Used 12″ Skylake Biz Laptops

I came across a Dell Latitude E7270 and liked it a bit, except for its crap touchpad. This post will be supplemental to a video I will upload. Originally I wanted to compare 5 laptops, but… finding specs is just a pain in the ass. So I went with two others, the HP EliteBook 820 G3 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X260, both in 12″ size & with Skylake processors. I also added the cheaper Dell E5270, which is just missing a few little things but has a different build quality. I was going to add a Toshiba Portege Z30-C, but it was a 13.3″ laptop, and the XPS 13 compares better to it. But there’s the 4th business standard that stands on its own, the Late 2016 MacBook Pro 13.

I’m going to skim a bit on the comparisons, not going deep when it comes to battery life benchmarks, heat, each screen panel differences, etc. When it comes to prices, an E7270 is prob the best to buy, due to the sheer amount available, & they are priced the “lowest” until you get picky. If you’re going the i7 route, the 820 G3 & E5270 can be copped for less. The 820 G3 & E7270 can get their LCDs replaced the cheapest without the DIY hacksaw route.

Images are taken from Notebookcheck.net, so feel free reading a much more comprehensive review from them.

• Lenovo ThinkPad X260 WXGA
• Dell Latitude 12 E5270
• HP EliteBook 820 G3
• Dell Latitude E7270

Used Prices

Ok, why As Is vs the i5 or i7 units? The latter two have a Windows 10 installed, and I know y’all might use linux, but I did this specifically because they come with a SSD or HDD installed (u cant sell winblows on a USB), which means they may come with a battery and/or AC adapter. With that said the E5270 is the cheapest to get as is, so if you’re ok fixing it up, go for that? For i5, the E7270 looks to be cheaper in low and my high recommended prices. On the i7, the 820 G3 seems to cut the cake, at price, but the E5270 can be had for cheaper if u need performance at any cost. For FHD options, the 820 & E5270 look to sell the lowest. When you consider availability, there are many E7270’s in the market. But there are a lot of MacBooks sold online too, however the current availability is less… but its probably because I have to modify the search to ignore SCAMMER shitcunts like macexpressoutlet, weliky, seebelectronics, & apple-computers-nyc to find precise results, but sadly have to cut out other 2016 sales because these cunts type 2016, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 because they SCAM unprepared buyers.

Best – E7270
Runner up – 820 G3
Close 3rd – X260

Processor

Most of these systems share similar processors. Except for the Dell laptops, I was able to find what CPUs existed for each laptop via OEM site & EveryMac. I don’t know what Dell truly offers, but the 4 processors are the only ones I found listings for on eBay.

Comparing the four CPUs Dell offers, HP & Lenovo has one lesser i7 option, but Lenovo offers one more i3. In regards to apple, only the 2.6 i7 is shared, & the other CPUs are much different. All units have HD 520 Graphics on the PC side, while Apple only has Iris 540… What doesn’t make sense is the i7-6600U because it has HD on PCs but Iris on Apple. On the MacBook this is when the TouchBar unit came about, the 2.0 i5 & 2.4 i7 are on the non Touch Bar units, while the 2.9 i5, 3.1 i5 & 3.3 i7 units are on the TouchBar ones.

Best – MacBook Pro TouchBar

The E7270 is the cheapest to just replace the motherboard and has the most available. Due to not knowing specific P/N for the Macbook, I couldn’t find much prices on eBay & will probably be a lot more if you go the i7 route… Again the TouchBar MBP has soldered Storage, so it’s why it costs considerably more on the used market. The E5270 has one i7 motherboard but its available in china, so best to just buy an i7 unit with a botched screen. The HP and Lenovo are about the same price, but don’t have that much available.

Best – E7270

Memory

         Min  Max    Type    Slots  Speed
E7270  - 4GB  24GB?  DDR4    2      2133 - 2400
830 G3 - 4GB  32GB   DDR4    2      2133
X260   - 4GB  32GB   DDR4    1      2133
MBP    - 8GB  16GB   LPDDR3  0      2133
E5270  - 4GB  32GB   DDR4    2      2133

All of the CPU’s can support a max of 32GB RAM via Intel’s site. The MacBook is fucked because soldered RAM, but since it uses LPDDR3 it is an energy saver, I believe DDR4 memory wasn’t available to be soldered at the time. The E7270 is a strange case, because on Dell’s website it states that 16GB RAM is the max it supports, yet it says the E5270 can handle 32GB. Additionally I cannot find 32GB E7270 units on eBay or Amazon, but I did find 24GB units. For the E5270 you can find 32GB units on eBay, so I’m assuming it was configured this way via factory & I couldn’t find forum posts of people upgrading the E7270 to 32GB. X260 can accept one 32GB module, so have fun with that!

Best – 830 G3 & E5270

For machines this small, 8GB is my recommended “minimum” and 16GB would be the maximum for these sized machines. I didn’t include 12GB or 24GB because no one is sells mixed RAM modules in a set like that (sets of 3 or 6 yea). If you want to go higher than 16GB, realize that none of these systems are quadcores, and the performance you probably need will greatly be used on a larger system. But if you still persist, go 32GB for bragging rights, or if you’re wanting a small system for coding, extreme photoshop layer effects & heavy music editing. Most of the highest price units are new RAM modules and some of them are gamer ram w/ heatsinks.

