There are always new CPUs on the horizon. You either wait forever because there’s always something new and better coming “soon”, or you choose what’s current at a premium, or you choose something a little older for a discount.
On the coming soon/now horizon, assuming supply is met, is something like these:
As for laptops I’ve actually seen/used in person, the 5xxx AMD generation Lenovo Legion 5 is very nice, but is technically a gaming laptop.
Im using i7 2core 4 tread with gtx 940m
Playing some GTA RDD COD ms flight simulator etc.
Im an intel +nvidia user and prefer not to switch
So looking for something like 11 th gen i7
With something like rtx 3060 3070
If these are not too old
Or should i wqit a little bit for when 4000 series come out so 3080 gets cheaper
Trying to see if dell G series or alieanwar x15 is good quality enough
Or should i pay 2000 for XPS 15 or 17
I dont like gaming laptop look and would like to be able to take it somewhere if i need to
But i have my MacBook Pro for other tasks
I have razorblade 2080 for my work but iguess thats a little too old for that price
For a not too gamery laptop, I’d pick up a last gen Asus G14 from Best Buy, which is currently on sale for $1300, unless the lack of webcam is a dealbreaker. I know you mentioned a preference for Intel, but AMD has had class-leading laptop CPUs for the last couple of years, and the G14 is a very well built little powerhouse with 8C/16T and an RTX 3060.
For sticking with Intel, it looks like Lenovo just launched a Legion Slim 7i with a 12th gen CPU, 3060 and an MSRP of $1700. If you don’t mind waiting for a sale or splurging a bit, I’d probably be leaning toward that. I have a last gen Legion Slim 7 with an AMD CPU and it’s probably the best all-around gaming laptop I’ve ever used. It’s pretty tasteful in design (aside from the RGB backlit keyboard that sometimes goes full rainbow on reboots) and is also quite light at 4.1lbs. It’s not quite as well built as a G14, but is still good, and it seems to have a more effective cooling solution.
I’ve personally had poor experiences with Dell at both work, and with personal machines, and they also seem to pull some scammy behavior, as Leo’s recent security software upcharge mirrors experiences from several reputable YouTube channels. No OEM is perfect, but they’re currently low on my list.
Just two cents from someone who watches more laptop reviews than anyone can reasonably justify.
Thanks for the detailed info that is really helpful
I personally bought a few Asus and lenovo for others in the past few years
For my work i was using dell xps 15 last gen and it was not perfect but slick
And then switched to razor blade and it’s much better minus the plastic body that
if i take it when it’s running fans would squeeze
And they take dust and be noisy so fast
And they run hot
And rest of my company is provided with business lenovo g that is not good in design and feel
So if you suggest to go for non metal body and no big brands i can go for it as i have my MacBook Pro
Or wait for a better deal
I would prefer to stay with intel nvidia and thunderbolt
Thanks and please let me know
Both laptops I mentioned have fully metal casing. The G14 is very rigid, it compares favorably to something like an XPS, though it’s obviously a bit thicker. The Legion Slim 7 has some flex on the bottom panel, which is noticeable when picking it up one-handed. The Legion Slim 7’s fan profiles are what really set it apart to me. They seem well-tuned to avoid excessive ramping up. The G14 has a silent mode, but I think it just doesn’t cool off as well, because it
Most of the other options I would consider really worth recommending only get more gamer-inspired. However, one wildcard option would be a model from Eluktronics. They make laptops for smaller OEMs like MSI and Gigabyte and have started directly selling models in the last few years. This means they tend to be set up similarly to performance-focused gaming laptops, but without the bling. This model with an 11th gen i7 and 3060 is currently available for $1400 and has been well-reviewed, though I’ve never seen much less used one of these personally.
Defnitely the 3070. The 3050ti would be good in a thin and light machine like the Asus ROG Flow X13 (what a mouthful) but a total waste in anything weighing over 3.5lbs imo. I almost mentioned the Omen line, as they are very good value and have been well received, but thought they might be too gamery for your tastes.
Cool so ill go for the 3070
This omen
Has 3070
I7 11800
Metal body
Thunderbolt 4 x1
Does hp have good docking stations (if needed)
And keyboard is good
I can deal with rgb keyboard as long as other parts of the laptop won’t shine colors out
So if you recommend it over dell and as i had HP as my previous one
Ill go for it as it’s a good deal on costco
There shouldn’t be much if any difference between 11th and 12th gen for gaming unless you’re aiming for crazy high FPS in something like CS:GO. While the 12th gen would be a bit faster, nothing you mentioned will hammer the CPU in a way that you’re likely to even notice the difference, and it’s not clear yet that the efficiency cores really do that much for battery life in high performance laptops. 8C/16T also seems to be the sweet spot for the near future of gaming, so it should age pretty gracefully for gaming.
You should be able to use any thunderbolt dock. I have a good experience with my Lenovo workstation dock on all manner of laptops (has no problem driving 1440p/165Hz over DP) but the iCal docks seem to be regarded as the gold standard. One last option I’ll throw out is that a lot of monitors now have built-in docking station type port configurations, which could be worth considering if you could use a monitor upgrade, since the aforementioned docks are not that cheap to begin with.
That CPU thing is one of the rezones why it takes thing’s like Intel to Arm to make me do that. Thing’s like Premium to Premium 2 just happened because at that point our Windows 95 system died so we where getting an newer Windows 98 system. In fact that’s how I got my mom and dad to move to Windows XP. The power supply gone out and they remade the system with Windows XP installed.
