-ddr4-1tb-ssd-bespoke-black/6515439.p?skuId=6515439

 

I'd favor the Slim Pro 7 on account of its 90 Hz OLED screen and dedicated GPU, the latter of which can come in handy if you'd like to run an occasional game.

[Bullit]

Very light and with long battery there are also the LG Gram series. Maybe you can even consider a bigger one. 17" for example is only 1.3kg.

 

For touch consider Lenovo Yoga series - i am not sure all of that line are touch but many are.

[saturnotaku]

1 hour ago, Bullit said:

Very light and with long battery there are also the LG Gram series. Maybe you can even consider a bigger one. 17" for example is only 1.3kg.

 

That's going to be way out of OP's budget and they specified a desire for a 14-inch form factor.

[Bullit]

LG Gram have 14" if he wishes - that one i think is about 1kg - and here some models cost less then 1000 euro or are thereabouts, and includes a 23% tax.

[ryan]

On 5/9/2023 at 8:35 AM, saturnotaku said:

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-flex-series/ideapad-flex-5-gen-8-(14-inch-amd)/len101i0066?sortBy=priceUp

 

Lenovo Slim Pro 7: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-slim-pro-7-14-90hz-2-5k-touch-screen-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-7735hs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-with-16gb-memory-512gb-ssd-storm-grey/6533954.p?skuId=6533954

 

Dell Inspiron 14: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-14-0-2-in-1-touch-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-7730u-16gb-memory-1tb-solid-state-drive-lavender-blue/6539907.p?skuId=6539907

 

Asus Vivobook Flip 14: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-flip-2-in-1-laptop-14-fhd-touch-display-amd-ryzen-7-16gb-ddr4-1tb-ssd-bespoke-black/6515439.p?skuId=6515439

 

I'd favor the Slim Pro 7 on account of its 90 Hz OLED screen and dedicated GPU, the latter of which can come in handy if you'd like to run an occasional game.

I fully concur hehe. this is the one to get. big thumbs up for the 90hz oled

[kojack]

If you want performance on battery, run, very fast away from AMD.  They throttle the entire pc to try to get as good battery life as an intel based system. That means they reduce speeds of SSD, Memory, GPU and CPU. If you unplug an intel system, you only get performance throttling from overheating, if it throttles at all. So, that may be a consideration to look at as well.  

 

Here is a graph showing pluged in (AC) performance (both systems are so close in performance you would not see a difference), then, it shows unplugged performance on battery (DC).  The AMD falls flat on its face where the intel keeps it full power on battery. 

 

[Papusan]

16 hours ago, kojack said:

If you want performance on battery, run, very fast away from AMD.  They throttle the entire pc to try to get as good battery life as an intel based system. That means they reduce speeds of SSD, Memory, GPU and CPU. If you unplug an intel system, you only get performance throttling from overheating, if it throttles at all. So, that may be a consideration to look at as well.  

Mostly all Intel or and AMD processors will throttle down clock speed if you run your laptop on battery. You can't run +100W Cpu load + powering the whole system on the battery. Have been like this many years. Lower clock speed = Lower performance.

 

Read and learn.....

 

Another Intel system.........

The 115-watt power consumption - which is permitted over a longer period - was reached regularly. Additionally, 135 watts were permitted for fractions of a second. Only in "Silent" mode was power consumption limited to 30 watts while in battery mode even up to 45 watts were permitted. 

[kojack]

6 hours ago, Papusan said:

Mostly all Intel or and AMD processors will throttle down clock speed if you run your laptop on battery. You can't run +100W Cpu load + powering the whole system on the battery. Have been like this many years. Lower clock speed = Lower performance.

 

Read and learn.....

 

Another Intel system.........

The 115-watt power consumption - which is permitted over a longer period - was reached regularly. Additionally, 135 watts were permitted for fractions of a second. Only in "Silent" mode was power consumption limited to 30 watts while in battery mode even up to 45 watts were permitted. 

