Need work laptop with light gaming capabilities , upto 1 lakh

[mikael_schiffer]

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD) Can go up to 1 lakh, or even cross it. I can even exceed it if the laptop will function well for 5 years. My current Asus laptop I bought in 2019 is already unusable due to keyboard and trackpad issues.

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

• Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
Mainly work relating to MS Office apps like Excel and MS Word. A bit of movie watching. For gaming, I play DOTA 2 and CS:GO 90% of the time (i belong to an old era ). I already have a PC with RTX 2070, that's where I play the heavy AAA games once in a while (Elden Ring, GoW, RDR2). I travel once in a while, so i would like to play games during my hotel stays. I stay in the office for 6-8 hours. I don't use my laptop non-stop, but i don't want to be in embarrassing situations where my battery runs out (which has happened often+ i always like to keep my battery at 80% using laptop's inbuilt software like BatterySaver to increase longevity so i need good reliable battery).

4) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
My work requires a lot of Excel work, and i have seen friends on Dell XPS with that 16:10 aspect ratio and i so really really wantthat aspect ratio for excel work but those laptops are out of my budget. My eyes are on:-

1. IdeaPad Gaming 3i 40.64cms - 12th Gen Intel i7 Model Number : 82SA00B2IN IdeaPad Gaming 3i Gen 7 (16 Intel) | Intel®-charged gaming laptop | Lenovo India . However, it's Rs 110,000 and for Rs 74,000 you can get the normal 15.6" 16:9 version with RTX3050. I don't feel the price difference is justified. MoreovIr, i don't need so much horsepower for DOTA2. However, there are no reviews, on websites or on YouTube for this particular model which comes with 70Wh battery.
2. Another model I am eyeing is the Dell 16 5620 | Dell India which has MX570 GPU and costs Rs77,000. However it has only 56Wh battery, as opposed to the 70Wh battery on the Ideapad model I linked above. Some reviews on YouTube say that this particular Dell laptop it has a 7-8-hour battery life, while some YouTubers say 4-5-hour battery. I am so confused. And I checked, they are talking about the same Indian model laptop. I almost bought this eyes closed, but the battery issue is worrying me. If it gives my 4-5 hour battery now after a year or two its gonna drop down to 2-3 hours and that makes it unusable. I don't carry charger to work. Its against my principles. I am against that. Laptops should not require a charger to be carried along with it 24/7. If it does it's no longer a "laptop".

5) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Dell, Lenovo, and other brands that are known for reliability.
b. Dislike: none


6) Anything else you would like to say?

• Screen resolution : 1920X1080 or preferably 1920X1200 (16:10)
• Battery back up : at least 6+ hours
• Purchase place: Online-only, from any Indian site.

PS: Should i simply wait for laptops with Ryzen 7 6000 series CPUS? I heard the RDNA2 graphics is really good, and it's integrated to boot. Meaning there will be laptops that are thin, light, good battery and decent graphical performance to run e-sport titles like DOTA2

Edit: I just saw this: ASUS Tuf Dash at Rs86,000 . It has 76Wh battery . Amazon.in . How is it?

 

[omega44-xt]

For battery life, AMD is any day better.

If decent gaming performance is all you need, Victus will suffice:
Amazon.in

It has a 70Wh battery + Ryzen, so expect 5-6hr battery life on normal usage. Check its review by Jarrod Tech for build quality & temps.

 

[DestGod]

For battery life, AMD is any day better.

Wrong. Not sure why many have this misconception that Intel drastically decreases battery performance in all laptops. In H series SKUs, maybe, but definitely not in the U series chips. Bottom line, Intel and AMD share similar battery lives. Never tested an AMD laptop but I'm assuming that it falls in the same battery life range as their Intel counterparts.
I've got an i3 1125G4 paired with a Dell Inspiron that packs a 54 Whr 4 Cell battery. Even after a year, I'm averaging 5-6 hours for casual stuff like browsing, watching Twitch, YT, etc.

However it has only 56Wh battery, as opposed to the 70Wh battery on the Ideapad model I linked above. Some reviews on YouTube say that this particular Dell laptop it has a 7-8-hour battery life

My laptop packs the same battery. Until about 6 months after it arrived, it gave me well over 6 hours of juice on one charge. So you can expect those performance figures mentioned. I personally keep my brightness low (about 10-20%, since it's bright enough for me) and battery saver on, so that's a major contributing factor as well.

