Require expertise on Laptops.

[ArcticCheetah]

Drop down to the L-series, and you get aluminium/reinforced plastic. Drop down to the E-series and you basically get rebadged Ideapads.

The new E-Series are NOT rebadged Ideapads.
They use the same Thinkpad tactile Keyboard, Thickpad Trackpads, and a Matt Screen, Plastics may not have the same structural reinforcements but it uses a tougher plastic than Ideapads

 

[iseedogface]

If it's on the official Lenovo website, of course it's legit. One thing to note is that shipping from Lenovo direct can be painfully slow and/or hit with continuous delays.

If you're buying for school, check with your institution's respective Lenovo vendor. Almost always significantly cheaper than retail.

Extra: Brand new biz-grade laptops are insanely expensive because the price you're seeing is the list price. When corporations buy these in the thousands, of course it isn't gonna be $1999/laptop. Maybe more along the lines of $900/unit for a 20K order? Hence, why sometimes we recommend people to buy 2nd hand biz-grade laptop instead of a $700 craptop. They are just better built and typically outlast consumer models.

I couldn't find anywhere that there is 15% off for students, except that one of the staff on their online chat told me about it... Perhaps I should call in to ask. I checked with my uni, and they are still selling the 7th gen Intel processors.. Talk about being slow....

Do you have any lobang? Haha can't seem to find good thinkpad deals on carousell.

 

[iseedogface]

The new E-Series are NOT rebadged Ideapads.
They use the same Thinkpad tactile Keyboard, Thickpad Trackpads, and a Matt Screen, Plastics may not have the same structural reinforcements but it uses a tougher plastic than Ideapads

So E series vs T series wise, T will have an edge yea?

 

[iseedogface]

The design and material of your laptop is v v v important depending on how you use it...


Make a wise choice.

Indeed. Wondering if I should take the plunge on a second hand laptop instead..

 

[ArcticCheetah]

So E series vs T series wise, T will have an edge yea?

Of course, it is also way more expensive.
T series Hinge is better, E Series Hinge is normal

 

[iseedogface]

Of course, it is also way more expensive.
T series Hinge is better, E Series Hinge is normal

Cool. But is the extra $ justifiable just for the hinge

 

[ArcticCheetah]

Cool. But is the extra $ justifiable just for the hinge

No idea, no money to buy T Series so have to go for E Series

 

[pcdreams_hr]

Good day everyone,

I'm looking to get a new laptop within the budget of 1.3-1.7k. Currently saw a few laptops within the range such as the Asus Ux430un as well as the UX331un.

However I have also read about the screen flickering and throttling issues of the 430.

I also understand that the I5 and I7 intel processors does not matter on these laptops. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Hence I hope that my fellow tech savvy Sgporeans can provide me with a better understanding as well as laptop recommendations!

BTW I heard from a salesman at Simlim that the hardware for acer laptops are now made by Asus????

Asus has a manufacturing arm called pegatron.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegatron

They manufacture motherboards and PC components for many brands in the market, especially for Asus. Not surprising if Acer buy some parts from Pegatron, but definitely not true that Acer laptops are made by Asus...

 

[Ark Law]

The new E-Series are NOT rebadged Ideapads.
They use the same Thinkpad tactile Keyboard, Thickpad Trackpads, and a Matt Screen, Plastics may not have the same structural reinforcements but it uses a tougher plastic than Ideapads

My bad about the rebadging then. However, I will argue that they are not "same Thinkpad tactile" keyboard. When I was last in store, each Thinkpad had different tactile feedback, between the T470, T470S, X1C5, Thinkpad13 and X270. Thinkpad13 had the worst imo.

So E series vs T series wise, T will have an edge yea?

Not an edge, but a no brainer. Brand new, E will save alot of money over T. But getting a T-series is the point of buying a Thinkpad in the first place. For home/stationary, E is perfectly fine. As for T, it's just nice to have something you can just throw (with the display open) onto a sofa

 

[ArcticCheetah]

My bad about the rebadging then. However, I will argue that they are not "same Thinkpad tactile" keyboard. When I was last in store, each Thinkpad had different tactile feedback, between the T470, T470S, X1C5, Thinkpad13 and X270. Thinkpad13 had the worst imo.

The first E Series are pretty crappy the new E Series are a lot better

 

[iseedogface]

Thanks guys for the input. But any recommendations for which model I should get? Should I get the E series and spec it up? Like change the HDD to SSD + add GPU... Or should I just get something like the X240 that is on sale...

 

[iseedogface]

X240 is it too old.

Why not consider slightly more?
ThinkPad 25 used is the good choice.

Lenovo ThinkPad 25 for S$1,500 https://sg.carousell.com/p/169633584

My T460s intel 6th gen still able to runs with Autodesk Revit structure 2018 / Autocad as well.

For ThinkPad 25 definitely can be use more 3 years.

But it's running 7th gen leh.. Big diff between 8 and 7 gen right? From the comparison I saw.

 

[Rock-kun]

I f it were me, I will get kopi lake just because it's a little more power efficient.

Unless the clearance prices for brand new kaby lake notebooks are too amazing to pass up.

 

[iseedogface]

I f it were me, I will get kopi lake just because it's a little more power efficient.

