Some of the laptops I had shortlisted while searching were (please look out for cashbacks and ongoing sales across all sites)-
- Lenovo Ideapad 5 pro 14/16 inch (Comes with AMD U/H series and 56wh for 14 and 75wh battery for 16inch variant (with gtx 1650), has PD for both and costs 70k (14) and 75-78k (16))
- HP Victus (has 70wh battery but lacks PD charging, weigh around 2.5kg, and wobbles XD)
- Xiaomi 120g comes with or without discrete gpu (Uses Intel, so it has PD charging + Thunderbolt, but 56wh battery feels a bit less and service centers maybe an issue)
- Asus Tuf dash f15 (Comes with Intel thus PD+ Thunderbolt, 76wh battery, lackluster display and near to 80k)
- LG gram (12th gen intel is quite overpriced for me atleast , it's definitely a looker, service centers maybe an issue)
- Lenovo Thinkbook 13s (AMD 6th gen U series but screen size......)
My brief on windows and battery life-
Battery life and windows are pita. I have been in the same in this position to buy a windows-based laptop with good battery life. The problem with windows is that any background update or tracking (that's how Microsoft earns its moola XD) will drastically reduce battery life even on idle. You would have to tune the laptop before you go ahead and do anything with it. Out of the box all the stock laptops from major brand come with too much bloat and windows on steroids Lol.
Some key takeaways from my experience-
- Get as big battery as you can in the price segment you're targeting (more the watt-hours/Wh the better or at least more than 50Whr)
- Intel or AMD H series are battery hogs but they can be made to sip on power (not to the extent that Arm based m1/m2 would ofc), better go with U for moderate gaming and better battery life
- As soon as you get the laptop update everything there is (windows and drivers)
- Install Batterybar to track your power consumption (discharge)
- Disable variable brightness in display setting
- If you're going with laptop for moderate gaming and work purpose, make two power plans (work and gaming) to switch between both.
- Enable ACHI link power management and Processor performance boost mode setting on power plan editor through registry
- For work power plan in power plan editor disable Processor performance boost model for both plugged in and on battery, and now set the Achi power management in Hard disk tab to Lowest so to ensure it does devsleep (most ssd support it, if not HIPM+DIPM is also good)
- Now you can disable windows tracking and analytics and Cortana using windows debloat script from git (sycnex). Disabling windows tracking analytics reduces a lot of power consumption in the background (5-8w form my case and every mW matter for battery life)
Once you do all these or some of the steps you can observe lower discharge on batterybar, and now your laptop would idle with much lower discharge and sleep when not used with minimal drain.
For some reference Idle consumption for AMD/Intel H series should be around 7-9w and for U series around 4-7w
Coming to Laptop selection part-
- Getting U series laptop these days would be much better for what you intend to use it for, and Intel 12th gen U series or AMD 5/6th gen U series are great picks and do come under 60k
- Always get as big battery as you can and look for laptop that supports PD charging (USB Type C), so you won't be stuck with lack of idle socket. Third party GAN PD chargers are life savers for simultaneously charging your laptop or mobile (get one with two or more ports)
- While choosing a laptop don't skimp on the display brightness and touchpad quality because using external mouse will increase power consumption (so it's better to get one with good touchpad) and for brightness it's a given that using 300nits display on 50% is more efficient than 250nits display on near to full brightness
