Suggest a laptop under 30-35K

[kasshav]

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD)
30-35K INR

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

Netbook; 11" - 10” screen or less
Thin and Light; 12" - 14" screen
Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

14" or 15" would be better.


3) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like:
b. Dislike:

Not in particular. But I have heard lenovo is good in terms of build quality and customer services. I have not much idea about laptop brands.

4) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

Mostly Programming in Eclipse, Netbeans, Android, Java etc. The OS I would use is Linux [Fedora, Ubuntu or Mint].

5) What screen resolution(s) & type (glossy/matte) would you prefer?
Nothing fancy. I just need it for programming so screen readability is the only thing that matters. I've heard that LED is better than LCD. What do you people suggest?

6) Anything else you would like to say? (eg: local purchase, ASS,matte/glossy finish)
Well, I need good battery backup and it should also not have heat problems.
I am planning this laptop for long term so please consider these requirements.

 

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Lenovo G580 is a good choice in that budget. I am using one, you can check the specs in my siggy. Flipkart is having it in stock right now :

Lenovo Essential G580 (59-324061) Laptop (3rd Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ DOS): Flipkart.com: Compare, Review Lenovo Notebook

 

[vkl]

Lenovo G580(59-324061) would be good for you.Comes with i5 3210m,usb3.0 ports.
I am using it with win7 and ubuntu12.10 dual boot.It doesn't heat much.Battery backup is quite good.G580 has a single plug for Headphone and Mic which might be a con for some.
Samsung NP300E5C-A02IN is another option which has similar specs but doesn't have usb3.0 ports.
HP G6 2005AX with amd a8 4500m would have been an option but since you won't be gaming it is better to go with a better processor.Moreover it has dynamic graphics switching which might not work well with all linux distros.

It is actually not LED vs LCD rather it is LED-backlit LCD display vs CCFL backlit LCD display.
LED-backlit LCD displays are referred in marketed as LED displays while the CCFL backlit LCD display are marketed as LCD displays.
The difference between them as the name suggests is that LED-backlit LCD display or so called "LED" displays use LEDs for back-lighting whereas the other one used CCFL for the same.
LED-backlit LCD displays generally have a bit brighter display with better contrast and use less power.

 

[pausebreak]

@vkl, Krazy_About_Technology

I have similar requirement

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-netbooks/165213-laptop-under-40k-vmware-linux-programming.html

I have posted this in the Laptop queries thread as well
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-n...top-related-queries-here-110.html#post1772797

Rider has suggested the following laptop HP
HP Pavilion G6-2016TX Laptop Price in India, HP Pavilion G6-2016TX Laptop Laptop Reviews - Infibeam.com

This is my first laptop and I request all 3 of you to help me choose one

1) Lenova G580
2) Samsung NP300E5C-A02IN
3) HP-Pavilion-G6-2016TX

1) How good is the battery life of Samsung NP300E5C-A02IN compared to the other two laptops.

2) Is usb 3.0 port the only drawback in Samsung laptop?. If so, can I do away with USB 3.0 or do you think that USB 3.0 would be a must need in future and future devices may not be compatible with usb 2.0?

@ Kasshav
Please let me know once you have decided on the Laptop

Thanks

 

[kasshav]

Thanks @vkl for the suggestion.
Regarding single plug for headphone and mic, I use Skype a lot so it is important for me to be able to voice chat. Can you please also suggest whether there is any headphone which may work with this single plug option?

Lenovo G580(59-324061) would be good for you.Comes with i5 3210m,usb3.0 ports.
I am using it with win7 and ubuntu12.10 dual boot.It doesn't heat much.Battery backup is quite good.G580 has a single plug for Headphone and Mic which might be a con for some.
Samsung NP300E5C-A02IN is another option which has similar specs but doesn't have usb3.0 ports.
HP G6 2005AX with amd a8 4500m would have been an option but since you won't be gaming it is better to go with a better processor.Moreover it has dynamic graphics switching which might not work well with all linux distros.

