Podcast Ep. 4: Our Lead Tester Ranks 2026’s Best Laptops

[00:01] making. >> Mhm. The price hikes are just insane. >> All right, guys. We've got a really big show today. Welcome back to the podcast, and with me I have a special guest. Basically, Seth is our lead tester, and

[00:15] know, Sierra, who you see on camera, myself, obviously, we're testing, we're using the laptops that we're talking about. Ethan does a bit of testing, too, the bulk of our testing, you know, Seth

[00:28] is really handling a good amount of that. And we had Seth on in a couple of videos before, I think, and you guys seem to really like hearing from him directly. In fact, I have a quote here from a comment by SkyMain37,

[00:42] "Literally will not buy a new laptop until Seth says he is switching to it ThinkPad, obviously, that you use, the >> Yeah. Yeah. So, with that said, I think we're going to have a fun time. Um we're

[00:55] laptops, the ones you like, the ones you haven't liked this year, and so you guys perspective. Normally, actually, we start with the laptops we're using. I We've got the Pro here, 14-in Pro, and the Neo. But, Seth, um

[01:10] tell me, what are the best laptops that you've tested this year, the ones that really stood out to you? So, by far, the one that is just at the top for me, Josh, is the Neo, which I have right here. Um just I I can't believe that

[01:23] this thing is $600. >> Mhm. I mean, when when I saw the rumors prior to this coming out, I thought for sure that it was going to launch at like $800. I mean, it's it's Apple. You know, usually Apple's idea of budget is taking

[01:36] like a hundred or two hundred dollars off of it. That's it. I thought it would be $800 and then go on sale at Black Friday for $600. But, they just up and launched it at $600. And um you know,

[01:50] no, it's it's not a MacBook Pro. You're not going to be editing 8K red footage on a timeline, like three stacked, you know, high on it, but of course you're all laptops at that price point have some just major flaw, you know, like the

[02:07] keyboard sucks or the trackpad sucks or the display sucks. You're making a big concession in one area or multiple. And like I said, this is not the most powerful laptop, so maybe that would be its concession, but in terms of a whole

[02:20] you just can't get this anywhere else. Like it's a metal build, the keyboard, screen. We had some interesting discussions in the office about this, right? And in fact, we redid the entire review video to kind of be more, I would

[02:36] could discussion points we were talking about the pros, the cons, our, maybe the audience hadn't seen. I mean, yeah, you know, I think that we sort of

[02:51] fell into two camps here in the office, you know, there was the people who like me or Sierra, I think, we were like, it's only $600, we see the target market, you know, and and and and for those people that just need a basic

[03:04] those people that just need a basic laptop, it's it's a grand slam home run, you know, and then you and Ethan were in the other camp where you didn't hate it, but you were just like, you saw some things,

[03:16] you know, the 8 gigs of RAM and just the power, um, you know, I think the biggest that we know that one, if we had $600 to

[03:31] discount that brings down to 500, both him and I know that we can find, but in and it depends on where you live, a MacBook Air, probably M3, 8 gig of RAM feel is just better. And I think our worry is that

[03:47] just walking to the Apple Store, and obviously we've been on these store floors speaking to buyers, they don't They don't know that this the M3 they wouldn't know that the M3 Air is just I

[04:00] opinion with the audience so much better than than this laptop. So, I think the first part that Ethan and I were very concerned about is just that or below, second-hand becomes a major major major

[04:15] advantage where it's not as much when you're shopping like $2,000 or above. Of course, you can find better and that's always the case or or prior year models apparent the difference once you go down to those super budget levels. So, I

[04:28] and I were concerned about. And then the second one I think you touched on which is the longevity that I wouldn't say it's the longevity. It's more so that we believe that there are people who are shopping at the $600 price point that

[04:42] will need very quickly more performance than what this offers. I have an M2 Air at home. And so, I I wouldn't I would not trade my M2 Air for this, you know. The Air even the M2 is cuz um mine has 16 gigs of RAM as well. So, like that's

[04:58] that's a better laptop if you can get it. Um but just in terms of just a a brand new laptop and you only have $600 to spend, let's say $600 is your stretch, then it's an easy recommendation for me. But,

