Shadowing Practice: My Son Needs a New Laptop - Learn English Speaking with Video

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355 sentences

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what did you do to this i mean

i've had this for five years i didn't ask how long

you had it i asked what you did to it i dropped

it one time off of a table like below my hip height it landed on the corner

and it just got completely bent all the other damage is

like oh yeah one of the screws is missing uh the screen is peeling here

it's kind of like there's a crack i put tape over it but That's an awful lot of words for dad.

I need a new laptop.

At least the timing is good for this.

He goes back to school in a week.

But with that said, just because you're not back to school yet, doesn't mean that you can't start learning.

Every other piece of technology in his life.

I've done the research, I've made the purchase and pretty much handed it to him.

This time you're on your own.

Oh joy.

to be honest it wasn't

that hard to do all the research I mean I just figured out what all the specs mean

and like what I want for school okay

but are you sure you've actually made a good decision I have a couple options for my top few

and then I'll show those to you later okay

so I guess we'll get to find out what

that means to him

you started of course by watching the LTT guide on how to choose a laptop right no

i didn't even know that was a thing classic

but you know what everyone knows is a thing is this

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first things first why don't you show me the initial research

that you've done could we look at it on my phone instead uh

you know i'll get my laptop let me have a look

at what you got here sorry the notes might be a little bit messy

i kind of just put everything in random order okay things

i don't know gigahertz p cores e cores purpose of ram and is that all stuff that you've figured out already?

Yeah.

I researched about all of these and then...

Okay.

So tell you what, without even looking at the dock then, why don't you try and summarize what exactly it is that you're looking for?

I want a chip that is able to actually run like 50 tabs at a time.

50?

Well, yeah, if I have five sub...

Them's rookie numbers.

VRAM drop.

Oh, no!

But okay, go on.

Well, my old Chromebook would like crash if I had 50 tabs open

so okay I want no lag with 50 tabs okay

so I probably need like 16 gigabytes of RAM okay

and a chip with maybe four to eight cores

and okay four to five gigahertz okay for storage

I want at least 512 gigabytes of storage 64 gigabytes was fine on my old Chromebook but since it can't even access

Windows apps it doesn't really need much more storage right

so that's a major difference this time he's going into high school

so all of a sudden while the school so

while the school allows him to use a chromebook

he actually doesn't have to anymore maybe awkward question though i walked down the stairs

while you were on your computer and i looked over your shoulder

and i saw apple .com i was thinking about it

but no it's so expensive

and the main benefit of all your devices being connected to each other I don't even get

that since I don't have other Apple devices.

I mean, you've got AirPods.

But that's just Bluetooth.

I can connect that to whatever.

That's fair enough.

We actually had a short conversation about it.

He just goes, why are these so expensive?

Does anyone actually buy these?

Yes.

Yes, they do.

It's like an addiction.

Like once you get into Apple, you can't get out.

But it's like you just have to get in first.

So I'm trying not to do that.

Okay.

That's fair enough.

The MacBook Neo only has eight gigs at nearly $1 ,000.

Yeah.

The Neo used to be a really good deal though

when it first came out

but now the price has gone up the price for everything went up ram is

so expensive ai is like taking over it sounds like you actually want pretty reasonable specs

i even see your weight requirements here you just want something

that's under five pounds

i mean five pounds is really heavy do you have any idea what a five pound laptop feels like no

you did all your research online right yeah why don't we go look at some actual laptops

and Experience them a little bit before you make a final decision.

Okay.

Let's do that.

Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are you going?

He's new to filming Doesn't know how to walk out of the frame as a transition

Okay, but seriously, where are we going?

The original plan was for us to go shopping, but what I realized is two things.

First, that since you did all of your research online,

the models that we would see in store might not even be the same ones that you saw in your research.

And number two is we sent our request to Best Buy Langley to film in the store too late, so we did not get permission.

So instead, we're going to drop by our inventory over at the lab this will give you a chance to

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while it's not necessarily the specific machine

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you're looking at really get a feel for what different classes of machines feel like

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i brought a shipping scale and a backpack

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so you can have a look at different weights of machines

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and like put them on and see how they feel to walk around with

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because you're gonna be carrying it basically all day can't possibly be

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that heavy five pounds is like one twentieth one thirtieth of my weight.

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Okay.

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Let's find a five pound machine then.

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Oh my goodness.

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Is that really what you want?

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I didn't think so.

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There's no way this is, this has to be like six pounds.

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4 .73 pounds.

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Okay.

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A five pound laptop is a mondo like gaming machine grade laptop, which is actually a pretty good question.

