Advice about gaming laptop

[Indigomoon]

Hello.

I bought a legion 5i pro gen 7 laptop on Black Friday last year. It had a 2 TB SSD, i7-12700H processor, 2x16gb 4800mhz ddr5 RAM and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070Ti 8 GB GDDR6 GPU.

I really liked the laptop except for the fact that the fans were on and audible at all times, even when the laptop was cold, I wasn't doing anything and CPU usage was at 1-2%.

My dad complained a lot about the weight of it, and spending the holidays with my parents made me want to get something that was easier to bring to the library in situations like that.

I got another laptop that's less heavy. I haven't recieved it yet. It has a smaller screen size (14.5 vs 16"), less storage space (1 TB) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB GDDR GPU instead. Same processor. Some other differences as well.

I'm a bit undecided about wether I should keep the legion laptop for home use or return it. I have spoken to Lenovo and I can return it for a full refund.

The alternative to keeping the legion laptop is to see if the other laptop is enough for my needs and purchase another one, or a desktop pc, next Black Friday if needed.

I think there are new versions coming out with 13th generation processors, but if they'll cost more than 3000-3500 dollars I wouldn't be interested. I don't know if the type I have will be available next year. It's not available now and I don't know if they will start selling it again when newer ones are arriving. I've found some articles listing 'starting prices' in the US, but I don't know if that will be the cost for a laptop with similar specs or newer parts than the one I have. The prices in Norway are also higher.

Since I have warranty, I can get support to look at the laptop and fix or replace it if the fan noise is abnormal, or get a pair of noise cancelling headphones to use with it.

Just thought I'd see if anyone has some advice for me.

I can afford having two laptops, but I don't know if it will benefit me substantially. I would like something I could do most things with for several years. I was thinking of using ut for streaming on Twitch, video editing, streaming on other platforms, photo editing, programming, schoolwork and entertainment.

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

do most things with for several years. I was thinking of using ut for streaming on Twitch, video editing, streaming on other platforms, photo editing, programming, schoolwork and entertainment

Any gaming planned? If yes, what kind of games?

I can return it for a full refund

Do that. Money is more flexible than a laptop, or any other material good.

 

[PCG Dash]

I'm a bit undecided about wether I should keep the legion laptop for home use or return it. I have spoken to Lenovo and I can return it for a full refund.

If you have doubts, definitely return it while you still can!

As @Brian Boru said, money is much more versatile. If you keep the laptop and end up not using it, it will quickly depreciate in value as the specs become less competitive over time. The 3050 should still be sufficient for the tasks you've outlined (unless you're playing particularly recent high-spec games at the highest settings) and if you end up missing the better performance in a few months time you can always wait for another sale and buy something comparable with the cash later.