Hi Guys,
I've doing some hard thinking and came up with a few laptops that I think will fit what a I need. Please feel free to suggest other options if you think it's relevant. I'm in the UK, and some models are not available here.
Some background:
1. I'm an amateur photographer and hardly ever play any games, so the heaviest tasks will be Photoshop and Lightroom.
2. Because of the photos, it needs a decent display - ideally full HD, but needs to be good, nice colors and bright!
3. I also want to be able to connect to a home theatre (Full HD TV and soundbar) so WiDi and bluetooth are terribly welcome.
4. Size is not really an issue, but the smallest/lightest the better - not looking for ultrabook, 15" should do fine.
5. Cost: the cheaper the better, I still need to buy a NAS and hard drives. The longer it takes, the longer I'll go without proper backup. Preferably under £800, but could stretch to £900 for amazing deals.
6. Ideally, it would be my sole computer and should last at least 3 years.
The laptops I found have many things in common: The first three all have i7-3632QM, 8gb, dedicated video card with 2gb and Blu ray combo drive. They also have illuminated keyboard, and, as far as I could check, Intel wireless, so WiDi.
Dell Inspiron 15R SE
£623 (after coupons)
AMD Radeon HD 7730M
1TB HDD - I think it's got a mSATA SSD 32gb as well, not sure.
Dell XPS 15
£800 at Dell outlet
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
1TB+32gb mSATA SSD
Lenovo Y500
£870
16gb RAM (the extra £70 over the XPS would be the memory)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
1TB+16gb mSATA SSD (vs 32gb of the XPS)
And, now, the one I really don't know about:
MSI CX61 Haswell (CX61 2OD on MSI's website)
£750
i7-4702MQ
16gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
1TB - don't know if it even has an active mSATA slot - if it does, great, I can add a 128mSATA in the future and use that as system drive.
The best on paper is clearly the MSI, with i7 Haswell, that 740M graphics board and the extra memory And not so much more than the Inspiron. But is it reliable? I could not find any recent reviews of the CX61... And what about build? The XPS and Y500 are aluminium, and the Inspiron is aluminium and plastic. From the reviews I found, it's plastic. No illuminated keyboard (not a deal breaker, but nice to have). No idea about the wireless board or WiDi. One "best i7 laptops" google search mentioned that the Full HD display of the MSI CX61 is very good (they were comparing it to the XPS and one ASUS, if not mistaken), but I don't know if they've changed for the new version.
So, can you help me decide?
Will there be noticeable difference between them? Is not, should I go for the Inspiron and save a not inconsiderable amount of cash? Or will the MSI last me longer - both as performance and literally?
Thanks!
I've doing some hard thinking and came up with a few laptops that I think will fit what a I need. Please feel free to suggest other options if you think it's relevant. I'm in the UK, and some models are not available here.
Some background:
1. I'm an amateur photographer and hardly ever play any games, so the heaviest tasks will be Photoshop and Lightroom.
2. Because of the photos, it needs a decent display - ideally full HD, but needs to be good, nice colors and bright!
3. I also want to be able to connect to a home theatre (Full HD TV and soundbar) so WiDi and bluetooth are terribly welcome.
4. Size is not really an issue, but the smallest/lightest the better - not looking for ultrabook, 15" should do fine.
5. Cost: the cheaper the better, I still need to buy a NAS and hard drives. The longer it takes, the longer I'll go without proper backup. Preferably under £800, but could stretch to £900 for amazing deals.
6. Ideally, it would be my sole computer and should last at least 3 years.
The laptops I found have many things in common: The first three all have i7-3632QM, 8gb, dedicated video card with 2gb and Blu ray combo drive. They also have illuminated keyboard, and, as far as I could check, Intel wireless, so WiDi.
Dell Inspiron 15R SE
£623 (after coupons)
AMD Radeon HD 7730M
1TB HDD - I think it's got a mSATA SSD 32gb as well, not sure.
Dell XPS 15
£800 at Dell outlet
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
1TB+32gb mSATA SSD
Lenovo Y500
£870
16gb RAM (the extra £70 over the XPS would be the memory)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
1TB+16gb mSATA SSD (vs 32gb of the XPS)
And, now, the one I really don't know about:
MSI CX61 Haswell (CX61 2OD on MSI's website)
£750
i7-4702MQ
16gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
1TB - don't know if it even has an active mSATA slot - if it does, great, I can add a 128mSATA in the future and use that as system drive.
The best on paper is clearly the MSI, with i7 Haswell, that 740M graphics board and the extra memory And not so much more than the Inspiron. But is it reliable? I could not find any recent reviews of the CX61... And what about build? The XPS and Y500 are aluminium, and the Inspiron is aluminium and plastic. From the reviews I found, it's plastic. No illuminated keyboard (not a deal breaker, but nice to have). No idea about the wireless board or WiDi. One "best i7 laptops" google search mentioned that the Full HD display of the MSI CX61 is very good (they were comparing it to the XPS and one ASUS, if not mistaken), but I don't know if they've changed for the new version.
So, can you help me decide?
Will there be noticeable difference between them? Is not, should I go for the Inspiron and save a not inconsiderable amount of cash? Or will the MSI last me longer - both as performance and literally?
Thanks!
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