Rules and Regulations
Please kindly read the 1st post, and FOLLOW THE FORMAT before posting!
** TO SELLER, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS THREAD FOR PROMOTING YOUR OWN PRODUCT!! THIS IS RECOMMENDATION THREADS NOT PROMOTING. YOU CAN SUGGEST BUT NOT PROMOTING OWN PRODUCT WHICH IS KEEP BIAS TO OWN PRODUCT!!!
** To anyone here, please do NOT mislead about notebook specs.

** Fanboyism JUST GET OUT!!
** This is a recommendations thread, meaning its only for recommendations If you need detailed comparisons between two or more notebooks, please open a new thread under Mobile Computing
** The sifus here are recommending based on what they think is best for your requirements and budget. In the end it’s up to you to decide which one you will buy
*** The sifus here are offering recommendations voluntarily (not paid) as we believe that by doing so, we could reduce the number of con cases; so please do show the sifus some respect

The following are the links to the previous threads:

Some common statements which are totally MISLEAD (I'm sure you've heard more if you did your research ):
Misunderstood about vRAM, ULV Processor for gaming performance, and Latest Max-Q GPU is bad for gaming? Feel free to ask here.


Notebook Specific Discussion Section
ILLEGEAR Z5 & Z7 Discussion Thread V3
ILLEGEAR Custom Gaming Laptops v.3
Gigabyte/Aorus Series
Clevo/Sager Discussion
Alienware
Dell Inspiron Discussion
Dell Latitude Ultrabook 7000 Series
DELL Studio XPS™
ASUS ROG
ASUS A | N | U Series
MSI
Acer V Nitro
Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series
AFTERSHOCK PC Custom Notebook
LEVEL51 Malaysia by AFTERSHOCK PC
THUNDEROBOT

1. Huawei MateBook X Pro
2. Dell XPS 13
3. Asus ZenBook Flip S UX370 (incredible 2-in-1 laptop)
4. Apple Macbook Pro with Touch Bar 13-inch 2018 [Improvement for 2018]
5. MSI GS65 Stealth [The best gaming laptop 2018]
6. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1
7. Acer Predator Helios 300 [budget gaming laptop] *with GTX1060
8. Asus Chromebook Flip
9. Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13.5-inch) [most powerful 2-in-1 laptop in the world]
10. Acer Switch 3 [A great Surface Book 2 competitor at half the price]
11. Apple MacBook 12-inch (2017)[Last year's MacBook is another winner] **Still worth to buy
12. Google Pixelbook [A premium Chromebook]
13. Lenovo Yoga 920
14. Acer Swift 3 [A budget Ultrabook]
15. Samsung Notebook 9 [MacBook Pro alternative]
***Worth Mentioning for Budget Gaming Notebook with GTX1050ti – Dell G7***

Upcoming Event




This post has been edited by pandera999: Mar 7 2019, 10:55 AM

thanks for the info

Wow checking in on first page of V31

This post has been edited by DS_Legacy: Sep 19 2018, 04:38 PM

Congrats v.31

gongxi gongxi

Thanks guys.. continuing the legacy of mobile computing... for the growth of community...

wilsonphua Ely bro..lol

Yay first one to ask in v.31.I t's a long one, please bear with me

Budget:
4k +-, max 5k if really necessary, but prefer to spend as little possible as long requirements met

Usage: college use, Visual Studio, web surfing & video streaming. Wanna try video editing and make some youtube videos but that will be just secondary hobby (does discreet GPU help? Sorry if noob question), no gaming

Requirement:
- RAM and SSD must be DIY upgradeable (not soldered)
- Battery life: min 4-5 hours of web surfing or office work. User removable battery a plus.
- Display: no size preference and no need high-end display. Plan to use external monitor in future
- Weight: no preference
- Brand: no preference but must be reliable and don't die within 2 years. International warranty a plus.
- Discreet GPU if it is important for video editing
- Good keyboard
- No need: touch-screen, convertible/2-in-1, thin and light, nice appearance

Thanks all sifu

No one can guarantee on reliability since it kinda depends on luck. I suggest you to try out keyboard on your own as everyone has different preference. dGPU will help in video editing but not 100% necessary.