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Now, obviously I don't want it to distract from your studies, but do you want something that can run games at all?

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I mean, kind of at least, but I do have my PC at home, so I can just come home and play games.

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That is such a good answer.

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Love it.

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Gold star.

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With all that said, I don't know that you want to go completely to the other end of the spectrum either.

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Wow, that is tiny.

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Yeah, that's one of the older LG Grams that really focused on being as light as possible at the expense of,

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you know, that it might come apart at some point,

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and also you don't get really a very big battery i need it to last the whole school day

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if it dies that if

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that sucks another thing you haven't mentioned is do you care what kinds of ports

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it has no as long as it has a charging port okay

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it doesn't matter fair enough then is there anything

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that you've seen then that has made you kind of change your mind about the research

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that you did so far i don't think

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so okay want to show me what you settled on then yeah oh was it too heavy for no

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you you like slammed the back of it onto the all right chill i mean i don't know

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if that's what happened it's like how you drop stuff off 30

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we got oh god a nice mouse fastest upgrade ever how much does your laptop cost uh don't worry about

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that you're not getting one like this this is i think

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about 4 000 us dollars what it has 128 gigs of like the fastest ram

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and 16 core processor ludicrous onboard graphics it's not the kind of thing

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that i would actually buy it's the kind of thing

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that our asus rep just was like hey we really want you to try this

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and i was like okay

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so you just get free stuff that's cool i mean

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it's not really free like i've provided them a bunch of feedback on my experience with it

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so that has a value i think one petabyte uh yeah

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so our google drive storage scales with how many people we have on the account

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and we have like over 100 people so oh okay i thought

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that was like on here no heavens no okay show me what you got

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there's three other things we haven't talked about yet something with the touch screen

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because these trackpads i hate them

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so much it having to click on these all day like hurts your finger

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they're not accurate nobody tell them about macbook trackpads they're really good

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and then a large screen too

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because the old 13 .3 inch screen was just a little bit too small okay

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and then 120 hertz okay after switching to my 120 hertz

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phone 60 hertz just doesn't feel the same again okay show

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me what you chose you'd go back to lenovo after what happened to your last one

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that's bold the last laptop had a pretty low quality build it was like plastic

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and aluminum these ones are just aluminum okay all right 15 inches though yeah i want a big laptop

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so i can have two tabs open at the same time

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all right ideapad slim 5x snapdragon interesting do you know what

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that means a brand it's already fascinating watching a more normie shopping experience snapdragon uses a different instruction set architecture

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which basically means that not all windows apps will necessarily run on

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that machine they have good performance they get great battery life outstanding battery life

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but you might occasionally run up against a piece of software

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that doesn't open what are some examples of

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that software um it's mostly not mainstream stuff it's mostly like oh

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I want to like run this weird mod launcher for a game and it

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Might just not be compatible.

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That's probably fine.

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This one also doesn't have a gigantic battery 54 .7 watt -hours is on the low side,

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which is part of why this one is at a more reasonable price.

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What do you got next?

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Here's the one that was on sale.

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So this is my you do not want a 16 -inch laptop.

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Okay, let's go get one I'll show you why

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That is a 16 -inch laptop.

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It's beautiful.

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Do most people not like big laptops?

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tried to buy your mom a big laptop recently

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and she literally took it back to the store every time i lend you my laptop you complain

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that the screen is too small

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well as long as it fits in my ltt backpack

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it would be borderline

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this is this is a really big laptop do you have an ltt backpack here kind of a question is

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that something to note about this think book though is

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that it has a more square screen

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so it's actually going to be even larger

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but not as like side -by -side friendly

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so this is what a 16 -inch laptop would look like in here

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you could stretch it around the corners is this the commuter

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the similar okay coming very soon in this colorway by the way sign up for a notification lttstore .com okay

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it's not even that much bigger than your It doesn't look bigger until you realize it's diagonal and it's like...

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Which is exactly why a 16 inch screen is so much larger than a 15 .6.

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I mean this would be nice, having two tabs.

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Okay, alright.

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And then these ones also have like the number pad.

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So when I'm in math, it's way easier to do stuff.

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Okay not everybody likes the number pad because what it means is that

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when you're sitting dead on on your laptop

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you're kind of like this the trackpad centered relative to the keyboard though not all this lenovo does it

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and this vivobook does it but not all of them do

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so sometimes it can be a little wonky show me your third choice

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so i thought this was a bad deal till it went on sale

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and now i'm like wow that's a good deal dedicated gpu not a powerful one

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but absolutely enough to play rocket late for instance very gaming oriented

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but check the weight

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and also whenever you have a dedicated gpu you're going to get better performance in games

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but anytime you're not running games

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that gpu still has to be powered up a little bit

210

so you're going to give up a measurable amount of battery life i don't know

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that there's any guarantee that this is going to get through the day

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and also that's in spite of it having a 90 watt hour battery

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so that battery is physically 75 80 % larger than that first machine you showed me.

