Budget 90k+ 2-1 laptop for college

mk76

Adept
  • What's your Budget? (e.g. >30K, not more than 50K etc.)
    • < 110k

  • What will be your primary usage for the notebook be? (e.g. web surfing/office apps/Casual Gaming)
    • For a college person
    • Multipurpose
    • NO gaming
    • Photoshop
    • Note taking / annotations

  • What size and weight considerations do you have? (e.g. Do you want a 17" desktop replacement or you want an ultraportable 12" or something in between)
    • 14"

  • Any brand that you prefer, or any brand that you detest? (e.g some would prefer to stay away from Acer or Dell)
    • Asus Zenbook Duo ( i7/16GB)

  • Any other considerations? (e.g Battery life; Widescreen/non-widescreen; Glossy/Matte screen etc.)
    • Durability
    • Good A.S.S

At first I thought of Zenbook classic ( i5 / 8GB / 500GB SSD) @ 58k .. but 2GB getting dedicated to VRAM would take the juice out of it when doing photoshop.
Next we checked Asus Zenbook Duo i7/16GB model which is being quoted at 116k.

Are there any better 2-1 alternatives with i7/Ryzen equivalent + 16gb ram ( or with 8 GB expandable ) ?

Thank you for your inputs and suggestions
 
The need is still on. Market is virtually dry with very less models in stock. Also sellers are using this opportunity to sell old inventory ( 7-8 gen )

If you're willing to wait the envy x360 ryzen edition has been getting good reviews. I'm not sure when/if it'll launch in India.
Any ETA?

Buy something with an active stylus. Elite book x360 or something similar should be fine.
These seems to be out of budget. Max can go is 1.25L

I would recommend the best machine Asus Zenbook Duo ( i7/16GB) or Dell version both best fit for college laptops.
This ( UX481 i7/16gb model) is the one I inquired about a lot. But its out of stock. Also few points
- The old model does not have primary display touch enabled
- Due to secondary display the palm rest goes away and also one sits 4-5 inches further away .. making the screen look like 1-1/5" smaller
- The old model is not battery optimized with both screens resulting is quick drop.
- The new model, however is better in handling the above.
- Unfortunately, no ETA on when it will arrive in local market


get a ryzen. acer swift is not too bad.
I was thinking of Helios 300 owing to its build quality

I also am inclined towards Zephyrus series. Any suggestions are most welcome..
 
1.25L is a huge budget for a laptop. Take your time before buying anything.
I am not aware of the situation in India, but for that kind of budget hp 360 is readily available in Europe.
 
Looks like Asus market is all sluggish. Most of the stores are OOS, and those who have are just clearing old stocks; selling 8-9 gen laptops at exorbitant prices.

The only 2020 models I could find were with HP but at prices exactly same as on their portal
- HP Envy (16GB /i7/9G) - 1L
- HP Omen (16GB/I7 10G/1660Ti) - 1.3L
- HP Spectre x360 (16GB/i7 10G) - 1.65L
 
Wait for few weeks unless it is urgent. If you need a laptop urgently, buy an old T440/ similar from ebay and put in an SSD. There is a global crisis of Tablets/ Laptops at the moment (possibly issues involving importing from China). No one buys HP in the area I live in (due to very poor service and bad reputation), few local stores are giving good discount on hp products and nothing else is available.
 
The recent hp laptops indeed look very beautiful. But are there any issues with their quality control?
In my city almost all computer stores have these x360 models, but most people avoid them for some reason, and these have extremely poor resale value.
The situation can be different in India though.
I researched on some laptop reliability surveys ( very interesting study) hp and Huawei are the least reliable brands.
Huawei Matebook Pro ( I've seen only one in life) line received great reviews everywhere but it was possibly voted the most unreliable laptop ( can not find the source now)
 
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The recent hp laptops indeed look very beautiful. But are there any issues with their quality control?
In my city almost all computer stores have these x360 models, but most people avoid them for some reason, and these have extremely poor resale value.
The situation can be different in India though.
I researched on some laptop reliability surveys ( very interesting study) hp and Huawei are the least reliable brands.
Huawei Matebook Pro ( I've seen only one in life) line received great reviews everywhere but it was possibly voted the most unreliable laptop ( can not find the source now)

Which brands are good. I hoped Asus .. but then read article about air vent design issues in Zephyrus models . There design showed a bias toward Intel; the amd one had closed vents leading to heating issues.

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Thanks but never Flopkart. Do not trust them. Also someone posted this
 
Take a look at the Surface Laptop 3( https://amzn.to/2BCaJO8 )if you haven't already and share your thoughts. If a touch screen is truly important to you, that's the way to go.

16GB of RAM requires a processor that can fill a frame buffer of that size. Hex core at minimum. Most thin/lights won't have up-gradable memory and those that do will only offer 1 slot.

Zephyrus don't have touch input BTW.
 
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On the one hand, congratulations on your purchase. On the other, you could have got yourself the HP Envy 360 with a 6 core Ryzen 4000 (7nm CPU) for only 75k.
 
Here is the HP Envy 360

But it reserves 2GB RAM

Check the review in the page
KUBRApF.png
 
Here is the HP Envy 360

But it reserves 2GB RAM

Check the review in the page
KUBRApF.png
Thanks for sharing this. There isn't a BIOS setting to change this? That's pretty weird.

Although AMD's onboard graphics are way better, I don't see a need to lock 2GB of system RAM away for it to do its thing.
 
Congratulations on your purchase. If possible, please buy 3 year warranty.
4/5 hours on battery for an ultrabook is not acceptable.
I'm sure, Intel with give you a lot more. My 2019 Gram with 8th gen Intel still easily goes on for 10 hours or more under light load and it has no perceptible battery degradation after 9 months.
 
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I'll be going with 2 years extended warranty. HP partners with ARM who offer 2 plans
- 2 years Extended warranty @15k
- 2 years Extended warranty + Accidental Damage Protection @ 23k
... both + GST

One interesting thing .. the accidental damage protection plan is limited to the cost of the laptop. Once you reach that, the contract stands terminated. Extended warranty support continues ...
 
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