Considering a new laptop...maybe a PC instead?

[Nick H. Supervisor]

After having a dream this morning I was reminded of the joy of getting a new device, and it's given me a bit of an itch to maybe get a new laptop. My current laptop (Inspiron 7558) is fine, I don't really have an issue with it even if it is showing its age hardware-wise. But if I get a new laptop I could either keep this one for travelling or I could wipe it and give it to my mum.

 

I've gone to the Dell website and two machines have jumped out at me. The first is the Dell Inspiron 15 2-in-1. A couple of things are making me lean towards it: the USB-C port that would allow me to charge it on the go if I had a powerbank, and the 2-in-1 capability. My current laptop has the ability to fold, and while I very rarely use it it has been nice when flying or in other cramped situations. I also saw that as far as graphics go it comes with Intel Iris Xe MAX graphics 4GB LPDDR4x memory. According to the page it would be considered entry level for gaming and it would scrape through for VR capability, although at the moment I don't have any VR device. The price would be about £1,500.

 

But that then got me thinking: gaming. And so, I looked around a bit more and saw the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Gaming Laptop. It's about an extra kilogram heavier, doesn't provide 4k resolution, it isn't a 2-in-1, and it doesn't offer the USB-C charging option that I can tell (I don't consider that a surprise given the graphics card), but looking at those specs I'd be able to do current gaming and a little down the line I could buy a VR kit and finally get to do something I've also been thinking about recently: Elite Dangerous in VR (among other games). Also, it would only be £100-200 more expensive that the Inspiron 15, depending on if I went for a 512GB SSD or a 1TB SSD.

 

I'm not sure that the 4k resolution is a big deal for me, especially given the screen size. I think I've only output the display to a TV once or twice, and even then it was 1080p. The USB-C charging wouldn't be a loss considering that my current machine doesn't offer that, so I can't lose something I never had. The biggest loss would be the 2-in-1 function, although again I only use it when travelling.

 

A final thought has come to my mind while writing this: since I'm looking at the Alienware laptop, would it not be an idea to instead consider an Alienware PC? A quick look shows the Aurora R12 starts at £1000, giving me some money to spend on a monitor and maybe bump the RAM up to 16GB. I still have my current laptop that I can use for travelling, after all...

 

This itch may well fade, and I'll decide that I'm fine with the machine that I have, but I'm wondering what others here think of the options. And I know that someone is going to suggest this, so I'm just going to head it off here: I'm not looking to build a machine from scratch right now, even if it would be cheaper. It would be a fun side-project, but I'm more interested in taking something out of the box and running it.

[spaceelf]

I'd go with the Alienware laptop with these options and your needs.  If you need one type of machine and end up getting another you'll just be annoyed when you have to use the older one.

 

And yeah, no matter which way you go you won't have specific functionality but with a dedicated GPU it should last longer and give you a lot more options.

[cork1958]

I'd probably go with the Alienware laptop also considering it leaves you some cash to do something with later. Not a gamer at all, so can't give an opinion about you wanting to do that.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I don't know what the prices are like over there. but this one got really good reviews from ETA prime. I thought about buying that one at one point. Also upgradeable.

 

[Emn1ty]

If gaming is the focus, then yes I'd go with the Alienware. But years of Windows laptops has burned me out on ever wanting to buy one again, as they tend to have a performance cliff they all drop off after about a year and a half. If gaming isn't a make or break thing, and Windows software is also not make-or-break, at the price point I'd recommend a lower-end MacBook Pro. I've honestly rarely had issues with this line of laptops, especially now that the "dark ages" of the previous iteration are no longer an issue.

But this is also because I don't game on my laptops, I have a custom built desktop I game on, so take it with a grain of salt.

[spaceelf]

1 hour ago, Emn1ty said:

If gaming is the focus, then yes I'd go with the Alienware. But years of Windows laptops has burned me out on ever wanting to buy one again, as they tend to have a performance cliff they all drop off after about a year and a half. If gaming isn't a make or break thing, and Windows software is also not make-or-break, at the price point I'd recommend a lower-end MacBook Pro. I've honestly rarely had issues with this line of laptops, especially now that the "dark ages" of the previous iteration are no longer an issue.

