Looking for a portable laptop on steroids at less than 80K.

logistopath

logistopath

Molar Police
Staff member
Super Mod
My brother needs a portable laptop with lots of muscle power.
His requirements:
1. i7 based.
2. At least 4GB RAM; support for RAM upgrades is an advantage
3. An SSD if possible.
4. Display should ideally be not more than 13".
5. Should cost not more than 80K INR. The cheaper it gets, the better.
6. OS not needed. He'll be using Linux primarily.

Not very specific about brands, but something with good A.S.S is always better. If nothing fits the bill, he will end up with an MBP; so please ignore MBP from your suggestions.

P.S: Open to purchase from the US too.

:)
 
The Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with 3 years complete cover and 9 cell battery will cost you around 75K in India. If you get it from US or Malaysia it should cost you around 40k. with an ultrabay batteyr for 180 US$ you can make it run non stop for 23 hours. It is the most powerful and the best ultraportable business laptop and I too am planning to buy it soon.
 
Any idea if Lenovo provides international warranty..? X220 looks good. And I believe there is no real alternative to this beast. BTW, where are you planning to buy it from..?
 
sunny27 said:
Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with 3 years complete cover and 9 cell battery will cost you around 75K in India. If you get it from US or Malaysia it should cost you around 40k. with an ultrabay batteyr for 180 US$ you can make it run non stop for 23 hours. It is the most powerful and the best ultraportable business laptop and I too am planning to buy it soon.
Click to expand...
Nail on the head! The X220 is an amazing laptop. Don't miss out the IPS display option. Got to try it out and it is by far the best display available on a laptop costing under Rs. 2 lakhs. (Only the HP Dreamcolor Elitebook is better, as far as I know)

Of course, battery life is amazing. Even with the smallest 6-cell battery it will return 7-8 hours. Then you have 9-cell battery and finally the slice sunny mentions above for 20+ hours (!!!).

The only subjective factor is the looks - some people don't like it. Also some may find the touchpad buttons awkward too and it will take time to get used to. Also, pure price/performance ratio will be low.
 
The x220 is listed in the laptop price list in Deltapage -- I have been eyeing the x220 since its launch in the US since January. Read up the reviews online -- its the best business ultraportable ever made.

Any one who finds the timeless elegant classic design of the Thinkpad boring is :-

[1] a person of poor taste

[2] a person who puts looks ahead of functionality

[3] and therefore is an apple lover (according to a survey conducted in uk - people who fancy apple products have a low iq and are usually girls or men who love men)
 
sunny27 said:
[3] and therefore is an apple lover (according to a survey conducted in uk - people who fancy apple products have a low iq and are usually girls or men who love men)
Click to expand...
Completely off-topic, sorry, but do you have a link to the survey??? It sounds a bit ridiculous.
 
logistopath said:
Any idea if Lenovo provides international warranty..? X220 looks good. And I believe there is no real alternative to this beast. BTW, where are you planning to buy it from..?
Click to expand...

I plan to get mine from the US, configured as follows:- Core i5 2410, 4gb ddr3 , 9 cell battery, 720p webcam, bluetoooth 3.0, ultrabase 3- extended battery, windows 7 professional, 320 gb 7200 RPM hard drive. All this for an awesome 1000$ with one year international warranty with complete cover. I will get the warranty extended in India. I will get it in August or September through a few friends who are due to come to India. I inquired at a couple of Lenovo showrooms in my city and I was told by one sales rep that Thinkpads always have 3 years of warranty irrespective of where they are bought from which made me very happy! The other shop gave me estimated extended warranty pricing which works out to about Rs.12,000 for 3 additional years of complete cover warranty (3+1=4 years of warranty) and 3 years of battery warranty, a no questions asked battery replacement policy over the desk.

Sub said:
Completely off-topic, sorry, but do you have a link to the survey??? It sounds a bit ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Google it!!!

Survey: Apple among top six gay-friendly brands in U.S. – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home

Are all Apple Mac users gay guys or women? – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home

Apple Computer gets perfect score for gay-friendliness – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home

you want me to post more of these threads along with statistics? I will gladly do so! I love Apple bashing!
 
Get the thinkpad X220, thinkpads are built to last and rarely give any hardware failure, my 3.5 yrs old thinkpad still works like its first day and i prefer its looks as thinkpads look the the same even after 2-3 yrs whereas the other shiny brands get faded,dented,scratched body panels :cool2:
 
Do consider Samsung Series 9, I am just in love with it and if I had the budget, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. The only advantage the x220 has over series 9 is the increased battery life but that's a fair bargain considering the uber compact size of Series 9. It also has a 128GB SSD and looks to die for. But all this comes at a price. Its almost double the cost of X220. If price is not a factor for you (since it comes under your budget), I think Series 9 will be a better buy.

Review : Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review -- Engadget
 
^^^If you don't have a Thinkpad well you don't have a Thinkpad! The Samsung won't last as long as the Thinkpad! According to the reviews it is outperformed by the Thinkpad x220 in terms of performance and battery life.
 
