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I was having trouble deciding on a laptop until just yesterday actually, when I finally settled on getting Dell's new Inspiron 7000 Gaming. For reference, here

I was having trouble deciding on a laptop until just yesterday actually, when I finally settled on getting Dell's new Inspiron 7000 Gaming. For reference, here are the specs for the one I ordered: - i7-7700HQ - GTX 1060 (Max-Q version with slightly lower perf) - 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 (expandable up to 32GB) - 4K display ($150 upgrade from base) - 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD - Intel 8265 802.11ac WiFi (as opposed to the Killer crap that Dell uses on their XPS line) - Thunderbolt 3 (with x4 PCIE lanes as opposed to x2 on their XPS lines) For a fairly reasonable price of ~$1275 after tax, plus around $170 in the form of cashback from Dell's reward program (I plan on getting a monitor from them), with financing and 12 month deferred interest that's waived if paid in full by then. I believe the deal is still available for those who might be interested: https://slickdeals.net/f/10568756-new-inspiron-7000-gaming-15-6-fhd-ips-i7-7700hq-16gb-ddr4-128gb-ssd-1tb-hdd-gtx-1060-thunderbolt3-win10-1035-student-discount-100-dell-reward?src=rcm_category https://slickdeals.net/f/10568756-new-inspiron-7000-gaming-1... To be perfectly honest, the flashy gamer design and bulkiness were major turnoffs for me, especially compared to their much more compact and professional looking XPS line, but the much better specs/$ in the Inspiron and several crippling deficiencies in the XPS 15 (namely the Killer Wireless card and x2 lane Thunderbolt 3) made this win out in the end.

geoah 9y ago
Too bad it's a 15'' monster.
- lewisl9029 9y ago
  No disagreement there. I'd have loved to get a more portable convertible tablet like the Surface Pro or Surface Book with comparable specs, but even if we don't consider the difference in dedicated graphics power, their lack of x4 lane Thunderbolt 3 removes the possibility of using desktop graphics, which was a deal breaker for me. Similar models from other manufacturers felt really lackluster compared to the Surface line, each for various different reasons. So I ended up deciding to just get the most performant and cost-effective laptop I could find to last me a few more years until hopefully the convertibles market matures enough to remove all the compromises I've found unacceptable so far.
Raed667 9y ago
Specs look interesting, however I fell for this a few years ago with a Lenovo IdeaPad Z510. Build quality is the keyword, after a few years the plastics starts falling apart. Keyboard as well.
- lewisl9029 9y ago
  This is definitely a point of concern for me as well, but after doing _a lot_ of searching on Reddit, I couldn't really find any systematic patterns of failures popping up, and many of the reviews I've read actually commended the build quality as one of the best among gaming laptops (low bar, I know). And this is a fairly popular laptop that Dell has been refreshing in a similar chassis for quite a few years now, so I'm hoping most of the obvious kinks have been ironed out throughout the generations, and that it won't just spontaneously fall apart on me.

geoah 9y ago

Too bad it's a 15'' monster.

lewisl9029 9y ago
No disagreement there. I'd have loved to get a more portable convertible tablet like the Surface Pro or Surface Book with comparable specs, but even if we don't consider the difference in dedicated graphics power, their lack of x4 lane Thunderbolt 3 removes the possibility of using desktop graphics, which was a deal breaker for me. Similar models from other manufacturers felt really lackluster compared to the Surface line, each for various different reasons. So I ended up deciding to just get the most performant and cost-effective laptop I could find to last me a few more years until hopefully the convertibles market matures enough to remove all the compromises I've found unacceptable so far.

Raed667 9y ago

Specs look interesting, however I fell for this a few years ago with a Lenovo IdeaPad Z510. Build quality is the keyword, after a few years the plastics starts falling apart. Keyboard as well.

lewisl9029 9y ago
This is definitely a point of concern for me as well, but after doing _a lot_ of searching on Reddit, I couldn't really find any systematic patterns of failures popping up, and many of the reviews I've read actually commended the build quality as one of the best among gaming laptops (low bar, I know). And this is a fairly popular laptop that Dell has been refreshing in a similar chassis for quite a few years now, so I'm hoping most of the obvious kinks have been ironed out throughout the generations, and that it won't just spontaneously fall apart on me.