Notebook advice/recommendations

[chris888222]

Hi all, I'm looking to get a new notebook (perhaps within the next few months) but I am undecided on which model/brand to buy.

Some background: Currently using a late 2012 retina MacBook Pro. This laptop has served me well for about 5 years. Currently still good enough for the basics (left speaker blown, degraded battery and lack of storage for other purposes. Not going for another MacBook Pro as the keyboard is horrendous (Apple Orchard Road demo even had stuck keys) and it's wayyyyy too overpriced. Going to year 2 in NTU eee.

I was at CEE and I narrowed my search to two "ultraportable" notebooks, both have U-series i7s, MX150 and at least 256GB SSDs. However, they also some compromises which I'm a bit concerned about:

ASUS Zenbook 14 UX430UN-GV027T
+ 16GB LPDDR3 RAM, 512GB storage
- No Thunderbolt 3 (only Type-C 3.1 gen 1)
- USB 2 (wth?), and slower SATA3 storage compared to the IdeaPad

Lenovo IdeaPad 720S 14 inch
+ Thunderbolt 3 and full size HDMI port
- Only 8GB DDR4 RAM, not sure if this will be a bottleneck in years to come

I have not used either of these brands so I'm also unclear of their customer support, general reliability and other non-technical aspects. May I know which is the better choice, or any other recommended brands/models within the same price range and category? Previously used an Acer (before the Mac) and it was terrible, so won't be considering that brand at all.

Appreciate all responses. Thank you!

 

[lewissac]

Hi all, I'm looking to get a new notebook (perhaps within the next few months) but I am undecided on which model/brand to buy.

Some background: Currently using a late 2012 retina MacBook Pro. This laptop has served me well for about 5 years. Currently still good enough for the basics (left speaker blown, degraded battery and lack of storage for other purposes. Not going for another MacBook Pro as the keyboard is horrendous (Apple Orchard Road demo even had stuck keys) and it's wayyyyy too overpriced. Going to year 2 in NTU eee.

I was at CEE and I narrowed my search to two "ultraportable" notebooks, both have U-series i7s, MX150 and at least 256GB SSDs. However, they also some compromises which I'm a bit concerned about:

ASUS Zenbook 14 UX430UN-GV027T
+ 16GB LPDDR3 RAM, 512GB storage
- No Thunderbolt 3 (only Type-C 3.1 gen 1)
- USB 2 (wth?), and slower SATA3 storage compared to the IdeaPad

Lenovo IdeaPad 720S 14 inch
+ Thunderbolt 3 and full size HDMI port
- Only 8GB DDR4 RAM, not sure if this will be a bottleneck in years to come

I have not used either of these brands so I'm also unclear of their customer support, general reliability and other non-technical aspects. May I know which is the better choice, or any other recommended brands/models within the same price range and category? Previously used an Acer (before the Mac) and it was terrible, so won't be considering that brand at all.

Appreciate all responses. Thank you!

What is your primary usage? Gaming? Programming? Photo-editing? General Productivity? Entertainment (Songs/Movies/etc)?

 

[chris888222]

What is your primary usage? Gaming? Programming? Photo-editing? General Productivity? Entertainment (Songs/Movies/etc)?

Might need it for programming in the future, some photo editing and entertainment. Not really into gaming on PC, but might play some less intensive titles.