Alternatives to the Dell XPS 15? (discrete GPU, thin and light)

[frisbii]

hi all!

I'm going to be starting college in the fall and am looking for a laptop to use over the next four years and maybe longer. Some of my criteria:

• It'll be used primarily for light school and work applications and will be lugged around in a backpack for long periods of time, so portability and battery life are priorities.
• A discrete GPU is also a requirement, as I'm hoping to use it as a light gaming machine during down time. All I need is to be able to play most games at 30fps low. For reference, I haven't really felt a need to upgrade from my desktop R5 3600 and RX 570 so upkeeping that is all I need. I'm thinking that a 6 core CPU, RTX 2060 equivalent or better, and 16gb RAM will be fine.
• With the hope of lasting all four years, good build quality is also important.
• Less important but 'professional' exterior design, touch display, pen support would all be nice.
• I'm buying from the US.

With all of these in mind, the Dell XPS 15 (link), kitted with a 13700H and RTX 3050, hits almost everything, but at a bit of a steep price. I haven't been able to find another laptop series that does what the XPS line does though. Does anyone know of any alternatives to the XPS that hit all or most of the same requirements? I understand that my wants are a bit stringent and will cost accordingly, but I'd like to know of other similar models so I can check for deals or sales near me.

 

[rgd1101]

so what your budget?

 

[geofelt]

The Thinkpad X1 carbon extreme is such a competitor:

ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 | 16 inch Intel vPro® powerhouse

The 16-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 powerhouse delivers 12th Gen Intel-based performance, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX graphics options, tons of storage, & optional 5G connectivity.

www.lenovo.com

They often have sales. Some of which you can only find out about by calling Lenovo sales directly.

 

[Nighthawk117]

hi all!

I'm going to be starting college in the fall and am looking for a laptop to use over the next four years and maybe longer. Some of my criteria:

• It'll be used primarily for light school and work applications and will be lugged around in a backpack for long periods of time, so portability and battery life are priorities.
• A discrete GPU is also a requirement, as I'm hoping to use it as a light gaming machine during down time. All I need is to be able to play most games at 30fps low. For reference, I haven't really felt a need to upgrade from my desktop R5 3600 and RX 570 so upkeeping that is all I need. I'm thinking that a 6 core CPU, RTX 2060 equivalent or better, and 16gb RAM will be fine.
• With the hope of lasting all four years, good build quality is also important.
• Less important but 'professional' exterior design, touch display, pen support would all be nice.
• I'm buying from the US.

With all of these in mind, the Dell XPS 15 (link), kitted with a 13700H and RTX 3050, hits almost everything, but at a bit of a steep price. I haven't been able to find another laptop series that does what the XPS line does though. Does anyone know of any alternatives to the XPS that hit all or most of the same requirements? I understand that my wants are a bit stringent and will cost accordingly, but I'd like to know of other similar models so I can check for deals or sales near me.

If you have deep pockets then the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 14":

Yoga Pro 9i 14

It has a unibody aluminium chassis, very good mini LED IPS display, i7-13705H (14 cores, 6P, 8E), Nvidia 4050 6Gb and can be configured with 32GB RAM. You can play any game available today on it, albeit not maxed out. Being a 14" notebook it's also highly portable, it's my favourite ultra book on the market today.

It's called something different in the USA though, to be clear this should not be confused with the 2 in 1 convertible with a similar name.

If that's too expensive for you and your needs are more modest, then I would look at laptops with the Ryzen 7 6800U CPU. That has the best integrated graphics you can get and can play most things at reduced settings and resolutions.