General use laptop 14inch under 50k

[angie]

Looking to buy a lapop for my sister.

1) What is your budget? 50k ideal (55k max)

2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?

• Thin and Light; 13.3" - 14" screen
• or a 15 inch laptop if its dimensions are almost the same due to bezel less design etc (although I think that will be in budget)

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
Coding, movies, browsing

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
1080p display, 7200 rpm hard disk 1TB (or empty SATA slot with 128+gb SSD) , 2.4 ghz cpu Intel only, 8 GB ram (can upgrade separately so 4GB ram with a empty slot works)

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Dell, lenovo , maybe hp
b. Dislike: not acer, asus etc

6) Anything else you would like to say?

• Screen resolution ( 1080p (Full HD) )
• Battery back up ( normal (3-4hrs) )
• Purchase place ( Online (eg - flipkart, amazon) / Local )

In general, looking for a laptop that doesn't need upgrading for the next 5 years i.e. doesn't get slow or heating issues for non-tech savvy user for general tasks as mentioned above.

 

[whitestar_999]

HP Pavilion x360 - 14-ba077tu
Specifications state

35.6 cm (14) diagonal FHD IPS WLED-backlit multitouch-enabled edge-to-edge glass (1920 x 1080)

However it uses SSHD(a hdd with usually 8-16gb flash as cache to speed up most frequently accessed data,faster than hdd but slower than ssd) & it seems like non-upgradeable so no ssd upgrade with this model.

If willing to compromise on size & looks then get this:
*www.amazon.in/HP-Notebook-bs146tu-...e=UTF8&qid=1521631470&sr=1-1&keywords=bs146tu
As per manual on hp site this model also has an empty m2 slot which can be used for a m2 ssd alongside hdd.Even if it is not there,assuming worst case scenario,one can still replace hdd with ssd(a small benefit would be reduction in weight).You will have extra ~10k which can be used for ssd & extra 4gb ram upgrade.

 

[angie]

HP Pavilion x360 - 14-ba077tu
Specifications state
However it uses SSHD(a hdd with usually 8-16gb flash as cache to speed up most frequently accessed data,faster than hdd but slower than ssd) & it seems like non-upgradeable so no ssd upgrade with this model.

If willing to compromise on size & looks then get this:
*www.amazon.in/HP-Notebook-bs146tu-...e=UTF8&qid=1521631470&sr=1-1&keywords=bs146tu
As per manual on hp site this model also has an empty m2 slot which can be used for a m2 ssd alongside hdd.Even if it is not there,assuming worst case scenario,one can still replace hdd with ssd(a small benefit would be reduction in weight).You will have extra ~10k which can be used for ssd & extra 4gb ram upgrade.

Thanks, the first one is a great suggestion. My sister seems to prefer a touchscreen 180 degree rotatable screen (however impractical). Ram i guess should be upgradeable.

Only concern for me is is the HDD, a SSHD will indeed result in faster boot times, but the experience I have with my current 5400 rpm hdd, it is such a bottleneck, with 100% disk usage a common phenomenon.

Anyways, I guess I will have to compromise here, since I don't see a single laptop with 7200rpm internal drive so far in this budget.

 

[whitestar_999]

Even a 7200rpm hdd won't help you much with "100% disk usage" as more than read/write speed,it depends on random IOPS I guess(e.g.I have seen 100% disk usage on laptop hdd while total read/write was still less than 30MB/s). SSD has ~50 times more read & ~100 times more write 4k values.

 

[angie]

Even a 7200rpm hdd won't help you much with "100% disk usage" as more than read/write speed,it depends on random IOPS I guess(e.g.I have seen 100% disk usage on laptop hdd while total read/write was still less than 30MB/s). SSD has ~50 times more read & ~100 times more write 4k values.

i did have a laptop with 7200 rpm before, the io generally seemed faster and noticable different. All anecdotal.

 

[whitestar_999]

7200rpm laptop hdd is definitely better than 5400rpm laptop hdd.This 100% disk usage scenario is clearly shown in win 8.1/10 & is not based solely on read/write speeds as per my experience.Maybe a 7200rpm disk on a win 8.1/10 has much less encounters with this "100% disk usage" scenarios or may be it is related to how various OS settings are setup(e.g.many times it is windows telemetry/services in 8.1/10 that makes lots of random IOPS compared to very less such services on win 7). In any case a 7200rpm laptop hdd will also heat a lot quicker so that also need to be taken into account.