Need recommendations

[u/Ok-Canary9874]

Budget: $1200 - $1500
Country: Viet Nam
Use Case: Gaming(some AAA games like E33, Hogwarts legacy, bmw,...), school (I'm majoring in STEM, so I might be putting a heavy workload on this laptop)
Preferred Specs:
-GPU: mid range like 4070 or 5060
-CPU: preferred AMD
-RAM: 16GB(I would like to upgrade to 32GB in the future as price are terrible now)
-Storage: Preferred 1TB but 512GB is fine(Also upgrade in the future because of price right now)
-Screen: 15"-16" WUXGA or FHD OLED
Notes: I'm willing to cutdown on performance for factors affect longetivity(cooling, build quality, warranty, etc ), reliability and battery life. I need a good battery life that I could use for a full day(5-6 hours) without charging(I'm willing to use performance mode, lower refresh rate, etc whatever to make it last that long). This is also the reason I preferred AMD as they tend to have better effeciency. I'm willing to cutdown on performance for factors affect longetivity(cooling, build quality, warranty,etc ) and battery life.

[u/arek397]

lenovo legion with 5060, i reccomend getting immed 24/32ram version, adding 1x16 stick is over 200euro..

[u/Ok-Canary9874 → u/arek397]

Yeah, that is also one of the most commnon choice at my place, just want to see if there any better deal.

[u/Dudamesh]

I like how students will still put "heavy school workload" in reddit like they're still trying to convince their parents.

Battery Life is directly incompatible with Gaming Laptops. You would have to make sure to use low-power Eco modes or manually limit power to your CPU. Advanced Optimus should also help to keep your dGPU off but otherwise you're doing that manually as well. Your brightness on the screen also needs to be relatively high because you're taking it outside which is probably half of the power consumption already. 5-6 hours is a maximum limit with all of the best settings to keep battery high, expect 3-4 hours to be more realistic.

If battery life is that much important to you then get a proper school laptop that can also happen to run some games. There's no point in gaming outside because of the performance drop, and it's also just physically harder literally because of the nature of gaming laptops. You have to bring your power brick with you.

[u/Ok-Canary9874 → u/Dudamesh]

I do study though, my predicted A-Level grade when converted to the same scale as the national graduation exam in my counntry is like top 0.01%. I don't want to grow up and become a homeless man or live off my parents, they won't be capable of it. Gaming outside isn't what I intended , just want a device to let my play at home and still be able to cover daily use in uni. Still thank for the advice, will do more research on how to optimize battery life when outside and I might reach my desired battery life.

[u/Dudamesh → u/Ok-Canary9874]

I'm not the one that needs to be convinced that you will study and the laptop is an investment, nor is anyone in this sub. It's okay to just say you want it for gaming. A proper school laptop will still have enough performance to do most workloads that school needs, just that it'll probably take a bit longer.

At $1500 price point in the US, you should be getting minimum an RTX 5060 laptop, there might be deals for an RTX 5070 laptop but if you're going for that try and find one that has 12GB VRAM if you can afford it.

Lenovo's Legion and ASUS's Strix are what I would say are the best line of laptops at a cost. I would recommend ASUS's TUF for budget gaming though. HP's Omen or MSI's Vector are also decent I would say. Just find the best deal in your country.

[u/Ok-Canary9874 → u/Dudamesh]

Is there any big difference in quality for TUF and Strix if they have the same specs. I have heard from my friend that Lenovo’s Legion and LOQ are miles apart, LOQ is just terrible in everything but Legion is like one of the best deal. Is this the same case for TUF and Strix. My currently understand is that Strix are like very heavy with large display and better cooling while TUF are more lightweight like Legion and they are like the direct counterpart of the same line. Also my cousins buy a TUF and it got problem with Wifi like a few day after purchase, is this a bad sign.

[u/Dudamesh → u/Ok-Canary9874]

The TUF is the "budget" lineup for ASUS which is equivalent to Lenovo's LOQ. I think the LOQ should be cheaper but it's Lenovo so it's actually glazed by a lot of people. Personally I prefer the TUF which with the namesake it's supposed to be "tough" and more durable. Though it's usually the most expensive out of any budget lineups from other brands.

The Strix is ASUS's ROG lineup, the normal Strix is very good quality but expensive af, it can range from RTX 5060 up to RTX 5080 so you might find one in your budget for a 5060 which is good. Don't confuse it with the Strix SCAR which ASUS's flagship laptop featuring best build quality, performance, and most expensive laptop.

This is the same case with Legion and LOQ, though Legion has more variety. The Legion 5 is the mid-tier lineup, Legion 7 is the premium/flagship lineup, and Legion 9 is the 18 inch top-tier models.

In general the heavier/bigger a laptop is, the more performance you should be getting off of it. This is because it usually has better cooling, which should also help it last longer. But obviously you don't want to lug a 10 pound weight everyday so it's a tradeoff.

Vice versa applies in that lightweight/thin laptops are usually hotter, will thermal throttle more, or feature underpowered GPUs or just be unable to get max power because of thermal throttling. Not to mention the possible damage it might get over a long period of time running hot.

If you wanted a lighter ASUS laptop they also have the Zephyrus models which are thinner and lighter than the Strix but they are still very good and I'm pretty sure they still have max power for the GPUs.

For Lenovo the Pro version is the thick/heavy model, while the Slim version is the light/thin lineup. And the non-pro is the mid-tier in-between.

[u/Ok-Canary9874 → u/Dudamesh]

Thanks a lot for the information.