Travel laptop 13"-14"

J.James

J.James

J.James

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18 Jun 2022
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173
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Here and there
Hi all.
I need to replace my aging Yoga 3 laptop. It only has an 11" screen and I would actually prefer something under 14" so I can take it on holiday with me.
Main use is previewing 4k DJI Pocket 3 files and Go Pro stuff too. (No editing, NO GAMING). Then transferring the files over to an external SSD. Some internet browsing too.

I shortlisted 3 but am hearing the Ultra 9 is prone to overheating? Quite a bit of price difference between the cheapest and dearest. Would you recommend any?

MSI Prestige AI Evo laptop 13.3" 16:10 2.8K OLED Panel, Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, Intel® Arc Graphics, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD, Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 7, Windows 11 Home.
= £846

ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405CA Laptop 14.0" WUXGA OLED Touchscreen, Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, 32GB RAM, 1TB PCIe G4 SSD Windows 11, Intel EVO
= £1149

Dell XPS 13 (9350) Laptop Copilot + 13.4"FHD+ 120Hz, Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 - Intel Evo Edition, Intel ARC Graphics, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home
= £1299
 
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The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i 14" with intel® Core™ Ultra 7 258V + 32GB Memory and the 100% RGB 3k Screen product code 83JX001KUK is £999 at the moment. Available with quick ship direct presently. This has had some great reviews too.

Of all the above, that would be my pick if you weren't stepping up to a Thinkpad X9 or HP Elitebook Ultra.

MSI and Asus aren't the easiest companies to deal with if warranty issues in UK. If you are paying over £1k for the Asus then go for the 14 S model as nominal extra cost but some notable improvements. Every review on the MSI seems to indicate battery life is way behind the competition but that's 10-11 hours to 16+ so still all day.

Dell is a v good option but expensive for what it is at the moment.
 
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Thanks @Scrutinize, I'll take a look at those you mention, the Yoga and HP Elitebook :) And yeah, The Dell seemed expensive compared to similar, that's their Black Friday price too.
 
J.James said:
Thanks @Scrutinize, I'll take a look at those you mention, the Yoga and HP Elitebook :) And yeah, The Dell seemed expensive compared to similar, that's their Black Friday price too.
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The MSI is a really great price btw for what you get and it's had some favourable reviews recently but uk/eu support on them compared to lenovo, hp, dell is to the level you need to have a spare machine or be prepared to write it off if breaks.
 
Scrutinize said:
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i 14" with intel® Core™ Ultra 7 258V + 32GB Memory and the 100% RGB 3k Screen product code 83JX001KUK is £999 at the moment. Available with quick ship direct presently. This has had some great reviews too.

Of all the above, that would be my pick if you weren't stepping up to a Thinkpad X9 or HP Elitebook Ultra.

MSI and Asus aren't the easiest companies to deal with if warranty issues in UK. If you are paying over £1k for the Asus then go for the 14 S model as nominal extra cost but some notable improvements. Every review on the MSI seems to indicate battery life is way behind the competition but that's 10-11 hours to 16+ so still all day.

Dell is a v good option but expensive for what it is at the moment.
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I'm hoping to see some discounts on the yoga 7 in black Friday. More so the 2 in 1 version
 
That ASUS model I shortlisted (Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405CA) had dropped to £1100 at J Lewis making it cheaper than that big global store - but they've gone and put it up to £1149 today! Meanwhile the Global store has dropped there's to £999! It's almost too tempting.
The Dell XPS 13 (9350) down to £1149
 
J.James said:
That ASUS model I shortlisted (Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405CA) had dropped to £1100 at J Lewis making it cheaper than that big global store - but they've gone and put it up to £1149 today! Meanwhile the Global store has dropped there's to £999! It's almost too tempting.
The Dell XPS 13 (9350) down to £1149
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Read the reviews on JL, beware that some of these have the low resolution OLED, rather than the 2.8K/3K one.

It's literally the difference betwen 2 letters at the end of the model number, so don't go by the JL description.
 
I've read into the JL one further, it looks like both Amazon & JL are 'CA' models ie none 3k, I'm fine with that :) I think that 3k 'MA'? is out of stock at JL, I'm going for it before it suddenly becomes unavailable.
 
The rainforest has this one for £999 on Black Friday deal, looks to be same as the JL one but cheaper by £150.

ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405CA Laptop | 14.0" WUXGA OLED Touchscreen | Intel Core Ultra 9 285H | 32GB RAM | 1TB PCIe G4 SSD | Backlit Keyboard | Windows 11 | Intel EVO​



JL did have an open box Zenbook S14 with Ultra 9 for £949 that I saw in store, but that's gone now.

I'm grabbing the MSI as it's bang on budget for work and has the better weight (990g) and seems to out perform the Zenbook in a number of area. The battery life is epic also and I can live with the 60hz screen.

