I’m currently on an MSI GF65 Thin 9SEXR. It has a 9th gen core i5, 8GB RAM, and a geforce rtx2060 graphics card. While it’s been a great daily driver for several years now, it’s definitely starting to show it’s age with newer games and such.
I’ve currently got my eyes on the ASUS TUF series of laptops, because they seem like pretty decent quality. The chassis design seems more intuitive with where the ports are located, and other small details that make ease of use a priority. I like that it has a numberpad as well, and I’d consider this one of my necessities going forward.
My main uses will be moderate gaming, 3D design, and general browsing/productivity. I’d also like to dump windows for Linux as well, but I’m not entirely sure that I’m ready to make that jump yet. I’ve got very minimal experience with alternative operating systems to windows.
I don’t know much about AMD’s hardware, so I’m not sure how the designations compare to what I currently have. If anyone could give me an easy rundown to get me up to date I’d appreciate it too.
Research your laptop’s repairability. I have an Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition from 2021, and one of the biggest reasons why I chose it was that it had 2 SoDIMM slots and 2 total M.2 2280 slots for SSDs. Saved me from junking the computer right out of warranty when the installed SSD suddenly borked.
However, this model does not have a numpad, and my model doesn’t come with a webcam, although newer model years fixed the latter issue. It’s a bit bulky and heavy but I really don’t care as long as it fits in my backpack. It’s been an overall great laptop and I plan on using it until 2030 or later.
Additionally, if you care about battery life, AMD CPUs are still king in that regard.