[Music]
this is Lisa from mobile tech review and
now for a slightly different kind of
video I know that you've asked for
things like back-to-school laptops
laptops for gaming laptops for this and
that and you know those are not my
favorite kind of videos to make because
there are so many choices out there and
so many of you out there who have
different price ranges different brands
available in the regions that you're at
different sizes all sorts of things like
that that makes it really hard to say
here's one of these three laptops you
should go buy it because you're not all
cookie cutter people however for the
October 2016 edition of Lisa's laptops
what you should and shouldn't buy I'm
going to help you really narrow down the
criteria for the things that you should
be looking at in a laptop and you know
the some specs that really aren't so
important to worry about others that are
really really key and that's going to
help you I hope a lot in picking the
right machine for you first off let's
talk processors CPUs Intel kind of owns
a laptop market these last several years
and they make a fine product that sign
fine I'm sorry
AMD not much love going on for you right
now and not a lot of very strong
innovation from AMD anyway back to Intel
for the last three generations or more
what we've seen are very small
incremental improvements in laptop CPUs
even in the desktop counterparts seven
percent performance improvement maybe
you know seven percent is not something
you're going to notice when you're using
Word or Excel or streaming Netflix or
probably even if you're using Photoshop
even with some filters the integrated
graphics performance there that's the
more important one if you're guessing
that has integrated graphics but still
honestly if you're looking at something
like the Dell XPS 13 and you can find
one cheap with Intel fifth-generation
Broadwell CPUs and save a lot of money
instead of getting the current
generation skylake I say go for it it's
not that important that that's 7% and
that slight improvement in battery life
we're talking small we're not saying
laptops went from five hours of battery
life to 10 they didn't we're talking 20
minutes a half hour improvement maybe
over the course of three generations you
soon I mean for the money that you can
save it's not worth it likewise if
you're holding out waiting for cabby
Lake which is the Intel seventh
generation again
we're going to see small improvements
there largely Intel's trying to improve
the Wi-Fi chip because everybody's so
into streaming and all things internet
but again you know given the speed of
your home Wi-Fi network the public Wi-Fi
networks that you use and the fact that
Wi-Fi adapters can only get so fast
until usually isn't making the very
fastest ones anyway killer is yeah it's
okay to get you know a generation
outdated and to not wait for the next
generation and this is for me a
once-in-a-lifetime event and look at me
I'm no spring chicken and I've been
covering technology for more years and
some of you have been a lot NVIDIA has
done something amazing with the current
NVIDIA GTX 10 series cards for desktops
and for laptops both now that Pascal
generation card is it's called the
Nvidia claimed it was 40 percent faster
than the outgoing 9 Series cards and you
know what they were being conservative
in some cases almost twice as fast this
is an unusual unusual jump in
performance that we really haven't seen
in forever so what does that mean that
means if you're going to buy a gaming
laptop you can tell this is gaming
laptop because it has out their orange
accents right don't buy an Nvidia 9
series laptop you see the bottle leg or
really the churn that's causing laptop
buying is the fact that generally
speaking the graphics cards are not
upgradable and they're the most
important spec in a gaming laptop they
give you all those gorgeous frames and
you're first-person shooters and
everything else so when the graphics car
becomes updated it's time for a new
laptop so you want to get the best
graphics card that you can afford in a
laptop that means getting in in video 10
series card because it trashes the 9
Series cards I have an msi gt72
Dominator that's a real high-end 17 inch
laptop it has the nvidia gtx 980m which
is about cream-of-the-crop there and the
new NVIDIA GTX 1060 m which is at the
bottom end of the new gtx range is
faster and that's put in thin and light
gaming laptops so then you got the 1070
you'll have the 1080 and the really big
ones these things are within 10 percent
performance of their desktop
counterparts so no more all I'm going to
spend a lot extra and it's only weighs
12 pounds because
it has a desktop card crammed in
architectural speaking well NVIDIA has
made it happen without having to do that
sort of thing it's just not worth saving
a couple hundred bucks 100 bucks 200
bucks even if your budgets tight and I
totally understand that these things are
expensive but it's already outdated
right now that 9 Series card and you're
only going to regret it next year and
the year after when you can't play
whatever replaces the division and every
other hot game out there and reasonable
frame rates plus we got things like 4k
displays these days even if using an
external 4k monitor if you want to do VR
the GTX 10 series cards make that easy
peasy it can happen you know you can
play on ultra certainly at 4k resolution
always but you could play a 2k certainly
a 1080p and sometimes a 4k depending on
the game too so don't get an Nvidia 9
Series card laptop now get a 10 Series
card if you have to wait for your
favorite brand and model to ship with it
like Alienware still doesn't have them
out yet if you really want to have an
alienware it's worth the wait folks is
worth it next up convertibles like
surface pro 4 here and many other
convertibles the HP spectre x360 so on
Dell Inspiron flipy models and regular
old ultra books like the XPS 13 and and
others this is a fine time to buy it
because that ik hinges back to you know
kaby Lake is not going to be a huge
improvement and when it comes to
Microsoft and the surface Series in
particularly they don't Rev these every
three months like big PC manufacturers
do they do this kind of more at an Apple