But this is also because I don't game on my laptops, I have a custom built desktop I game on, so take it with a grain of salt.

I haven't had that experience with recent gaming laptops.  My last one has a AMD 580 in it and feels about the same as the day I bought it (I did replace the HD with an old SSD and install a clean copy of win10, but still.)

 

This Alienware laptop looks awesome for me but I don't even use laptops much so replacing the old one would be awkward.

[adrynalyne]

2 hours ago, Emn1ty said:

If gaming is the focus, then yes I'd go with the Alienware. But years of Windows laptops has burned me out on ever wanting to buy one again, as they tend to have a performance cliff they all drop off after about a year and a half. If gaming isn't a make or break thing, and Windows software is also not make-or-break, at the price point I'd recommend a lower-end MacBook Pro. I've honestly rarely had issues with this line of laptops, especially now that the "dark ages" of the previous iteration are no longer an issue.

But this is also because I don't game on my laptops, I have a custom built desktop I game on, so take it with a grain of salt.

The problem with MacBooks is that you need their M1 or whatever follows to get performance in macOS on par with Linux or Windows.
 

Apple has neglected macOS enough that it’s performance has degraded considerably over the years. I shouldn’t have to wait 1 - 3 seconds for a simple thing like launching a browser. Windows in Parallels on the same machine has better performance in that regard. If I am going to be paying a premium for Apple products, I expect Apple to put the time in to make them perform as well as other OSes, not change hardware because they don’t want to spend the time to optimize their OS. Imagine how fast M1 would be if they optimized macOS!
 

On principle alone, I don’t know that I will purchase one again. 

[Emn1ty]

13 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

The problem with MacBooks is that you need their M1 or whatever follows to get performance in macOS on par with Linux or Windows.
 

Apple has neglected macOS enough that it’s performance has degraded considerably over the years. I shouldn’t have to wait 1 - 3 seconds for a simple thing like launching a browser. Windows in Parallels on the same machine has better performance in that regard. If I am going to be paying a premium for Apple products, I expect Apple to put the time in to make them perform as well as other OSes, not change hardware because they don’t want to spend the time to optimize their OS. Imagine how fast M1 would be if they optimized macOS!
 

On principle alone, I don’t know that I will purchase one again. 

I can understand these criticisms. Neither are perfect, and it all comes down to what you want out of a machine. My personal experience with any Windows laptop, even the Surface, has been performance and battery life drop 30% after about a year and a half. And I have never been able to recover full performance for more than a couple weeks with factory resets or fresh installs. Of course, this could just be me... and it's very anecdotal. If others don't have this experience or don't care, more power to you. I've been despreate for a MacBook alternative but none have come close in my opinion.

[Joe User]

HP and Dell just announced new models for June availability.

 

I would personally wait a few weeks and see what happens to the prices of the older models before committing.  It's not a long wait, just scan for sales between now and when they hit the market in about 3 weeks.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

outside of Alienware I'd personally stay away from Dell, I've been burned by their Consumer models too much to try them again. Their business models are great (though not meant for gaming obviously) but their consumer range is relatively garbage IMO. That can be said about a lot of the OEMs but Dell takes the cake in recent years  but as stated their Alienware range remains good, and with improvements to technology they're not massive and ugly like they used to be anymore  

[Nick H. Supervisor]

9 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

I'd personally stay away from Dell, I've been burned by their Consumer models too much to try them again.

The only reason I went and took a look at Dell is because my current machine, the Inspiron 7558, has served me so well since I got it. Before then I was using a Lenovo which was also also great, although it felt a bit plasticy. And before then I had another Dell. I'd be open to other laptops - probably not HP, I've not had great expiences with them personally and professionally - if there are other suggestions.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

13 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

The only reason I went and took a look at Dell is because my current machine, the Inspiron 7558, has served me so well since I got it. Before then I was using a Lenovo which was also also great, although it felt a bit plasticy. And before then I had another Dell. I'd be open to other laptops - probably not HP, I've not had great expiences with them personally and professionally - if there are other suggestions.

most of the consumer dell laptops (under a grand) have horrible design and parts from my recent experience. My last laptop before my current was a dell (like 4 years back now; I only kept it for maybe a year) had a slow ass 5400rpm HDD still; tried to replace that but the design was one of those that you have to take the keyboard ribbon off to take the laptop apart and I partially damaged the ribbon in the process so a couple keys no longer worked. didn't even get to the point of being able to reach the drive  the slow HDD would cause the thing to chug and lock up constantly which shouldn't have been a thing on an i5. Maybe I was just unlucky but that experience was bad enough to put me off of them for a while.

