Budget 41-50k Is there any real world improvement in laptops ? worth buying a lappy with latest gen cpu

RakaKaKaka

RakaKaKaka

Adept
is the processor generation any indicator of real world usage improvement thats distinguishable ? my 7 year old laptop with 4gb ram and 2nd gen i5 performs pretty much the same as my 5th gen i5 and 4gb ram laptop. the prices are the same so what exactly has improved ? feel like we are being shortchanged by these greedy coompanies. A laptop that i was intersted in last year was fr around 43k that time which had a 6th gen i3. same laptop now has 7th gen i3 and prices are 50k. wtf why are their prices not falling. no point paying so much extra for something one cant even feel. they also discontinue the prev gen models so the prices are kept artificially high. these companies offer customizable options in USA and here in india we get outdated models with 720p screens in 2017.
 
I read somewhere Intel has increased focus with generations on battery effiency and thus reduced their cpu performance as a tradeoff.
To be fair you cannot expect raw performance from laptops.
If I find the article, I will link it back here
 
I believe the current generation i5 kaby lake series are the goodness because of their efficient 4K/UHD HEVC video decoding abilities (watch netflix 4k content) and also general power-efficiency. Getting a 15 inch laptop with this CPU and a 4K display, say, like the Dell XPS 15 latest model would be awesome dude.
 
You should also consider that what we use our laptops for has also been stagnant for a long while now. Most of the people are using their laptops for low CPU usage tasks like watching movies and web browsing. This was already smooth with 1st gen core i3's and i5's. So there isn't much scope of improvement in these anyways.

Having said that the improvements have come in other forms:
1. Less power consumption: It is common to see even budget laptops giving battery life of 6-7 hours.
2. Lower TDP: With the improvement in efficiency, cooling requirements have also gone down giving us sleek ultraportables and fanless laptops which are much easier to carry.
3. More powerful graphics: You can game properly on today's laptops.

However I do agree with you that the manufacturers dump old models with high price in India. 720p models shouldn't exist any more in this age and we need to be little more aware which buying a laptop.
 
Last year when I was moving from desktop to laptop, I realized this situation. Performance improvements in processing power were for namesake but power efficiency and graphic capabilities were improved notably. This performance gain even in two generation can be offset by replacing 5400rpm (typical one present in most laptops) HDD with SSD.

Most laptops available in India were having U series processor and 1366*768 screen. For casual use, U series processor along with SSD may suffice but screen is big let down. Also these screens are not IPS. Since I had opportunity to get a laptop from USA, I checked offerings available. Even there U series processors were common but FHD IPS screens, WiFi AC were commonly available too. According to me, for mainstream usage, pairing SSD with U series processors will do wonders if screen quality can be ignored.
 
vyral_143 said:
Last year when I was moving from desktop to laptop, I realized this situation. Performance improvements in processing power were for namesake but power efficiency and graphic capabilities were improved notably. This performance gain even in two generation can be offset by replacing 5400rpm (typical one present in most laptops) HDD with SSD.

Most laptops available in India were having U series processor and 1366*768 screen. For casual use, U series processor along with SSD may suffice but screen is big let down. Also these screens are not IPS. Since I had opportunity to get a laptop from USA, I checked offerings available. Even there U series processors were common but FHD IPS screens, WiFi AC were commonly available too. According to me, for mainstream usage, pairing SSD with U series processors will do wonders if screen quality can be ignored.
Click to expand...

Agreed, The screen resolution and panel quality is terrible :/
 
And also to all others... laptop is still gonna be laptop no matter how powerful it sounds in config. It could not be compared to the same levels desktop.
 
Exactly. Which is why I have an "ultra book" cheap and good VFM HP Envy 13. Plus a Ryzen 1700 desktop at home :D
 
vyral_143 said:
Last year when I was moving from desktop to laptop, I realized this situation. Performance improvements in processing power were for namesake but power efficiency and graphic capabilities were improved notably. This performance gain even in two generation can be offset by replacing 5400rpm (typical one present in most laptops) HDD with SSD.

Most laptops available in India were having U series processor and 1366*768 screen. For casual use, U series processor along with SSD may suffice but screen is big let down. Also these screens are not IPS. Since I had opportunity to get a laptop from USA, I checked offerings available. Even there U series processors were common but FHD IPS screens, WiFi AC were commonly available too. According to me, for mainstream usage, pairing SSD with U series processors will do wonders if screen quality can be ignored.
Click to expand...

I can confirm these observations. I've a 2014 Lenovo Z5070 15.6 inch laptop with an Intel 4200U processor. After an SSD upgrade, if felt as if the laptop had come alive :). I now use it more than my desktop for all my daily tasks(banking, browsing, ordering online, email etc.) except for watching movies.

The two major problems I have with this 2014 laptop with the 4th gen proccy are:

i> Very poor battery life of up to 1 - 1.5 hrs as compared to my 6th gen proccy in my wife's 11 inch Dell laptop which gives around 3.5 - 4 hrs(maybe more) of battery life.

ii> Very bad TN panel (probably among the worst) that changes colour with slight vertical adjustments of the lid. Vertical viewing angle is a bigger problem that the horizontal viewing angle with this laptop.

W.r.t. with your observations on manufacturers shortchanging indian customers w.r.t. screen options, I would add SSDs to the list too. I don't see many manufacturers providing laptops with an SSD option even in 2017.
 
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