41-50k College Laptop with light gaming - Team red only

Z

zish18

Contributor
Hi

I want to buy a laptop for college alongside building a gaming pc at home hence no need for a dgpu in the laptop itself:
I'm willing to wait till july-August (if AMDs 8th gen CPUs become more mainstream in laptops)
Usecase is coding, media consumption and light gaming (minecraft, f1).

budget: <58k (ideally 45-55)
cpu: AMD only - r7 needed (HS preferred over U)
gpu - none (AMD's iGPU)
ram: 16gb non-soldered (1 slot can be soldered) - [I don't mind buying a cheaper 8gb version with an emtpy slot to upgrade it myself]
hinge: should be 1 big hinge (no 2 hinge designs - bad experience with lenovo yoga 520)
display: 16:10, anti-glare
size: 14'-16'
condition: new (no used)
usb-c charging needed

storage: any
speakers: any
webcam: any
ethernet: not necessary
Resolution, Refresh rate: Prefer to have either 120Hz or higher res screen but it's optional.

NO MSI, ACER

2 laptops I've shortlisted for now:

1. https://www.amazon.in/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Graphics-Keyboard-21JRS00U00/dp/B0C7HYBQW1/
Con: Ryzen 5 and U processor
2. Asus Vivobook 16x - 5800HS
Con: 5th gen Ryzen - I would prefer 7840HS or 8840HS instead if possible.

Please do advice if U processors would be enough to do the job for me, iirc Zen 4 has the Radeon 780M graphics rather than Vega which is a huge step up.
UPDATE:
I visited croma, reliance digital, asus and lenovo's stores today.
Croma and reliance were useless.
I finessed the guy in asus though, I showed him this website where the price is given without gst while the incl gst price is written in small.
He believed it completely and said that he's willing to sell the same spec for 48 to me, he also gave me another option, a 7730u vivobook oled for 57k but I could haggle it down to 54k
I visited lenovo and tried the e14 thinkpad chassis, the trackpad and keyboard are too small for what I desire but I'm getting a 7530u for 46k there.
Best case scenario is to get an e15/e16 with 7730u for 55k but lenovo's website is overpricing it rn for 65k or a zenbook with similar specs under 60k.
 
Last edited:
I guess Lenovo (probably something like a Legion or IdeaPad model) is your best bet. You don't need to have 8000 series (8x4x) because it's currently just the same Zen4 with updated AI module I think, so a 7000 series should do just fine. ThinkPads are overpriced may not be VFM compared to Legion/IdeaPad/others - they just want to milk buyers who lust after the old IBM brand mainly for it's solid build and linux support haha.
.

edit:

@zish18 the U series should be just fine for your usage... explore the available options on lenovo.com itself and watch for sales/deals using certain credit cards... you dont get deals elsewhere except maybe Lenovo brand stores.
 
  • Like
Reactions: zish18
Hi, I found an absolute cracker of a deal while digging Lenovo's website. It's an ideapad slim with 8845hs, 16gb DDR5 (albeit soldered) for 62k. I think I'm gonna take that with student discount and maybe take 32gb ram instead.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vishalrao
1716269394750.png


Cost me 63k after all cashbacks and discounts. Exceeded my budget but had to future proof on RAM which forced the display upgrade. The zen 4 processor is much better than any 7730u or 5800hs and I felt like it was completely worth it. I used these following coupon codes:

UNBOX35: 3.5k off (if item is >70k) else use UNBOX17: 1.7k off or CUSTOMOFF (2-5k depending on cart and sale)
Student discount: 7% on the whole cart (got me 5.5k off)
Credit card cashback: 10% on whole amount upto 10k (7k off for me, cashback comes after delivery of product)
Not a coupon but they give away a lenovo laptop bag for 1 rupee if you buy a laptop from them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Incognitux, khalil, vishalrao and 2 others
The 8845hs has a 780m igpu which is more than enough for casual gaming. Oled obviously excellent for media consumption. Maybe would have been nicer with a 67-75Wh battery. Still a great deal.
 
Kubdya Khavis said:
The 8845hs has a 780m igpu which is more than enough for casual gaming. Oled obviously excellent for media consumption. Maybe would have been nicer with a 67-75Wh battery. Still a great deal.
Click to expand...
Certainly, for this price I really can't complain haha. I would've preferred upgradable ram, 1 more m.2 slot and a matte screen but deals like these don't come often hence had to go for it asap. The lenovo website is really great if one has the patience to dig through and mess with coupons.
 
Kubdya Khavis said:
Did you check any asus alternatives?
Click to expand...
I did, there was a 5800hs vivobook 16x for 48k (after hagging with the rep) and a 7730u oled vivobook for 57k. The 7730u is effectively a 5800u hence I was more drawn towards the Zen 4 8840HS. In the US market I did find a Zenbook 14 oled with a 7840hs (basically the 8845hs with less AI gizmo) for $800 which is a solid deal but I couldn't wait till october for a relative to drop by, plus the Lenovo was overall the better deal than all of them. I've mentioned some other options in the first post.
 
