I'm looking for a new laptop for christmas, usage will be mostly internet browsing and streaming video (youtube, netflix, hulu, etc.) It will probably be used for some light gaming (Minecraft, Roblox) and recording audio for a podcast.
I'm leaning toward a Ryzen laptop since the last several computers I've had show their age in the graphics department before I notice the CPU being too slow. Unless there is some software technology on the horizon that will make a super fast CPU more important I'd like to try a Ryzen IGP since the Vega graphics seem to beat Intel's HD graphics by a substantial margin.
I'd like a 1080P display, I'm not really very discriminating when it comes to displays, IPS would be nice but maybe not in my budget. I don't necessarily want a touch screen, but not a deal breaker either way.
Size isn't very important, I actually prefer a slightly smaller notebook, 15" is about as big as I'd want to go.
The laptop will be used mostly plugged in, battery life isn't important.
I'd like a SSD, but if the difference between a great laptop without a SSD and a good laptop with a SSD is ~$50, I can swap out the harddrive.
8GB of Ram would be great, it looks like that's pretty standard.
Budget <$500
I'm leaning toward a Ryzen laptop since the last several computers I've had show their age in the graphics department before I notice the CPU being too slow. Unless there is some software technology on the horizon that will make a super fast CPU more important I'd like to try a Ryzen IGP since the Vega graphics seem to beat Intel's HD graphics by a substantial margin.
I'd like a 1080P display, I'm not really very discriminating when it comes to displays, IPS would be nice but maybe not in my budget. I don't necessarily want a touch screen, but not a deal breaker either way.
Size isn't very important, I actually prefer a slightly smaller notebook, 15" is about as big as I'd want to go.
The laptop will be used mostly plugged in, battery life isn't important.
I'd like a SSD, but if the difference between a great laptop without a SSD and a good laptop with a SSD is ~$50, I can swap out the harddrive.
8GB of Ram would be great, it looks like that's pretty standard.
Budget <$500