Budget 51-70k need a laptop for college (coding, light gaming) decent battery life, lightweight, bright panel.

24Karrots

24Karrots

Novice
Budget is flexible above 50k, but needs to be below 60-65k.
My main use for it is going to be for coding, document work, watching videos and a lot of web browsing (need a lot of tabs open on edge), but I also want to be able to run modern games on it on lower settings, although I will mostly play Indie games (switch emulation would be a bonus but it might be unrealistic). The screen needs to be bright enough to view under light with color accuracy, anti-glare would also be good. Anything above 60hz is not a necessity as I don't play esports games, and I'm used to a 60hz screen. At least one USB-C port would be preferable, and I want the battery to last 3-4 hours minimum, nothing 3 hours and below. I also want 16 gb ram or at least an option to upgrade from 8gb without voiding warranty. Lastly, I want it to be lightweight - not bulky and heavy like a gaming laptop. As an example for gaming, I would be happy if it can run monster hunter rise at playable fps on medium settings.

I am considering the Vivobook 16x (2022) with ryzen 7 5800HS, 16GB ram and Vega 7 graphics. I was considering the 2023 version of the same with an rtx 2050 and i5-12450h, but I am not sure about ram upgradability (as it has 8gb ram) and I have heard issues with its battery life as well. There is also the fact that AMD cpus generally have better battery life, so unless this laptop is an exception I don't want to consider Intel. Please help me weigh other options as well like the vivobook pro 15, HP victus, other vivobook etc as the options are confusing.
It should be able to last 3-4 years of college.
 
I don't really have multiple suggestions, so I'll just share my experience with my laptop.

I've been happily using my Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 for college and normal day to day purposes. It lasts me 6+ hours on a normal day, but if I'm debugging and building a lot while coding, the battery life is down to 4hrs at max brightness. It cost 65K for me back in 2021-ish.

However, reviews of the recent versions make it seem like it has gotten worse over the years since I bought it. Mushy keyboard, worse display etc

My main problem with it is that RAM is not upgradeable, so I'm stuck with 16GB+swap. Though both the WiFi chipset and the NVMe drive can be replaced iirc. I bought it during Covid, so mine came with a Mediatek chipset. The WiFi+BT MTK card gave a lot of issues under Windows, but has been working fine under Linux OOTB, which was a nice surprise!

No dGPU, but I don't mind that since
  1. Battery lasts longer
  2. No worries with Linux compat
  3. Mostly works fanless
  4. The iGPU of AMD is good enough for most indie games, and ETS2. Modern games don't work too well though, but that's a non issue for me since I can't play them anyway.
Ofc, the display is not very bright, not enough to be perfectly readable under sunlight but passable otherwise, and speakers are okay. But I'm spoiled since I'm comparing it with a M1 MBP. It's not that they sound bad, it's just that there's not much low freq and the sound levels are quite low. Good enough if you need them, but I'd use earphones.

If I wanted to buy one today, I'd probably look for AMD APUs, since the iGPU are really good and they don't use all that much power either. Something like the Steam Deck but in a laptop form factor, basically.
 
24Karrots said:
I am considering the Vivobook 16x (2022) with ryzen 7 5800HS, 16GB ram and Vega 7 graphics. I was considering the 2023 version of the same with an rtx 2050 and i5-12450h, but I am not sure about ram upgradability (as it has 8gb ram) and I have heard issues with its battery life as well. There is also the fact that AMD cpus generally have better battery life, so unless this laptop is an exception I don't want to consider Intel. Please help me weigh other options as well like the vivobook pro 15, HP victus, other vivobook etc as the options are confusing.
It should be able to last 3-4 years of college.
Click to expand...

Vivobook is a productivity laptop.

In gaming refresh rate > screen quality

Also not sure if fans are big enough to take prolonged gaming loads.
The victus also throttles a little under prolonged loads + wobbly hinges
 
AMG said:
Vivobook is a productivity laptop.

In gaming refresh rate > screen quality

Also not sure if fans are big enough to take prolonged gaming loads.
The victus also throttles a little under prolonged loads + wobbly hinges
Click to expand...
I'll mostly be using it for productivity tasks, I just want it to be able to handle a few games on the side. And I don't care for anything more than 60 fps because I'm aware of the budget
 
KAKAN said:
I don't really have multiple suggestions, so I'll just share my experience with my laptop.

I've been happily using my Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 for college and normal day to day purposes. It lasts me 6+ hours on a normal day, but if I'm debugging and building a lot while coding, the battery life is down to 4hrs at max brightness. It cost 65K for me back in 2021-ish.

However, reviews of the recent versions make it seem like it has gotten worse over the years since I bought it. Mushy keyboard, worse display etc

My main problem with it is that RAM is not upgradeable, so I'm stuck with 16GB+swap. Though both the WiFi chipset and the NVMe drive can be replaced iirc. I bought it during Covid, so mine came with a Mediatek chipset. The WiFi+BT MTK card gave a lot of issues under Windows, but has been working fine under Linux OOTB, which was a nice surprise!

No dGPU, but I don't mind that since
  1. Battery lasts longer
  2. No worries with Linux compat
  3. Mostly works fanless
  4. The iGPU of AMD is good enough for most indie games, and ETS2. Modern games don't work too well though, but that's a non issue for me since I can't play them anyway.
Ofc, the display is not very bright, not enough to be perfectly readable under sunlight but passable otherwise, and speakers are okay. But I'm spoiled since I'm comparing it with a M1 MBP. It's not that they sound bad, it's just that there's not much low freq and the sound levels are quite low. Good enough if you need them, but I'd use earphones.

