Laptops have become a necessity rather luxury nowadays. From education to jobs, a laptop is needed everywhere. Choosing the right laptop that fulfils your requirements is a very difficult job because of so many choices at different price ranges.
Students usually in India do not have a high budget to buy their first laptop too expensive and they rather consider buying a budget laptop that provides them decent specs at a decent price. Today many options are available in the market in the low & mid-range laptop categories, but there are some basic points you have to keep in mind before buying a laptop.
• Your main purpose of buying the laptop
Why do you want to buy a laptop? whether it's Gaming, coding, machine learning, editing, surfing, watching movies or everything. You should know why you want to buy a laptop before choosing any laptop. Different laptops are made to cater to different types of users. Knowing your budget and purpose helps the process of choosing a laptop much easier.
• Processor
Try to buy the latest processor available in the market. If not the latest then buy the nearest to it. Avoid buying too old processor. Like, try to go for New Intel Core Series laptops or 14th-generation processors rather than buying 9th-10th gen. You can either go for Intel or Ryzen based on your preference and ongoing discounts. The new Intel Core Series and Core Ultra series also offer much better battery life than its previous generation.
Choose a processor with an integrated GPU even if you are going for a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. It will help you to run basic tasks on an integrated GPU and save battery life when not doing heavy tasks.
ARM Chips- Snapdragon recently announced its ARM-based processor for Windows offering great performance while offering great battery life and the Thin sleek Structure of a laptop which can truly compete with Apple's M-series Chips.
While these chips have these benefits they also come with restrictions with the biggest restrictions being Limited app support. Also, currently, the price of these laptops are more expensive than Intel and Ryzen series laptops with similar performance.
While these chips have these benefits they also come with restrictions with the biggest restrictions being Limited app support. Also, currently, the price of these laptops are more expensive than Intel and Ryzen series laptops with similar performance.
• RAM
Buy at least a 8 GB RAM laptop if you want to buy it for casual stuff like blogging, surfing etc. For mid to high usage buy a 16 GB laptop. If you are buying an 8 GB laptop then make sure that the RAM is expandable, so that you don't face any problems in the near future.
• Storage
Prefer Gen 4 or Gen 3 NVME SDD over SATA SSD. If you are buying a laptop with SATA SSD then make sure it has an extra M.2 slot so that you can put another faster SDD on that slot.
• Build Quality
While in terms of build quality, you are not going to get many options generally all laptops under 35k are made up of plastic. If you increase your budget above ₹40,000 then you may expect a metal body laptop. Even if you are buying a plastic laptop make sure it is good quality plastic and its hinges are good.
• Battery
At the low end, you are not going to get many options related to battery. But a bigger battery is always preferred. If buying a laptop above 60k, then go for a laptop with more than 70Whr. battery.
Also, if you have a basic workload and not planning to do heavy tasks like video editing, gaming etc. you can go for a U series processor like - Intel Core i3-1315U instead of H series Processors.
• Display
Choose a laptop with an IPS LCD Display with Full HD Resolution and 100% sRGB Colour Gamut if you do colour accuracy jobs like Graphic design.
• Graphic Card
If you want to buy a laptop for heavy tasks like gaming, video editing, etc. then buy a laptop with a dedicated GPU. For a budget above 80k, go for NVIDIA 40 series laptops. For basic tasks like MS Offics apps, Browser work etc. we don't need a dedicated graphics card.
• Online or Offline
Never buy a refurbished laptop online, there are many problems people face buying a refurbished laptop. You may get a good laptop but the risk is higher.
My Laptop Recommendations:-
Best laptop under ₹30,000
1. Acer Aspire 3 A324-51 - Check Price on AMAZON
(Intel Core i3 12th Gen/Full HD/16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD/Wifi 6/Intel Graphics/Win11 Home/65W)
(Intel Core i3 12th Gen/Full HD/16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD/Wifi 6/Intel Graphics/Win11 Home/65W)
2. Lenovo IdeaPad 1 82VG00EVIN - Check Priceon AMAZON
(AMD Ryzen 3 7320U/HD/8 GB/512GB SDD/Office 2021/1Yr ADP Free)
(AMD Ryzen 3 7320U/HD/8 GB/512GB SDD/Office 2021/1Yr ADP Free)
Best laptop under ₹40,000
1. Lenovo V15 - Check Price on AMAZON
(AMD Ryzen 7 7730U/FHD 250 Nits/16GB/512GB SSD/DOS)
2. HONOR MagicBook X16 - Check Price on AMAZON
(12th Gen Intel Core i5-12450H/FHD/16GB/512GB SSD/Windows)
(12th Gen Intel Core i5-12450H/FHD/16GB/512GB SSD/Windows)
3. ASUS Vivobook 15 X1504VA-NJ320WS - Check Price on AMAZON
(Intel Core i3-1315U 13th Gen/FHD/8GB/512GB SSD/Win11/MS Office/Backlit Keyboard) + 9K Card Offer
(Intel Core i3-1315U 13th Gen/FHD/8GB/512GB SSD/Win11/MS Office/Backlit Keyboard) + 9K Card Offer
4. Dell 15 - Check Price on AMAZON
(AMD Ryzen R5-7520U Processor/8GB LPDDR5/512GB/FHD@120Hz 250 nits Display/Windows 11 + MSO'21)
5. Lenovo V15 G4 (2024) - Check Price on AMAZON
(AMD Ryzen 5 7520U Quad Core/8GB/512GB SSD/Windows 11 Pro/FHD Display/MS Office 2021 Pro Plus)
Best Laptop Under ₹50,000
BEST DISPLAY AT THIS PRICE-
1. ASUS Vivobook Go 15 (OLED) E1504FA-LK542WS - Check Price on AMAZON
(AMD Ryzen 5 7520U/FHD OLED/16GB/512GB SSD/Windows 11/Office 2021/Alexa Built-in/Backlit KB)
2. HONOR MagicBook X14 Pro 2024 - Check Price on AMAZON
(13th Gen Intel Core i5-13420H/16GB/512GB NVMe SSD/FHD IPS/Windows 11/Backlit Keyboard/Fingerprint)
5. MSI Thin 15 Gaming Laptop- B12UCX-1696IN - Check Price on AMAZON
(Intel Core i5-12450H/FHD IPS 144Hz/8GB/512GB NVMe SSD/Windows 11 Home/NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050, GDDR6 4GB)
5. MSI Thin A15 - B7UCX-068IN - Check Price on AMAZON
(Ryzen 5 7535HS/FHD IPS 144Hz/16GB/512 GB NVMe SSD/Windows 11 Home/NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050, GDDR6 4GB)
So, these were some laptops i found online and are offering great specs. Many of these laptops are from Flipkart because Flipkart has better options than Amazon. Buy a laptop you personally like and which fulfils your needs. Always read the reviews before buying any laptop and give a review after buying it so that you can help other people.