New 13" Work Laptop - £1200 ish

[champ222]

Hi All

I'm currently using a Dell XPS 13 - 7930, which has 13" screen, Core i7 - 10510U & 16GB RAM.

My boss is thinking about replacing some of the laptops, including mine.

99.9% of the time is plugged into a monitor, mouse and keyboard. Important things for me are portability, performance, and minimal annoyance. Its largely office stuff, email, excel, meetings, web browsing etc. i do need to use "our software" (Dewesoft in anyone cares) which can be CPU intensive sometimes.

Battery life isnt a major concern as its usually plugged in, but as long as its not dreadful.

Is AMD good in the mobile CPU space? its generally the obvious choice for desktop applications, but is it the same for laptops?

OCUK dont seem to have anything in the 13" size really. tends to be 16".

I looked about at Dell, but its slim pickings for AMD. i did see ones with the following spec

(pro 14) coming out around £1000 ish.

• 
  
  AMD Ryzen™ AI 5 PRO 340 Processor (22 MB cache, 6 cores, 12 threads, up to 4.8 GHz, 50 TOPS NPU)
• 
  
  Windows 11 Pro, Copilot+ PC
• 
  
  AMD Ryzen™ AI 5 PRO 340 Processor with AMD Radeon™ 840M graphics
• 
  
  16 GB: 1 x 16 GB, DDR5, 5600 MT/s
• 
  
  512 GB, SSD
• 
  
  Platinum silver color, metallic finish

Dell Pro Plus 13: around £1500 ish

• 
  
  AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 250 Processor (24 MB cache, 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 5.1 GHz, 16 TOPS NPU)
• 
  
  Windows 11 Pro
• 
  
  AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 250 Processor, 16GB LPDDR5x, AMD Radeon™ 780M graphics
• 
  
  16 GB: LPDDR5, 7500 MT/s, dual-channel (onboard)
• 
  
  1 TB, M.2 2230, Gen 4 PCIe NVMe, SSD

Or Lenovo Thinkpad X13 Gen 6 for around £1200 ish

• 
  AMD Ryzen™ AI 7 PRO 350 Processor (2.00 GHz up to 5.00 GHz)
• 
  Windows 11 Pro 64
• 
  Integrated Graphics
• 
  32 GB LPDDR5X-8533MT/s (Soldered)
• 
  512 GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal
• 
  13.3" WUXGA (1920 x 1200), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 100%sRGB, 400 nits, 60Hz

I'm temped by the thinkpad, but not really sure why. Any feedback on the X13?

Anything else i should be looking at?

Cheers guys

 

[Scrutinize]

OcUK don't really do business laptops.

Having just tried out a good number of options over last couple of months in advance of replacing mine: I would say the HP 14" Elite Book Ultra G1i Ultra 7 258V with the 3k screen is the best overall exec ultra book at a palatable price at the moment...but prices have just peaked again though (£1595) and c£300 more than Black Friday (15% cashback through HP is still available and they do pay).

The next best alternative imo which is available through a couple of select business/enterprise focused resellers at £1305 or Lenovo directly is the ThinkPad X9.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Gen 1 21QA001KUK | 180-degree hinge design | Intel Core Ultra 7 | 258V / up to 4.8 GHz | Evo | Win 11 Pro | Intel Arc Graphics 140V | 32 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD TCG Opal Encryption 2, NVMe | 14" OLED 1920 x 1200. [1TB version is c£40 more]

You also get the 3 year warranty included with ThinkPads. The 3k screen version is nicer if you need it and available in this configuration from Lenovo business directly but considerably higher priced and 3k do hit the battery life.

I like a 13.3" size but find that a 14" c1.2kg ultra portable is the best compromise for screen real estate productivity (split windows / excel) and compact working eg on a train.

The X13 is a nice laptop and at £1,268.00 for the Ryzen™ AI 7 PRO 350 Processor | 32 GB LPDDR5X-8533MT/s | 13.3" WUXGA (1920 x 1200), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 100%sRGB, 400 nits, 60Hz version would be my pick if you want a 13.3" laptop at the moment.

The Dells are nice but still feel expensive against the EliteBook and ThinkPad counterparts.