214

And you gotta carry all that weight around.

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2 .2 kilos, yeah, that's a five pound thick boy machine.

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Five pounds is way more than I thought it'd be.

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I mean, you lift, don't you?

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Well, yeah, but like a five pound weight is lighter than a five pound laptop.

219

Huh?

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It's like how cable lateral raises are heavier than lateral raises, like.

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Jim bro logic.

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Coming back to the ThinkBook 16 then, is this your top candidate at the moment?

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Yeah, because it has two cores more than the IdeaPad and it's only like $40 more expensive.

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Okay, now not all cores are made equal.

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Did you learn about E cores and P cores?

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E cores efficiency cores and P cores performance cores.

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And there's even more to it than that.

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So depending on the generation of those cores, they can be like way better or way not nearly as good as the other ones.

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So eight cores could be worse than six cores.

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If the eight cores are like lower generation.

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yeah okay

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so how do you how do you find the generation the generation number for intel is right here

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so these are last gen they're pretty okay and the battery life should be pretty solid

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this one that's the newest generation but these are those snapdragon ones

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that have a bit less compatibility

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so either of them is a pretty solid choice from a performance standpoint do you think

237

they're about the same it's hard for me to say for sure without benchmarking them

238

i say depending on the application this might be faster especially in like light single threaded tasks

239

but if you were to say render out a video

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or something like

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that just having more cores is probably going to benefit

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you more than having faster ones is there anything else

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you want to see oh did we have one of these surprise oh cool so we have a thinkbook 16.

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okay you get to experience it in person then before you decide to buy it

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so start with the weight it's not too bad actually I think that's more what I was expecting for five pounds, but, you know, it's okay.

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I think the trackpad's too off -center.

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That's a bit of a Lenovo -ism.

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Do you think the fans get really loud?

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The fan shouldn't be too bad.

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It has onboard graphics, so it's not really like a powerful laptop or anything.

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It won't sound like it's taken off.

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The backlit keyboard is actually something...

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I appreciate more than I thought I would like

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when you're in the dark I don't know why you'd be in the dark, but you can actually see all the letters

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How come they always come with these stickers?

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Because The companies that make the chips inside them really want people to know about their chips.

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So if the chips bad, I'll know who to blame it on Yeah, I don't think that's the way they generally see it

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But yes, do you want to see any other machines in our inventory before you press order?

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Yeah, I do

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Okay, I see some of the other like kinds of laptops.

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Sure.

262

Let's go have a look

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This would be a class of laptop that you haven't seen yet

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Why does it have like an ammo box for a case because it's loaded for bear boy?

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No, this was not a meme.

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This was a real product who bought this not many people.

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It's not even portable

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But it has a number pad I can really even hold it

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and a full mechanical keyboard this one's interesting for your use case it was very expensive

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when it came out

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but i suspect it's worth a fair bit less today this is the spectre fold it's

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so light too well you don't have the keyboard yet okay

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so there's your laptop okay wow the keyboard's very heavy but

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when it's time to get some work done you pop the kickstand

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and that's your screen do you think this is over or under 16 inches?

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Over.

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The performance kind of sucks, and it thermal throttles, and it's a little bit loud, but it is a giant screen.

278

2K USD?

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That's very expensive.

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That's very expensive, but not totally, totally outlandish.

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I could get two of the IdeaPads for the price of one of these.

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That's true, but you can only use one laptop at a time, so.

283

Is it your money I'm spending, or is it my money I'm spending?

284

I mean, we're buying you a laptop for school, yeah.

285

So it's your money.

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Yeah.

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Also, I already have this, so that's a factor.

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How good do you think the performance is?

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Not very.

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Never mind.

291

Like the worst.

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Okay.

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No thanks.

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Cool.

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Here's a 16 -inch Galaxy Book.

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Does this have good performance?

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It's okay.

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How much is it?

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Oh, that keyboard's nice.

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It looks like a Galaxy Book 4

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Edge would be worth about a very similar budget, actually, to what you were looking at.

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So this is an older, last -generation Snapdragon chip, but those are already pretty decent.

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16 gigs RAM, a terabyte of storage and 16 inch screen.

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What about battery life?

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Like how many hours do you think I could get?

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You will get through the day.