schedule ok back when Apple actually
used to update things you know what I'm
talking about so it's not like this
surface pro 4 is going to be imminent
replaced most likely we haven't heard
any rumors about that and Microsoft
doesn't even always make the jump
quickly to the next CPU generation
particularly if it doesn't make a huge
difference in performance of fear in the
market for your regular old Ultrabook
dual-core CPU kind of 13 inch portable
guy or a convertible this is an absolute
fine time to buy right now and you're
going to get good performance lovely
displays all those kind of options
nothing is on the roadmap right now that
really shakes that up considerably in
the coming months of this year
can we just skip this section really I'm
so I'm so peeve you are too aren't you
if you're wanting to buy a Mac laptop
God go get therapy join me because Apple
has not updated their machines in so
long except for this 12-inch MacBook
they're giving a lot of love to this
they just updated this six generation
Intel nice specs inside for a
teeny-weeny low laptop that's not for
everybody granted but this one yeah this
is fine the 12-inch MacBook anything
else in laptop land be it this 15 inch
macbook pro that's mine and I'm getting
so tired of my old fourth-generation has
well CPU the graphics chip that maybe
wasn't what we all hoped for because it
has no cojones for gaming that sort of
thing well yeah the 13-inch MacBook 8
spine to the MacBook Air oh my god did
like Tim Cook just leaving it in a file
drawer somewhere and forget about it got
some cover with us Apple hasn't updated
these things we thought in the spring
there was going to be a big MacBook Pro
in a MacBook Air update for skylake they
were taking their time it never happened
we thought that in August for
back-to-school there was going to be an
event it didn't happen until it happens
unless you're a dedicated Mac head and
your current laptop just croaked
wait Sunday we're hoping Apple will
actually refresh these things it can't
get worse than the Mac Pro right that
thing hasn't been updated in a thousand
days this two and a half or more years
so let's hope something happens this
fall and if we can have a whole bunch of
new MacBook Pro reviews and whatever
place is the air but until then hold off
if you can next up picking your display
particularly resolution you have 1080p
displays out there I would suggest at
the minimum getting a 1080p display now
you can even find five or $600 laptops
that have 1080p displays this 1920 by
1080 and that really you'll notice the
sharpness over the old 720p displays but
do you need to care for K in a laptop
panel let's face it these things are not
very large you don't put them as close
to your face as you do your phone where
marketing has a pixel density war going
on that's kind of beyond what most of us
can see I know there's a Superman out
there who's going to say I can see the
pixels I swear I can see the pixels you
even in Sony's 4k phone display okay
good for you
a lot of us can't and case in point
right here these are both the Zeus
laptops the one on the right is the asou
Sembach Pro UX 501 with a 4k display the
one on the left is the rogue Strix GL
502 with a 1080p display we have the
same webpage open can you really say
that that 4k display looks so much more
sharp to you probably not and you know
it in part that has to do with contrast
when you look at our reviews we always
give you information on contrast ratio
brightness black level stuff like that
because contrast is what improves actual
sharpness it gives us the perception
that something is sharper crisper and
clearer and the one on the left the the
asou stroke Strix at the 1080p display
has a better contrast ratio so if it
looks sharper to you that's probably why
that 4k display on the right not so much
it has a pretty poor contrast ratio so
there's things that are more important
than high DPI particularly when you're
talking about something really small in
fact if we throw in one of the best
displays that you can get on the market
right now it's actually Microsoft
Surface pro 4 that's a 2k kind of
display and there we have the surface
pro 4 in the middle and you probably can
even tell from this video that is
actually the nicest looking display here
granted it's glossy whereas the rogue
Strix on your left over here is matte so
that also you know is it a factors up to
you what do you like matte or glossy or
touch or non touch but in terms of
resolution it's not the most important
thing except when it is if it's a
desktop monitor if it's 25 inches 28
inches then you're talking a lot bigger
display your pixels are well spread out
in a bigger area then I'm all for 4k for
external monitors but for laptop panels
where they're smaller less important
unless you're a serious or pro photo or
video editor there it makes a lot of
sense because you don't have to
zoom-zoom-zoom so much just to actually
get in and see the fine details of your
image you have room for your palettes
surrounding the image though honestly if
you're looking at something like the
crazy toshiba satellite radius a 12 inch
laptop with 4k you're still gonna it's
too small to actually see very well
anyways
we're talking about those 15 to 17
inches more when we're talking about 4k
that would be my choice if I was using
this for you no I'm serious photographer
photo editing and for video editing too
but for the rest of the world out there
you people who do Word Excel streaming
your Netflix and your Amazon Prime video
of day to day work kind of tasks
honestly a 1080p display is fine but go
for the best quality can't generally IPs
look for good contrast ratios and pretty
decent color gamut so there you have it
myriad choices right that's what I was
telling you about there's a lot of
individual laptops just to consider here
and there are even more obviously that
apply but hopefully these criteria that
we've gone over these five points are
going to help you making your decision
by knowing general terms that you should
use to narrow down your search what you
should and shouldn't worry about where
you can save some money where you really
shouldn't cut corners
I'm Lisa from mobile tech review be sure
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