Unless the clearance prices for brand new kaby lake notebooks are too amazing to pass up.

I catch no ball

 

[ZrE0_Cha0s]

I catch no ball

what he means is get a latest 8th gen intel chip rather than get previous 7th gen intel chip.

 

[Rock-kun]

what he means is get a latest 8th gen intel chip because it's more power efficient rather than get previous 7th gen intel chip unless there are insane bargains and discounts for the latter

Why you never translate finish...

 

[Ventus_]

I think you should get the UX331UN instead of the Thinkpad and UX430UN.

A lot of people praises Thinkpad toughness and reliability, and they are not wrong.

But the pricing of the Thinkpad is really a dealbreaker for students.

Even after student discount, the T480s still cost $2,367.25.

Compared with the UX331UN:

UX331UN is much cheaper! There's a promo at challenger for the UX331UN at 1598. Thats about 700+ cheaper than the thinkpad (including student discount).

UX331 has a weaker processor (i5-8250U vs i7-8550U), but in reality both of them would get power throttled to the same performance as they are limited at 10-25W.

UX331UN has slower SSD (SATA vs nVME), not a big difference imo

UX331UN is much lighter than T480s and T480 (1.12kg vs 1.38kg vs 1.58kg). This is really important if you are carrying to school daily and you're travelling on public transport.

Thinkpad can handle rougher conditions for sure.
Thinkpad has way better IOs (Thunderbolt 3)


Both has the same GPU (MX150 Max-Q, 8W version).

If there is a price factor involved, I would recommend not going for the Thinkpad series just because of its price.

A dGPU is definitely needed for CSGO, unless you wanna play at 720p 30-40fps and reach 10fps when someone throws a smoke

Bonus for UX331UN: You can overclock your monitor refresh rate to 75hz (YMMV), makes playing CSGO so much smoother.


Other laptops you can consider:
Acer Swift 3: Cheapest of them all, 25W MX150, but really heavy at 1.7kg
UX430UN: Against this, thermal throttling of GPU at 73 degrees celcius results in a lot of stuttering.
Ideapads: I wouldn't trust Ideapads, a lot of QC issues.


TLDR: If you have the money and want to have a peace of mind, get the Thinkpad T480 / T480s. Else get the UX331UN at Challenger.

 

[iseedogface]

Why you never translate finish...

Thank you all for your kind input! I will probably head down to PC show to take a look Any suggestions other than acer and Asus? How bout dell?

 

[iseedogface]

I think you should get the UX331UN instead of the Thinkpad and UX430UN.

A lot of people praises Thinkpad toughness and reliability, and they are not wrong.

But the pricing of the Thinkpad is really a dealbreaker for students.

Even after student discount, the T480s still cost $2,367.25.

Compared with the UX331UN:

UX331UN is much cheaper! There's a promo at challenger for the UX331UN at 1598. Thats about 700+ cheaper than the thinkpad (including student discount).

UX331 has a weaker processor (i5-8250U vs i7-8550U), but in reality both of them would get power throttled to the same performance as they are limited at 10-25W.

UX331UN has slower SSD (SATA vs nVME), not a big difference imo

UX331UN is much lighter than T480s and T480 (1.12kg vs 1.38kg vs 1.58kg). This is really important if you are carrying to school daily and you're travelling on public transport.

Thinkpad can handle rougher conditions for sure.
Thinkpad has way better IOs (Thunderbolt 3)


Both has the same GPU (MX150 Max-Q, 8W version).

If there is a price factor involved, I would recommend not going for the Thinkpad series just because of its price.

A dGPU is definitely needed for CSGO, unless you wanna play at 720p 30-40fps and reach 10fps when someone throws a smoke

Bonus for UX331UN: You can overclock your monitor refresh rate to 75hz (YMMV), makes playing CSGO so much smoother.


Other laptops you can consider:
Acer Swift 3: Cheapest of them all, 25W MX150, but really heavy at 1.7kg
UX430UN: Against this, thermal throttling of GPU at 73 degrees celcius results in a lot of stuttering.
Ideapads: I wouldn't trust Ideapads, a lot of QC issues.


TLDR: If you have the money and want to have a peace of mind, get the Thinkpad T480 / T480s. Else get the UX331UN at Challenger.

Cheaper thinkpads? Like E series not worth getting yea?

 

[aarontansp]

Thank you all for your kind input! I will probably head down to PC show to take a look Any suggestions other than acer and Asus? How bout dell?

https://sg-store.acer.com/notebooks/swift-3-sf314-52g-5193

Swift 3 SF314-52G-5193(Blue)
• 8th gen Intel® Core™ i5-8250U processor
(Up to 3.4GHz, 6MB smart cache)
• Windows 10 Home
• 14” FHD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass*
• NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150 (2GB GDDR5 VRAM)
• 8GB DDR3 RAM, 512GB SSD*
• 1.7kg
• 2 Years Carry-in Warranty(after Free Upgrade)

Above glass is reflective but graphics is sharper.
If you refer go for white , non-reflective, lighter at 1.6kg

https://sg-store.acer.com/notebooks/swift-3-sf314-53g-55al-white-limited-edition