 

[champ222]

Thanks for that mate. I appreciate all the effort.

Is AMD the way to go? Or is it much of a muchness when it comes to laptops? I'll size up some 14s too and see how they feel.

Cheers

 

[Makhaira]

Having been a Dell man for years I've just switched to a Lenovo Ideapad Pro 5 and it's a lovely machine.

At the moment I believe Intel have the edge with battery life.

 

[radderfire]

I would get something with 32GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive.

Both Dell and Lenovo are good.

LG Gram laptops also worth looking at, as they are very light and portable, and apparently the aftersales care is amongst the best.

 

[Scrutinize]

Thanks for that mate. I appreciate all the effort.

Is AMD the way to go? Or is it much of a muchness when it comes to laptops? I'll size up some 14s too and see how they feel.

Cheers

At the X13 spec I listed (AI 7 350); then with the 32gb memory vs either the intel 258v (w32gb) or even intel 255H in productivity activities including some lighter creative and design work you probably won't notice any real world difference.

Loads of benchmarks and vids out there too, but in hand for business use; the design and build quality of the laptop is the defining feature along with warranty and uk / local regional support (so lenovo, dell, hp are the only real options for business books). Even down to having a fingerprint reader or side placed power switch as part of key design features can be the clincher. A fingerprint reader for me is essential, plus genuine all day battery life (so 12+ hours in real world use). These reqs rule out several options which can be bargains (eg asus zenbook, lenovo yoga 7i, hp omnibook) but only retail focused.

If you are doing heavy design (inc architecture / AI) and creative (graphics / production) work then there are other choices inc Mac; but for productivity the above are ideal.

 

[sandys]

Thumbs up for Grams here too, LG has become one of the top laptop brands judging by the various awards they pick up but they don't really go small, they do big and light, but their weight and thinness makes them very portable at a price and power limitations due to this thinness, I think they are great I have a few so biased, typing on one now

At £1250 you are looking at 16" 2.5k 16Z90TS 32Gb, 1Tb SSD , intel 258V, 77Wh battery at a little over 1.2kg and 12.8mm thickness, so easy to handle.

Typically Thinkpads are a solid choice, that x13 looks decent, we use the T14 series very solid machines, much heavier/thicker than my 17' gram though and mine has a dedicated GPU

For corporates where the laptops are more akin to terminals Lenovo allow you to really down spec it so you spend money where you want, not where you don't, no point in a fancy OLED if you never use it.

Is AMD the way to go? Or is it much of a muchness when it comes to laptops? I'll size up some 14s too and see how they feel.

In terms of performance the laptop chips pretty much parallel the desktop space often using the same cores with a different P and E core mix, Intel probably have the edge on battery life, they'll all run nice and quiet unless your software uses lots of threads.

 

[champ222]

Cheers guys, i'll do some more research today.

The boss has suggested he wants to get them all from the same place (sigh). sales guy wants a Dell, so naturally i'll have to have one too. What am i looking at Dell wise? The "Pro" looks similar to the thinkpads, where the Premium is more "ultraportable" like the XPS

I'm all a bit lost with the mobile CPUs

This is a Dell Pro 14

• 
  
  Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 235U vPro® (12 TOPS NPU, 12 cores, up to 4.9 GHz)
• 
  
  Windows 11 Pro
• 
  
  Integrated Intel® graphics for Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 235U vPro® processor
• 
  
  32 GB: 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 5600 MT/s (5200 MT/s with Intel® Core™ processors)
• 
  
  1 TB, SSD
• 
  
  Platinum silver color, metallic finish

£1,155.50

They still have some XPS13s i assume these are last years models now? as the new ones are "premiums"

 

[Scrutinize]

Firstly, how are you finding that price for the base pro or is it the pro 14 premium or pro 14 plus? That price is high even if inc vat. I almost got there using the Dell configurator but there are ready to ship machines from official resellers or even Dell that are better priced or you get the premium with the Ultra 5 for £1100.

The Ultra 5 and 7 'U' models are the low power increased efficiency variants, so on paper the benchmarks are behind the V, H..... but in reality for productivity tasks especially with 32 gb memory are extremely capable and you won't notice.

