Good Deal
He kept repeating that it is a good deal. I was convinced that it was a good deal. There is a PSG grant for the laptop. The grant is 80% of the sales price, capped at $1500.
And I was ready to apply for the grant for the Microsoft Laptop 3 but after reviewing the specs, I decided to go with another company which offers Lenovo Thinkbook 14 with the 80% PSG Grant.
Price
Both are very good deals with the PSG Grant. For Surface Latop 3, I need to pay only $696.02 after getting the grant.
For Thinkpad 14, I have to pay $453.06. Thinkpad 14 is cheaper.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is a good buy even thought I have to pay $150 more than Lenovo Thinkbook 14. But what tilt the balance towards Lenovo Thinkbook was the 3 years warranty. For me, having a 3 year warranty is important because it guarantees that I can use it for 3 years. Whereas, MS Surface Laptop is only guaranteed for 1 year. And I can’t even extend the warranty. I always buy laptops with 3 year warranty because the parts are usually quite expensive for laptops.
HardDisk Space
Other than price, I am also concerned about the smaller hardisk space of 256GB on Surface Laptop 3. Yes, I can get an external harddisk to increase my capacity. But my experience with my former Thinkpad carbon X1 which also came with 256GB caused me to think otherwise. It was inconvenient to carry an extra accessory all the time, plugging in and out of the laptop constantly. And I would lose the use of one and only port in Surface Laptop 3 and the port will wear out faster than usual. I won’t want to experience agan.
Thinkbook 14 comes 512GB of harddisk space. That’s double what Surface Laptop 3 offers. And I think there is a higher chance of upgrading it to higher capacity if I want to.
CPU
I need to make sure that the laptop I am buying can meet my day to day use, which includes zoom video and editing, data analytics, plus photoshop. And it must perform better than my T460 which I am upgrading from. There is no point buying a cheap laptop which I can’t use for the main activities even if the deal is good.
So I did a comparison and found that the processor could be 7th, 8th or 10th generation. For both models, they are both equipped with the 10th generation processors, the newer generation.
Each model has different sub models which are equipped with different CPU. Hence, knowing the CPU is important. Both models has 4 cores and 8 threads. This means that software programs can run concurrently. This means that while one program is processing at the back end, I can continue to use the laptop with another program. In data analytics, the process can also be sped up with more cores as it makes use of different core for different phase of the calculation. Same with photo and video editing.
Thinkbook 14 is equipped with a i7 processor which wins Surface Laptop 3 i5 processor. According to reviews, both processors are comprable in performance except one minor difference: i7 has a larger cache. This means that it can deal with repetitive tasks or frequently accessed data quickly. In my work, this is important and will be a time saver.
Graphics
Mic and cameras wise, Surface Laptop 3 wins over Thinkbook 14. In terms of graphics, Surface 3 is better than Thinkbook 14. But because of the above factors, I decided to sacrifice some graphics performance. But it must be able good enough to to edit my photos, videos and zoom. So I googled for the capability of the graphics card and it indicated that the Thinkbook 14 is using the UHD Graphics 620 card. And one thing I found out is that this graphic card is now capable to present virtual background without using green screen. That’s a plus point. Performance for video editing may not be good. If that really happens, I will fall back on my old machine. So that is the sacrifice I have to make since I decided that Thinkbook 14 overall has better options than Microsoft Laptop 3.
There are other PSG grants but I am not considering them. I called them up and asked about the laptop models they are offering. They can’t tell me at all. This is bad because I am worried that they will just dump an old model to me. Something that I do not want to take risk since this is going to my day to day laptop. I would not be happy with the purchase if the performance sucks, even though I am getting a grant for it.
I hope you like what I have shared with you. Please feel free to share with other and if it helps you, give me a like, ok?
If you wish to get the Thinkbook 14, contact Jaysen How (Mobile: 9177 1371 / 8925 4614).
