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Hi there,
I'm considering getting a new laptop for video editing and I was wondering what would be your opinion regarding the following laptop: https://store.hp.com/NetherlandsStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=3L493EA&opt=ABH&sel=NTB#specs
Specter x360 specs:
Initially, I was thinking about getting the Predator Helios 300: https://nl-store.acer.com/predator-helios-300-gaming-laptop-ph315-52-zwart-1 but having a touchscreen for some design work could be handy (hence the Specter x360 consideration).
Helios specs:
Between those two, pick your poison. The HP has a "newer" CPU (but note that "newer" is a misnomer since even the "10th-Generation" Intel mainstream CPUs, both mobile and desktop, use a tweaked-over-and-over-again version of the architecture that dated all the way back to the Skylake architecture from 2015, which was utilized in the 6th-Generation Intel CPUs) but a significantly weaker GPU, while the Helios has an older-gen CPU but a (relatively) more powerful GPU. HP had to cut corners in order
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Between those two, pick your poison. The HP has a "newer" CPU (but note that "newer" is a misnomer since even the "10th-Generation" Intel mainstream CPUs, both mobile and desktop, use a tweaked-over-and-over-again version of the architecture that dated all the way back to the Skylake architecture from 2015, which was utilized in the 6th-Generation Intel CPUs) but a significantly weaker GPU, while the Helios has an older-gen CPU but a (relatively) more powerful GPU. HP had to cut corners in order to squeeze in a 4k touchscreen display for not much of a price increase over the Acer. Had HP included the RTX 2060 instead, that laptop would have cost almost double that of the Helios.
Furthermore, the GTX 1650 with Max-Q is a slower-clocked version of the plain mobile GTX 1650, both of which are based on a TU117 GPU that is saddled with the older Volta NVENC encoder - while the RTX 2060 (both mobile and desktop) are based on a TU106 GPU with the newer Turing encoder. And starting with Premiere Pro 14.2, exporting to H.264 or HEVC will now utilize Nvidia's NVENC. And to top it all off, the GTX 1650 with Max-Q still has only a 128-bit memory bus with only GDDR5 VRAM while the RTX 2060 Mobile has a 192-bit memory bus with newer, faster GDDR6 VRAM. Simply put, you put too much thought on the touchscreen and 4k but neglect one of the major performance influences of a laptop in this price range. And that is not to mention that a 15.6" screen is much too small for a 4k computer display. Stick with FHD (1920 x 1080) for a display of that size.
Worst of all, that particular Spectre x360 model does not offer an alternative CPU or GPU selection at all whatsoever - even as an extra-cost option. There are other Spectre x360 configurations that offer lesser CPUs and only integrated Intel UHD Graphics (no discrete GPU at all whatsoever).
So, for Premiere Pro use I would ditch both the touchscreen and the 4k display in favor of the better-performing GPU, in this case.
Both of those laptops completely disable the integrated Intel UHD Graphics that's part of the CPU itself by hardwiring their displays directly to the discrete GPU. In this situation, you will not get hardware decoding of H.264 or HEVC files at all because Intel QuickSync (the only API that Adobe currently supports for hardware decoding) is permanently disabled along with the IGP. Adobe does not currently support NVDEC (which is required for either the 1650 or the 2060 to hardware-decode H.264 and HEVC) in any of its officially released builds.