Storage

          m.2       2.5"   Both?  NVMe 3.0
E7270  -  2280      None   N/A    x2
820 G3 -  2280      Yes    Sorta  x4
X260   -  2280      Yes    Yes    x2
5270   -  2280      Yes    No     x2
MBP    -  Gen 3A    None   N/A    N/A
MBP TB -  Soldered  None   N/A    N/A

The X260 is the only PC unit that has the 2.5″ separated from the m.2 drive slot. Whereas the 820 G3 & E5270 have the m.2 overlapping with the 2.5″ slot. The 820 G3 could get both drives, but it is a tight fit and sticks out a bit, additionally you could remove the 2.5″ SSD housing for a better fit. The E7270 does not have a 2.5″ bay, though there is an empty space in my unit for something else. If you’re going Apple, the non-touchbar unit has their Gen 3A type of SSD, and the TouchBar version has their storage soldered, the non-TB is obviously the better choice :P. Additionally these PC units had SATA m.2 drives as default, so when you win an auction w/ an SSD, there’s a high chance it’s not NVMe (unless the seller says otherwise). If so, a budget 256GB NVMe drive is about $45 used/open box. For the MacBook, expect to pay $170 easily for a used Gen 3A of the same size. I am witholding extensive price research on NVMe drives due to my inexperience with them.

Best – X260 for Versatility, 820 G3 for speed

I/O Ports

Other than the MacBook, four PC laptops all have about the same amount of port connectivity. The 820 G3 has two “classic” USB ports, but has one USB-C which is unfortunately not ThunderBolt 3 compatible. The E7270 & X260 have the “best” amount of ports, but the E7270 has 3 status LEDs on front. The MacBooks don’t have an SD Card slot, which will require a dongle, but consider their market is geared to the high end photography & video camera market, which have many cameras using the QXD & CF Card format.

Best – X260 & E7270

ETC

Display
         E7270     820     X260    E5270    MBP
HD         X        X        X       X
All Cost 40-140   40-100  35-100  45-100 
HD+

FHD        X        X        X       X
        95-155   70-110   60-100  60-130
Touch      X        X                X
        90-220    105+             45+   
QHD

WQXGA                                       X
Cost                                     310-930

MacBook wins on the display, just on resolution and color accuracy, however the price is FUCKING HIGH as hell. I’m not going to dive deep on each different displays the other laptops have, but yea most FHD panels for sale are all IPS with OK color accuracy and depth. Whats weird is that the X260 is not available with a touch screen, however the X260 Yoga is… which is different build all together and I’m not covering it here :P. Most units use matte displays minus the touchscreen versions & the MBP ofc. I don’t know if the TouchBar MBP requires a different LCD connector, sooo that’s research for you to do if you go that route. :/

Best – MacBook Pro, Runner up – 820 G3 & E7270

Battery
E7270  - 3 Cell 42Whr Internal  7  Hours?
         4 Cell 55Whr Internal  11 Hours?
         $47 to $70 for all

820 G3 - 3 Cell 44Whr Internal  7  Hours?
         $35 to $50

X260   - 3 Cell 23Whr Internal  6  Hours
         3 Cell 23Whr External  6  Hours
         6 Cell 48Whr External  12 Hours
         6 Cell 72Whr External  19 Hours
         $55 for internal (China wait time)
         $40 to $60+ for external units

MBP    - 4 Cell 54Whr Internal  10 Hours
         $60 to $200 (with or without topcase)
         $200 at apple store

MBP TB - 4 Cell 49Whr Internal  10 Hours
         $80 to $300+ (with or without topcase)
         $200 at apple store

E5270  - 3 Cell 47Whr Internal  7  Hours?
         4 Cell 62Whr Internal  12 Hours?
         $40 to $65 for all

X260 can have the highest battery life thanks to its dual battery build. Anecdotal: For the E7270, I seem to get about 4.5 hours of battery life with 15 chrome tabs & a youtube video playing in the background w/ the keyboard backlit & the 3rd lowest brightness settings. Price wise, the 820 G3 is the cheapest to replace a battery, with plenty of units available in the USA. After that the battery prices tend to be around the same, genuine or non OEM. The MacBook is the most expensive, but you can get it replaced at an Apple Service station, however you will have to wait for it, & get a whole new assembly, because the battery is like hella superglued onto it. The bad thing is that an Apple Genuis/Service Provider can decline the repair if they see some out of place things, or have it come back with a borked or resett SSD.

Best – X260, MacBook Pro in 2nd

             E7270  820  X260  E5270  MBP
TouchPad       X     X     X     X     X
Buttons        2     2     0     2     0
TrackPoint    N/A    X     X    N/A   N/A
Buttons       N/A    2     3    N/A   N/A

First off, the E7270 is goddamn attrocious to use for its touchpad. it is small and it seems to register my finger to click N drag when I clearly just want to move the mouse. Super frustrating, I can’t comment on the 820 G3, but I did have some annoyance with the Zbook G3 Studio… but not this bad. The MBP ofc would have the best touchpad option, it is fucking huge, and if you need it, the TouchBar version is neat with its added features on some applications. The X260 is the only one with a 3 button trackpoint, the 820 at least has it, but for some reason Dell got rid of it on their smaller units… so maybe an XPS 13 would be a better choice.

Best – MacBook Pro TouchBar, Runner up – X260

Ok, i think that’s all I’ll have to say about these machines… this article took me way too long, 4 days of research/typing, I expected only one day, but obviously I am garbage at inputting information. 🙂 Video coming up soon if its not shown yet.