 

Now I have an Acer ultrabook that I bought for like $300/400 (was advertised as a walmart sale here on Neowin a few years back); has a Ryzen 3 and an m.2 SSD (which is my first computer with an m.2) and it runs great. I even use it for gaming occasionally via GeForce Now and Shadow.

 

putting my rant aside I do think Dell still handles the Alienware brand well and I think it would suit your needs quite well. I'd also recommend 2 other OEMs to consider for gaming laptops; the Razor laptops and MSI makes some good gaming laptops as well.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

24 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

most of the consumer dell laptops (under a grand) have horrible design and parts from my recent experience. My last laptop before my current was a dell (like 4 years back now; I only kept it for maybe a year) had a slow ass 5400rpm HDD still; tried to replace that but the design was one of those that you have to take the keyboard ribbon off to take the laptop apart and I partially damaged the ribbon in the process so a couple keys no longer worked. didn't even get to the point of being able to reach the drive  the slow HDD would cause the thing to chug and lock up constantly which shouldn't have been a thing on an i5. Maybe I was just unlucky but that experience was bad enough to put me off of them for a whi

I speak from experience, don't get consumer level. I bought one a few years ago, and I had to send it back to Dell. BIOS was locked and anything I switched wouldn't work..

 

Lenovo has always been "plasticy" but are rock solid. Especially the ThinkPad varient.

[Arceles]

Do not buy Dell, if anything, buy the computer that has the easiest and highest reparability. Unfortunately each new laptop iteration has less and less options for this. I'm in a Lenovo A485 where I simply can change every single component of this laptop and it is not that difficult to open, but now it is almost 3 years old.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

If you want a gaming system, a desktop is going to provide better performance and upgradability, not to mention thermal management.  The downside, of course, being that it isn't going to be very portable.

For gaming laptops, I would suggest looking at Dell's Alienware, Hewlett-Packard's Omen and Lenovo's Legion lines to see what interests you.  You could also see what Clevo or any of its numerous partners (Eluktronics, Eurocom, Maingear, Sager and so forth) has.  Keep in mind that it may be better to purchase from a local reseller rather than direct if you are going to need warranty support.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

37 minutes ago, goretsky said:

If you want a gaming system, a desktop is going to provide better performance and upgradability, not to mention thermal management.  The downside, of course, being that it isn't going to be very portable.

I've actually seen some mini-ITX cases that are easy to transport. And used top hardware, too.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

9 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

I've actually seen some mini-ITX cases that are easy to transport. And used top hardware, too.

yeah it's pretty neat how mini-ITX support has grown in recent years with components being downsized. Some mini-ITX cases are even built in such a way you can still have a full size graphics card using a riser too.

 

I've watched some builds Linus Tech Tips have done recently and it's crazy what they've been able to cram in some low-profile builds.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

8 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

yeah it's pretty neat how mini-ITX support has grown in recent years with components being downsized. Some mini-ITX cases are even built in such a way you can still have a full size graphics card using a riser too.

 

I've watched some builds Linus Tech Tips have done recently and it's crazy what they've been able to cram in some low-profile builds.

Totally. I've seen almost every LTT video. How much they can pack into a little case boggles my mind.

 

I'm going to be building an Mini-ITX, AMD Ryzen 5600G, as soon as it comes out, with the CoolerMaster NR200P case. That thing looks slick...

[Brandon H Supervisor]

well here's a new contender to consider.

 

https://www.neowin.net/news/acer-announces-the-swift-x-a-thin-and-light-laptop-with-a-geforce-rtx-3050-ti/

 

Acer has been improving themselves in recent years; I'm pretty sure the cheap ultrabook I have is an Acer and it runs great for what I need it for (including streaming games from GeForce Now and Shadow)