RS4 said:
Get the thinkpad X220, thinkpads are built to last and rarely give any hardware failure, my 3.5 yrs old thinkpad still works like its first day and i prefer its looks as thinkpads look the the same even after 2-3 yrs whereas the other shiny brands get faded,dented,scratched body panels :cool2:
Click to expand...
Here's some proof for the reliability of Lenovo laptops: ASUS More Reliable Than Apple But Lenovo Bests Them All - HotHardware. Only Asus comes close.

The Samsung 9 is an ultraportable - it's a competition for Macbook Air not X220. The compromise comes in with usage of ULV CPUs which are much slower than the full scale CPUs in the X220.

A little bit off topic - but the ultimate ultraportable machine might just be the new Vaio Z. It's pretty insane - full voltage CPUs upto Core i7 2620M but with the thinness of Samsung Series 9 or Macbook Air! It is made of carbon fiber (!!!) which means it's also noticeably lighter than both Series 9 and MBA, while being much, much more durable (12 times the strength-to-weight ratio of Duralumin, which the Series 9 is based on. Even more versus Aluminimum of MBA.). It is bulletproof (literally). At the same time, featuring far superior hardware and a higher res screen. Even more exciting is the external media dock which has a built in HD 6650M GPU connected thru TB and also extends battery life to 14 hours. It's a real feat of engineering. But of course, all of this has a hefty price. It makes both the MBA and Series 9 look cheap, but to be fair, both in terms of quality and price.

Anyway, on a more practical level, the X220 is the real deal. And once again, I can't mention the IPS display enough. It is far superior than anything Samsung or Apple can conjure. It is only a $50 upgrade and totally worth it.
 
@Sub: I had checked out the Vaio earlier. Looks good, and probably has been built good; but the price is really a turn off. Starts at 2200$. :O

@Bluffmaster: Will check out the Samsung.

@sunny and RS4: Pretty much in favour of the X220 as of now.

Thanks for the replies.

P.S: I believe it is possible to buy an SSD separately and replace the laptop HDD with it. Is the same possible in any of the mentioned laptops; and will it void warranty?
 
^^^Not in the thinkpad -inquired at the service center- and afaik the thinkpad has a ssd option.
 
@Sub

Mean no offence but the X220 IPS is certainly not the best notebook display below 2 lacs. :) Main reasons behind that -

1) Low resolution of 1366x768

2) Does not have a broad color gamut coverage

3) Lacks sharpness compared to the professional grade FHD displays.

As of now the best laptop displays include the HP Dreamcolor IPS, Sony Vaio F 3D IPS, Sony Vaio Z 1600x900/1920x1080,Dell FHD workstation M series and a few others.

As for the VAIO Z pricing, it is not a competitor to the X220 or any other laptop at that. Its a unique offering with no real competition. Its clearly a luxury notebook and hence the pricing.

As for new options, I frankly don't have any except maybe VAIO SA. Over the X220 it has a 1GB AMD 6630m GPU, upto 512gb SSD option, 14 hour battery life with sheet battery.

If you want to game then SA is an option to consider, otherwise go with X220 IPS.
 
babu.mohan10 said:
@Sub

Mean no offence but the X220 IPS is certainly not the best notebook display below 2 lacs. :) Main reasons behind that -

1) Low resolution of 1366x768

2) Does not have a broad color gamut coverage

3) Lacks sharpness compared to the professional grade FHD displays.

As of now the best laptop displays include the HP Dreamcolor IPS, Sony Vaio F 3D IPS, Sony Vaio Z 1600x900/1920x1080,Dell FHD workstation M series and a few others.

As for the VAIO Z pricing, it is not a competitor to the X220 or any other laptop at that. Its a unique offering with no real competition. Its clearly a luxury notebook and hence the pricing.

As for new options, I frankly don't have any except maybe VAIO SA. Over the X220 it has a 1GB AMD 6630m GPU, upto 512gb SSD option, 14 hour battery life with sheet battery.

If you want to game then SA is an option to consider, otherwise go with X220 IPS.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you on all aspects, except Dreamcolor & Co. are much, much more expensive than the X220. Maybe I am a little bit off with the Rs. 2 lakhs figure (let's modify my figure to Rs. 1 lakh), sorry for that, but you see what I mean. By the way, Dreamcolor is the only one of the above you have mentioned that is 10-bit. The rest are 8-bit IPS, just like the X220.

I am just comparing it to the 6-bit TN panels you find on pretty much every mainstream laptop, including XPS, Samsung 9, Macbook Pros/Airs, etc. The IPS panel in X220 is a huge step up on those.

Also, 1366x768 is an adequate resolution for 12.5" panel. For 14+" it is definitely "low resolution", but not for 12.5". A quick calculation reveals unless you look at your laptop closer than 1.5 feet it's not going to make any difference with a higher resolution.
 
It is already available, check deltapage.com. It is priced at Rs.72,000 with 3 years complete cover warranty and Windows 7 professional 64 bit.
 
Core i5 2520, 4 GB DDR3 - 1333 MHz 4x1 GB, 320 GB 7200rpm hard drive, 12.5 inch screen, 6 cell battery, 720p webcam, Bluetooth 3.0, Intel HD 3000 graphics, Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and 3 years complete cover warranty
 
Sunny, I didn't understand your reply. Do you mean to say that it would not void warranty, or the opposite?
 
Back
Top