Dear Lifehacker, I’ve been thinking about buying a Microsoft Surface Pro, as it will not only allow me to keep running my Windows programs, but with the Core-i5 CPU it packs some nice punch. However spending $1000 of my hard earned cash seems like a bit of a stretch for a device that has no graphics card and only features 4GB of RAM. So my question is this: Are there any nice touchscreen high-performance laptops available for around the same cost? Preferably it would also contain an Ivy-bridge processor, and be able to handle all of my gaming needs. However the touchscreen would really sell it. Any suggestions? Thanks, Staying In Touch
Dear SIT,
It’s certainly more than feasible to pick up a touchscreen enabled laptop for under $1000, but getting a high performance machine for that kind of price is just a wee bit harder, especially if you’re looking for something with its own graphics card, instead of inbuilt Intel or AMD, and more so if you’re looking for a system with a healthy amount of RAM. The laptop market is one that’s remarkably cutthroat when it comes to prices, but gaming laptops especially remain something of a premium market.
If the touchscreen concept truly excites you, it’s feasible to pick up units for around $500 — Asus’ F202 Vivo Book springs to mind — but that’s not a high-end machine. Moving up the price brackets, something like Toshiba’s P840/019 often goes for around $1000; that would meet your RAM and processor requirements — but it’s still just rocking an Intel HD 4000 graphics solution. Or Acer’s V5-571PG, which does feature an 1GB NVIDIA GPU — but only 4GB of RAM again. It doesn’t mean there’s utterly nothing out there — but you may have to really hunt and peck for a good special or perhaps an early second-hand unit. That said, the Surface Pro doesn’t have an Australian release date yet, so hunting is required in any case.
Cheers
Lifehacker
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