You, and many other miss the point.  AMD throttles EVERYTHING. CPU, GPU, ram, SSD, etc.  Intel does not....hence the speeds are same on ac or dc.  AMD does this to try to get battery life near what intel does.  This is the only way they can do it.  It's not thermal throttling like my notebook does. I have read plenty about this.  Its you, obviously who did not.  You didn't even read the information on the graph that was put up.  Only pull a "note" from some place showing something or other without any evidence. 

[kojack]

Again, Here is more information.  AS YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE, once unplugged, the AMD system falls flat on it's face where as the intel system keeps it full speed until thermal throttling kicks in....NOT the same at all.  And, NO, the intel system does not drop power when unplugged.  AMD reduces the power to every component as soon as you pull the plug. Intel will reduce the power going to the CPU when a temperature threshold is met. The ram, ssd, gpu remains at full power. AMD reduces power to EVERY COMPONENT as soon as you pull out the AC adapter.  

 

I know alot of people are amd fanboys, but seriously?  you would rather this than use and intel based system?

 

[Papusan]

22 minutes ago, kojack said:

You, and many other miss the point. Intel does not....hence the speeds are same on ac or dc.

And why are the benchmark scores lower if you run on battery? Magic? Can it really be magic @Mr. Fox @electrosoft @Ashtrix?

 

Or can it be because my English reading skills is not top notch. Explain what this means (drop and significant)..… While the single-thread performance (254 points) drops slightly in battery operation, the drop in the multithread performance is significant (1,303 points).

 

As a side note. The power gimped Intel U Processors normally don’t throttle clock speed on battery because they are already heavily castrated on AC power. 

 

 

[kojack]

ok, I bow out now.  calling in the calvary hey?  SMDH.....🥱 It's like talking to a brick.  The Intel systems were just as fast, if not faster than the amd systems in the comparison.  but no problem.  fanboy out and ignore the facts.  Typical.  take r easy. 

[1610ftw]

Calling brother @Papusan an AMD fanboy is something else...

 

While the numbers you post are quite interesting it seems the tables are turned with more powerful CPUs like for example here:

 

And FWIW: I had/have a bunch of Intel CPU powered laptops that cannot do shit when on battery but these are the ones with the big boy CPUs that can all pull at least 150W and often up to 200W in multithreaded loads.

[Papusan]

2 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

Calling brother @Papusan an AMD fanboy is something else...

 

While the numbers you post are quite interesting it seems the tables are turned with more powerful CPUs like for example here:

 

And FWIW: I had/have a bunch of Intel CPU powered laptops that cannot do shit when on battery but these are the ones with the big boy CPUs that can all pull at least 150W and often up to 200W in multithreaded loads.

HaHa, LOOL. Thanks. You was spot on. 

 

Here are the same CBR-23 benchmarks from Intel 13980HX but on AC power. Even the almost blind man can see the differences.... Between AC vs battery

 

 

Intel Core i9-13980HX Processor - Benchmarks and Specs

[saturnotaku]

For what it's worth, I ran CDM on the SSD in my 13900HX Legion Pro 7i and 6800H Legion 5. The latter did see a nearly 50 percent drop in sequential read speeds on battery versus plugged in. Sequential writes were slower as well but within what I would consider the margin of error. The Intel machine saw no difference in performance. However, the Ryzen model gets literally double the battery life of the Intel one, which I can feel in everyday usage. The drop in SSD speeds is hardly noticeable. 

[1610ftw]

7 hours ago, saturnotaku said:

For what it's worth, I ran CDM on the SSD in my 13900HX Legion Pro 7i and 6800H Legion 5. The latter did see a nearly 50 percent drop in sequential read speeds on battery versus plugged in. Sequential writes were slower as well but within what I would consider the margin of error. The Intel machine saw no difference in performance. However, the Ryzen model gets literally double the battery life of the Intel one, which I can feel in everyday usage. The drop in SSD speeds is hardly noticeable. 

It probably pretty much depends on what one is doing - if battery life is of any importance check it with the workload you are using as that will give you the best idea of real world useability and in your case your AMD laptop lasts twice as long as the Intel version. It would be a really good idea to tell a laptop how much it is supposed to consume at most or alternatively how long you plan to use it on battery and then it would need some intelligent reallocation of resources to do as best as it can with the consumption / time limit that has been set.

