Budget 21-30k First laptop. Best screen in a budget. Dell or Lenovo or HP or something else?

naru80

Disciple
  • What's your Budget? <25K
  • What will be your primary usage for the notebook be? web surfing/chromecast/downloads
  • What size and weight considerations do you have? 15 inch screen preferred
  • Any brand that you prefer, or any brand that you detest? No idea here, need advice
  • Any other considerations? 1 Wifi has to be super-fast and hassle free 2 Screen has to be easy on the eyes
This is going to be my first laptop. The only thing that I can get in my budget is i3 (4th or 5th gen)/4gb RAM/integrated graphics. I've shortlisted these laptops, from Lenovo, Dell and HP

1 Lenovo seems to be the best bet since it's a 5th gen I3 with 5500 graphics and Ram expandable to 16Gb . The only doubt is the screen. I've read that Lenovo screen is not LED. Can someone confirm if it is inferior to others? The screen quality is a big issue since I spend long hours on the internet and suffer from eye strain.

http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01...inyogicom-21&ascsubtag=3080531#productDetails

2 HP
http://www.amazon.in/HP-15-ac122tu-...-20&keywords=hp+core+i3+laptop#productDetails

3 Dell Vostro :
https://paytm.com/shop/p/dell-vostr...tes&utm_medium=findyogi&utm_campaign=findyogi

4 Dell Inspiron
http://www.amazon.in/Dell-Inspiron-...4332271&sr=1-2&keywords=dell+inspiron+15+3542

All other brands -- Acer, Asus, etc have similar configuration and similar pricing. Any suggestions which one has the better build quality/after sales, etc? Also, any other feature I need to be aware of? I will buy online during the sale next week. Any help will greatly be appreciated. Will update on the purchase/deal/review
 
@naru80 I've mostly used HP/Compaq other than Sony, Lenovo, Fujitsu and Dell laptops and confirm that HP laptops are better built. I'll suggest you to go with HP. Check whether any warranty extension scheme is currently offered on HP, if yes then you may be able to extend the warranty by paying ₹1599/- for next 2 years other than the 1 year already provided.

@avi is using has purchased Lenovo so he may be able to suggest you on that. (Thanks @avi for the correction in the below post)
 
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Lower end lenovos have poor screens. I find the lenovo model that I have has lower quality screen as compared to the inspiron model of my friend.
I have g50 4th gen, and it's awesome tbh. Comings from y50 with TN display, i find g50's display to be good enough for a power user who uses a laptop for the whole time online only. and Screens dont matter anyways as experienced by me personally as once you use a laptop for more than a week, you will get used to of a display.

Let me tell u OP , that i have had 4 laptops , z560 (lost), z570 (sold) , y50 (sold) and g50 (now) and all lenovo, and i love the experience on lenovo laptops. Sure I have not used other laptops for a long time but I have seen my friends and roomates using HP laptops and others and really they suck. May be it's because they don't keep it maintained. Anyways, never liked the experience on HP.

The one you have choosen seems to be perfect except some things, it depends if u can bear it or not.

the Front of the laptop seems to be textured , and well it's good compared to last gen G series which has glossy material which gains alot of fingerprints , still this textured one looks to be will accumulate alot of dust. This may seem to be a small issue to you now but being an owner of 4 laptops till date, it really matters where the dust goes in a laptop and I would never want the dust to be in front.

G series has one shitty option which I think lenovo should get rid off is DVD Port and save money from there and give us more hardware features like more usb 3.0 ports. You may like dvd slots in starting but in the long run , u will always prefer usb. I loved the fact that y50 didn't have dvd slot.

other thing is, wait for some more time and buy a laptop which has usb 3.1 c type port too as that will be the future, but oh well that will take time :(

apart from that, this is perfect in your price point and trust me, u will love this laptop.

btw did I mention all lenovo laptops have shitty track pad these days? z560 and z570 had perfect trackpads. You will hate the trackpad of any lenovo laptop , be it low budget or top beast high price gaming lenovo laptop.
 
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Thanks for the replies. I'm still fixated on the screen. I had an IPad 2 for the longest time and it kept giving me headaches, literally. Don't want a repeat of that.

So, is Acer's TFT better than Lenovo's TN screen? Or are HP and Dell the best with their LEDs?

Also, Just realised that Acer is the only one with a 802.11ac standard. Does it improve the wifi speed/signal strength in a 25 mbps connection?

I'll go to the mall this weekend to check out the laptops in person.
 
After visiting the shops, I think Acer seems to be the best bang for the buck. No idea about long-term performance or after sales though. Should I go ahead with this? Is there something wrong with this brand, don't know anyone who uses Acer...

15.6 inch/ Core i3 5th gen/ 4gb Ram expandable to 16 gb/6 cell battery

http://www.amazon.in/Aspire-E5-573-...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1444583825&sr=1-1

Second choice is Dell Vostro for its matte, anti-glare screen, which seemed to be better for reading purpose:

http://www.amazon.in/Dell-vostro-3558-15-6-inch-Laptop/dp/B011V4X0E6/ref=zg_bs_1375424031_9
 
Thanks for all the help. I've finally purchased Dell Inspiron 3542 (core i3 4005u, 4 gb ram, 500 gb hdd, Ubuntu) in Amazon lightening deal.

Price: 22990 + 2500 amazon gift voucher + 1500 hdfc cash back. Final price = 18990

Though not my original choice, but with the discount I think it's worth it.
 
Congratulations mate on the purchase!

I also got the same lappy in the same deal on 17-10-15....

Planning to return it because it's warranty start date is 29-9-2015, and con contacting amazon to get it updated, they said they cannot and a replacement may have the same warranty start date, and suggested me to return it and take a refund :mad:

P.S.: I updated the wireless driver on pre-installed Ubuntu OS and WiFi stopped working.
Tried Dell Recovery to factory reset the laptop and the bootloader of the HDD crashed.
Got it working after 3 days of struggle.
So don't update the wifi driver on Ubuntu and never try to run Dell Recovery ( it's broken :mad: ).
 
Planning to return it because it's warranty start date is 29-9-2015, and contacting amazon to get it updated, they said they cannot and a replacement may have the same warranty start date, and suggested me to return it and take a refund :mad:

Mine's warranty too starts in Sep, but the Dell support site shows it ends Dec 2016. So I'm okay with it.

P.S.: I updated the wireless driver on pre-installed Ubuntu OS and WiFi stopped working.
Tried Dell Recovery to factory reset the laptop and the bootloader of the HDD crashed.
Got it working after 3 days of struggle.
So don't update the wifi driver on Ubuntu and never try to run Dell Recovery ( it's broken :mad: ).

I've updated it to Windows 10. Happy to report, there's no issue with drivers or anything else so far...
 
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