A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and build

[digit.sh]

Hi I urgently need a laptop. My requirements are:

1. Good battery life(more than 4hrs) in normal use in lower brightness. 6cell battery a must.
2. Good build quality.
3. Solely for development in Linux platform, so no fancy harware like dGPU and no AMD cpu/apu.
4. Fairly powerful. (Intel i3-xxxM or i5-xxxM processor). ULV processors will give better battery backup but I am not sure
if it will be powerful enough for my work: compilation of large C/C++ projects(which may sometimes take 2-6 hours to
complete), LaTeX, some video encoding etc. A better cpu will do the job faster but will eat more battery.
5. >= 2GB RAM.
6. Screen: no larger than 14.1 inch, better if 13.3inch.
7. HDD: 500GB is enough.
8. Very good keyboard as I shall use it mainly for programmin and development.
9. Last but not the least, it must be very reliable. By reliability I mean it must not create small but irritating problems
randomly every now and then(like excessive heat, crash, etc).

Budget: 35k INR max.

I have thought about the Lenovo ThinkPad series. Specially the E431. Also the B490 model, which is of B series.

I am confused. Plz suggest.

 

[dashing.sujay]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

B490 is good enough and I was going to suggest you before I read your choices. Just get the i5 version but I'm not sure that if i5 version is available in 14" or not.

PS: You will just love it's keyboard.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

^ afaik, video encoding does requires a powerful cpu, so he might need atleast a non ulv i5 variant.

Lenovo Essential B490 (59-384796) Laptop (3rd Gen Ci5/ 2GB/ 500GB/ DOS) Rs.36714 Price in India - Buy Lenovo Essential B490 (59-384796) Laptop (3rd Gen Ci5/ 2GB/ 500GB/ DOS) Black Online - Lenovo: Flipkart.com

its 14"

 

[seamon]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

I think video encoding utilizes Nvidia CUDA cores too if the software supports it.

 

[digit.sh]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

@all, thank you for your kind responses

With my budget, I can't get a light-yet-powerful-13inch-with-good-battery-life laptop. They are marketed as ultrabooks and cost a bomb. So, next good option is 14 inch laptops. Among all 14 inch laptops, lenovo ones have better keyboards and other good features like matte finish body, better looks etc. But what about battery life? Which one among B490 and Thinkpad E431 havs better battery provided they have the same CPU and no dGPU?

Also, I have used friends' laptops with i3-xxxM CPUs. I think it will do my job. If i3-xxxM wala laptop gives better battery life than i5-xxxM, I shall certainly go for the later. Or how much will the difference be? If hardly any difference, I shall get i5-xxxM wala laptop. What do you say?


P.S. I don't need CUDA for video conversion.

 

[Nerevarine]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

Intel QuickSync has proven to be better than AMD/Nvidia hardware in budget computers, check NCIX reviews for it..
QuickSync creates MASSIVE difference in video encoding performance..
Im not sure but do mobile processors have this ? It would be mighty useful for video encoding if they did, try doing some research
IMO, Based on your requirements, I would suggest going for M series processor with Intel HD GPU for better battery life

 

[digit.sh]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

Intel QuickSync has proven to be better than AMD/Nvidia hardware in budget computers, check NCIX reviews for it..
QuickSync creates MASSIVE difference in video encoding performance..
Im not sure but do mobile processors have this ? It would be mighty useful for video encoding if they did, try doing some research
IMO, Based on your requirements, I would suggest going for M series processor with Intel HD GPU for better battery life

Video encoding is not much of a concern. I may need to convert occasionally to prepare my own dataset(for testing my computer vision algorithms), in case suitable dataset is not found. Main concern is battery life, portability, build quality and reliability.

 

[seamon]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

Video encoding is not much of a concern. I may need to convert occasionally to prepare my own dataset(for testing my computer vision algorithms), in case suitable dataset is not found. Main concern is battery life, portability, build quality and reliability.

Lenovo Thinkpad FTW!

 

[digit.sh]

Re: A no-nonsense, no fancy hardware, no larger than 14', intel based laptop with good battery and b

Yeah. I have heard so many positive things about thinkpads that I'm already inclined to it But I'm considering B490 also.