Budget 71-90K Sturdy laptop for business & travel

H

hiayush

Recruit
Hey folks,

I am currently using a HP Pavilion 5th gen i5 and desparately looking for an upgrade. Not sure whether is it worth it to wait for the 12th gen processors (considering my requirements below)?

Most important factor is the display. I have an extremely low-vision and wear high-power glasses 24x7. I spend upwards of 10 hours in front of the laptop screen daily. Therefore preference is big screen with atleast FHD display, 300 nits brightness. Anything else that can make the screen-use less painful for eyes is appreciated.

Total budget: INR 75,000. Can extend to 1 Lakh if it's really really worth it!
Form Factor: Robust build quality to ensure safety in commute and trips etc (I travel frequently). Decent battery life and under 2 KGs if possible.
Operating System: Windows
Dozens of people have already suggested Mac without a single thought. But I don't have any Apple product, not the money for warranty and maintenance, nor I want to be trapped in the ecosystem. Only model that matches my requirement is Apple M1 16" Macbook Pro which is way out of my budget!!!
Screen size: 14" minimum
Battery: whatever is the best possible considering other requirements
Weight: Under 2Kgs preferred but can't compromise on build quality or other specs
Daily Usage: VS Code, Chrome, Firefox, OBS, Discord, Lots of Docs, Photoshop, Illustrator.
Gaming preferences: No Gaming!
Other Requirements:
  • Backlit Keyboard is required.
  • No webcam is also okay I believe, I have an external webcam. And don't use webcam much anyway.
  • Minimum 256 GB NVme SSD
  • 8/16 Gigs of RAM
  • Intel i5/i7 or AMD Ryzen 5/7 works
 
Check out the ASUS VivoBook range with OLED screens. If weight is an issue Asus ZenBook with the OLED screen option.

Another option is to get a large, good monitor (like a Dell Ultrasharp) and extend the display. That would be the best option, considering ergonomics of 10hr in front of the screen.
 
I recommend to pay attention to Asus Zenbook 14 UX425. There are 3 types of processors to choose from (i3, i5 and i7). I think i5 is perfect. There are also several options for screen diagonals, video card settings, hard drive size and RAM. The price is in the region of $1,000 ($1,182 for the most complete i7 and 16 GB of RAM). You said that your sister doesn't need maximum performance, so I think for about $950 you can buy it. The body is metal, of course.
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/Zenbook/Zenbook-14-UX425-11th-Gen-Intel/
 
Lenovo ThinkPad is exactly made for this purpose and the ones with the premium construction start at around 1 lakh (P/X series). P14s Gen2 is around 1 lakh on their website with Ryzen Zen 3, 400 nits display and 16GB RAM.
The only issue with them is the shipping time, they build the SKUs to order in China so getting your order shipped takes a lot of time.

Other metallic build laptops I'd suggest:
HP Envy 14 (400 nits, 16:10, 100% SRGB display + 1650 Ti MQ GPU) - Good build quality on par with their flagship Spectre series, good GPU and bright display
Acer Swift X (300 nits, 16:9, 100% sRGB + 3050 Ti GPU)
LG Gram (300 nits, 16:10, 100% sRGB)
ASUS ZenBook series (for build quality, depends on stock)
ASUS OLED series (for display, 500 nits+, depends on stock) - Check out VivoBook Pro OLED series laptops on their eshop.

I haven't seen anything with good display for a reasonable price under 1L from HP or Dell. Same for Lenovo also, their cheapest 300 nits laptop is ~70k ThinkBook.

I own the HP Envy 14, the display is really nice. But if I wasn't in a rush to buy a new laptop, I'd wait for 12th gen. Incredible battery life benefits. Or you can buy the 11th gen models for a discount after 12th gen launches in India for a very short time as stock will run out very soon.
 
Any enterprise ultrabooks ( hp elitebook, Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell latitude). Don't even bother looking at consumer grade machines
 
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