Laptop Suggestions

[Steveyg]

Hi guys,

Fella in work has asked me to help him pick a laptop for home use. I don't know much about laptops so I figured I'd ask the good lads here, he's been eyeing up the Surface Pro's but I reckon you lot could help him get something better.

He'll be doing zero gaming, mostly just some light 2D CAD work and some hobby photo editing. His budget is around the £1000-1400 mark depending but he's aiming on the cheaper side. He would also like to be able to add 2 extra monitors without resorting to a dock if possible but this isn't a take it or leave it option.

Something with decent storage and RAM I reckon would be best but I'm out of my league when it comes to the finer details of laptops

 

[Bhuna50]

Is he in need of portability / lightweight?

is he in need of battery life as a priority too?

If adding monitors does it matter if its 15 or 17 inch laptop or possibly smaller?

If hobby photos, how big / what is his current storage capacity / requirements likely to be or has he got it separately on network drive / usb drive?

Is he interested in a 1440p monitor for the photo editing or happy at 1080p for laptop and more detailed on monitor use?

 

[Steveyg]

Is he in need of portability / lightweight?

is he in need of battery life as a priority too?

If adding monitors does it matter if its 15 or 17 inch laptop?

If hobby photos, how big / what is his current storage capacity / requirements likely to be or has he got it separately on network drive / usb drive?

Portability isn't a massive need, mostly it'll be plugged in but he bring it in and out of the office occasionally

15" would be perfect if he has to be portable he reckons.

You've lost me on the photos though, his wife is a hobby photographer so it'll be her doing the bit of editing. Nothing too strenuous and storage isn't an issue he has a number of external drives they keep their raw data on

 

[Bhuna50]

its ok re photo editing, just was narrowing down the usage - if hobby photo editing then 1080p would be ok - I will have a look through for you and see what i can sort out - although got some actual 'my day job' work to do at moment LOL

 

[Steveyg]

its ok re photo editing, just was narrowing down the usage - if hobby photo editing then 1080p would be ok - I will have a look through for you and see what i can sort out - although got some actual 'my day job' work to do at moment LOL

Cheers mate appreciate, just a little out of depth on the laptop side of things. There is so much selection and I just don't know where to begin

 

[Bhuna50]

Slightly over your friends budget, but I have added pixel gtee 1 year and also the GOLD warranty - as I think it is value for money at £69 for an extra one year warranty on laptops. I've gone Defiance here as it has the Thunderbolt / mini DP and HDMI for ways of adding monitors later.

Really for photos though I would consider an AMD processor, so would also have considered the Optimus Pro but no AMDs available at moment (within budget) by the looks of it (Opt Pro has 2 x mini DP, not thunderbolt).

If his wife does a lot of 'stitching' of photos together (this is where you take a series of photos, say for a large panoramic, that you combine together to make a large panoramic) - then you may want to consider more memory but 16GB would usually be enough for a hobbyist photographer (says the person that stuck 64GB in his laptop LOL).

Stuck two M2's in - the 500gb would be for the OS and the system files / photo editing program etc and the 1TB would be where to store the catalogue of photos until they got moved to the external drive.

I'll have another good look a bit later but quickly threw this together:

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz Pantone Validated 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CORSAIR MP400 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 3480 MB/R, 1880 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
15" DEFIANCE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Chassis
Clevo PC50DD2 (6GB RTX-2060, i7-10875H, 144Hz N7 PANTONE, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,417.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/defianceVII-15/brd4NUM5SF/

 

[Bhuna50]

Just realised actually, the 17" version, same spec is only £7 more - so something for your friend to decide on there:

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte, Full HD, 144Hz, Pantone Validated 72% NTSC, LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2933MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CORSAIR MP400 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 3480 MB/R, 1880 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
17" DEFIANCE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Chassis
Clevo PC70DD2 (6GB RTX-2060, i7-10875H, 144Hz N7 PANTONE, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,424.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/defianceVII-17/6E!cxw5bmh/

 

[Bhuna50]

Size / weight differences here: