New Laptop suggestion

• 

  scott on 29/12/2024 - 16:48

  +3

  Intel's lunar lake processors (Core ultra 200 series) are starting to find their way into retail laptops. Described as the largest generational jump in many years.

  Biggest gains come in the efficiency area. (which was the major selling point of snapdragon chips a few months back). So that removes one of the key selling points of snapdragon.

  Intel has caught a lot of bad press lately, but my understanding is it relates to desktop CPU's only.

  Discussion of intel vs snapdragon for dell XPS 13.

  https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=37&topicid=318…

  If you want a 200 series intel laptop, the main issue you are going to run into is that the range available is fairly small, and typically with list prices well north of $3k.

  But here is a thread about Steep black Friday discounts on a lenovo. Incredible deal, may not be able to be replicated.

  https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=164&topicid=31…

  Other big advancements the Ultra 200 & Snapdragon CPU's are the NPU's, both typical feature more than 40 TOPS, with is enough to run co-pilot+ in windows. And the integrated graphics are a big jump over a couple of generations back.

  On the other hand, if you don't care about battery life, NPU & integrated graphic, I have a intel 13900H in my work laptop. Massively more powerful than the Core ultra 155H in my wife's machine, which is in the same ballpark profrormace wise (better multicore, worse single core) than the 258V. Of course, I am doing well to get two hours of battery life from my computer (a mobile workstation with Nvidia ADA 2000 graphics forced to be on all the time), where hers lasts several hours.

  An example of a powerful laptop if you don't care about battery life:

  https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/computers/laptops/la…

  These days, for any heavier application, I would recommend 32 GB+ of ram. Ideal to have a 1TB+ SSD also (dependent on how much you plan to store locally.

  When through the laptop buying process for my wife in June. She wanted a slim 14" laptop. At the time, only the flaghship elite snapdragon processors had launched and they were out of our budget. Best deal at the time for her needs and around a $2k budget was a lenovo Yoga Slim 7. 155H, 32 GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, OLD screen, 2 year ONSITE warranty for just shy of $2k.

  The physical size of laptop you want is going to have a big bearing on your decision making.

  In terms of ports, the trend is towards less ports. My wife's laptop has 2x USB-C + 1x USBA + HDMI + 3.5mm headphones. the latest dell XPS 13 get just two USB-C.

  Strongly recommend getting a decent thunderbolt docking station for your desk at home.

• 

  coffeee on 26/12/2024 - 09:31

  +1

  i would have gotten apple silicone for portability ( i like my m1 air) but dont know what mortgage apps you need, i use Satechi dongles.

• 

  desikiwi on 27/12/2024 - 21:31

  +1

  IMO , I use linux on thinkpad , windows on dell precision, and have apple m1 macbook air , and ipad etc

  Apple m1 great value very stable ecosystem , great battery life , good machine over all has resell value. can get nearly new machine on market place for reasonable price 1k nzd , apple m4 has major performance upgrades similar to how it was with intel to m1 .
  apps generally tends to work well on apple arm m1 systems compared to windows ,
  recoded and cracked adobe apps are available more so on apple then on Windows at least this is what i felt .

  LInux does not have adobe but i feel since using it for so many years things work well and are super stable on ubuntu , its just the way it is , then macbook m1 things are straighforward not much customise possible ,

  I use cables wires chargers and docks type c from a company called ugreen its the best . they have deals on aliexpress amazon au , amazon usa i have some dongles from ugreen and i have found it great ,
  i recently got like a inch thick gan charger from ugreen and new emarker chip type c cables and they were super quality

  • 

    offroad on 27/12/2024 - 22:06

    +1

    Thanks bud, for my work i think i will be needing windows laptop. I was 99% ready to buy surface laptop 7 but its actually got qualcom snapdragon plus instead of intel which is now my worry. Some work apps might not be compatible.

    So i guess now i need to look for some trusty dell xps or lenovo thinkpad

    • 

      desikiwi on 29/12/2024 - 10:57

      +1

      arm surface may not work well with many software applications like you said , get a x86/x64 thinkpad they last long long time easy to fix you can get great deal if you have some one in the usa ,they have okish deals in anz , you can easily score 2nd hand one , dells hp acers are ok i still prefer how well designed and how easy it is to fix a think pad

• 

  jackvdbuk on 26/12/2024 - 09:48

  My only tip would be to not mix work apps and risky apps on the same device.