 

[omega44-xt]

For gaming laptops & here OP needs a gaming laptop for travel. A lot of variance here but the trend is AMD laptops are topping the chart:

 

[DestGod]

Leave that aside, I watch Jarrod's Tech as well. My point is, why avoid Intel completely for battery life, even their U chips? Besides, OP mentioned that they mostly planned on using it for MS Office work, and the titles to be played are CS GO and Dota 2, both of which are extremely light games and can be easily run on an iGPU. Why go with a gaming laptop for this? The MX 570 in the Inspiron is by no means a weak GPU as well, and can comfortably handle both games at over 60fps.
If gaming is the main priority here, then the AMD laptop would make sense. For office work, easy no.

 

[omega44-xt]

Leave that aside, I watch Jarrod's Tech as well. My point is, why avoid Intel completely for battery life, even their U chips? Besides, OP mentioned that they mostly planned on using it for MS Office work, and the titles to be played are CS GO and Dota 2, both of which are extremely light games and can be easily run on an iGPU. Why go with a gaming laptop for this? The MX 570 in the Inspiron is by no means a weak GPU as well, and can comfortably handle both games at over 60fps.
If gaming is the main priority here, then the AMD laptop would make sense. For office work, easy no.

For normal multimedia laptops as well Ryzen 5000 is better than Intel for battery life. Intel 11th gen shouldn't even be in consideration because of 4 core CPUs, 12th gen will perform better but do you buy multimedia laptops for performance? Overall, I will stick to Ryzen for multimedia laptops. During last sale, there were R7 5700U laptops under 60k, just an excellent performer with good battery life.

But for multimedia laptops, battery size can vary a lot, so say a 70-80Wh Intel will likely outlast 50Wh Ryzen laptops. Also many other parameters in play. Generally 12th gen is higher priced, so easier to ignore.

Realistically OP's battery life requirement needs a high capacity battery multimedia laptop or ultrabook.

Some data
*www.ultrabookreview.com/58529-dell-xps-13-9315-review/
*www.ultrabookreview.com/49926-hp-pavilion-aero-13-review
Display size & resolution are similar. R5 5600U + 43Wh battery vs i5 1240U + 51Wh battery

Tests are not same, but Aero is close to XPS 13 with a bigger battery.

 

[DestGod]

First off, what is a "multimedia laptop"? Is it a laptop meant for heavy tasks or normal usage or both?

Ryzen 5000 is better than Intel for battery life

Performance wise yes (only when compared to 11th gen). Battery wise, both fall in the same category, when laptops in the same price range are compared. You might want to read my first post in this thread completely. Besides, each generation does not only come with architectural improvements, efficiency is improved as well.

Intel 11th gen shouldn't even be in consideration because of 4 core CPUs,

Wrong. 4 cores is not obsolete today. If you mean when compared to Ryzen 5000 series than maybe. But people who do buy Tiger Lake laptops hardly ever use it for gaming or tasks that saturate the CPU usage(other than H series chips), so in everyday usage, there would be no difference between the two.

I say most of this from personal experience. I've used an i5 1135G7 laptop equipped with a 42 Whr. The laptop will become 2 years old this December, and battery life lasts around 3-4 hrs, with Windows 11. Performance wise, the owner of this laptop uses it for simple work like Word, browsing, using docs, etc. No stutters or anything to signify that it's 4 cores are performing disappointingly.

TL;DR- I gave some insight on how Intel cannot be dissuaded mainly by seeing reviews, and iit would be better to hear out user experience as well. As of typing this, this is what my laptop tells me

This is with 4 chrome tabs open and Word running in the background. It's the same Inspiron mentioned earlier. Might be a false prediction from W10, but I've been using it for the past 35 mins, and it dropped from 100% to 96%. I'll leave the rest for you to think about.

 

[mikael_schiffer]

Guys, i ended up buying the ASUS TUF Dash 15 that was Rs82,000 before the Sale closed. Sorry i didn't update you guys. Ill post a review when it arrives.