[Reciever]

23 hours ago, saturnotaku said:

For what it's worth, I ran CDM on the SSD in my 13900HX Legion Pro 7i and 6800H Legion 5. The latter did see a nearly 50 percent drop in sequential read speeds on battery versus plugged in. Sequential writes were slower as well but within what I would consider the margin of error. The Intel machine saw no difference in performance. However, the Ryzen model gets literally double the battery life of the Intel one, which I can feel in everyday usage. The drop in SSD speeds is hardly noticeable. 

 

I think the issue was originally brought up on NBR which caused it's own series of arguments. The main issue at that time that I could gather was there wasn't any way to manipulate the systems behavior under battery operation like you could on most Intel based systems. 

 

Sadly that thread also just became a shouting match of individuals arguing for their positions instead of something more constructive. 

 

Gotta say though @Papusan being called out as amd fan boy, nearly choked on my drink lol

[1610ftw]

9 hours ago, Reciever said:

 

I think the issue was originally brought up on NBR which caused it's own series of arguments. The main issue at that time that I could gather was there wasn't any way to manipulate the systems behavior under battery operation like you could on most Intel based systems. 

 

Sadly that thread also just became a shouting match of individuals arguing for their positions instead of something more constructive. 

 

Gotta say though @Papusan being called out as amd fan boy, nearly choked on my drink lol

 

I usually prefer adjustability but being in a compromised performance state on battery I do not think I would mind SSDs being half of their usual speed as it is not like they could hold that speed for very long anyway. So if AMD based systems only have these restrictions on battery I would not really mind.

 

I had to read that part with @Papusantwice as I could not quite believe it 😄

[Reciever]

5 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

I usually prefer adjustability but being in a compromised performance state on battery I do not think I would mind SSDs being half of their usual speed as it is not like they could hold that speed for very long anyway. So if AMD based systems only have these restrictions on battery I would not really mind.

 

I had to read that part with @Papusantwice as I could not quite believe it 😄

 

Half of pcie ssd's is still far greater than SATA based SSD's

 

Though the one thing I would be curious about is 4K-Random and if that stays above SATA thresholds. I personally dont care much for PCIE based storage solutions in a system I am typing documents on or gaming.

[1610ftw]

5 hours ago, Reciever said:

 

Half of pcie ssd's is still far greater than SATA based SSD's

 

Though the one thing I would be curious about is 4K-Random and if that stays above SATA thresholds. I personally dont care much for PCIE based storage solutions in a system I am typing documents on or gaming.

 

If it feels to be roughly the same speed it would be good enough for me and as SATA usually feels about as fast as PCI-E I am pretty sure that would be the case.

I used to be happy with SATA, too but now the cheapest storage seems to be PCI-E, at least up to 2TB and therefore I have mostly PCI-E drives now.

[KING19]

19 hours ago, Reciever said:

 

I think the issue was originally brought up on NBR which caused it's own series of arguments. The main issue at that time that I could gather was there wasn't any way to manipulate the systems behavior under battery operation like you could on most Intel based systems. 

 

Sadly that thread also just became a shouting match of individuals arguing for their positions instead of something more constructive. 

 

Gotta say though @Papusan being called out as amd fan boy, nearly choked on my drink lol

 

I remember that thread and @kojack is still stuck on that even though its been debunked over and over even on here and refuses to let it go. You aint going to get full power on a laptop on battery no matter what you do especially with Intel and AMD U processors. Also OEM's adds their own tweaks as well. We're up to the 7000 series with AMD and 13th Gen with Intel and you cant do any wrong with either one these days.

[ryan]

just chiming in into an old thread and I also thought it was funny calling @Papusana amd fanboy. @kojack is a cool guy but really. lmao. so it wasnt a more constructive comment, but too those of you reading this, Papusan is a benchmarking kinda guy that usually uses intel and nvidia but dabbles. jesus too funny, I actually coughed on my beer