Best Laptop for Anime/VN

[moodie]

i know this is so cringe but I'm coming from a mac and i realized this isn't working out for me. the fact that i have vlc is pissing me off and i can't watch anime to its highest potential. also downloading VNs is a bitch process.

please can annoying rec me a good laptop with the best specs for my needs regardless of the price

[Jaden]

Well...the most important thing for anime/VNs is the monitor, right? In that sense, I'd think that a mac was ideal. You could just install windows on it if that's bothering you.

[IceHism]

When it comes to VNs, use windows. Either you make a Virtual Machine and install windows on it or you might use Wine if that works. Also, any potato can play a VN so don't worry about specs. You just need windows.

When it comes to watching anime, you'll have to settle with some app from the appstore. I don't really know since I don't have a Mac yet. Usually, I would ditch VLC and install Kawaii Codec Pack with SVP project but that's only on windows.

Alternatively, just use bootcamp and dual boot windows from that straight from your Mac. The drivers are okay enough and you will probably suffer on battery life but it works

If you REALLY need to get a windows laptop, then it'll hardly matter which one to get. Watching video is like child's play for any modern laptop. If you are going for maximum frames, you will probably want one with a good processor tho. You can probably find some good deals on refurbished or used laptops.

Some sample suggestions from my experience
High budget:
Razer Blade
MSI laptops
Asus Zenbook UX501 pro

Mid range
Any modern ultrabook I guess? Dell XPS13, HP Spectre x360, Asus UX303LN. Etc etc.

Low range
Prob something with an I3 with a shitty 5400 rpm hard drive. I don't really suggest down here.

[MrSharigan]

I just purchased the HP Spectre x360 few weeks ago and I absolutely love it!
Best thing I've ever bought!

[Kafriel]

I'm using a dell inspiron 15 from the 3000 series, it can hold its own as a gaming laptop. That being said, as a fellow VLC hater, I installed linux mint on a separate partition, which I keep for watching movies/anime on SMplayer (like BS player but kinda better) and due to its lightweight nature in comparison, it's MUCH faster when it comes to browsing (almost 1 second faster page flipping/image loading). This is my high-end recommendation, IIRC I bought it for ~600 euros, 5 months ago.

As a mid-range suggestion, ANY old laptop is good enough - I had to buy one because my 7 year-old HP laptop finally died out, completely, after running with a broken fan and a faulty power supply for 3 years...it still had XP though xD

Low-range: only if you get a used laptop from someone you know OR hit laptop sales on previous gen models.

[SeijiSensei]

As a Linux user, smplayer has been my choice for years now. rvm makes a version of SMPlayer for Windows as well that bundles the mplayer engine. You can also use the newer mpv as the engine instead. In fact, there's an OS X version of mpv on that page that you should try right now. You might find that's all you need.

For Ubuntu users, I recommend the PPAs maintained by Doug McMahon. For those of us running 14.04LTS, this PPA is a gold mine.

I've watched anime on a wide variety of laptops. Nowadays processors are fast enough that you can buy pretty much anything and get good performance. Go to a local store and browse around so you can look at the screens and try out the keyboards.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

I have a Macbook Pro 13" w/ Retina Display (late 2014 model) and it's awesome for watching media. That 2560x1600 screen resolution (it's basically QHD) is amazing on a laptop that size. And the graphics card helps it from getting choppy even when it scales from different resolutions. It's on the high end of laptop pricing, though. At least as a media device.

Other options:
HP Spectre x360 (others have mentioned it and I can vouch for its quality. It has both i5 and i7 versions available, though the i7's are easier to find in stores)
HP ENVY series
Lenovo Yoga series (quite a few models to choose from based on your screen size and component preference. Very small, lightweight, but still powerful and nice screens. Plus many have SSD's.)
Dell XPS series (specifically the Dell XPS 13, though Dells tend to be slower based on their plethora of junk software)
Asus laptops (ones with i5 or better processors)

Options that I don't recommend:
Toshiba laptops (lower pricing and they do have a 4k resolution laptop option but they have shitty hard drives that are known to fail frequently)
Dell laptops outside the XPS series (just too damn slow, and they don't usually have number pads either)
Low end computers less than $400 USD (low resolution screens and bad processors. DON'T go below an AMD A8 or Intel i3 processor if you plan on keeping the computer more than a year. I consider those to be bare minimum for functionality.)

Most important 2 aspects for you is the processor and screen resolution. Make sure you get a Full HD screen at least (which is 1080p), and I'd recommend an i5 or better processor. Both for speed in daily use and because they have better built-in graphical chipsets if you're not getting one with a dedicated graphics card (like an NVIDIA or AMD GPU). RAM can be anywhere from 4-8 GB. I'd recommend 6 or 8. 4 is considered industry minimum at this point in time, 6 is recommended, and 8 is optimal. More than 8 is overkill unless you're doing video editing or gaming. For harddrive I'd recommend an SSD (solid-state drive) over an HDD (hard drive disk) for speed and long-term reliability, though they will be more pricey and have less overall storage space (often 128-256GB versus 500GB-1TB). SSDs have an estimated lifetime of approximately 10+ years and often outlast the computers in which they're installed.

* * *

TL;DR - recommended minimum standards: i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD or 1TB HDD. Graphics card an optional bonus for power-users, not a requirement. Brand is personal preference based upon look and feel.

[Wolfe La Piroko]

For laptops, lenovo is by far my favourite company in terms of cost, reliability and durability.
I am currently using a T550 but thats a dev laptop, not good for what you need. How about a http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops...series/g50-45/

Low cost (well, affordable) and has most of the features other people recommend.