The Asus S14 without a camera privacy shutter or finger print reader are a no no for me tbh.
 
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The HONOR MagicBook Art 14 2025 looks like a good deal, only 1kg too so nice and portable even at 14.6.

You could go bigger again and look at LG Grams, 16 to 17 inch and as light as these 14s, still very portable due to thinness and weight.
 
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sandys said:
The HONOR MagicBook Art 14 2025 looks like a good deal, only 1kg too so nice and portable even at 14.6.

You could go bigger again and look at LG Grams, 16 to 17 inch and as light as these 14s, still very portable due to thinness and weight.
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Aye, I looked at the Art 14 and was tempted, but the Arrow Lake with inferior arc 140T iGPU doesn't have the gaming prowess of the 258V Lunar Lake with the arc 140V iGPU, or the battery life for that matter.

LG Grams are tempting, but budget creep sets in and 16" is a bit larger for travelling.
 
The Grams are on offer in a couple of places as they will be refreshing in a couple of months but on that score if ability for light gaming is your focus in a thin and light, waiting until Jan for the next rev of the ARC iGPU in Panther Lake might be better, +50% CUs.

I'm in a similar boat, I use eGPU for long stays but for occasional use I'll not bother packing it and use iGPU as I tend to carry extra screen and work laptops so bag weight is a thing, I like my laptop to be light hence why I have had Grams as I get a big portable machine at small machine penalty but really want more GPU onboard without needing more weight or a dedicated chonky boy PSU.

I have itchy trigger finger right now over the Nvidia 5050 Gram 17" ~1.4kg (which is +300g to normal for me...) but feel it should be better for 1.6k and wonder if next years iGPUs will close the gap enough for me, I get by on the 155H with the first gen Arc, when its drivers can actually play a game without glitches of course so a more efficient Intel chip with a bit more GPU would be nicer than paying the battery life and weight penalty of dedicated GPU.

I was holding put for a nice Strix Halo device but they are slow to drop in a form factor I want.
 
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@-Ad- I hope you enjoy your new MSI, my Zenbook is arriving tomorrow :) Got to be careful with Black Friday and keep away from that recent Giff Gaff Pixel 10 proXL offer - too tempting!!

Not looking forward to spending all day uninstalling all the crap that comes with it - I hope it isn't too much of a chore to get rid
 
J.James said:
@-Ad- I hope you enjoy your new MSI, my Zenbook is arriving tomorrow :) Got to be careful with Black Friday and keep away from that recent Giff Gaff Pixel 10 proXL offer - too tempting!!

Not looking forward to spending all day uninstalling all the crap that comes with it - I hope it isn't too much of a chore to get rid
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Cheers, I'm still wavering as Panther Lake is releasing at the start of Jan, so I'm tempted to just hold off.

Enjoy your Zenbook, it's a lovely bit of kit :D
 
sandys said:
I have itchy trigger finger right now over the Nvidia 5050 Gram 17" ~1.4kg
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Scratched that itch ...... She's a big girl :eek: that +300g feels a lot heavier than my old Gram and that extra inch feels massive :eek: :D

I'll see how I get on with it in my travel sack, I can always slim down next year, more than 24hrs battery life though once I disable the LG AI that wanted to harvest over 6Tb of data on my laptop and chewed the battery in 3....Grrrr.
 
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J.James said:
@-Ad- I hope you enjoy your new MSI, my Zenbook is arriving tomorrow :) Got to be careful with Black Friday and keep away from that recent Giff Gaff Pixel 10 proXL offer - too tempting!!

Not looking forward to spending all day uninstalling all the crap that comes with it - I hope it isn't too much of a chore to get rid
Click to expand...

How are you getting on with it?

How's the battery life treating you in real world use?

sandys said:
Scratched that itch ...... She's a big girl :eek: that +300g feels a lot heavier than my old Gram and that extra inch feels massive :eek: :D

I'll see how I get on with it in my travel sack, I can always slim down next year, more than 24hrs battery life though once I disable the LG AI that wanted to harvest over 6Tb of data on my laptop and chewed the battery in 3....Grrrr.
Click to expand...

I looked at those as like you have been tempted just because. The physical size to weight gives an illusion that it is ultra light weight when testing in store but as a carryable anything over 1.2kg gets noticeable for me. The 16 Pro is a better compromise but lacks the 5050.
 
The 5050 is decent but if you get the later Intel 2xxV chips the Arc GPU is not bad, even the one in mine which is the 140T in the 255H is pretty respectable jump up and might have been enough, I tested a few titles I played and it was ok, I may pick up a Panther lake next year if I feel that the weight and size bump is too much over my old 16 which was a sub 1.2kg Gram jobby

Odd complaint too, screen in the new one is too bright for me on an evening, I do like the extra screen size though, even if it is only 1600p, feels better with CAD snap ins etc and general use.
 
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