  • Like
Reactions: khalil and Kubdya Khavis
Kubdya Khavis said:
Did you check any asus alternatives?
Click to expand...
Try not to buy Asus as power users. They have bad PCB design / QC. See how many repairs this guy has done:

And generally their service centers are handled by F1 Info Solutions which have bad support.

@zish18 Have you recieved?
Only 60Hz screen?
65W enough to charge these laptops? Also which USB charger u got?
 

Attachments

  • image (1).jpg
    image (1).jpg
    157.2 KB · Views: 62
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: altair21
transform878 said:
Try not to buy Asus as power users. They have bad PCB design / QC. See how many repairs this guy has done:

And generally their service centers are handled by F1 Info Solutions which have bad support.

@zish18 Have you recieved?
Only 60Hz screen?
65W enough to charge these laptops? Also which USB charger u got?
Click to expand...
Hi, it's been 2 weeks since I received it. I apologise I forgot to post the update.

It is a 60HZ glossy screen, the OLED blacks are great and brightness is more than sufficient, I've tried HDR on some games and it's good enough. Do remember it's an OLED display so you will have to take care of it like your baby, so stuff like auto-hide taskbars and low brightness levels is mandatory.
There's a problem with the display you should know of before buying this device: the "blue light certified" display is hardware only and not toggle-able via software i.e your screen won't be colour accurate as it's always gonna have night light on. You cannot do anything to change it.

I did not know of this before purchase as I assumed this TUV certification would be software only so I could toggle it off from the BIOS. Performance is great and battery life is great too. I've ran GRID Autosport on ultra settings on the benchmark and gotten an average of 59 fps, I've played F1 2020 on Very high (max) settings with a stable 30+ fps and RDR2 at 1080p low (ultra textures) with FSR at quality with 45+ fps.

I'm running a dualboot on this (Windows 11 LTSC IOT and Linux) so I use windows for games and linux for everyday use. I would highly recommend a windows reinstall at the least due to the amount of bloatware lenovo installs on this machine.

Keyboard is a classic lenovo keyboard, though slightly mushy compared to my old yoga. I would've preferred more clicky keys and more travel but I can manage. I got the traditional charger where the plug cable and battery are separate, it's 65W and very small. Though, in hindsight I should've gotten the wall-charger instead. The laptop charges via both USB-C ports and one of the USB-A port is always on. The laptop is 14" and small, there's a small chin at the bottom but I can't complain given it's 16:10.

Cons:

1. The blue light display I mentioned above. (and 60hz)
2. The speakers do not get loud at all, but the clarity is there.
3. HDMI 1.4 instead of the latest standard.
4. Does not charge with your normal USB-C adapter, you need something that's 45W+ (most should already know this)

Pros:

1. OLED Is great at this price, good brightness.
2. Crazy performance for an igpu, the 8845hs cpu is amazing.
3. At 1.45kg it's light and the size makes it very portable.
4. Build quality is great, all metal. Hinge is solid as well.
5. The abyss blue colour is something truly special, it's a fingerprint magnet but it creates a different texture on the laptop which makes it look even better!

Overall, I would say this laptop is a hidden gem in the market right now. I would suggest buying it only if you want the performance of a gaming laptop in a thin and light form factor - If you don't mind the cons of a gaming laptop I would suggest getting the LOQ Gen 8 instead from Lenovo's website. It comes with a 7640hs and 4060 and costs 70k after all discounts (I've broken the whole laptop down on a comment in a separate post - check my profile for the same). Additionally, if you would like me to benchmark a certain application or have any questions then let me know or even if you want pictures of the laptop cause this abyss blue is really amazing I'll be happy to share.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vishalrao and transform878
transform878 said:
I don't understand what is this? Night light is always on in hardware?

Should I go for Thinkpad E16 or this? No gaming only programming and Linux.

I think the thinkpad e16 does not have OLED and the cpu is worse.
Click to expand...
There's a blue light feature on windows and on almost all phones, it's where the screen is yellowed so as to counter all the blue light. This helps your body sleep and hence it's also called night light. Normally this feature is on the OS but on this particular laptop it's baked on the hardware i.e your whites will never be truly white. I've attached a picture which shows the example better. The one on the left is my old yoga and the right is the new slim.


If choosing between the e16 and this 14 incher I would suggest this over the thinkpad anyday. The new gen 5 E16 doesn't retain the older thinkpad layout of the trackpad keys being on the curved part of the keyboard and instead it's all flat now, if you've never used a thinkpad before then you wouldn't mind it. The processor is also a zen 3 U series vs this which is a zen 4 HS series which means you'll get better performance (both cpu and gpu wise) but at the slight compromise of battery life although better than H/HX processors. Additionally, the 45%ntsc panel on the thinkpads are horrible and the 250-300 nits brightness isn't enough, though the brightness and colours are only going to look worse due to it being a matte display. I also suggest going for the 32gb ram upgrade.
blue(1).jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: khalil and transform878
Top Bottom