Battery life may not improve unless battery capacity is the same as the V as U variants often seemed linked to smaller battery capacity lighter weight.

The pro are the business line but the base pro all have 45% NTSC screens iirc and I don't think they have fingerprint readers which depending on your use would be a deal breaker. Build quality on the base pro is not comparable to a lenovo ThinkPad imo.

That screen is a hard pill to swallow on a £800+ laptop.

The pro premium or plus is minimum level worth considering.

Also warranty, Dell base vs lenovo base are not comparable. Circa £150+ to bring Dell up to equivalent

Specced like for like a dell equivalent of a ThinkPad X9 for example is c£600 more.

 

[champ222]

It looks like its just the 14 pro:

Dell Pro 14 Laptop​

Model: PC14250 price is INC VAT

It does seem pricey. What is "45% NTSC"? I'm reasonably knowledgeable about screens etc, but this is not something ive seen before. Ive not seen NTSC (National Television Standards Committee, American colour standard) mentioned since the CRT TV days... a quick google shows its rubbish, and thanks for pointing that out, i will avoid that, but what an odd metric in 2025... how many "lines" do these displays have? lol

 

[Scrutinize]

It looks like its just the 14 pro:

Dell Pro 14 Laptop​

Model: PC14250 price is INC VAT

It does seem pricey. What is "45% NTSC"? I'm reasonably knowledgeable about screens etc, but this is not something ive seen before. Ive not seen NTSC (National Television Standards Committee, American colour standard) mentioned since the CRT TV days... a quick google shows its rubbish, and thanks for pointing that out, i will avoid that, but what an odd metric in 2025... how many "lines" do these displays have? lol

So 100% sRGB or close too means close to full colour accuracy and recreation which is pretty helpful if producing anything creative even presentations. 45% NTSC screen in dell's case means red will look orange etc. It's the washed out screen technology of old.

Fine if you are docked to a good external screen though.

I bought some ThinkBooks (Ultra 5 series 2, 16gb, Win 11pro, 14") recently for an org I am doing some work with. They have 45% NTSC screens and bar memory spec close to the dell. Only they were £580+ vat each. At that price for an sme solution it makes sense.

 

[champ222]

So 100% sRGB or close too means close to full colour accuracy and recreation which is pretty helpful if producing anything creative even presentations. 45% NTSC screen in dell's case means red will look orange etc. It's the washed out screen technology of old.

Fine if you are docked to a good external screen though.

I bought some ThinkBooks (Ultra 5 series 2, 16gb, Win 11pro, 14") recently for an org I am doing some work with. They have 45% NTSC screens and bar memory spec close to the dell. Only they were £580+ vat each. At that price for an sme solution it makes sense.

I see what you mean then, those screens have no business being on a laptop at £1000+

I could accommodate a 14" ultrabook, as its only a little bigger than the XPS i have now. I do find the three USB C ports on the XPS a bit of a pain sometimes, the ThinkPad X9-14 Gen 1 has only 2. A better dock/hub with more USB ports would resolve that annoyance though.

I was looking a bit more at the CPUs, comparing the Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 226V with the 228V, there was mention of the 228V having more RAM... So the RAM is "on chip"? How long has this been a thing? I'm proper out of data with mobile cpus

I read this on notebook check

"Generally speaking, the 288V, 268V, 266V, 258V, 256V are faster than the 238V, 236V, 228V and 226V due to the difference in their last-level cache size (8 MB vs 12 MB) as well as clock speeds. However, the difference in performance between the slowest Lunar Lake chip, the 226V, and the fastest chip, the 288V is fairly small at around 10% to 15%. It depends on the TDP figures of the laptops being pitted against each other more than on anything else."

So any of these CPUs would probably serve me well, but ill try and get one with 32GB ram. Does that seem fair?

 

[p1RATE]

They still have some XPS13s i assume these are last years models now? as the new ones are "premiums"

I wouldn't touch the XPS13 because they ruined the keyboard after the 9315

 

[Avathar77]

I recently changed from a Dell PC14250 model to a Lenovo T14S.
With my work Dell was constantly hitting 90% ram usage and the fan noise announced me. Changed to a higher spec T14(better CPU, ram and SSD). While the performance is better and the fan noise is gone, I do miss the metal body finish of the Dell. And mostly, touchpad in Lenovo is definitely worse than the dell in terms of feel and sensitivity, but I use a G703 mouse.
I wouldn't change back to dell though. Laptop connects to docks at work and at home, only use the laptop screen and touchpad when in meetings.