[05:12] yeah, if you know, if you can stretch your budget a little bit your budget a little bit to maybe $750 and buy an Air on a Black and a half ago. I got one for 750 bucks. I would recommend that over this. And I

[05:27] address there that some viewers pointed out and I totally agree with this is they keep saying we sometimes, not always, we compare sales prices of say an Air to the non-sales price of the Neo. The one thing I want

[05:39] to kind of talk a bit about that is when you're dealing with a $1,000 laptop, the sales price is often say $200. When you're dealing with a $600 laptop, the sales price is normally much less. It's probably 50 to 100. So,

[05:52] that's something to consider as well just when you guys are comparing these like these sales prices, which no doubt this will eventually go on sale. But, I to hear just how positive you are on this because I think it's it's great to

[06:04] you know from you directly about this, Seth. And I must say that I am very positive about this. I think it has done great things for the laptop industry. I excitement in the industry. I think it's going to put incredible pressure on

[06:19] really, really, really good thing. It really is. So, I am very positive about this. I think it's just about who's the right person for it. I also think that Apple is now just offering incredible value. I mean, they just across their

[06:34] Windows laptop manufacturers have just gone the prices through the roof. Oh, yeah. I mean, um I saw an article the other day on MacRumors, I think. This comparison, but basically they said you can buy an entire Apple ecosystem now

[06:48] for less than the price of I think uh 16-in MacBook Pro. And so, it was that was the Neo, it was the iPhone 17e, it was an iPad with like some accessories, all of that stuff. And I just I I love to see value, you know.

[07:04] When you can get more for your money. I I just love to see that. Yeah. Yeah, I Macs that I use, it's for the same money where Windows laptops are just going the >> Yeah, what's going on with that? >> I mean, just so the audience knows, we

[07:18] recently reviewed the Yoga Pro 9i for 2026. That's coming in Thank gosh, they control. It was coming in at like $3,100 where in prior years it was around $2,000. I mean, that's a 50% bump up in price. Thank gosh, they've now matched

[07:31] the MacBook Pro 16's price, but still I think to the point you're making, Windows used to be cheaper because they weren't as complete package devices. There was kind of like gaps where the MacBooks had less gaps than that.

[07:43] are at least the same price as a Mac, but they still have a couple of course, but they're still for a lot of people they're not as complete. But why don't we jump to the next one? What is your next favorite

[07:56] laptop that you've tried this year, Seth? I mean, you know, we used to pronounce those uh L O Q, but it's it's a LOQ. So, thank you for the commenters on that. So, yeah, the LOQs, I mean, um they're just great laptops,

[08:10] think they're a little bit more expensive this year. They just feel solid. In spite of it being a more budget gaming laptop, it just feels kind of tanky. Not a lot of deck flex and stuff like that. The only issue that I

[08:23] had with last year's model was it just had a really cheap-feeling trackpad. It high-pitched. I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about. Some laptops are like that. But um they fixed it with this year's model. So, the trackpad just

[08:36] sounds more authoritative, you know? Also, Seth, I would add that the LOQs were often very, very heavy, and this one is like a a 15.3-in screen, and I year. It's not massively lighter, but it's enough to be like, "Oh, it doesn't

[08:50] be." Uh certainly not a portable one, but it's still it's a bit better there. I also felt that the LOQs they improved that screen. As I recall, one of the older LOQs we had had that really bad ghosting issue, which isn't an issue on

[09:03] >> Yeah, the screens are great. Yeah, they just made some They made the kind of that device. >> That's it. They left what was fine, which was most everything, the same, and they just listened to feedback, and just

[09:16] needed to. I I wish we saw more of that. Yeah. So, what about the next one? What is number three on your list that you you like? Uh Galaxy Books. Really nice laptops. They're the type of laptop where it

[09:30] whole package. That's kind of a recurring theme. I know I keep talking about the complete package. But But really, they feel like a cohesive device, you know? They look nice. Uh the keyboard, you know, area, the the

[09:43] two-tone thing kind of reminds me a little bit of the the MacBook Pros, so I not, but puts you in mind of that. You get the the haptic trackpad, great OLED screen, so um they're nice complete devices.

[09:56] Uh but there is a catch, the keyboard is kind of terrible. Um now, I don't I don't know the actual key travel um on key travel um on on those laptops. Um but it feels less

[10:08] than the MacBooks. The MacBooks are 1 mm, which I already consider to be the absolute minimum that I'm willing to tolerate. So, anything less than that, I just start getting lots of typos. And um I had a lot of typos on the Samsung, so

[10:21] just speaking for myself, and I think you're kind of the same way, uh I touch type, so I don't look at the keyboard at all, ever. I'm just relying on feedback, keys. And um I'm just like not getting enough

[10:36] I would say what I found with the Samsung, if I could just add in here, is I found what was unusual about their keyboards is the keys go down quite far below the keyboard deck, which that I found very

[10:50] you could touch the edge of the keyboard deck as you press down the keys, thing that gets me about the Galaxy Books, cuz I agree with you, like if pretty nice machines. But I think

[11:04] the thing that got me, and I guess there's two things. One, in that space, up against the MacBook Air, which now is now the value option, clearly doesn't have as good a screen as the Samsungs, but it offers tremendous value, and its

[11:17] screen is still really good. You've got the Yoga Pro Slim 7i Ultra, you've got so many good laptops, the new HP OmniBook Ultra. There's a lot of good laptops in that space, and it's a very crowded space.

[11:31] And when So, one is the competition is high, particularly that Slim 7i Ultra, that one's amazing. But then also the pricing, they raised the pricing massively afterwards. And where these kind of ultrabooks really shine, not a

[11:44] lot of people need what I'm about to say, but once you put those X chips in for that better dedicated the better integrated GPU, that's when those um amazing GPU. Now again, not everyone needs this. A

[11:58] laptop, they're not video editing. They prefer the non-X chip or the non-H chip because it's enough for them and gets the good battery life. But you know, once you do that on the Samsungs, the price is just insane. It's

[12:12] I think almost priced themselves completely out of the market. Aren't they like 1,700 or 1,800 dollars? >> No, no, they're well above two When Now, prices change, guys, but when I saw them last, they're well above 2,000 now for

[12:26] the for the non-X chip. What? That is MacBook Pro territory. For for the M5 it's you get the 14-in Pro for this, but you've got the M5 Pro chip for that price, which is It's a nice laptop, but

[12:39] So, if it was 1,700 like you were about to say, I would agree. But at 2,200, >> And that's the Pro, right? That's not the Ultra. That's the Pro and that's the exactly that's the Pro. The Ultra by the way either comes with that better X chip

[12:53] integrated GPU or a dedicated GPU. Yeah, if you're talking about the Ultra, well, that one starts at 2,900. And that one at 2,900 is only with the X dedicated GPU. So >> It goes up to 3,600 if you want it with

[13:07] an RTX 5060. $3,600 for a 5060? That's We we I complained a moment ago about the Yoga um Pro 9i, which is their creator high-end laptop, which was 3,100, $400

[13:22] cheaper what $500 cheaper than this. And now that's 2,700, which I think is And now that's 2,700, which I think is fair. This is 3,600. It's ridiculous. It's just that that's a bit of a tough proposition. Yeah, it's it's a it's I

[13:36] market at this point. So, let's why don't we move on to your next one, which one earlier and I totally agree. It's like a hidden gem. Yeah, it's a little bit of Yeah, so I was surprised just how much I like the Acer Swift 16 AI. Got to

[13:49] get the AI in there. Yeah, it's that's the nicest Acer laptop that we've ever gotten through. I mean, you know, Acer typically does the more budget laptops and they're they're great.

[14:01] you know, had here. Like some of their gaming laptops, the Predators, we've gaming laptops, the Predators, we've ranked very highly. But, um I mean it has a haptic trackpad. It is just slim, has a sleek kind of premium feel

[14:14] and and design to it. It's just nice. You know, I I couldn't believe when I Yeah, I I mean that in the best possible way, Acer. You're killing it. >> one of the things that gets me about this laptop is if you compare it to the

[14:26] one we just talked about, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 16. This one is similar thinness as that one. It feels just as well built. It has a It has a haptic trackpad. On the Acer, its big downside is it has dreadful palm rejection

[14:38] issues. But then, the Samsung has a better keyboard. The keyboard is worse are very similar laptops. The Acer comes with that X chip for we'll throw out the price on screen, but as I recall when we reviewed it about

[14:52] $1,700 with the X chip, which is that powerful integrated GPU. The Samsung, as like almost three grand with that X chip or around that amount. Yeah. It's so much more expensive for a laptop that net net is around the same in quality as

[15:08] the Acer. Mhm. Yeah, like you said, the the palm the the palm rejection issues, palm rejection. Yeah, um is a problem and that would be a deal breaker for for because all the time

[15:21] when I was type when I was typing I would be clicking stuff. But I think because that's a haptic trackpad, I think that can be fixed in software. So not tested it so I don't know, but recently but you know, if they just

[15:35] release a firmware update and just fix that then I mean I recommend that laptop very easily. Oh, oh same. So I would still Acer because I would just bring an external mouse with me and everything

[15:50] you know? But yeah, so what about give me one last choice of a laptop that you really like this year? You know, this is a this is a boring one, but just the M5 refresh of the

[16:03] MacBooks. And I mean, you know, a lot of people said that was just a boring refresh and it is in the sense that the only thing that changed was the the inside, but my opinion just that the design of the current

[16:16] silicon era they are just perfect the way that they are right now. I think they could just keep selling these designs for 5 more years and I would be completely content with it. You know, some people are

[16:30] saying like oh, it's too bulky, you know, the Pro machines, but short memory. It's like just go back only 5 or 6 years. We had the thin MacBooks and they were terrible. I mean the butterfly keyboard, uh the thermals,

[16:46] jet engines all the time. Um they were always hot. Those were Intel chips so it's it's not apples to apples. But you know, and they had no ports. So Apple did a major course correction back and made them thick

[16:59] again and everyone rejoiced. And so it's like don't go back, you know? Don't go back. Like we made it to Josh, you know? We we made it. We're good. >> I I agree. I think the one thing I'm

[17:13] users in the office I would say and the one thing I find is I would love it if it was just a little bit lighter. I don't mind the size as much. I think if it was just a little bit like the Yoga Pro 9i, the 16-in like 200 g I believe

[17:28] or we'll show it up on screen lighter than the MacBook Pro 16, which is enough backpack. I don't mind the bulk. I think it's kind of it's actually still pretty competitive to be honest. I would love to see a rounded edge though. That would

[17:42] be really nice. I for this job seem to be on a plane at least thank gosh I've now in a row, but I seem to be on a plane a lot for this job. There's so go to. And when I'm on those little plane tray tables, like my arm always

[17:55] got cut Yeah. it gets into The tray table has this weird awkward, you know, doing this. And when the yeah, exactly. And when the laptop has a sharp edge after a while of that you you you start to feel it. You don't start to feel it

[18:08] within an hour or so, but after a couple of hours you you're feeling it. And like blanket just to put it there so it's a bit >> Put the little blanket on the laptop so that so it can be nice and comfortable.

[18:21] completely agree with you. I think the M5 upgrade seemed so boring, but Apple pretty far ahead with M4 already. They kind of Panther Lake came out, which

[18:34] Panther Lake's X chips are kind of where M5 is. They're not as power efficient as M5, but performance-wise on the GPU and CPU fairly comparable. But the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are just so far ahead. And then when Windows

[18:49] laptops massively price hike their devices, but Apple's really didn't. And a little bit more expensive, but they come with more storage and stuff like the Windows devices are just through the roof in pricing. It makes them just such

[19:04] an obvious choice now for people. Like the MacBook Air M4, the 13-in, I never really loved that laptop before, but I really like it now. They are much easier choices now. And yeah, you know, it's kind of funny. Um I'm assuming that

[19:17] some of the price hikes, at least for the over the past like year, have been because of the the RAM and the SSD shortages and stuff like that. Um what's funny is Apple's been charging shortage prices forever. I mean, it's always

[19:31] costed like $400 to upgrade the RAM. So, now everyone else is just catching up and Apple has just kept their prices the same. Yeah. Um so, it looks you know what I mean? It's just like funny kind of the tables turned there.

[19:45] So, let's jump into I want you to get angry here, Seth. What disappointed you like >> I'm not too much of an angry person. can here. Okay. >> But uh yeah, you know,

[20:00] >> But uh yeah, you know, the XPS's, like I said, keyboard nicely. Josh, it's such a shame because um I'm the target market for that laptop. Um I I want just a complete, you

[20:12] know, premium-feeling device. Mhm. The the complete package. I I've said that should make a drinking game out of that in this episode. Um so, that's the XPS. function number row. Like that the physical function keys.

[20:28] >> boy, do I know. And so, but then they made the keyboard worse. I'm pretty sure, and maybe we could spot-check this, the keyboard on the 2024 models down to 0.8.

[20:41] >> 0.8, yeah. And then coupled with that is what Dell calls a zero lattice keyboard. So, in other words, the keys just all butt up right next to each other. You know, there's no physical space between the keys. Mhm. And

[20:54] I Josh, I can't type. I mean, I I just make typos. I'll um oh, like Monkeytype or Type Racer, and I'll try to see how fast I can get or whatever. And I'm making a typo like every five words.

[21:08] every five words. And I I can't do it. Yeah, I I I got to mentioned this in the video. The first day keyboard, I'm like, "I'm having a couple of typing errors." And

[21:21] But then I was like, "Hang on a second. I'm making typing errors every sentence. And Sierra and I were sitting there trying to write up the script for these videos. And the errors were just

[21:35] insane. And I'm prone to mistypes. I'm And in my defense, I'm switching laptops literally twice or thrice per week, even sometimes twice or thrice per day. And so I'm using all these different

[21:47] keyboards. And it's very hard to, you know, one day I'm using a keyboard that. But that XPS yeah, and and it's I agree with you. It's such a shame. It would have been cuz an amazing device cuz they've done

[21:59] incredible things with battery life. The battery life king of laptops right now are the Dell XPS's. In in in any form, whether it is the the non-H, the base model of the Panther Lake Series 3 chips with That one in

[22:12] >> Yeah, the 1920 screen. That That was just a a beast in battery life. But when we put similar laptops together, same CPU, kind of similar um screen, uh similar size battery, XPS's just win. They are the battery

[22:26] life kings. And to see them just trip on this freaking keyboard is frustrating. And the other thing I will add about it that that trips up for me, I just talked about the sharp MacBook Pros. The XPS's have this even sharper

[22:40] edge cuz it's sharp at the front like the Pros are. But then as I recall, it kind of dips back down. So it's like this edge that's kind of sticking up a little bit that you It's not just the side, it's like this part as well.

[22:53] and it it's a thin laptop, so you don't hit that edge problem that often, right? table. So but you don't hit it often, but it's just these little things that they just shouldn't be tripping up on.

[23:07] It's like they're making such progress in certain areas and we really want to support them. But they just got to stop these little trip-ups. This brings up a bit of a bigger discussion and I'm not I'm not

[23:19] just trying to to dump on Dell or or anyone, you know, as a whole, but like just in general, um we get so many laptops through here and A couple. Yeah. And it's like almost every laptop,

[23:32] almost, has some major flaw with it. Like, there's just one thing, you know, 90% but you just have to be okay with this 10% with this 10% that you're not you know, I almost feel like these I feel like

[23:48] these companies don't actually use the laptops that they're making. I mean, it kind of just feels like they're made in a lab, you know what I mean? But not actually used. I spot so many of these issues that we run into, I think to

[24:00] myself that during the QA part of the process that if the team was just carrying these home and just actually using them at home with their day-to-day this stuff would show up. So, I don't know, just sometimes it

[24:13] feels like they're just, you know, made in a lab and built to sell as opposed to really being used. And I I don't mean to sound some of these things that we run into are so obvious right from the beginning

[24:28] that I I I'm just like, how I I think this world at home or whatever. >> example would be the Yoga Pro 7i 9i that we've just reviewed that that battery life thing that it has like

[24:43] 6 hours or something of battery life if it's just if you just unplug it. Um it well, actually, if you don't run Pro 7, probably like 7. But if you restart into iGPU only mode, it has like 10, which is what you would

[24:57] kind of increase in battery life, which is you know, just shy of 50% increase in battery life by doing a certain thing, using themselves in really new laptops, they should so obviously have a button

[25:11] in their software just to say, "Run in IGPU mode." Or it should running or something, a piece of software that needs the DGPU? If not, run in IGPU mode." It's It's And And this might be, in all fairness to

[25:23] thing. It might be more of a Windows thing. There's a bunch of players here, but I think all of what we're saying speaks to the importance of this laptop. Seth, one of the reasons you like this one laptop so much is that this feels

[25:37] like someone's actually used it. Where they've sacrificed is a place, which is and I would agree with you, a lot of people who buying this don't really need sacrifice makes sense. The temp The gotcha about this laptop makes sense for

[25:50] the audience. And also, like the Mac model that we're Apple model, where they own the operating system, they own all the hardware, they own the the chassis, everything. That model seems to be

[26:02] really working right now. And I'm got a video I'm working on, which is like a huge rant about Windows laptops, where if you're going to break apart the laptop into who a company for the operating system, a company for the

[26:14] chassis, a company for the CPU, and a company for the GPU, being Nvidia, you know, you guys get the point. Every one of those companies needs to add incredible value to warrant them

[26:27] taking a profit margin. But what we're seeing right now is the too many cooks where things just not working well together, particularly when we tested Nvidia. Disaster. Just

[26:41] was things just weren't working that were really weird. That Windows model is Apple model. Yeah. I mean, when you when you own the

[26:53] full stack, which Apple does, especially now more than ever with Apple silicon, wireless chips, I think the Wi-Fi chips, they they make those now. You just have because you're you're just paying for what it costs to

[27:07] you build your profit into the the actual laptop profit with someone else. And if everyone wants a 40% profit margin, nowhere near that, you're sharing that margin with it it it

[27:20] is going way up, which is what we're seeing right now, costs and diminish what they're offering. We're seeing Microsoft offering trying to shove stuff down our throats that nobody wants in in an

[27:33] effort to show they add value, being obviously Copilot, shoving the Edge not want it. Like, anyway, we're we're going off a bit of a rant, so let's save it for another video, but give me one last laptop that's kind of

[27:46] Yeah, yeah. Hooked you this year. I was disappointed with the Dells, but And it's I hate to say this. I hate it. This is going to hurt me. The Legion gaming laptops this year are

[27:59] a noticeable step down in quality compared to last year's. And it it's a it's a it's a shame, Josh, because the the Legions last year were some of my favorite laptops in the office. I wasn't even a Legion guy before I

[28:12] started working here. And I just I fell in love with those machines. They just they looked stylish, but they just feel like they are built like tanks. You know, what it puts me in mind of is they kind of have a little bit of that

[28:24] ThinkPad DNA in them. You know, they just feel like tanks, you know, no dent flex or anything like that. And the performance is great, and at least last year, I'm not sure about this year, they were the

[28:36] cheaper ones were were priced well. But this year, they have just made them cheaper, and I noticed it from the time that I took it out of the box. The actual materials feel a little bit cheaper. Um

[28:48] The bottom side, I don't remember if it was plastic before, but um it just if it >> Absolutely. And And this is just to be clear, we've seen this in the Legion 7i, we've seen it in the Legion 5s. It's It's across the range. And I think what

[29:03] we've experienced so far is last year, the Legion 7i was premium, it was fantastic. It's great laptop. Yeah, fantastic. And it was one of our most

[29:15] our highest recommended laptops. And it made the Yoga Pro 9i, which was So, this laptop. The Yoga Pro 9i is their kind of portable creator laptop. It made the Yoga Pro 9i just not really worth buying cuz yes, this is a little

[29:28] bit bigger, but it was so much more powerful. It feeds its GPU full wattage, powerful than like where the Panther Lake chips are right now. It was just a really nice laptop. And then, so the Yoga Pro 9i was hard to

[29:41] recommend. But this year, what's happened is the Pro 9i has got better, absolutely, in ways that do matter. The Legions are a little less quality. got better. So, the Legions are now really squeezed,

[29:55] and we're at a point where honestly, given that the GPU hasn't changed generation to generation, the Legion 5i from 2025 last year is them cuz the price has gone up on the new models, they haven't gone up on the

[30:09] was full wattage before, it's full wattage now. And the chassis have got a we're left with the Legions going just amount of money, and there's no reason to really get the new ones. I mean, yes,

[30:23] chips, but it's not of enough It's not enough meat on the bone to really warrant a huge price increase given the decreasing quality. No. I mean, it wouldn't be enough for me. Mhm. I really care about that stuff, you know? I mean,

[30:35] the new ones, when I'm when I'm typing on them, the keyboard almost feels kind of hollow underneath. And it's because there's like more keyboard deck flex. And There wasn't before. They were rigid. No, they were I I could I felt

[30:48] like don't try this at home. I felt like I could just drop last year's model >> Mhm. And I do want to address something someone said in one of our comments like why we always so pro Lenovo. We are

[31:01] reviewing all laptop brands of course and I would push back on that and say we like HP I've always said has done a great for value for money like last year I think the best value gaming laptop of the year

[31:13] was the HP Omen Max 16 with the RTX 5080 which was going at Black Friday for around $1,600 $1,700. I mean you try find an RTX 5080 laptop for that kind of price with the quality

[31:25] king of the year. That was the best deal of the entire year. of the entire year. Now, so we are pro others as well but we do and I think you kind of touched on this, the Lenovo's particularly the

[31:38] It's just so obvious when you have them all sitting down there like come on compare like the MSIs quality or the Gigabytes quality to the Legions. It's And so we've been we have been very pro Legions because as I said, if you have

[31:52] them all here, they stand out but if they're dropping the quality a little bit, it does offer room for these others to kind of step it up a bit. least for me is diminished now on those. Mhm. So why

[32:07] don't we wrap with one last question? What is the laptop or laptops? Let's keep it short. that you're most excited for to get in. I think I know what it is. I think I can guess. Uh yeah. Um I mean definitely the ThinkPad X9P cuz

[32:24] that's just uh the X9P is like the the pro version basically Yeah. of of the regular X9 and X9's my favorite laptop. Yeah. So um And just for the viewers who this laptop for? What What What is it? Just like you know.

[32:38] >> Yeah, so the the regular X9 is like a thin and light, you know, has Lunar basic use laptop, but you know, it can do a little bit cuz it's got Lunar Lake screen's better quality than the MacBook Air screen, similar kind of portability,

[32:52] >> is insane. It it's the only one of those laptops I've used that actually feels like my MacBook Air back at home. But the X9P, um it's been a bit, so I'm not spec off the top of my head, but it does have a higher wattage chip in it. So

[33:07] it's it's not that lower in um you know, chip. Um I think it goes up to 45 watts. >> And it's Panther Lake, of course. Panther Lake. And the other thing it has is a better port. I believe it has an I believe it has an HDMI port in the 15. I

[33:20] the ports. >> Yeah. Um the the current 15 does have an there. Um but yeah, um the bottom design's a little bit different. They've made that uh what does Lenovo

[33:36] it's called. Where all the fans are on the bottom. Um accommodate the the heating solution. Um because it's a higher wattage chip, they did up the battery capacity uh to compensate for that, so I I hope that

[33:51] the battery life is still good because like I said, it's so good in the current X9 15, and so I hope that that doesn't get lost with this. Um but yeah, that's that's the big one for me. Oh gee, how could I forget? They

[34:05] actually milled out um the speakers like MacBooks. Um and so you have the uh the up-firing speakers as well. So just um and you want to send one over here, yep, I'll take a look at it for you.

[34:20] Well, guys, I think that was a pretty long video. Uh we didn't intend it to be you guys get to hear directly from Seth, who is hands-on day in, day out testing laptops. I think last year in a 12-week kind of was like 98 or something laptops

[34:34] that this year pretty pretty handily. Um just interesting to hear from Seth who's not only testing them you're not testing them in isolation. You've got most of the major ones directly in the room

[34:47] which you can quickly compare and it gives you a deeper insight than I think what a regular user would get which I think is kind of helpful. So, Thanks for having me. Yep. >> Man, thank you guys for I think you guys

[34:59] for tagging along. I really really appreciate it. Yeah, and uh like, subscribe, all that kind of fun stuff, tell your friends, um say hi to your mom we'll catch you later. See you guys.