Coding Laptop (120hz+)

I want a laptop that I can code on for the best value for money price. Price isnt the biggest deal but nothing more than 70kish, and the cheaper the better significantly. Requirements are:

  • Okayish computing power

- 16 gb ram or extendable if lesser than that

- Good battery life 5hr+

- 90-144hz

- Not macos

Dont care about anything else, dont care about gaming performance or whatever. Just want a good screen for when I’m working portably, and dont wanna spend like mad for it. 16GB ram to run dev servers and coding tools but WORST case, I could ssh into home machine and work if its impossible. I understand good battery life and high refresh rate will be contradictory but I hope I’m not asking for too much battery, more than 5hr (of real active use) should be sufficient.

Also open to creative suggestions like refurbished thinkpad + changing screens maybe or something like that.

Dev experience and battery life also depends on the kind of tech stack and the tools too.

If you are an android dev, then the emulator is going to be cpu hog and can reduce your battery runtime significantly.

You can do python dev using vim + lsp in terminal with i3 and get almost macbook levels of runtime too or use pycharm at the expense of battery life.

Decide according to the tools and tech you plan to use in the next few years.

120hz leaves you with very limited options.

The motobook pro 60 is the best option in your budget.

It has 120hz oled 255H and 32GB ram with a aluminium build.

However battery life is probably going to be close to 2-3 hours max.

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If you’re okay with used laptop then Search this forum. I ve seen one such but not able to find.

Okay to add more details, I do web-dev work no emulator shenanigans. And I don’t touch jetbrains / vscode anymore, too ram heavy, so it should just be Zed (lightweight af), browser tabs, maybe nextjs / react + backend server. Should be okay on 16gb ram. CPU idk though, anything better than a 10th gen i5 should be more than okay I feel. I just prefer a good screen (1080p is enough, and more than 60hz because I dont like that) and also want good battery life (5 hoursish, I doubt I can get the both together but hoping you guys know better.

Question, why 120+ Hz , why do you think that is important for coding ? Or did I make a wrong assumption and perhaps that is required for something else you plan to do ?

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I think you might be referring to this laptop -

Not sure though, how suitable it will be for the OP.

i have been using 240hz and 144hz monitors for a long time and i cant enjoy using 60hz in any work load.

wow, lovely laptop but too good and too costly lol. also i dont it would have good battery power, i just wanna know if theres any budget laptop with 120hz / 144hz screens? ive seen msi’s evo series laptop, which i think so far is the best contender, for about 60 or 80k you get evo + 120hz

Is an oled screen a priority for you?

nope not really

I think you are optimizing the wrong variable. But you do you.

I have a 1440p 180Hz monitor I use for gaming. Love it.
and I also have a Thinkpad T14s with 8core, 16Threads ryzen 7 cpu, 32 gb ram, touch screen and 1.2 kg with 8-10 hr of battery. Which is easy to get from resellers if you are in a big city with IT presence as and when IT companies offload them. Thinkpads additionally have excellent Linux support.

For development with code editor and chrome tabs and terminal , I dont find >60Hz useful at all. In fact, my previous quad core Thinkpad X1 yoga had a gorgeous 4k screen but I specifically wanted a 1080p screen to maximize battery life. What really makes a difference for coding environment is # of cpu cores.

Been there, it is a battery hog. Would highly recommend using physical android device. If you still want it shown on your monitor then GitHub - Genymobile/scrcpy: Display and control your Android device is fantastic.

i dont want a 1440p or 2k or 4k screen though? i just really like screens with more than 60hz, its not some super rationale thing ive decided based on mounds of evidence, its just something I like, and I want to know if its possible or not in the budget with a decent battery life

After a lot of looking, I found this laptop slightly over budget but it could be cheaper with card discounts in the upcoming Amazon black friday sale expected 26-27th november.

Asus’s site for better product description and specifications.

https://in.store.asus.com/ai-powered-light-weight-laptop-asus-vivobook-s16-s3607ca-rp065ws.html

quite heavy for a laptop without dGPU and screen is 60 Hz

You are right I attached wrong link my bad. The official website link I had attached that one has a 144hz refresh rate but 45% ntsc coverage.Out of stock on Amazon and Flipkart only found it available below and official site.

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I code on a 180 Hz desktop monitor and a 60 Hz laptop screen. Since I am usually focused on programming, fully zoned in, I barely notice the difference in refresh rate, my brain doesn’t have any processing power left to care about frame rates at that point.

It’s almost as if my brain itself refreshes at 1 Hz, dealing with the task.

I have seen the Asus Expertbook personally

They have very very bad screen.. viewing angle is terrible

Same with many laptop brands screen specs are not mentioned

That was the best one I can find according to his requirements, second one would be probably this.

https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/p/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-s-series/lenovo-ideapad-slim-5i-gen-10-16-inch-intel/83hs000xin

There are a few customisable option on Lenovo website but they take 20-30 days to deliver.