  Id go into noels and have a look, you havent mentioned budget but at a minimum go 1tb ssd and 16gb mem with a recent cpu

  • 

    offroad on 26/12/2024 - 10:57

    Up to $2k i would say. I wonder how these new snapdragon ones are compared to i7

    • 

      jackvdbuk on 26/12/2024 - 11:26

      Id avoid them as some apps dont support it

    • 

      Frisky Grandma on 26/12/2024 - 16:39

      all the super duper good stuff about new macs, but the compatiability isn't 100%.

      IIRC vpn support was still in the works so we decided against them for our guys in the last chunk of updates we did

      • 

        offroad on 26/12/2024 - 17:21

        Yes they are so cool but such a pain sometimes. I learned computers from windows platform so im much comfortable with windows shortcuts etc

• 

  Fox419 on 26/12/2024 - 10:21

  Lenovo have a range of laptops that are often best bang for buck.

  https://www.lenovo.com/nz/en/laptops/results/?sortBy=priceUp

  • 

    offroad on 26/12/2024 - 10:58

    Thanks will check that out

    • 

      ace310 on 26/12/2024 - 16:02

      Second lenovo laptops especially the thinkpad ones.

• 

  offroad on 26/12/2024 - 10:58

  How are the microsoft surface guys?

  • 

    2cheap on 26/12/2024 - 12:10

    +1

    Not an 'expert' but a big Surface fan depending on use case. I got a Surface Book 1 for teaching due to the write on screen. Best thing at the time. I personally bought the Surface Book 3. Still the best IMHO. However, you pay a premium. I have an HP with a pen and touch screen and it is 90% as good for a much lower cost. Surface Pro, portable but underpowered. Surface Go very under powered. Surface laptop too expensive for what you get. If the cost not a concern, great device.

• 

  kinetic9 on 26/12/2024 - 12:38

  Have you considered refurbished laptops? I'm looking for one in the new year as well, however I don't need any photo editing capability. I find refurb business laptops have good bang for buck. Stuff like the HP Probook/Elitebooks or Dell Latitudes.

  I see places like nzpcclearance.co.nz or ptlcomputers.co.nz have a couple of HP Zbook studios which might be suitable for running Lightroom. I don't have any experience with the Zbooks, so you might need to google some real world reviews. I've bought from nzpcclearance before and it was fine, albeit a couple of years ago. There are probably other refurb sellers out there too.

• 

  Frisky Grandma on 26/12/2024 - 16:38

  Hey OP any reason to switch to windows?

  The apple silicon macs operate a bit like and ipad in terms of battery, smoothness, speed, and MOST importantly for sanity heat output. I bought an M1 air a few years ago, gave it to the ex (eugh) and got an m2 air 8gb. My work is a 32gb i7 evo dell thing and it runs a fan most of the time and isn't anywhere near as quick.

  I get the dock issues, fyi m2 and below can only do 1 external display at all, but a USB-hub is raesonably inexpensive if you dont require a 4k 60fps monitor coming out of it.

  The new surface laptops that have the snapdragon chips have the benefits of the new macs being so fast / not really even needing a fan (the mac pros have them but they're not outputting enough heat that it's going to be noticable when they're on) / all-day battery as a starting point BUT have the tradeoff that some apps still run in emulation, some dont work at all (mostly older stuff) and cracked adobe isn't gonna be there for a long time I'd guess

  Also OP. PLEASE reconsider using cracke software on a system that is going to have sensitive information on it, especially ifnormation that isn't yours.

  • 

    offroad on 26/12/2024 - 17:23

    Yes im going to buy all genuine softwares on my work laptop to protect my clients info.

  • 

    offroad on 26/12/2024 - 17:25

    I have heard some banks excel based calculators or crm is not compatible with macbooks. Can be challenging at times therefore thinking of getting windows laptop as my work laptop and keep using my macbook as my personal laptop

• 

  Bhavana on 27/12/2024 - 06:48

  I was hunting around for a new laptop yesterday. Check this out -
  https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NBKACN1575ABS/Acer-Nitro-AN…

  Not too sure if it meets your needs but I thought it's a really good price for the specs.

  • 

    offroad on 27/12/2024 - 22:07

    +1

    Thnx, more than what i need i guess