Question Need help deciding with which laptop I should go for ?

[jq0213]

I have been using a Macbook Air M1 for 2 years mainly because there haven’t been any decent laptops around that could challenge its battery life and performance.

Now that the new Copilot+PCs are available for pre-order I am looking for a new laptop because I prefer Windows over MacOS.

I have two laptops between which I haven't yet decided: the Microsoft Surface and the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED.

As someone who has not used any Windows laptops before, how reliable are these two? They will perform the same and have similar battery life so that shouldn’t be an issue between the two. Looking for people who used both brands and what their opinion is.

 

[Lutfij]

I have two laptops between which I haven't yet decided: the Microsoft Surface and the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED.
You should pass on a link to the laptops you're looking at to help compare them. Some SKU's come without features while others come with more.

 

[jq0213]

I have two laptops between which I haven't yet decided: the Microsoft Surface and the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED.
You should pass on a link to the laptops you're looking at to help compare them. Some SKU's come without features while others come with more.

ASUS Vivobook S 15 (S5507); Copilot+ PC

ASUS Vivobook S 15 is a thin and light Copilot+ PC, it boasts Snapdragon® X Elite Processor with Qualcomm® AI engine, 32 GB RAM, and 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.

www.asus.com

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/surface/devices/surface-laptop-7th-edition

 

[BrickStation]

I would choose the Asus Vivobook. Both laptops have Snapdragon processors, the Surface has longer battery life and has a little cheaper base price. However, the Vivobook has an OLED screen which will have a vivid and rich display.

I don't know who approved these site designs at Asus and Microsoft but they need to be fired, I have never been so confused while browsing a website.

 

[LordVile]

I have been using a Macbook Air M1 for 2 years mainly because there haven’t been any decent laptops around that could challenge its battery life and performance.

Now that the new Copilot+PCs are available for pre-order I am looking for a new laptop because I prefer Windows over MacOS.

I have two laptops between which I haven't yet decided: the Microsoft Surface and the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED.

As someone who has not used any Windows laptops before, how reliable are these two? They will perform the same and have similar battery life so that shouldn’t be an issue between the two. Looking for people who used both brands and what their opinion is.

Don’t preorder them. Qualcomm has a history of fudging numbers and the support just won’t be there at launch. You have to remember Apple has vertical integration and can twist developers arms to support AS. Microsoft doesn’t really have that with 90% of PCs won’t be armed based in 5 years. ARM development will be an afterthought on windows.

Qualcomm’s last attempt at an AS killer was slower natively on widows than the previous gen base AS chip was through a VM and a translation layer.

 

[jq0213]

Don’t preorder them. Qualcomm has a history of fudging numbers and the support just won’t be there at launch. You have to remember Apple has vertical integration and can twist developers arms to support AS. Microsoft doesn’t really have that with 90% of PCs won’t be armed based in 5 years. ARM development will be an afterthought on windows.

Qualcomm’s last attempt at an AS killer was slower natively on widows than the previous gen base AS chip was through a VM and a translation layer.

Hmm, well in that case the alternative which falls within my budget would be a M3 macbook air, it is at around the same price but it only has 8GB RAM. But considering I prefer Windows I'd much rather avoid macbook, even though they are excellent devices.

I found this laptop for around €999 but it has an i7 1360P. As I've mentioned earlier, not into Windows laptops and don't have much experience with them. Are these chips power efficient and can they get hot if you do medium workload tasks such as multitasking? I see ASUS claims 18 hours battery life on this i7, which is the same as the Snapdragon. Is that possible? This is the laptop btw: https://www.coolblue.nl/en/product/923960/asus-zenbook-14-oled-ux3402va-km157w.html

 

[NedSmelly]

I concur with the suggestion of avoiding the new Snapdragon laptops until generation 2 or 3 (if they ever happen). Never buy v1.0.

We also haven't had any formal reviews yet of the x86 emulation layer's performance. I speculate a lot more initial teething problems in comparison to Apple's Rosetta.

In terms of reliability and chuckability: may I suggest looking at Lenovo Thinkpad X1. It's their take on the 'Air' form factor, but focusing more on durability. Battery life is good (depending on which generation) but the M1 Mac is a hard act to follow in this regard.

 

[jq0213]

I concur with the suggestion of avoiding the new Snapdragon laptops until generation 2 or 3 (if they ever happen). Never buy v1.0.

We also haven't had any formal reviews yet of the x86 emulation layer's performance. I speculate a lot more initial teething problems in comparison to Apple's Rosetta.

In terms of reliability and chuckability: may I suggest looking at Lenovo Thinkpad X1. It's their take on the 'Air' form factor, but focusing more on durability. Battery life is good (depending on which generation) but the M1 Mac is a hard act to follow in this regard.

I've looked at the specific Lenova laptop you mentioned earlier this week, but its slightly out of my budget (around €1500) and at that price point I'd rather go for a Macbook Air M3 with 16GB ram which is around the same price in my country.

And yeah, battery life is my main concern - I've seen many claims on certain laptops which I believe are too good to be true for a x86 chip. Which may not be too bad after all, but I don't know for sure since I've never used any Windows laptops.

 

[NedSmelly]

May I ask what applications you're running? Because if it's run-of-the-mill Office and Adobe/Davinci media stuff then it's probably not worth switching from MacOS to Windows. Especially if some apps were purchased via Apple Store.

 

[jq0213]

May I ask what applications you're running? Because if it's run-of-the-mill Office and Adobe/Davinci media stuff then it's probably not worth switching from MacOS to Windows. Especially if some apps were purchased via Apple Store.

Mostly microsoft office programs such as Word. I also use IntelliJ for coding. For the rest just some browsing, watching movies/videos

 

[NedSmelly]

If it was me, I’d wait for the dust to settle before getting a new device. And the M1 is still very capable in comparison to this year’s releases. I’d wait to hear independent reports on the Snapdragon X devices first before even contemplating a purchase; Apple M4 is also around the corner for notebook and desktop.

how reliable are these two?

No one will know until they’re tested. And I never pre-order anything on principle. You’re essentially giving a random business an unsecured loan with no interest.

 

[LordVile]

Hmm, well in that case the alternative which falls within my budget would be a M3 macbook air, it is at around the same price but it only has 8GB RAM. But considering I prefer Windows I'd much rather avoid macbook, even though they are excellent devices.

I found this laptop for around €999 but it has an i7 1360P. As I've mentioned earlier, not into Windows laptops and don't have much experience with them. Are these chips power efficient and can they get hot if you do medium workload tasks such as multitasking? I see ASUS claims 18 hours battery life on this i7, which is the same as the Snapdragon. Is that possible? This is the laptop btw: https://www.coolblue.nl/en/product/923960/asus-zenbook-14-oled-ux3402va-km157w.html

If you want more RAM look at the apple refurbished store but personally wouldn’t touch the windows machines with a barge pole for a few years