As my child had been getting into video games, we decided to get them a laptop of their own so they wouldn't need to borrow my wife's.
Here were my list of requirements:
- Priced less than $700
- 11-14" Screen
- IPS or OLED
- at least 300 nits
- at least 45% NTSC coverage
- A recent processor with great integrated graphics
- AMD Ryzen 7 7840U with Radeon 780M
- AMD Ryzen 7 8840U with Radeon 780M
- Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
- or newer
- RAM >= 16GB
- Storage >= 512GB
- USB C charging
- WiFi 7/6E with 2x2 antennas
- Backlit keyboard (optional)
- USB C charging on both sides (optional)
Best Buy had a sale for the Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1 14" Touchscreen Laptop (83DK000AUS / 12IAHP9), which we bought as it met most of my criteria.
- Price: $600
- 14" Screen 300 nits 45% NTSC coverage (~60% sRGB)
- AMD Ryzen 7 8840U with Radeon 780M
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 1TB
- USB C charging
- WiFi 6E with 2x2 antennas
- Backlit keyboard
- USB C only on a single side :-(
- Left ports:
- 2 x USB C (one USB4 40Gbps)
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack
- Right ports:
- 1 x USB A
- 1 x microSD
- 3.55 lbs
- Charger is a 65W brick style with 3 pin power cord
Compared to my wife's Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1 16" Touchscreen Laptop (82QG0001US / 16IAP7) which we bought in 2022:
- Price: $600
- 16" Screen 400 nits 72% NTSC coverage (100% sRGB)
- Intel Core i5-1240P
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 256GB
- USB C charging
- WiFi 6E with 2x2 antennas
- Backlit keyboard
- USB C only on a single side :-(
- Left ports:
- 2 x USB C (thunderbolt)
- 1 x USB A
- 1 x HDMI 2.0
- 1 x SD card reader
- Right ports:
- 1 x USB A
- 1 x 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack
- 4.37 lbs
- Charger is a 65W wall-wort style with 2 folding pins
My thoughts:
- The laptop feels sturdy and premium
- While the screen is not for color accurate work, or as good as my wife's, it looks plenty good to my eyes when not looking side-by-side
- The memory and storage should be sufficient for many years to come
- GPU should be about 2x more performant than my wife's, which should be plenty to play the types of games that my child likes
- The included 65W charger works well. Unfortunately, the laptop charges extremely slowly on our existing 45W chargers.
Child acceptance factor, in general they like it except:
- it is too heavy (would prefer a ligher 11")
- sometimes when starting screen share on Zoom, Zoom will stop responding
Appendix
Sources:
- https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-yoga-7-2-in-1-14-2k-touchscreen-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-8840hs-with-16gb-memory-1-tb-ssd-artic-grey/6571366.p?skuId=6571366
- https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/Yoga_7_2_in_1_14AHP9?M=83DK000AUS
- https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/Yoga/Yoga_7_16IAP7?M=82QG0001US
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