Prefer regular laptop/Ultrabook or gaming/performance laptop?

Prefer regular laptop as I read that gaming laptop tend to have bad battery life, no?

The reliability requirement is more about avoiding brands that often have cases of their laptop die early. So need suggestion from you experts since you have more knowledge on this issue.

for ur usage i think u need high ram n multicores processor.. video editing eat processor n ram(generally, unless u use some weird software tat eat GPU)... if u scare die fast then better get DELL latitude lo, lenovo thinkpad (skip hp elitebook, coz they no more elite like they used to be)

generally i7-8750h is superb.. but its very hot if u dun repaste with good thermal gel (sadly malaysia only hv thermal grizzly boleh pakai, cooler master mastergel fail)

any laptop to recommend for powerpoint presentation + skype + simple web browsing?

im guessing 15", ips, and tablet mode if you know what i mean

Budget? Preferred max weight and minimum battery life?

most balanced value for money i guess.

no extreme preference on any of those points.

going to start over again, friend suddenly more firm on what he wants


::

any laptop to recommend for powerpoint presentation + skype + simple web browsing?
im guessing 13"-14", ips, and tablet mode (2in1?) if you know what i mean, , light enough

below rm4k

This post has been edited by biatche: Sep 20 2018, 01:35 PM

Give me a range on budget (roughly) to make things easier

Need good IPS (high sRGB)? Or low end IPS is enough (low sRGB)?

below 4k, preferably less. looking at yoga 530 right now.

1. HP Envy x360 13 - good IPS display, however Ryzen APU is a wrong choice in such small Ultrabook (performance and battery life issues)
2. Acer Spin 5 13 - good IPS panel, however RAM is soldered and the cooling is OKish (common in 13 inch Ultrabooks)
3. Lenovo Yoga 520/530 with i5-8250U - needs RAM upgrade (only 1 slot), low sRGB IPS panel

If you don't mind smaller battery:
Dell Inspiron 7570 - good IPS panel
HP Pavilion x360 14 cd0036tx - needs RAM upgrade, low sRGB IPS panel

1. Budget : Max 3.8k

2. Usage : Mostly used for digital art and some light gaming. Programs used for digital art - Clip Studio Paint, Adobe Photoshop (and possibly Krita?)

3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) :
- Display size doesn't matter to me, just want a decent screen with either good colour accuracy. If there's best colour accuracy under my budget would be nice.
- Battery life don't really matter to me, plugged in most of the time.
- Weight doesn't matter.
- Brands I'm not sure... just want reliable build quality that will last years. But if it'll make recommendations from you guys easier, Dell would be my go-to brand.
- I don't need 2-in-1, touchscreen and all since I only work with Wacom Intuos plugged into my laptop.

More additional notes : I'm not too sure whether I want a general use laptop or a gaming laptop tbh. As long it can run my art programs then it's fine. As for gaming, I don't think I play titles that are too demanding and most games I just set settings to low.

I suggest laptops with powerful hardware and good sRGB display

Illegear Raven with 144Hz 100% sRGB IPS
Lenovo Legion Y530 (apply 15% discount code 'EDM15', this week only) with 144Hz 72% NTSC IPS (1050TI only)
Commandos Glock 5 (Clevo NB50TK1) with 72% NTSC IPS

Hi ZM,

What's the general opinion about the Inspiron 7472 which is the updated version of the older 7470? My nephew
is planning to get this for college use - mainly surfing, research and preparing notes and coursework. No gaming
or anything taxing. It comes with a rather small 42-43Wh battery though but the IPS screen seems to have some
decent reviews. I have also suggested the Zenbook UX430UA but he doesn't seem to like the mushy keyboard.

Cheers,
V.

Short battery life, DFO unit. Otherwise good build quality, good quality display, good upgradability, acceptable input devices and surprisingly good price.

Thanks, ZM. The battery life seems to be the major drawback in this case - how do you rate this against the Ideapad
320s 14 inch version?