If I wanted to buy one today, I'd probably look for AMD APUs, since the iGPU are really good and they don't use all that much power either. Something like the Steam Deck but in a laptop form factor, basically.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your response. I'll definitely be on the lookout for AMD APUs
 
I have been using my lenovo ideapad gaming 3 since a year now, got it for 55k during sale, it has a ryzen 5 5500h processor, a GTX 1650 and 8 GB ram(upgradable to 16gb), i use it for around 8 hrs everyday for college work and playing games, runs most modern games like forza, f1, elden ring and resident evil 4(2023) on medium graphics. Battery lasts around 4 hours while doing light to moderate work. I have also checked linux compatibilty and got no issues so far. I think the ideapad gaming series would be a good option to consider.
 
24Karrots said:
I didn't yet. I'm considering the Vivobook Pro 15 as well, as it has a discrete GPU. I need to find out more about its build quality and battery life
Click to expand...
it won't matter even if it has a dgpu, aside from gaming laptops with proper cooling, all "lightweight" laptops will thermal throttle like crazy
 
altair21 said:
it won't matter even if it has a dgpu, aside from gaming laptops with proper cooling, all "lightweight" laptops will thermal throttle like crazy
Click to expand...
What would you suggest for my use case? I would definitely like to do some gaming on the side but I don't want the drawbacks of a gaming laptop like the bulky build and (especially) low screen brightness
 
24Karrots said:
What would you suggest for my use case? I would definitely like to do some gaming on the side but I don't want the drawbacks of a gaming laptop like the bulky build and (especially) low screen brightness
Click to expand...
you can't have the best of both worlds. it's either lightweight for you or a gaming laptop specially if you want to play games like Monster Hunter, if it were normal esports titles it would have been fine but not for something like monster hunter. Either choose between the two or increase your budget to get better lightweight gaming laptops like Legion 7i slim (1.3-1.5l) or ROG Zephyrus (1.1 - 1.5L)
 
I've to add: If gaming is a big priority, a SFF PC might be better suited. Check out the DeepCool CH160 case. Pretty small and cheap. I was planning out a build using it and it costs around 1.6lakh INR with a RTX 4070 and AMD 7800X3D.

Going for a cheaper AMD APU and skipping the GPU can cut down costs by a lot, making it near or under 65k. You can then later upgrade if you feel the need to do so.

While it's not as portable, it can still be carried over. And you can use even smaller cases if you're not going for a dGPU. And along with that, maybe look for a 2nd hand thinkpad or macbook for everyday work, or a Chromebook Plus certified device if all you need is web browsing?

It'll probably be over your budget, but it's better than buying a thin and light laptop with a dGPU.
 
KAKAN said:
I've to add: If gaming is a big priority, a SFF PC might be better suited. Check out the DeepCool CH160 case. Pretty small and cheap. I was planning out a build using it and it costs around 1.6lakh INR with a RTX 4070 and AMD 7800X3D.

Going for a cheaper AMD APU and skipping the GPU can cut down costs by a lot, making it near or under 65k. You can then later upgrade if you feel the need to do so.

While it's not as portable, it can still be carried over. And you can use even smaller cases if you're not going for a dGPU. And along with that, maybe look for a 2nd hand thinkpad or macbook for everyday work, or a Chromebook Plus certified device if all you need is web browsing?

It'll probably be over your budget, but it's better than buying a thin and light laptop with a dGPU.
Click to expand...
gaming isn't a big priority but it's more like something i would be happy with on the side. I already have a PC with an i5-12400f, RX 5600 XT and 16 gb RAM that I use at home to play games on. This laptop is something I want to take to college. Thanks for your input though

altair21 said:
you can't have the best of both worlds. it's either lightweight for you or a gaming laptop specially if you want to play games like Monster Hunter, if it were normal esports titles it would have been fine but not for something like monster hunter. Either choose between the two or increase your budget to get better lightweight gaming laptops like Legion 7i slim (1.3-1.5l) or ROG Zephyrus (1.1 - 1.5L)
Click to expand...
That makes sense. Looks like I might just have to consider something like the Vivobook 16x with an AMD cpu and no GPU so I can run a few indie games while mostly focusing on productivity. I don't think I can increase the budget to have the best of both worlds.
That said, how do "budget" gaming laptops in this price range perform, and are they reliable in terms of longevity, screen brightness and battery? I'm referring to laps like the Victus, Ideapad Gaming, Lenovo LOQ, Asus TUF, Acer Nitro etc. Haven't considered them yet but I would like to know your opinion.
 
Get a used one, you'll get a much better deal.

HP victus series with a 4060/4050 inside of it. They don't look like gaming laptops pe se.
 
24Karrots said:
I use at home to play games on
Click to expand...
Use sunshine + moonlight for remote gaming its pretty good.
Reason I am saying don't get laptops with dGPU is because of Optimus/MUX Switch and how your setup is.

Linux compatibility is highly dependent on your setup.

I have Legion 5 and Asus G14 I am having a hard time with because of the way both laptops connect to dGPU via USB C Dock.

I would say prioritize screen size for more coding on screen. 14" -> 16" is a big difference with 16:10 ratio especially.
Also prioritize good I/O ports and check which GPU it connects to.

Defintely get AMD GPU if possible because officially Wayland is not supported on NVIDIA GPUs but then you are loosing support for NVIDIA Broadcast.

I am yet to find good options for Linux laptops in India.
 
System 76 literally use Clevo chassis and mark up the price 2-3x. Framework I agree with. Here you can go for the Lenovo Ideapad Pro 5. 8845HS, good port selection, well built and a properly beautiful screen at a decent price.
 
Back
Top