It is actually not LED vs LCD rather it is LED-backlit LCD display vs CCFL backlit LCD display.
LED-backlit LCD displays are referred in marketed as LED displays while the CCFL backlit LCD display are marketed as LCD displays.
The difference between them as the name suggests is that LED-backlit LCD display or so called "LED" displays use LEDs for back-lighting whereas the other one used CCFL for the same.
LED-backlit LCD displays generally have a bit brighter display with better contrast and use less power.

@pausebreak
Well mate, I have two portable hard drives which both have USB 3.0. So it is important for me to have a USB 3.0 port. It really gives speed boost while read/write operations.

Regarding HP-Pavilion, I recently saw it on this forum that someone had mentioned heating problems with this laptop. I don't know whether it is true or not. But for now, I am getting biased towards Lenovo G580.

@vkl, Krazy_About_Technology

I have similar requirement

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-netbooks/165213-laptop-under-40k-vmware-linux-programming.html

I have posted this in the Laptop queries thread as well
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-n...top-related-queries-here-110.html#post1772797

Rider has suggested the following laptop HP
HP Pavilion G6-2016TX Laptop Price in India, HP Pavilion G6-2016TX Laptop Laptop Reviews - Infibeam.com

This is my first laptop and I request all 3 of you to help me choose one

1) Lenova G580
2) Samsung NP300E5C-A02IN
3) HP-Pavilion-G6-2016TX

1) How good is the battery life of Samsung NP300E5C-A02IN compared to the other two laptops.

2) Is usb 3.0 port the only drawback in Samsung laptop?. If so, can I do away with USB 3.0 or do you think that USB 3.0 would be a must need in future and future devices may not be compatible with usb 2.0?

@ Kasshav
Please let me know once you have decided on the Laptop

Thanks

 

[pausebreak]

@ Kasshav,

My major concern is battery back up, heat & Linux installation/ dual booting.

I am concerned more about some of the negative reviews in the flipkart regarding the above.

1) Quoting Kiran[Certified buyer]

Cons

1. You cant install XP O.S(works very fine on windows 7)
2. touch pad makes noise with you click left or right button.
3. Linux drivers and avaliable only for red hat and few other O.S.I have faced lots of problem after installing Ubuntu 11.04 or 12.04 on this problem.like unable to connect to internet via cable.

4. Battery back is given as 5 hours.but it will last for ~ 3 hours

Still doing research on this laptop.I hope i have made good choice by selecting this laptop.

Its good for Windows not so good for Linux users.

2) Anurag

cons :
1. Bit bulky.
2. Linux installation is a major problem because of UEFI motherboard.
3. Cant dual boot with Linux.

@vkl
I will be installing Ubuntu os and use the laptop mainly for programming and Android compilation. So, Please let me know if there are any issues with Linux.

Thanks

 

[dsmarty]

You can always use vmware and install the Operating System of your choice in Lenovo G580. The Core i5 can handle multiple VMs without any lag.
I'm gonna place an order for the same on infibeam tomorrow. They have some good discount coupons. You can get it for 30,500/-.

 

[vkl]

@ pausebreak
I installed ubuntu 12.04 64bit four months ago and unpgraded it to 12.10.No issues faced with ubuntu.All components are recognized and work fine with ubuntu.
USB 3.0 is handy if you frequently use USB 3.0 equipped external devices to read or write data and more so if large amount of data is moved at a time.
For your purposes,if you are not gaming or use applications those are more graphics dependent then better to pick one with intel hd4000 as with dGPU you will get lesser battery life mostly in linux distros.Another thing is dynamic swicthable graphics which I think comes with G6-2016tx would not work well with linux distros.
Otherwise a dGPU like hd7670m is always handy in applications which can take advantage of GPGPU compute.HD4000 is somewhat good for casual gaming.

@kasshav
The single jack for headphone and mic can be solved by picking a usb headphone with mic.Most of the nokia(wh701 and other headsets) or other mobile phone headsets come with mic which has a single plug.So there should not be a problem in finding a good one.