320s 14 is a decent budget choice but has low sRGB IPS panel and needs RAM+SSD upgrades

1. Budget : Any brand
2. Usage : School student usage
3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) : Anything la with budget below around 1.5k - 1.8k

Your budget is quite low...have to sacrifice in some aspects like build quality, battery life, display quality etc if you want something new

Any concrete suggestion if I narrow down to:

- traditional laptop
- dGPU
- non-soldered RAM
- support NVMe SSD
- with international warranty

Lenovo Thinkpad A485, affordable, T480 chassis, large battery, Ryzen 5/7 APU (iGPU is about 940MX level with dual channel RAM)

Or Thinkpad T480s/T480/T580 if you want MX150, however the cooling in T480&T580 isn't great with dGPU. T480s is fine due to 10W MX150, 8250U CPU can run 3.4GHz all core under load with some undervolting.

Or ask myway1985 to suggest some Dell models for you

This post has been edited by ZM Fong: Sep 21 2018, 11:05 PM

Inspiron 14 7000 Series - 7472 8th Generation Intel®Core™i7-8550U processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.0 GHz) 8GB DDR4 at 2400MHz (1x8GB) 128GB Solid State Drive+1TB 5.4k HDD NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150 with 2GB GDDR5 graphics memory Windows 10 Home Optical Drive Not Included 14.0-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Truelife LED-Backlit Display

DFO unit.. the best IPS panel on hand now for DELL brand

do u need many port? TB3 port needed?

Hi, need help on getting a laptop because current one is dying..
1. Budget : 3.5k or below
2. Usage : dota, movies, web surf
3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) :
-13 inch display
-Preferably with SSD for fast boot
-Preferably small bezels & lighweight
-Battery life, sound quality, display quality is not a priority
-Will need hdmi/display ports & audio output port (not sure if any brands decides to kill those this year?)

Need dGPU? 14 inch display OK to you? Max weight preferred?

Hey guys, looking for something to potentially upgrade, I got an Acer V-Nitro V15 2+ years ago and was wondering what is its equivalent class of laptops now. It has:
i7-4720HQ
8GB RAM
GTX 960M
15.6" screen
Mediocre battery life
1TB HDD (No SSD)
~RM4k

I went for this because it had the best specs at the price, edged out the Inspiron 15 7000 with the 960M. If I were to get an upgrade for this now, what should I look at?

Which part you want to upgrade the most?

No need TB3. Got USB 3.0, USB-C and HDMI enough.

any gen oso can or must 8th gen

Dear Sifus,

Is this HP Envy x360 Ryzen 5 a good buy? I need a portable laptop for work + travel.

https://s.lazada.com.my/s.0p9G

You mean CPU right? Ya must be 8th gen, and is AMD a good alternative in your opinion?

Inconsistent performance and worse battery life since Ryzen mobile APU hasn't mature yet. And the price is bit high, Ryzen 3 model starts at 3k which is crazy. Good sRGB IPS touchscreen. Good iGPU performance (R5/R7)

Depends on implementation by manufacturer

ryzen with new apu coming early Oct... I think worth the wait

Looks like the 8th gen Whiskey Lake updates are rolling in - both i5 8265U and i7 8565U models are available. HP
and the rest, bila la? LOL!

Link : https://www.dell.com/my/p/inspiron-13-7380-...timonster=PD_OC

This post has been edited by Vanquish_08: Sep 22 2018, 09:55 PM

It's the same with KBL-R, nothing to hype

Yeah, the improvements are not marginal other than higher Turbo clockspeed, larger L3 cache sizes and hardware mitigation against Meltdown and L1TF while still being a 14 nm node. Ooh well, I suppose it will still give the fanboys something to shout about la ...

The higher turbo speed will be the same with KBL-R and cannot reach the full potential. Same architecture

Can't wait dy, i need to buy one by early Oct then go study oversea. Laptop in the destination country is much more expensive than MY

dell vostro 5471
i7 around rm3800

1. Budget : Any brand
2. Usage : Excel, Word, web surfing, ocassional adobe lightroom for light editing of travel photos
3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) : Display 14/15" (Also, I have a Kingston A1000 nvme 250gb, can this fit into laptops?)
4. Budget: RM2.2k

Lenovo Ideapad 320s 14 with RAM upgrade. Add the SSD into it

So, the I can add the Kingston nvme SSD myself right? How much is it with RAM upgrade (8GB right?) How does this compare to Acer Swift 3?
Is the 320s TN display? Any recommended shop to buy from?