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So I guess that's something that I didn't really equip you with as part of your shopping, but second hand is always an option

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and it can be a very attractive one as long as you're not giving up anything that really matters to you,

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which in your case it seems like mostly comes down to battery life.

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Are you ready to make a decision?

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Who will you give your rose to?

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I don't know, I kind of like this one.

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Does it have a touch screen?

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Probably.

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Yes.

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OLED touchscreen.

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Is it 120 hertz?

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Probably not.

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No, it's 120 hertz according to Gemini and according to Notebook Check, which I believe before Gemini.

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Okay, wow.

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This actually fits all the requirements.

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Okay, I'm going to double check the price because I feel like we may have been looking at the wrong models.

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No. No, they're actually like really reasonably priced.

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Wow, these book four edges might be a bit of a hack.

325

Here it is.

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Here's the 16 -inch AMOLED model for about $1 ,000 Canadian dollars.

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16 gigs of RAM.

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It has a little bit less storage than this one, but this is clearly the same machine.

329

I think this might be the one then.

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All right, big moment.

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Borderline.

332

But it still fits.

333

Do we have a decision then?

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Yeah, I'm going to take this laptop.

335

All right, happy back to school.

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We settled on, go figure, Samsung's one of those companies that I do know cognitively that they make laptops, but I always forget about them.

337

But this ended up being a looks like a pretty solid choice, and this is a pretty solid segway

338

Leave me hanging.

339

Oh, I'm supposed to say it to our sponsor in the fall of

340

2009 early settlers made their way west to begin on a homesteading adventure

341

They tilled their fields grew their grain and yet time and time again

342

Faced a troublesome dilemma well they worked the folks of this small town were distracted

343

or worse dropped their slippery phones as they played bus stop borders and watched their favorite programs.

344

As the cold of winter crept in, Seamus Osnapperton knew the homes wouldn't finish on time when his friends kept dropping their phones,

345

and he thought, damn, their phone accessories kind of suck.

346

So for his people, he made something that didn't suck, and it stuck.

347

Magnetic, ultra -thin, offering a handle and a way for them to prop up their devices, the Osnap grip stand.

348

Suddenly, the homesteaders were able to work while watching YouTube, Doomscrolling, or playing

349

Cabbage Crush Saga.

350

The premium and minimal build had the workers impressed, free to fidget, and worked with all of their devices.

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And now you too can have a piece of the Osnap legacy with you in your pocket.

352

25 % off site -wide with the link down below.

353

If you guys enjoyed this video and you like these kind of shopping vibes videos,

354

maybe check out the time that Elijah and I went shopping for a printer her.

355

It's way more exciting than it sounds.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “My Son Needs a New Laptop”. This video has 354 sentences and 3639 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:56. The speaker talks fast, about 183 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
laptop noun	/ˈlæp.tɑp/	A laptop computer.
pound noun	/ˈpaʊ̯nd/	A unit of weight in various measurement systems.
chip noun	/t͡ʃɪp/	A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
tab noun	/tæb/	A small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.
suck verb	/sʌk/	To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast).
keyboard noun	/ˈki.bɔɹd/	A set of keys laid out in a gridlike pattern, used for typing on a typewriter, computer, etc.
gig noun	/ɡɪɡ/	Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer.
backpack noun	/ˈbæk.pæk/	A knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s back for the purpose of carrying things, especially when…
necessarily adverb	/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/	Inevitably; of necessity.
settle verb	/ˈsɛtəl/	To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc).
graphics noun	/ˈɡɹæfɪks/	The making of architectural or design drawings.
inventory noun	/ˈɪn.vən.tɹi/	The stock of an item on hand at a particular location or business.
grip noun	/ˈɡɹɪp/	A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand.
sponsor noun	/ˈspɒn.səː/	A person or organization with some sort of responsibility for another person or organization, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or…
aluminum noun	/əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/	American, Canadian, and Philippines standard spelling of aluminium.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
get through verb	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	To overcome; to endure.
give up verb		To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
go up verb		To move upwards.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come down to verb		To reach by moving down or reducing.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Is that really what you want?
What do you got next?
I mean, you lift, don't you?
Do you think the fans get really loud?
How good do you think the performance is?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	i've had · I've done · you've actually made
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being connected · be powered · are made

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 90 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, thick /θɪk/, thread /ˈθɹɛd/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, thermal /ˈθɜːməl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, efficiency /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/, addiction /əˈdɪkˌʃən/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, aluminum /əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/, architecture /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, efficiency /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like laptop, pound, chip.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: My Son Needs a New Laptop - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

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