Looking for Portable Laptop (Under $1000 with dedicated graphics)

ethanpurdy

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Jun 29, 2012
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1. What is your budget? $1000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 13-14

3. What screen resolution do you want? Any is ok. Obviously, higher is preferable but not a deal breaker to have 1378 x 768

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable with some moderate gaming.

5. How much battery life do you need? The longer the better. 4-5 (when running simple applications like word, internet browsing, etc.).

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? Yes, generally not graphic intensive games, and I don't mind playing on low settings. Some games I play: Black Ops 2, Skyrim, Team Fortress 2, etc.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Typical school stuff. Word, email, web browsing. Watching videos and streaming videos.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? If HDD 500 GB. If SSD 128 GB.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. No specific sites. But I've been looking at the Lenovo Y410P (not a huge fan of poor battery life and red keyboard), Lenovo U410 Touch.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 3-4 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? Don't need an optical drive.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

Like: Lenovo (only because my current laptop is from them and it's worked well). No preferance about the others as I have not dealt with them much.
Dislike: Apple

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed: Haswell laptop would be ideal, although there aren't many out there. Need to order my laptop soon as I will be leaving home in 3 weeks.
 
Solution
Lenovo has a new Y510 Ideapad it has an ETA of august so idk if you can wait that long but this is a nice Laptop for the price. SLI GT 750M will allow you to run anything in medium to high settings. It is a 15 inch screen but this is a nice system for what your looking for.
http://www.xoticpc.com/lenovo-ideapad-y510p-59375625-eta-midaugust-p-6166.html

Also This Sager system is nice too. Haswell CPU and GTX 765M GPU will run anything on medium to high settings.
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7352-clevo-w350st-p-5842.html

dixon8809

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May 6, 2013
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Lenovo has a new Y510 Ideapad it has an ETA of august so idk if you can wait that long but this is a nice Laptop for the price. SLI GT 750M will allow you to run anything in medium to high settings. It is a 15 inch screen but this is a nice system for what your looking for.
http://www.xoticpc.com/lenovo-ideapad-y510p-59375625-eta-midaugust-p-6166.html

Also This Sager system is nice too. Haswell CPU and GTX 765M GPU will run anything on medium to high settings.
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7352-clevo-w350st-p-5842.html
 
Solution

ethanpurdy

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Thanks for your reply. I'm looking for a 14 inch laptop preferably. Interesting note on the y510p, I wasn't aware of that. Do you know if it applies to the y410p too?

The Sager is an interesting option although it's a little bulky for me. I prefer a general use laptop and portable that can play some games, rather than a gaming first laptop.
 

ethanpurdy

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I would really prefer to get dedicated. It's amazing there are so few available (at least it seems to me). I'd sooner expand to 15.6 inch screen than not have a dedicated graphics card.
 
Jul 18, 2013
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10,510


In that case...
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/E4T18AV?HP-ENVY-TouchSmart-15t-j000-Quad-Edition-Notebook-PC

Add the 1920x1080 screen and NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M Graphics with 2048MB of dedicated video memory at customization. sorry it's $20 above limit after that.
 

dixon8809

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Yeah laptops are tough because it is hard to strike a balance between Budget and Something small that can play games effectively. Any Laptop That has a 14 inch screen or is small isnt going to have the gaming chops your looking for im afraid. I havent found anything. There is the Razerblade but it isnt in your budget. The closest I have seen is this http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-ge40-2oc009us-p-5783.html The MSI GE40. Its a small laptop at 4.4 pounds but a couple hundred out of your price range. Tough choice bud. Edit: I like to look at gaming laptops because most of the stuff best buy or walmart or retailers sell are geared toward average users not gamers.
 

ethanpurdy

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I am now looking at this: http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2L40UA?HP-ENVY-dv6-7214nr-Notebook-PC#BVRRWidgetID

Have you heard anything about it? Battery life, quality of keyboard or trackpad?
 

dixon8809

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That Laptop is last Gen CPU and GPU. You will have trouble running anything with decent frame rates with that GT 650M. With that said that is why it is discounted. The screen Is Full HD though which is good for that price. For the Same Price this is Haswell CPU and Gt 760m GPU. Its a faster machine. http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/E4T18AV?HP-ENVY-TouchSmart-15t-j000-Quad-Edition-Notebook-PC
 

ethanpurdy

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Definitely not interested in a 17 inch one. I need this laptop to be portable for going to class and some light gaming on the side.
 
Jul 18, 2013
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It's not 4th gen.
 

ethanpurdy

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I think I'd rather stick to the big companies to be honest. Anyone know anything about this laptop?

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666564152&categoryId=8198552921644944498

Or this one:

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666558661&categoryId=8198552921644944498

My only concern is I don't know how Sony is as a PC company (have heard bad things in the past) and apparently the keyboard isn't great. Can anyone confirm/deny these?
 

dixon8809

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The first Sony has a sandy bridge mobile CPU in it. Which now that haswell is out is 2 generations back. You would have to upgrade which would put the laptop around $800 or $900 that HP touch laptop above was better for that price. Same with the second your paying $800 for older tech. Might as well pay $800 to $900 and get newer gen specs.