This post has been edited by silvertacos: Sep 23 2018, 12:35 PM

Yes
You need to trade in the original 4GB since there's only 1 slot. Maybe around RM100 to upgrade to 8GB
Acer Swift 3 is similar but with optional MX150
IPS
Buy online from sellers with physical stores

This is interesting! Will it be comparable with 1050 performance?

It's still using the same iGPU - R5 Vega 8 and R7 Vega 11. Just higher clocks and higher TDP. Still no 6c12t BGA chip which is kinda disappointing

i hope got 4lane TB3 only.. haha

external gpu better

What do people think of this Lenovo laptop? I am looking for a laptop that is lightweight.
Main usage is Microsoft Office. Little browsing and movies but mainly for work.

Lenovo Ideapad 320S-13IKB 81AK000WMJ 13.3" Laptop/Notebook (i5-8250U, 4GB, 256GB, Intel, W10H)

Budget around 2500. Would be nice to have good battery life as well

Ideapad 320s 14 has better battery life. 320s 13 cannot upgrade RAM which is a bummer and has smaller battery. It has good quality (high sRGB) panel though.

So the specs are the same as the 13? Only difference is the screen size?

320s 13 has 256GB SSD included, however it cannot be recommended due to lack of RAM upgradability (4GB RAM is terrible IMO). 320s 14 need RAM+SSD upgrades but manual upgrades should be cheaper

1. Budget : Any brand
2. Usage : Graphic Designing/Rendering, casual web browsing, Youtube etc
3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) : Display 14/15", Lightweight easy to carry around (Coz being used by art college student)
4. Budget: RM2.5k

Ideapad 320s 14 with RAM+SSD upgrades. TBH there aren't much good options for such budget

What is the price for this bro?

Again I am open to suggestions but don't want asus due to bad experience.

Budget: Around RM 2500
Min req : i5, 8gb Ram, prefer if have SSD.
Main purpose is for office work. Little bit of browsing and entertainment (movies)
Want it to be lightweight - Less than 2kgs.

For your budget, Ideapad 320s 14 is probably the best choice. Just need RAM+SSD upgrades. Total should be less than RM2400 (trade in 4GB RAM for 8GB since it only has single slot, add 120/128GB SSD)

1. Budget: About RM 4500 or 1500 SGD (can purchase in either Malaysia or Singapore). Can stretch to RM 5000 if needed

2. Usage: General use, photo editing (Lightroom, Photoshop), occasional gaming (mainly XCOM and XCOM 2, also Borderlands 2, Fallout, Civ games)

3. Requirement:
- Reliable build - I don't frequently change out my electronics, so would like it to last about 3-4 years minimum
- Weight: Ideally less than 2.5kg all in (including power cables etc.)
- Screen: IPS display
- Battery: Ideally a user-removable battery. It will mostly be sat at home plugged in, but minimum 4-5 hour battery life would be nice
- SSD and HDD set up. Minimum 8GB RAM if possible
- Screen size: minimum 15 inches

I don't require touch screen or 2-in-1. I prefer ASUS laptops but happy to consider others too if necessary. Would appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

Hi Bro

So what's the model number for this ? 320s 14kb? Or is it 14is?

81BN002XMJ (old)
81BN0071MJ / 81BN0072MJ (new, but actually it's the same)

How do you compare against the HP Elitebook 840 G1 / CORE i7-4TH GEN PRO / 256GB SSD (SOLID STATE DRIVE) / 8GB RAM?
https://www.lazada.com.my/products/hp-elite...ZJhcJM&search=1

That's an old model...Do you mind used models?

dgpu not necessary as long as can play d2 smoothly with medium graphics, 14 inch is ok too but 13 is prefered. no max weight either

HP Envy 13 with 10W MX150
Asus UX331UN (10W MX150)
Asus UX430UN (25W MX150, but heavily throttled, only slightly better than 10W MX150)

Can also consider Thinkpad A485 with R5/R7

Prefer regular laptop/Ultrabook or gaming/performance laptop?

