71-90K [Budget 50k-1L] Need a programming laptop with FHD display

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Santa Maria!

Explorer
I need a new programming laptop. I have a broad budget as I'm not sure if what I need can be obtained in a lower price, though I'm willing to spend up to 1L on it if needed.

  • The laptop will run Linux and will be used exclusively for programming and browsing. No gaming, really.
    • Lots of multitasking will be done. Will be fooling around with heavy databases, big data, VMs, threading etc.
  • A full HD display is critical for me as I work with split screens. A 15.6 inch display would be nice, though will look at lower if necessary.
  • Lots of RAM would be good, or ability to extend RAM. Minimum 8GB, would really want to go as close to 16GB as possible.
  • A SSD HDD would be greatly appreciated.
  • I will not be running Windows. So if a good laptop comes without Windows, all the better.
  • No need for an awesome graphics card. Even integrated graphics ought to be sufficient as long as it can handle an external monitor (or possibly 2 ext monitors).
  • Do I need Intel's 5th gen CPUs or not?
I don't have any particular brand preferences.
It does seem to be a trend among developers to get a MacBook, but I'm wondering if better specs can be obtained in a different laptop for a lower price. Guidance would be appreciated.

Help would be greatly appreciated.
 
If programming is the main task, at your budget, you can really go for a gaming laptop. You have lots of choices in the segment where laptop with i5 CPU can already perform good. You can even buy a new smartphone as complement.
 
u should have went with a SSD notebook and leveraged read cache features instead of huge 1 tb , VMs for Bigdata requires 1 gb ram with a Ubuntu OS for analytics of twitter data so such a huge spec wasnt needed in the first place
 
Hey Santa Maria, how is the laptop, planning to get the same one for gaming and video editing purpose.
Heard its a finger print magnet and speaker quality isn't that good. Your views would be very helpful as you have been using it for some time now.
And one more question, is the RAM 1x8GB or 2x4GB?
 
sgtswagatam said:
Hey Santa Maria, how is the laptop, planning to get the same one for gaming and video editing purpose.
Heard its a finger print magnet and speaker quality isn't that good. Your views would be very helpful as you have been using it for some time now.
And one more question, is the RAM 1x8GB or 2x4GB?
Click to expand...

The laptop is great so far. Use it for 6+ hours every day.
I love the display (though I'm no expert). I use it for programming with a dark background and my code looks vivid and gorgeous over the dark BG :D. Very good viewing angles as well.
Plus screen is FHD, which was critical for me.

For lighter screens (eg. browser pages), there may seem to be a 'warmer' tint compared to my old laptop, which I noticed initially, but I don't notice it any more.
I'm not sure how much color reproduction and all are critical for video/photo editing, so you might want to check it out in person.
I haven't gamed on this machine yet, but I've read that the screen is wonderful from a gaming perspective.

The hand-rest surface does get a bit smudgy with hand/finger marks, but I don't notice it too much.

And the speaker quality absolutely sucks. :(
I mean this is below average. And I was used to my old Samsung NP550-S06IN laptop which had amazing JBL speakers.
I connect it to a bluetooth speaker when I need sounds.

The RAM is 2x4GB.

Let me know if you need more info.
 
Thanks Santa Maria! I was unable to find the GL552JX at local stores or even online. I am now going with the Asus R510JX which has the same specs but without ROG branding. And i'm getting it for 67k.

Hope this will work the same.
 
shaunak said:
I am in the market for something like this too, but I have one question. Does the one you bought have Wifi AC?

See my rant/question: https://www.techenclave.com/communi...sically-outdated-a-rant-plus-question.177070/
Click to expand...

I get this hardware info when I query my system:
Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

Maybe you can dig a bit to see if that supports ac.
I assume that the required support is for standard IEEE 802.11ac?
I did a cursory attempt at checking for 5GHz support and it would appear that this hardware doesn't support it. It is only single band... not dual band.
I'm not 100% sure if my attempt was thorough.
 
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