Thinkpad dilemma

[oromis]

hey

i'm starting my mba course later this month and am supposed to pick up a laptop for the same. having used thinkpads at work for over 2 years, i'm quite impressed with them.

also, having read favorable reviews about them, i am keen to purchase one.

however, most stores i see stock the other lenovo laptops, and few/none of thinkpads. even flipkart retails 1-2 models of the thinkpad.

anyone can recommend a place i can purchase thinkpads? i am keen on the t420 or t520.


oh and P.S : In Bangalore.

thanks in advance

 

[vickybat]

^^ Thinkpads are ancient in my opinion in terms of aesthetics. Besides i find that semi ruggedness useless. Seriously there are far better looking and rugged laptops available now with a more than decent configuration. I would blindly suggest you to have a look at asus laptops.

Tell us your budget mate so that we can suggest accordingly.

P.S- Looks like you are a WoW player.

 

[oromis]

hey

haha, yup, longtime WoW player. Horde ftw.

so yea, my budget will be limited at 50k. but trying to whittle it down to as less as possible.

i have a pretty decent desktop, for most of my multimedia and gaming, so looking for a laptop purely to deal with coursework, but at same time, should be a viable multimedia option too. (nothing too fancy)

but priority should be battery life, decent screen, fast proccy/ram, and maybe a semi0decent gfx card. i'm not particularly fixated about looks or finish of the laptop.

 

[vickybat]

Well buddy then have a look at the following:

Option 1 - Asus K53SM-SX010D

Comes with a core i5 hyperthreaded proccy, 4 gigs of ram, 750 gb hdd and nvidia gt 630m with 2gb of vram ( kind of unnecessary for the horsepower it posesses). All this at within 40k and well within your budget.

If you can spend a bit more, then there's this:

Option 2 - Asus K55VM-SX086D

This one is a beast but is slightly higher than your budget at 54k. Its packs in a core i7 ivybridge cpu with 4 cores 22nm and hyperthreaded alongwith 8gb ram, 1tb hdd and the same nvidia gt630m gpu.

Pick ur choice mate.

 

[dashing.sujay]

^^ Thinkpads are ancient in my opinion in terms of aesthetics. Besides i find that semi ruggedness useless. Seriously there are far better looking and rugged laptops available now with a more than decent configuration.

It seems you've forgot old is gold proverb The same 'old aesthetics' comes to play to save a laptop upon rough use, making it super durable.
Can you name any laptop which is better than thinkpad at least in built quality? Or even near to it? Thinkpads along with macbooks have the least failure rate among laptops. If you want something rugged with durability and peace of mind, then thinkpad it is.
@OP first fill the laptop questionnaire so that you could be helped in a better way.

 

[oromis]

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD) 50000 INR


2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
or
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen



3) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Lenovo, Dell
b. Dislike: HP, ASUS (i dont dislike these brands, but i doubt i'll be picking up any of these)


4) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Need it for MBA college , but apart from that, should be able to support World of Warcraft, including any future expansions (lol). but on a more serious note, some casual gaming, watching movies, etc. nothing hardcore.

5) What screen resolution(s) & type (glossy/matte) would you prefer?
umm, not sure.

6) Anything else you would like to say? (eg: local purchase, ASS,matte/glossy finish)
Would like to stay well within budget, also, something sturdy, and non glossy finish.

thanks in advance

 

[red dragon]

Thinkpad is perfectly fine for your requirement.
It is probably the only Windows laptop I really like.Do not know how can someone compare a T series TP with Asus K series!!
The only problem is both the T and X series laptops are very expensive in India.
Try to source a T420 with 1080p screen from US.

The only viable alternative for a thinkpad would be 1.Latitude;but it is more expensive.2.Vaio SB series(this you can get within 50k locally.pros-slightly cheaper,comes with discrete but a low end gpu,weighs much less.Cons-not well build like a thinkpad,hinge feels bad)

 

[aroraanant]

Thinkpads are one of the best laptops out there.If you are thinking of it then go and buy it.
Apart from that you can also have a look at Sony CB45.

 

[dashing.sujay]

And opt for 14", 15"6 are really very heavy

 

[vickybat]

Spoiler

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD) 50000 INR


2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
or
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen



3) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Lenovo, Dell
b. Dislike: HP, ASUS (i dont dislike these brands, but i doubt i'll be picking up any of these)


4) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Need it for MBA college , but apart from that, should be able to support World of Warcraft, including any future expansions (lol). but on a more serious note, some casual gaming, watching movies, etc. nothing hardcore.

5) What screen resolution(s) & type (glossy/matte) would you prefer?
umm, not sure.

6) Anything else you would like to say? (eg: local purchase, ASS,matte/glossy finish)
Would like to stay well within budget, also, something sturdy, and non glossy finish.

thanks in advance

Well buddy honestly for your kind of usage, its absolutely pointless to spend more on a thinkpad. You'll never be needing that extra ruggedness and its not like a thinkpad is bulletproof either.

About asus, they are the new talk in town. I would say they are way better than their dell, hp and lennovo counterparts. Just go to a mall or computer shop and see them physically and you'll know what i'm talking about.

You can also pm and ask our forum member cilus and he'll tell u better as he's using one for almost a year.

At 40k, i doubt you'll get anything better than Asus K53SM-SX010D. But anyway, choice is yours.

Btw this is the only thinkpad available at your budget.

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge Series E420 @ 33k

Comes without a discrete gpu though.

Spoiler

It seems you've forgot old is gold proverb The same 'old aesthetics' comes to play to save a laptop upon rough use, making it super durable.
Can you name any laptop which is better than thinkpad at least in built quality? Or even near to it? Thinkpads along with macbooks have the least failure rate among laptops. If you want something rugged with durability and peace of mind, then thinkpad it is.
@OP first fill the laptop questionnaire so that you could be helped in a better way.

Buddy i find that build quality pointless and doesn't really justify its price. Talk about ruggedness, my brothers owned two thinkpads given to them during their engineering. After 4 years , they were out of order and mishandling is the real cause. Even the ruggedness didn't save them. One of them dropped the thinkpad from 4 feet and caused it to crack.

So after witnessing that, i don't think nowadays its a good choice to buy a thinkpad paying a premium over similarly specced laptops.

A laptop is a fragile piece of hardware and should be handled carefully no matter how rugged it is. For students like op here, it doesn't really make sense to pay a premium and get a thinkpad considering there are better laptops with decent looks and good build quality if not better out there.

The asus one is a good example imo.

 

[dashing.sujay]

^Every laptop serves different purpose. Every one doesn't looks for best config. Nothing is best. I never said that Asus is bad. In fact 70% laptop recommendation in TDF goes for Asus, but here's different case. The target criteria is most important.