I slightly prefer regular laptops/ultrabooks for how light they are, but honestly as long as the laptop is less than 2.5kg, it doesn't matter what category they fall under. Specs and reliability are more crucial to me.

Weight under 2.5kg without counting AC adapter
1.Commandos Glock 5 (Clevo NB50TK1) with 72% NTSC 60Hz or 120Hz IPS panel
2. Illegear Raven with 144Hz IPS panel
3. Lenovo Legion Y530 with 144Hz IPS panel (1050TI only)
4. Asus GL503GE with 120Hz TN (good quality TN)

Illegear Onyx should be under 2.5kg with AC adapter included, however it's slightly over budget

One thing to take note here: No one can guarantee on reliability since it kinda depends on luck. Business laptops tend to have better reliability but still, QC issues can happen on them as well. Razer laptops are junk so they are really bad on reliability. However, you can choose one with good external build quality.

Yeah fully aware that luck's a big part of it unfortunately. The illegear onyx seems potentially worth spending on - I gather this is a small-ish company? Do you have any experience with their builds + customer service? I will likely be using whichever laptop I get in Singapore too for extended periods, don't want to get caught out not being able to service it under warranty if needed.


Also I don't suppose there are ultrabooks that would have similar specs as the ones you've listed? I've looked at the ones on Asus' website and can't seem to find any of their zenbooks or vivobooks that have similar specs.

Onyx is actually based on GK5CN5Z/6Z made by TongFang (ODM, 'real' manufacturer). I have no experience on their customer service, however from my observation it looks pretty good.

There aren't much 15 inch Ultrabooks/regular laptops out there with decent dGPU and good quality (high sRGB) display, at least in Malaysia. Even there are some, they are usually not cheap

This post has been edited by ZM Fong: Sep 25 2018, 10:32 PM

Got it, thanks man! I took a peek at your ultraportable lists - any add ons to your top picks there?

Sorry but what do you mean?

I meant do you have any other ultrabook suggestions in addition to the ones in this list

Try aftershock w-15 lite . Extend warranty to 3 years .

1. Budget : 2500-3000+/-

2. Usage : Work and some light gaming

3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) : Prefer 15" if possible, an average battery life and the weight less than 3kg if possible.

So far, i found the Asus TUF and Acer Nitro 5, which one is better? Or are there any better choice out there?

This probably contains everything that are good

This model too heavy for his/her requirement

What do you mean by average battery life? Minimum how many hours? Prefer regular laptop/Ultrabook or gaming/performance laptop?

hi all, does anyone know what is this (attachment) laptop brand & model? Thanks


Attached thumbnail(s)

Around 4 hours or so and does not mind the form factor as long as it can handle some light gaming (CSGO, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, etc).

Dude, you can read the brand name itself on that picture. It's Alienware...

alienware 15 r3

AW15. Or AW17

thanks all!

1. Budget : RM3k - 3.5k
2. Usage : Mostly Office Work, minor design software, light gaming (least priority)
3. Requirements (display size, battery life, weight etc) : Something Fast & Multitask Friendly. (Wont lag when opening a lot of tab of program) Able to run minor editing software like AI & Photoshop. If possible, to play some light game like pubg, dota2, csgo.

Preferred max weight and minimum battery life?

Side note: PUBG is definitely not a light game since it isn't well optimized

This post has been edited by ZM Fong: Sep 26 2018, 08:08 PM

Hi Sifu,

No specific battery life preference, but weight preferably not too heavy, somewhere below 2kg is that possible?

Only MX150 laptops for your budget if you want under 2kg

Erm.. then mayb have no weight preference. Will it be more options?

Much appreciated your help on this!

One question: Do you need high sRGB panel? Or a low sRGB IPS panel is fine? Asking this because I see you do Photoshop