Business laptops vs gaming laptops

dewi

dewi

dewi

Associate
Joined
2 Apr 2006
Posts
259
I currently have a Dell 7440, which I use for my small business. In the office, it's connected to a Dell docking station and two 1920x1200 monitors. In normal times, I travel a fair bit, so it's important to me that the laptop is lightweight. I tend to keep my laptops for about 5 years.

I've been consdering buying a Dell 7490, since it's the fastest laptop that Dell made to fit the Dell E/Port docking station (Dell have switched to USB-C and Thunderbolt for their more recent designs). However, it's no longer made, so I'd have to buy a refurbished model.

If I bought a new Dell, I'd probably buy a Dell 9410. That costs £1,919 with an Intel Core i7-10610U.

It seems to me that for the price of a Dell 9410, I could buy one of the new ultraportable gaming laptops.

OC are charging £1,799.99 for an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 with an AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS and an RTX 2060. The only drawbacks with the G14 are that the display is QHD (I'd prefer FHD) and that it doesn't have a Thunderbolt connector.

OC are charging £1,899.95 for a Razer Blade 15 Base with an Intel Core i7-10750H and an RTX 2060. I could even go for a Razer Blade 15 Advanced with an Intel Core i7-10875H and an RTX 2080 Super at £3,099.95. However, the Razer Blade weighs quite a bit more than the Dell and the Asus.

I know the Asus and the Razer both have faster CPUs and much more capable discrete graphics than the Dell. What would I be losing out on if I bought the Asus or the Razer instead of the Dell? Would I be losing out on durability? I'm aware that the gaming laptops will run hotter than the Dell 9410 and I suspect they're not built to be as tough as the Dell business laptops. Should I be worried about the lack of Thunderbolt on the Asus? Should I be worried about the additional weight of the Razer?

Which would you recommend?
1. Dell 7490
2. Dell 9410
3. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
4. Razer Blade Basic
5. Razer Blade Advanced
 
LiE said:
Have a look at the Lenovo Legion 7i. You can spec that really well for about £1500. The thermals are good and it’s got a subtle gamer aesthetic.

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-7-series/Lenovo-Legion-7/p/88GMY701410


As it’s for work I’d opt for the 4 year on site warranty.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the very helpful suggestion. £1,799.99 for an Intel Core i7-10750H and an RTX 2070 seems very competitive compared to the Dell, Asus and Razer. I like the idea of a 4 year on-site warranty.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/leno...-intel-i7-10750h-gaming-laptop-lt-00x-lv.html
 
dewi said:
Thanks for the very helpful suggestion. £1,799.99 for an Intel Core i7-10750H and an RTX 2070 seems very competitive compared to the Dell, Asus and Razer. I like the idea of a 4 year on-site warranty.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/leno...-intel-i7-10750h-gaming-laptop-lt-00x-lv.html
Click to expand...

Lenovo direct seem to have stock issues at the moment so not all of the options are appearing in their customise tool. If you buy from OcUK I would find out first if you can take out the additional warranty, it's normally quite a reasonable cost (you can check on Lenovo if you progress through the customiser tool).

The 240hz monitor does look good on the Legion 7i.

This is a good watch:

 
Last edited:
The new HP Omen 15 2020 looks even less like a gaming laptop, currently £1600 with a 3 year care pack.

Looks to be almost identical spec to the Lenovo, 144hz screen instead of 240hz, does it matter?

I picked one up last month and really liking it so far, thermals seem to be some of the best in a 15" gaming laptop, reviews all comment on it.
 
Very happy with my new Razer Blade 15 base. The build quality is stunning. Its much better than I expected and although it's 0.8" thicker than the advanced, it's very light at 2.1kg-ish.

It only has a 1660Ti but I don't need anything beefier when I'm travelling. I've added 32GB ram and a 1TB SSD to the existing 256GB m2 and it's perfect for my needs. I got it on sale, so even with the ram and SSD it still cost me less than £1500.

The only thing that I find poor is Razer CS. Its terrible, but I've got a 3rd party extended warranty, so hopefully I won't need to use them.
 
Found this interesting... thanks. I have a Dell XPS9333 8Gb RAM, 500Gb SSD i7 4510U 2.00Ghz 2.6GHz which has been well used. I like the size..ie its light but the touch screen ability is knackered after I took the thing apart lol. (connection poor) I am looking to replace it as I use it in the living room where my wife gets annoyed at the noise of the fan..it frequently gets hot. Using it for business use mainly with some graphics if doing websites. I also use it if travelling..the battery is rubbish now. Its getting old like me !!
Started looking to replace it and the thread/posts above are useful.. thinking i7, 16GbRAM and a 1TB SSD and could go 13" or 15" screen but fancy the light weight (airlines cripple you for extra weight!).
I have 2 desktops out in my garden office (shed) which are hefty beasts in all senses so use them for the beefy tasks.
Budget...not sure around £1500 or whatever it takes as I want it to last 4-5 years anyway
Searching various sites for opinion comes back with Dell, but I'm not that keen given my experience of the heating and fan noise. The Lenovo mentioned above looks good.
Any others I should be looking at? Thank you.
 
Thanks for the advice. The Lenovo Legion 7i is my favourite at the moment. It seems worth accepting a little more size & weight compared to my current Dell in return for much more capability. I'm going to wait for a larger selection of configurations to become available on the Lenovo site since I'd like to purchase Windows 10 Pro and the 4-year warranty. The Intel Core i7-10750H with the RTX 2070 looks like the best bank for the buck, though the Core i9-10980HK with the RTX 2080 is very tempting!
 
I think the 2060 with 1075h doesn’t have the vapour chamber cooling, worth looking into more as I saw it mentioned when I was doing research. Since you’re looking at the 2070 you should be fine but worth getting a clear understanding of which configuration has the better vapour chamber cooling.
 
I'm still torn between the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and the Lenovo Legion 7i. The specifications I'm interested in are only available to pre-order in any case.

I could get the Asus with an AMD Ryzen 7 and an RTX 2060 for £1,499.99. I like the fact that the Zephyrus G14 only weighs 1.6 kg and that it has an 8-10 hour battery life, but I don't like the fact that it doesn't support Thunderbolt or that it doesn't have a webcam.

I could get a Lenovo Legion 7i with an Intel Core i7-10750H and an RTX 2070 Super for £1,999.99. The RTX 2080 Super was also available on the Lenovo web site earlier, but it's not available to order at the moment. I like the fact that the Lenovo has a faster GPU, that it supports Thunderbolt and that you can get it with Windows 10 Pro and a 3 year on-site warranty, but it does weigh 2.1 kg.

I'm leaning towards the Asus. I like the fact that it's lighter and has a longer battery life. I suspect I'd find the faster CPU in the Asus more useful more of the time than the faster GPU in the Lenovo. However, I like the fact that the Lenovo is more powerful than my desktop PC and the reassurance of a 3-year on-site warranty.
 
An update: I eventually bought a Razer Blade 15 Advanced 2021 with an Intel Core i7-10875H and an RTX 3080. I also bought a Thunderbolt dock. I'm very impressed by the build quality of the Razer. It's a bit heavier than I'm used to, but I'm doing much less travelling than I did pre-COVID. The 15.6" display is usefully larger than the 14" display on my previous laptop.
 
The Razer blades are all nice looking laptops and don’t scream gaming laptop like say a gigabyte model.

I have an Asus G14 and it’s tiny, looks very business like and packs a lol 8 core cpu!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom