Good Entry-level Lenovo 3050e / 4GB / 128GB SSD / 15.6" / 1080P $199 @ Newegg (SS)

[VirtualLarry]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

These will do "4K" (simulated, but works darn well, esp. YT) using VSR-enabled in drivers.

 

[gibster]

soldered RAM? Can't seem to find confirmation. Also, any room for SSD or m.2?

Ah, found it, yes to soldered unfortunately.

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/IdeaPad/IdeaPad_1_14ADA05/IdeaPad_1_14ADA05_Spec.pdf

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, 4GB soldered, no slot (from what I've read).

OTOH, the SSD is M.2 NVMe, and replaceable, though I don't know if it's a 2242 or 2280 size.

 

[gibster]

Yeah, 4GB soldered, no slot (from what I've read).

OTOH, the SSD is M.2 NVMe, and replaceable, though I don't know if it's a 2242 or 2280 size.

Lenovo loves them some 2242, that's what I got in an IdeaPad 3, sigh 😞

I'm in the market for another laptop, again for my daughter (she made do with a Chromebook for a while, but claims it's too slow, LOL).
I'm almost to the point I will buy her the same laptop I got, a 5800H/16GB/512GB/RTX3050 Lenovo from MC. I upgraded mine to 32GB and added a 2TB SSD, for her probably will not need to do any of that. Ideally I was looking for a 5600H one that *should* be cheaper, but they seem to be in short supply, or more expensive. The one at MC is only $750, seems like a decent enough deal, I think I paid more for mine last year (like at least $800):

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6" Laptop Computer Platinum Collection - Black; AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA - Micro Center

Get it now! Run your favorite PC games smoothly, the way they were meant to be enjoyed with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, DDR4 memory, and M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage.

www.microcenter.com

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you can live within 4GB of RAM, these are really awesome little laptops, if you like a lot of screen res. (for browsing), and crank them up to 4KUHD.

 

[gibster]

Hmm, the price is good, but newegg...

 

[mikeford]

Will these do x265, my phone goes to a pixelated mess with higher rez and non x264

 

[VirtualLarry]

Will these do x265, my phone goes to a pixelated mess with higher rez and non x264

Pretty sure the various Zen+ APUs with Vega graphics will handle hardware h.264, h.265, and VP1, hardware 4K or possibly 8K decode.

Edit: At least, they'll (currently) do 4K YouTube without issue (*). (I've owned one of these before, but I sat on it a few times, and I weigh 450lbs+. Screen didn't crack, thankfully, but chassis hinges got mangled. Actual hinges are metal, but chassis is plastic.)

(*) Don't know about AV1, if YT moves to that codec.