Six reasons to pick an AMD Ryzen 4000 laptop
Don’t get mad, get AMD
Buying a new laptop is a big decision. Not only are there many baffling choices and trade-offs to be made between price and performance, but professional reviews often refer to machines with wildly different specs to the ones you see in online retail listings. No pressure, then, for a decision that you’ll have to live with for the next three to six years.
Fortunately, there’s one decision you can make right now that you’re unlikely to regret: making sure your laptop is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 4000 Series of processors. Not only does the chip offer a stupendous amount of power, it does so at a fantastic price.
If you’re still in doubt, here are six reasons you should choose AMD for your next laptop.
1. It’s a multitasking machine
Every AMD Ryzen 4000 processor is a pretty impressive feat of engineering, with the company able to stick up to eight cores onto an efficient 7nm processor. That, in turn, makes any AMD Ryzen 4000 Series-powered laptop a multitasking machine.
Image credit: AMD
While other laptops may struggle when running multiple programs – video-editing software and a browser with dozens of tabs open, say – a laptop powered by a Ryzen 4000 chip can do far more without breaking a sweat. It’s 25% faster than the previous generation of AMD’s laptop processors¹, and that’s a responsiveness that you can feel when it counts.
2. There’s a Ryzen 4000 chip for every need
Ryzen 4000 laptops come in all shapes and sizes – and that’s because there are two flavours of the chip for different needs.
Want a thin and portable Ultrabook that can deal with streaming, office work and browsing? Choose a machine with an efficient U-Series chip inside. Want something for photo and video editing? Check out the Ryzen 4000 H-Series, where base clock speeds hit 3.3GHz.
Browse Lenovo IdeaPad laptops now
3. It gives you tip-top performance in a super-thin frame
Image credit: AMD
If you just need a laptop to do the basics, you’ll be surprised at just how thin, light and beautiful AMD-powered laptops can get.
The Ryzen 5 4500U-powered Acer Swift 3, for example, is a mere 15.95mm thick and tips the scales at just 1.2kg.
4. The new Ryzen chips go on and on
In a desktop, power consumption isn’t that big a deal: obviously it’s nice to keep your bills down, but losing work shouldn’t be an issue, unless there’s a power cut. But with a laptop, efficiency is important: you don’t want to worry about having to plug into the mains every couple of hours.
Thankfully, the Ryzen 4000 Series is a huge improvement on previous generations in terms of battery life. By moving to a smaller 7nm manufacturing process, things have improved to such a degree that the 4000 Series offers twice the power efficiencies of previous AMD processors². That means you can work for longer – although you’re still advised to keep a charger nearby if you’re a gamer: the CPU may be efficient, but GPUs still need plenty of juice.
5. It can make games fly while looking beautiful
A gaming laptop powered by an AMD Ryzen 4000 H-Series processor and a suitably beefy dedicated GPU can really let your frame rates fly.
Image credit: AMD
The AMD Ryzen 4000 chipset plays nicely with GPUs made by Nvidia or – as you’d expect – AMD. So whether you want the raw power of a Radeon 5600M chipset or the stunning ray-tracing effects of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 20-series GPU, you’ll find a Ryzen 4000 chip a very capable companion for gamers of all stripes.
6. Ryzen 4000 laptops offer great power AND great value
Not only does the Ryzen 4000 chipset provide great performance and efficiency in comparison to previous AMD chips: AMD-powered laptops often beat their rivals, too.
Of the laptops we’ve tested in 2020, the AMD Ryzen 4000-based machines have all performed brilliantly and this was particularly evident with the lightweight Acer Swift 3. With the AMD Ryzen 7 4000U onboard, the Swift 3 performed superbly well across the board, even when compared with similarly priced rivals.
In short, whether you’re looking for a sleek Ultrabook or a powerful mobile workhorse, the AMD Ryzen 4000 Series has something for everyone. It’s energy-efficient, fast, brilliant at multitasking and offers great value for money. If you’re buying a new laptop, you owe it to yourself to get a model with a new Ryzen chip working for you behind the scenes.
Ryzen 4000 laptops available now from Currys PC World
Asus ZenBook 14, 256GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U
Asus ZenBook 14, 512GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U
Acer Swift 3, 1TB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, silver
Acer Swift 3, 1TB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, purple
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, 256GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, grey
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, 256GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, teal
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, 512GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, grey
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, 512GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, teal
HP Envy 13 x360, 256GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U
HP Envy 15 x360, 512GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U
Lead image credit: AMD
¹Testing by AMD Performance Labs as of 11/22/2019 utilizing the Ryzen 7 4800U vs 2nd Gen Ryzen 7 3700U in Cinebench R20 Benchmark. Results may vary. RM3-06
²Based on AMD internal analysis, March 2020, of Ryzen 4000 Series processors vs 2nd Gen Ryzen processors. Actual performance per watt may vary.