If you've been looking for an alternative to the HP Spectre or Dell XPS, then the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 is now a little bit cheaper with essentially the same or even better processor performance than more popular Core i7 laptops costing a few hundred dollars more.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-5-14-with-Ryzen-5-4500U-16-GB-RAM-512-GB-SSD-and-1080p-display-now-down-to-817-USD.482805.0.html
I really wanted an Ryzen based laptop when I was shopping a month or two ago but they all made unacceptable compromises like the crappy 56% SRGB display on this unit.
I eventually got an Eluktronics MAG-15u with an i7-8565u, 16 GB (dimm), 1 TB SSD, Nvidia MX-250 GPU, 90% SRGB / 300 Nit display and a keyboard layout I like. It was on sale on Amazon for $849 and I think it was a steal.
Performance is great but you have to look at the *whole* package when buying a laptop. The i7-8565u and Ryzen 4700u are pretty equivalent when using up to 4 cores. The Ryzen really shines when it can leverage all 8 cores but it's surprising how infrequent that happens while web browsing and doing basic office stuff.
Quote from: Ben McCann on July 24, 2020, 14:49:25
I really wanted an Ryzen based laptop when I was shopping a month or two ago but they all made unacceptable compromises like the crappy 56% SRGB display on this unit.
I eventually got an Eluktronics MAG-15u with an i7-8565u, 16 GB (dimm), 1 TB SSD, Nvidia MX-250 GPU, 90% SRGB / 300 Nit display and a keyboard layout I like. It was on sale on Amazon for $849 and I think it was a steal.
Performance is great but you have to look at the *whole* package when buying a laptop. The i7-8565u and Ryzen 4700u are pretty equivalent when using up to 4 cores. The Ryzen really shines when it can leverage all 8 cores but it's surprising how infrequent that happens while web browsing and doing basic office stuff.
You'd be surprised. If we are simply talking about surfing the web or doing basic stuff in office, then even a celeron processor can do it smoothly. The problem starts happening when you have more than that like lots of tabs open or multiple applications open at the same time. Or your computer doing something else in the background.
I also was looking for a new laptop when i encountered the dell vostro 15 with a gtx 1650, 10750H, 16gb ram, and 512 gb ssd for 1000 dollars because it was 50% off on dells website. I think it was a steal but ill be upgrading the ssd to 1tb.
HI , i'm happy to follow your great site and great review, i bought this ideapad 5 14are05 with ryzen 7 4700u , i search in your site but i don't see a complete review for 4700u version but only with ryzen5 4500u. i want know if 4700u ideapad version it's pwm free or not. i notice idepad 5 with ryzen 5 4500u version in yor review it's pwm free with aou optronics display panel but my ideapad with ryzen 4700u not have same panel 4500u version . my version has IN N140HCA-EAE C1 FHDI AG S display panel, can you tell me if my panel it's pwm free or not?