Mid range gaming laptops

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  Aerol on 25/08/2021 - 17:44

  +1

  Hi AyyTso, I've spent loads of time on this the past few weeks. In short, I just ordered (but don't yet have) the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro with RTX 3070. I got it through the Lenovo Education NZ store https://www.lenovo.com/nz/en/nzeducation so if you happen to have access to a Uni email address you can sign up (you can also use the code EDUCOMM for an additional 10% discount). All up it cost me just under $2700 with an extended 2 year in-home warranty added on.

  The catch with the Lenovo's is they're all weeks away from being shipped. I searched high and low for an equivalent that was in-stock here in NZ but everything was either too expensive or too much of a compromise. I did compromise two of my criteria with the Lenovo - weight and size. It's bigger and heavier than I'd like but it also has the higher wattage graphics card and reputedly excellent cooling. There are loads of reviews out there but I like both https://www.notebookcheck.net/ and https://www.ultrabookreview.com/ as they're really comprehensive.

  I think the regular Lenovo site does sales as well so if you're not in a rush you might be able to pick it up during Black Friday/November.

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    AyyTso on 25/08/2021 - 18:35

    Hey thanks for this! That looks like a good deal to me. A little bit above what I can afford at the moment but I feel like it would be worth it to maybe save up a bit and maybe hope for sale.

    Do you know if Lenovo has done a Black Friday or Boxing Day sale before?

    Another question if you don't mind, how do you go about comparing other competitors offerings? There are so many brands and each have their little unique characteristics, it gets a bit overwhelming 😅

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      Drcspy on 26/08/2021 - 07:26

      Really, web reviews are the best way on that

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      Aerol on 26/08/2021 - 08:02

      No idea on the past sales I'm afraid.

      The way I do it is decide the things that are important to me e.g. screen quality is top, then hardware, size/weight etc. From there I read the reviews of many different laptops and watch a bunch of youtube videos. Along the way I start to understand the subtle differences in the components and models and hopefully make a good choice.

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        AyyTso on 26/08/2021 - 10:49

        I was playing around the Lenovo website and saw you can pick the 300w charger or 230w one. Reviews all say that 300w one is heavy, have you seen anywhere about the dimensions or weight of the 230w one?

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      mr-deal on 26/08/2021 - 08:44

      Definitely check web reviews and Youtube reviews - especially for factors like screen quality, thermals and build quality.

      You should also think about what IO ports you want as some Laptops have a better port selection than others.

      Generally for gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion series is highly rated.

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        AyyTso on 26/08/2021 - 10:52

        Yeah I just went though heaps of youtube reviews, the Legion 5 Pro definitely has good reviews which is reassuring. Apart from being heavy and having a heavy power brick and some issues with its RAM timings compared to its competition, there's not much negatives.