I would recommend getting a desktop and building it yourself based on your needs, it would come out cheaper and you would end up with a better system

But then I am a massive advocate of l33t super over the top systems so what do I know

[Tiberium Wolf]

For running 720 encodes you need at least a CPU equivalent to a Core™2 Duo E6600. I have this desktop one since 2007 and I have no complains.

No opinion on 1080.

[SeijiSensei]

Not necessarily. Video adapters fron NVIDIA and AMD/ATI have built-in circuitry to decode H.264-encoded materials. I have an Atom-basd netbook with an NVIDIA processor that handles HD content.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Well yeah. The Gfx shouldn't be some crap either.

[SineMora]

Windows in terms of compatibility. I prefer Windows 7, because some older VNs have problems with Windows 8. Even a single core computer have no problems as long as you have a good gfx card.

If you are running on other O.S. watch out for your processor's specs and the RAM, using VMs in high performance mode eats a lot of it. (Learned it the hard way during class)

Oh last piece of advice: KEEP YOUR LAPTOP COOL. Heat is your biggest enemy here.

[IceHism]

Everyone, Intel HD graphics runs media and VNs perfectly fine. You don't need to shell out for a gfx card if you wanna save money. Intact, an external gfx card doesn't do anything except kill your laptop's battery even faster when its not connected to an outlet.

Only buy a gfx card if you want the absolute best hardware acceleration on codecs that support it or if you want to play high and demanding video games. Other than that, you really don't need it since today's integrated graphics are already pretty good and being able to play media and VNs are possible on potatoes.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

As a Linux user, smplayer has been my choice for years now. rvm makes a version of SMPlayer for Windows as well that bundles the mplayer engine. You can also use the newer mpv as the engine instead. In fact, there's an OS X version of mpv on that page that you should try right now. You might find that's all you need.

For Ubuntu users, I recommend the PPAs maintained by Doug McMahon. For those of us running 14.04LTS, this PPA is a gold mine.

I've watched anime on a wide variety of laptops. Nowadays processors are fast enough that you can buy pretty much anything and get good performance. Go to a local store and browse around so you can look at the screens and try out the keyboards.

You can play VNs and stuff on Linux?!

I may seriously consider changing OS once my Win 7 finally fails in that case...

[Wolfe La Piroko]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

You can play VNs and stuff on Linux?!

I may seriously consider changing OS once my Win 7 finally fails in that case...

Im guessing people mean Wine which is great for non intensive features like VNs.
As for Linux... As someone who uses it intensely at work, I only recommend it if you are a "nerd". As much as Linux-fanboys like to promote the idea that Linux is simple if you try, its really not. Its not hard, but it requires you to read around, research and get into it.

But if you do go for it, I recommend Ubuntu or one of its children as a starting point.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by IceHism

Everyone, Intel HD graphics runs media and VNs perfectly fine.

That's true now, but it wasn't true five years ago.

Originally Posted by SeraphimofEden

Im guessing people mean Wine which is great for non intensive features like VNs.

I was replying to the part of the request that concerned watching anime. Windows-based games are another matter entirely. I don't play VNs, but I'd guess that most of the less-demanding games like those probably work fine in Wine. When I need Windows, I run Win7 in a VirtualBox virtual machine on top of my Kubuntu desktop. For modern games I dual-boot into Win7, because most games expect to talk directly to the video hardware. The emulated video adapter in the virtual machine isn't usually powerful enough to run modern games. Often they will simply refuse to install.

For Windows users on modern hardware, I recommend Kubuntu which uses the "K Desktop Environment." It should seem very familiar. You can take a test drive of Kubuntu by booting off the installation disc and choosing "Try Kubuntu" when given the opportunity. It will run off the optical disc and not touch the machine's other drives at all. It will be much slower because of the performance of the optical disc. You can install the disc image to a USB thumbdrive as well; that's usually a bit more perky than using a CD/DVD.

[IceHism]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

That's true now, but it wasn't true five years ago.

For Windows users on modern hardware, I recommend Kubuntu which uses the "K Desktop Environment." It should seem very familiar. You can take a test drive of Kubuntu by booting off the installation disc and choosing "Try Kubuntu" when given the opportunity. It will run off the optical disc and not touch the machine's other drives at all. It will be much slower because of the performance of the optical disc. You can install the disc image to a USB thumbdrive as well; that's usually a bit more perky than using a CD/DVD.

I don't see the point of getting a 5+ year old laptop. Tons of cheap options today and laptops don't really last that long either unless you maintenance it yourself.

Hmm, what would you say is the difference between kubuntu and other Linus distros. Is it just Ubuntu with KDE instead of unity?

[SeijiSensei]

I wasn't arguing in favor of five-year-old laptops!

Yes, Kubuntu is Ubuntu with the KDE interface rather than Unity. The other "flavors" include Lubuntu, with LXDE, and Xubuntu with XFCE. These are more "light-weight" desktops than either KDE or Unity and work well on older hardware. Lubuntu looks a lot like Windows as well.

[Wolfe La Piroko]

I really like Mate just because of the way it looks. But Xubuntu has been the best one in terms of productivity for me.

However, I just remembered, Elementary OS is a very good choice for newbies. Plus its pretty.

[moodie]

ok well i decided to get the Dell XPS 13

anyone wanna give me a tut on this kawaii pack codec please

this is going to be my first windows since windows xp