Advice Required for New Laptop Purchase (Filled Questionnaire)

[Sarthak90]

Hi all,

A friend recommended this forum to me for advice on buying my new laptop. Here's the filled questionnaire detailing my requirements-:

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD)
Rs. 50,000 - 80,000 (can even push it to 90s if it's REALLY worth it)

2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?
Thin and Light; 12" - 14" screen
Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
either of these would be perfect.



3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
For the next 2 years, primarily Office use and presentations (joining B-school). But I don't want this laptop to be SO outdated after 2 years that I can't game on it at all. Certain games I will surely be playing after 2 years are League of Legends, Guild Wars 2, Darkest Dungeon, Mass Effect series. What I PRIMARILY need though are reliability and battery life.

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
I'm not sure really. I would greatly prefer i7, a decent graphics card, and 8 GB RAM. I'm not sure how worth an SSD is.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Lenovo. I have used one before, and found it extremely reliable.
b. Dislike: Mac. Never used one, and all the various compatibility issues make me extremely wary of it.


6) Anything else you would like to say?
Screen resolution ( 768p (HD) / 900p / 1080p (Full HD) ) - as best as possible. AT LEAST HD, if not FHD.
Battery back up ( normal (3-4hrs) / extended (5-7hrs) ) - extended as much as possible.
Purchase place ( Online (eg - flipkart, infibeam) / Local / Abroad (do mention the country) ) - Local, India. New Delhi. Would prefer to buy it from an official store, as I'm not sure how reliable an online purchase would be.

Thanks a lot for your time reading this. Any advice would be highly appreciated!

-Sarthak

EDIT: I went through the Buying Guide as well, the suggestions unfortunately did not appeal to me.

 

[Siddhartht]

Welcome to the forum!!

B-School and light gaming+Lenovo, I think a thinkpad will do. The problem is that all the models available in India at the moment use integrated GPU instead of a eGPU....so I would recommend Latitude line from Dell. They are also backed by standard three years next day warranty. Dell Latitude 6440 will cost you around 90K, but with i5. Latitude-E7450 is another solid option, but you will need to contact Dell for a custom quote.

I wouldn't recommend any of the consumer grade laptops. While they are fine, but they lack business centric features like TPM/Smartcard readers etc etc. But if you really and absolutely want to game in long run, you can opt for a HP Envy with GTX850, or Asus G551(16 gigs RAM, Quad Core i7, FHD @ 86K). Toshiba Satellite P50 with 4K panel is another option, and it comes with mid-range AMD graphics(can't really remember the model, but with nearly 640 cores~ equivalent to nvidia GT750M-765M)

I personally use the so called "business" features more often, mainly for project isolation and encryption, but you might not need them. It would be good to ask your seniors about suggestions. (I also need to use smartcard a lot....but that is an extreme case)

 

[Sarthak90]

Thanks for the suggestions!
I checked Asus and HP, but they have battery life issues, which is a bit of a problem. Plus I think their graphical capabilities may be overkill, lol.
Latitude series looks interesting and something like what I need. Can you tell me how it compares with Lenovo's T and W series ThinkPads?

 

[Siddhartht]

Thanks for the suggestions!
I checked Asus and HP, but they have battery life issues, which is a bit of a problem. Plus I think their graphical capabilities may be overkill, lol.
Latitude series looks interesting and something like what I need. Can you tell me how it compares with Lenovo's T and W series ThinkPads?

Never there is an overkill when technology is in question! (Agh, except when it is Vertu or a diamond studded iPhone...that is a different scenario xD)

Actually, when it boils down to core features, Latitude and Thinkpad are similar. Except for the fact that ever since Lenovo took over Thinkpad, they are constantly changing the "de facto" features which make a Thinkpad....Thinkpad. For example, when you will open the base cover in Thinkpad, you will see the main motherboard PCB, but for Latitude, you will see neatly organized expansion slots, a reinforced shield etc. This is what creates a difference. Thinkpad is like Apple of business laptops, it has a cult following and a large loyalist base, and therefore Lenovo is little....too easy on the development front for the traditional T and W series(their X series is still...awesome).

T540s is a good general purpose Thinkpad, but it is not available in India, and same goes for its younger sibling T440S (T440P available in India is without discrete graphics). Edge series are mainly entry level models, and I think that consumer laptops are better than that one. You don't need to consider W series, since they are workstation laptops, and hence are expensive and bulky. ThinkPad Edge e431 @73K does provide GT740M and a Quadcore cpu, but it is future proof in terms of computing power only(But well, it still uses 3rd generation processor), not for graphics.


Now, as for Latitude, Dell is really trying hard to win corporate fans, the build quality exceeds or matches Thinkpads, but, well, they are not Thinkpads xD. If you see Latitude E7450, it is the best business ultrabook money can buy, outstanding build quality, a discrete GPU(940M/840M) and good battery life. Similarly, Lenovo has no parallel for Latitude 6440 in India. So in the end, it depends on you, which brand you would like to buy. Both have excellent after sales support, and Dell has an excellent reputation for their professional product support, whereas most of the Thinkpads have distinct advantage of being repairable with aftermarket spares.

One more thing, whenever you are thinking of laptops for business settings, it is important to take looks into consideration. No one likes a flashy laptop with lights and stuff in meetings or presentations. One thing that I have observed from my experience is, simple looks=more sophistication=serious image. Also, since I am student of Science and more specifically, biological sciences, my experience may reflect something else. (But even in labs, I have observed thinkpads, from cold rooms @4C to biological reactor rooms @50C, only recently people have started switching to Latitude)