Laptop for travel, client meetings and light modeling

[Jens]

Hi guys

I need a laptop that I can bring to client meetings, use on travels and workshops (light 3ds max and photoshop work) and also just on the sofa at home. Not at all a portable workstation.
So it needs to be portable and light (thinking 14" and under 1.7kg). Have a good screen 1920p will be fine, but needs good color accuracy). Good battery life. No fancy gaming laptop. Simple design. 8gb ram minimum.

I'm not sure what is needed cpu/gpu wise for my needs. Will an i5/i7 with the onboard HD520 gpu suffice for light 3ds max and photoshop work or is it totally hopeless? I'm thinking that the discrete GPUs loose out on battery performance/portability.

The Dell XPS is too expensive. I'm currently looking at the Lenovo Yoga 700/710.

What are you guys using / any advice?

Thanks.

[Juraj]

The Dell XPS is too expensive

I know : / But it's pretty much the only worthy laptop.

Integrated IntelHD graphics are surprisingly good for 3ds Max. I can't explain it. 3ds Max..

[burnin]

after almost 2 years still smiling, using surfacepro 3 (i5, 8GB ram, 256GB SSD) with great colors & resolution, decent battery life (5-8h)... noticed that clients are quite more satisfied & prefer tablet for demonstration (with a pen to make some doodles, notes /epicpen/)
even done some renderings on, painting with verve & expresii (both use fluid simulations)

[Juraj]

We bought Surface 4 pro to my mom, so she can look through stuff..

It's amazing piece of hardware. Again so damn expensive. But I think that's the ultimate client shower too. The display is beyond beautiful, imho even better than the one on XSP 13 Veronika uses.

[Jens]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm glad to hear that max should run okay on the integrated GPU type.

Had my eyes on the Surface Pro 4 too, but yeah its priced as the Dell XPS. The Surface Pro 5 should come early 2017 according to various sites, so would feel a bit silly buying it so late in the cycle.

Think I'll go with the Lenovo Yoga 710 then.

PS. Thanks for that epicpen link burnin!