 

[champ222]

yeah i'm the same, rarely use the the laptop not docked.

Sometimes i wish i had a usb A port in the side, but not sure i want to go chunkier to get one

 

[sandys]

Plenty of thin laptops have usb A but is there not one on the dock?

 

[Scrutinize]

I see what you mean then, those screens have no business being on a laptop at £1000+

I could accommodate a 14" ultrabook, as its only a little bigger than the XPS i have now. I do find the three USB C ports on the XPS a bit of a pain sometimes, the ThinkPad X9-14 Gen 1 has only 2. A better dock/hub with more USB ports would resolve that annoyance though.

I was looking a bit more at the CPUs, comparing the Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 226V with the 228V, there was mention of the 228V having more RAM... So the RAM is "on chip"? How long has this been a thing? I'm proper out of data with mobile cpus

I read this on notebook check

"Generally speaking, the 288V, 268V, 266V, 258V, 256V are faster than the 238V, 236V, 228V and 226V due to the difference in their last-level cache size (8 MB vs 12 MB) as well as clock speeds. However, the difference in performance between the slowest Lunar Lake chip, the 226V, and the fastest chip, the 288V is fairly small at around 10% to 15%. It depends on the TDP figures of the laptops being pitted against each other more than on anything else."

So any of these CPUs would probably serve me well, but ill try and get one with 32GB ram. Does that seem fair?

Andrew Marc David's YouTube channel is one of the best for the latest business laptop reviews with multiple chipsets covered. I don't always agree with his view and sometimes usa spec is different to UK.

If playing catch up, watch a few of his

Andrew Marc David

Award Winning Tech Reviewer on the premier laptop review channel. Support the Channel By Using Our Amazon Link To Shop: http://amzn.to/28IiqbS

youtube.com

I wouldn't touch the XPS13 because they ruined the keyboard after the 9315

The Xps 13 was great value once, remaining stock though isn't. I've had a couple over the years but then price hikes put them out of step with other options. Never mind the technical changes.

 

[Mikey]

Having been a Dell man for years I've just switched to a Lenovo Ideapad Pro 5 and it's a lovely machine.

At the moment I believe Intel have the edge with battery life.

I'm just looking at a new laptop at the moment, the new Dell XPS 14 or a Lenovo oga Slim 7i Ultra Aura Edition, never had a Lenovo before. I can get Dell discount via my current work contract, circa 10%, but the Lenovo still cheaper. I use a Dell dock with dual screens when in the office at home. To the point where my Dell Optiplex Micro PC(s) have turned it linux / hypervisor hosts.

 

[Scrutinize]

New XPS 14 isn't out till April in the UK though and it's 2x the price of the Slim 7i Ultra.

I looked at the Lenovo Slim 7i as one of the options before I settled on the Lenovo Thinkpad X9. The 258v Slim 7i version was sub £1k for sometime too. The 7i is a home focused laptop rather than business so that may be a limiting factor as no fingerprint reader etc.

If you are buying today then the Thinkpad X9 258v direct from Lenovo (inc 3 year warranty) is imo the nicest of the Business Exec ultrabooks unless you want the classic Thinkpad centre mouse (then go X13 gen 6 255u at £1.6k). Otherwise X1 Carbon 14 Aura 258v at £2k if XPS budget.

The HP Elitebook Ultra have had a hefty price hike again probably in alignment with the XPS launch pricing and next gen PL Intel processors.

 

[Mikey]

Makes sense and fair comment re the Thinkpad X9 258v. Loosk nice and circa £1,613.00 re the spec I'd go for. I've zero experience of Lenovo, so trying to come up to speed.

Will have a look at the HP in due course.

I'm currently using a XPS 13 9380, which has been good since I've owned in from 2019. Only issue was the battery, which I replaced. I'm using a Dell dock with it to dual screens and absolutely fine.