 

[kasshav]

@pausebreak
Well mate, I have been using Ubuntu 12.04 at my office workstation for almost 6 months and the problem Kiran[Certified buyer] mentioned about not getting connected to internet via wireline, that is a problem in Ubuntu distro. I face this problem very often but it gets solved after plugging out the lan wire and then reconnecting it. It has nothing to do with any particular laptop, it is a distro bug.

@vkl
Thanks for replying.. I already have wh701 headsets.Totally forgot about it.. my bad! One more question, @pausebreak mentioned in his reply that due to UEFI mobo, there are problems installing linux on this laptop. Is it true or are there any workarounds or something to install linux. Because of my recent experiences with Ubuntu, I'd probably be going with Fedora KDE flavor.

 

[vkl]

All the laptops equipped with UEFI have to face the same situation.Not much of a problem though.When I installed ubuntu 12.04 64bit(win7 64bit was aready installed),the grub was not detected and it booted straight into win7.What I did was boot from the live usb disk,selected "try ubuntu",downloaded boot-repair and ran it.It fixed the thing and the grub appeared.
This type of thing happens generally due to Ubuntu installed in Legacy mode when Windows is installed in EFI mode or the opposite.In such a scenario the solution is to convert Ubuntu into the same mode as Windows.This link might be helpful:UEFI,ubuntu installation,boot-repair.
Note:ubuntu 32bit is not compatible with EFI as of now i.e.it installs in legacy mode.
Installing Ubuntu 12.04 32bits installs grub-pc not grub-EFI,so no EFI entry is created thus ubuntu can't be booted unless if the EFI mode can be deactivated.
This might be the problem that some users might have faced.

As far as fedora is concerned it should also workout easily.Nothing to worry.

 

[kasshav]

@vkl
Thanks mate for the detailed explaination,
So be it.. I have finalized the Lenovo Essential G580 (59-324061) . Let me see if I can find it in my local market else all hail Flipkart.

 

[pausebreak]

Thanks to everyone

@Kasshav

Let me know the price once you have purchased

 

[Krazy_About_Technology]

That review on Flipkart is by a N00b for sure. UEFI is not a problem if you use the traditional partitioning scheme. UEFI, even if enabled from setup will not kick in and revert to BIOS if it sees that GUID partitioning is not there on hard drive. I use Windows 7/8 with Fedora Linux from day 1 and had no problem at all. With Fedora, only my bluetooth being v4.0 was not recognized immediately, but just upgrading the kernel using yum did the job perfectly.

Grub2 setup on SUSE Linux has some problem though. Sometimes, it just hangs at "Grub Loading...." screen. But Fedora has no such issue even though it also uses Grub2 as its boot manager. Ubuntu, i am not aware of. I am a Fedora fan since 1999

Heating problem is absolutely not there in this laptop, I use it daily for about 14 hours. And its good for running VMs because of the Intel VT-x hardware virtualization support in processor.

 

[nandu26]

Lenovo G580 is a good choice in that budget. I am using one, you can check the specs in my siggy. Flipkart is having it in stock right now :

Lenovo Essential G580 (59-324061) Laptop (3rd Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ DOS): Flipkart.com: Compare, Review Lenovo Notebook

What about the screen?Is it glossy or anti reflective? Which one is better from clarity point of view?

 

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Screen is glossy. Its LED Backlight so its very bright and clear and has high contrast ratio. Which one is better, I dont know. Reflective ones do glare if there is light from the back but usually movies look great on these. Non reflective ones are good for working purpose, but its hard to find them these days.

 

[nandu26]

Screen is glossy. Its LED Backlight so its very bright and clear and has high contrast ratio. Which one is better, I dont know. Reflective ones do glare if there is light from the back but usually movies look great on these. Non reflective ones are good for working purpose, but its hard to find them these days.

Is there any lack of display quality as a result of the glossy screen?

Do you think the display quality is better or equal to Dell's Truelife screens.

 

[kasshav]

Hey Guys...
Bought the Lenovo Essential G580 (59-324061) from my local market [Chandigarh] @ INR 33500/- .
The looks are amazing and the readability is good.
Installed kubuntu 12.10 and I must say I have never seen KDE running so smooth.

Sorry for so late response! I was just busy in my exams