I’m starting college in about a month and I’m looking to buy a good laptop.

My budget is strictly under $1200. I’m not very familiar with all the technical details, but based on my research, I’ve listed the specs I’m looking for. I’ll primarily be using the laptop for coding and some gaming.

Please suggest me something thank you :D

I'm going to college next year, which means I might need to get rid of my desktop and switch over to a gaming laptop. (I might also sell my MacBook as well if I realize I don't need it). That being said, is it worth selling my current computers for a gaming laptop? (Alternatively, I could do the SFF PC/MacBook setup and just spend my money towards a better PC)

And if so, here's the specs I want (please suggest a model related to this):

- i7 or Ryzen 7 CPU (current gen)

- 32GB of ram (upgradable or stock)

- At least 2 NVME drive slots (I currently use 3TB on my PC, I think 2 2TB drives or worst case scenario 2 4TB drives would be nice). Built in drive should be 1/2TB but I could just replace them to be honest.

- RTX 4070 (unless a 4060 is good enough for the display it's powering, or 1440p.)

- 1080p/1440p display that has good colors (so not a TN panel), at least 144hz (or even 240hz)

- Budget is around $1500, but I could go above if it really sees fit.

- Decent build quality.

- Not EXTREMELY thick or heavy.

- Ideally not something that looks blatantly like a gamer laptop in public. I get that these kind of sport the look (even in my examples), but I think they're reasonable so they're okay.

- Decent keyboard and trackpad.

- Battery life that lasts at least a few hours away from a charger (doesn't have to be a few hours with games on)

- USB-C Ports/Thunderbolt

- Not a unknown brand name

- Extended warranty that isn't a scam in case I crack the screen or other build quality issues.

Games I play include emulation, common multiplayer games, action/JRPG story games, rhythm games, etc.

Current models I looked at and liked include these: https://www.microcenter.com/product/671890/hp-omen-transcend-16-u0078nr-16-gaming-laptop-computer-shadow-black

https://www.microcenter.com/product/662553/msi-pulse-15-b13vgk-281us-156-gaming-laptop-computer-black

(Do note I have looked solely at design and specs, not really the other criterion.)

I’m going to college soon, Engineering. my parents want me to get a Mac however I heard those aren’t too strong.

budget is $1500, (maybe if they got a student discount that’d be nice, I don’t know if anybody but Apple dose that tho)

im wanting it run all my Google and Engineering apps and on the gaming part, around call of duty level would be nice.

Hey PCMR, My son is graduating US high school soon, and heading off to college in the fall. We’re getting him a laptop as a graduation gift, and would like to get him a laptop that will both game well and be useful for school.

We built a PC back at the beginning of the pandemic (it was so much fun trying to get a GPU back then whee!) Home PC has a Ryzen 5 5600X with a 3060. So we’re not running the best of the best, but we game pretty well on most things at 1440p.

I know you’re sacrificing productivity battery life for a laptop when you are running larger screens and better GPUs. So we’re not looking for the beefiest gaming laptop that will last approximately 30 minutes on battery life in class, but I want to get him a gift he will be able to use for gaming and entertainment, not just productivity.

Any recommendations on either specific laptops that would do both well, or more generally features to include or avoid as we’re shopping for this? Budget probably tops out at about $1500 USD. Thanks!