Laptop for 40k

[nac]

This if for my friend's sister.

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD)
40k, that's the max.

2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?
~15" should do. If the budget doesn't permit, smaller would be okay

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
School related stuffs like Browsing, video calling, Office suite, probably some entertainment like streaming videos.

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
Must have SSD, if budget permits 8GB, else 4GB would do. If 4GB, extra empty slot is must.
A quick browsing made me think that he can fit 11th i3 or Ryzen 5000 in this budget. But don't know if there are any compromise he has to make in any other area like OS, limited or lack of ports.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
No idea about which one would be good, and their after sales

6) Anything else you would like to say?

• Screen resolution - Min 720p we would get, anything more would be fine
• Battery back up - Longer the better, no issues if that means laptop would weigh more
• Purchase place - Likely from Ritchie street, may be online if he finds any better deal there.

 

[viv30911]

40K max budget is a tight fit.

Some i3 options
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Core i3 11th Gen - (8 GB/256 GB SSD/Windows 11 Home 15.6 inch, Arctic Grey, 1.65 kg, With MS Office)
HP Core i3 11th Gen - (8 GB/512 GB SSD/Windows 10) 42V68PA Laptop (15.6 inch, Black, 1.74 kg)
Dell Inspiron 3511 Laptop (2021)| 15.6" inch FHD Display |Core i3-1115G4 Processer | 8GB RAM 256GB SSD | Windows 11 + MS Office 21 | Integrated Graphics, Carbon Black ( D560719WIN9B) 1.8kg

You also have the option to purchase a non-ssd system and install one later on
DELL Inspiron Core i3 11th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/Windows 11 Home) Inspiron 3511 Thin and Light Laptop (14.96 inch, Carbon Black, 1.8 kg, With MS Office)
HP 240 G8 Laptop Intel Core i3-11th Gen|8GB|1TBGB|14"HD|Win 10H SL

But I would recommend to stretch your budget a tad bit more and go for (hopefully some discount offer brings it in your budget range)
HP Ryzen 3 Quad Core 5300U - (8 GB/512 GB SSD/Windows 11 Home) 15s-eq2143au Thin and Light Laptop (15.6 inch, Natural Silver, 1.69 Kg, With MS Office)

Even if the usage is limited having a system with physical quad core system will help in the long run.

There are a few other options with ASUS and Acer but given the bad service experience me and my friends have had with them over the years, I prefer Dell, Lenovo & HP in that order.

 

[omega44-xt]

An i3 11th gen, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD & a 1080p panel is what you should target. In case you see an R3 4300U or R3 5300U laptop, grab those.

Otherwise any laptop meeting those specs from Dell, HP, Lenovo or even Acer or Asus will do. You might get TN panels at this price but avoid any 768p panel.

The Lenovo & Dell i3 laptops suggested earlier seem fine. If you can extend to 43k, the R3 5300U is much faster CPU & 512GB SSD is useful as well. Don't settle for HDD if you can't add SSD as soon as you buy. Win11 needs SSD, will be laggy from HDD.

 

[nac]

Thank you guys.
And sorry for the late reply. An emergency came up, and I was out of town for over a week. Couldn't access digit.

Looks like my guess is right, 11th i3 or Ryzen 5000. Yeah, its slightly over his budget. If any offer/discounts in online, he can use that. He can get it locally if the pricing is better than online. I will send him the suggestions. Let him decide.

 

[Zangetsu]

Look for a Lightweight Slim Laptop as it will be easy to carry. 4GB RAM is enough and the inbuilt GPU should suffice for the work.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

4GB RAM is enough

In 2011

 

[omega44-xt]

Look for a Lightweight Slim Laptop as it will be easy to carry. 4GB RAM is enough and the inbuilt GPU should suffice for the work.

4GB RAM is sadly not enough for Windows 10/11 now. I mean budget phones have at least 4GB RAM, so get 8GB RAM on a laptop. I'll personally recommend 32GB for bit heavy users as I myself find 16GB a bit limiting at times these days.

 

[nac]

I am using my current setup for 3+yrs. For the first 1 - 1.5yrs, I was just using 4GB RAM. My heaviest usage is/was using Android emulator like Bluestacks/Gameloop. I don't see any performance difference after I upgraded to 8GB. So, for the use case I think 4GB would be enough. But it looks like he can get 8GB in his budget.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

I don't see any performance difference after I upgraded to 8GB.

Ram upgrade won't do much, if anything at all, for an emulator.

 

[Stormbringer]

I am using my current setup for 3+yrs. For the first 1 - 1.5yrs, I was just using 4GB RAM. My heaviest usage is/was using Android emulator like Bluestacks/Gameloop. I don't see any performance difference after I upgraded to 8GB. So, for the use case I think 4GB would be enough. But it looks like he can get 8GB in his budget.

4GB is doable only if the laptop has an SSD. Just make sure RAM is upgradable. So that he can add more RAM later.

 

[Zangetsu]

*www.pcworld.com/article/395018/how-much-ram-do-you-need-in-a-laptop.html

 

[omega44-xt]

I am using my current setup for 3+yrs. For the first 1 - 1.5yrs, I was just using 4GB RAM. My heaviest usage is/was using Android emulator like Bluestacks/Gameloop. I don't see any performance difference after I upgraded to 8GB. So, for the use case I think 4GB would be enough. But it looks like he can get 8GB in his budget.

Upto you what you choose, but since 8GB RAM is available for your budget, I'll never recommend a 4GB RAM laptop. For me, Win10 + 20-25 Chrome tabs take about 8GB RAM (I know not everyone will have 25 tabs). Websites & apps are using more RAM as time passes, so I'll stick with my statement of 8GB RAM (+SSD) being the minimum for a new Windows PC.