Budget 31-40k Very Confused-which laptop to buy? Filled Questionnaire,please help urgently!

NGOvolunteer · Jan 16, 2015

What's your Budget? -Upper limit is Rs. 40,000 strictly,this is the money i have saved over an year-i am just a simple middle class housewife!

What will be your primary usage for the notebook be? -It is primarily for me and my teenage daughter.She needs it for facebook,twitter, skype chats, doing a lot of google research,working on microsoft office,excel,powerpoint, I need it for watching youtube videos (I watch many cooking videos and so on), watching movies, downloading songs. NO games played by any of us. BUT my daughter will do some photoshop work-she is into photography and starting her own blog now,so she works on paint,photoshop, that's all.ALSO,My daughter opens like 100 tabs at the same time-which is probably something everybody does I guess in her generation (roll eyes).so basically she needs a laptop where she can easily chat on facebook and maybe on skype and listen to music and work on photoshop at the same time!

What size and weight considerations do you have? -Not ultra portable-anything from 14" to 15.6" is fine,it won't be traveling a lot,just for the house.
Any brand that you prefer, or any brand that you detest? -I only had an ACER for last 2 years and I HATE IT! This is acer aspire and i am so disgusted with myself that I did not take an opinion online from such a forum before buying it! Within 3 months (I spent 28000 on it),I had white screen which was replaced,its battery blew up which was replaced and then just after a year as soon as the warranty expired,it started shutting down on its own! But as i said,I am just a housewife and i did not need it much,so i did not bother much. even now it keeps shutting down now and then,especially whenever i watch a movie-it is guaranteed to shut down after about every half hour.i just let it be for a couple of minutes and then restart it.also,ACER makes the shittiest build,I have seen some DELL and Lenovo and HP that some of my friends own and they are so cool,this acer is like a plastic toy.i hate acer and will never buy it ever.apart from it,i have never owned a laptop nor has my daughter and so i don't have a preference.

Any other considerations? -Most important is RELIABILITY! I am buying this primarily for my daughter-i don't want the laptop to blow up while she is working on a project or uploading her photos and then sit in some repair shop for weeks! I don't want the laptop to randomly shut down within months of buying it! I don't need a high fundoo thing,I want a good, sturdy laptop which does not blow up,heat up,shut down,or screw with my life-atleast not for the first year! That is why I am so confused! I asked about 20 of my friends-10 of them suggested DELL INSPIRON,6 of them suggested HP PAVILION and 1 said ASUS,1 said TOSHIBA and 2 suggested LENOVO. So i did some reading online, and there are positives and negatives for all,I have heard most negative things about HP,followed by Dell and then Lenovo.I don't know which brand to trust.My biggest fear is spending my hard earned money on something flimsy and feeling like a fool.I even went to croma but all the laptops look the same to me,I am not techno savvy so I am asking you! I don't know-if i should go with INTEL OR APU? do i need WINDOWS 8 or WINDOWS 8.1 (right now i have acer aspire with windows 7 basic and it is fine with me),all of these look the same to me! I saw some models which I am presenting here-please suggest if any of these are good enough-please keep in mind I need sturdy,long lasting,reliable laptop!

devilsmind · Jan 16, 2015

i can feel your frustration for the Acer laptop which i own 6 years back, similar issues as yours, the random shutdown is most probably due to overheating.. The Lenovo and Asus series are reliable and average build and moderately heats on heavy use, i personally used a lenovo till it was stolen!
i would suggest the Lenovo G 50-70, but there is another variant to consider Lenovo B50-70 with 1TB HDD but No OS. http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-b50-...=b_5&ref=13af5109-2033-4467-b236-9f4d300f313a

If you don't want the trouble of installing OS's better go for G50-70 and wait for our experts to pour in their suggestions!!

NGOvolunteer · Jan 17, 2015

Thank you! Looks like Lenovo and Asus get the thumbs up from most of tech savvy people, the only thing is I have no friend who uses any of these,everyone I knoe uses either Dell or HP..but then again they also get all kinds of issues now and then and run to service center every 2 months..so maybe I will buy Lenovo this time..off to Croma to check some Lenovo models then,thanks!

ch@ts · Jan 17, 2015

Your priorities are:
1) Reliability and sturdiness - You can't guarantee that a laptop won't fail. But you can extend your warranty. I think that right now Lenovo's extended warranties are the cheapest (from free to Rs.2000 depending on the model) . Dell's are quite expensive, but I'm not sure how much they cost. Toshiba's are Rs.4000. HP's are also very expensive( ~ Rs.8000) . Asus is Rs.6000.

2) Build quality - You'll have to go to Croma or Ezone to check out which models feel sturdy enough for you.

3) Display - You'll be hard pressed to find a quality display on a cheap laptop. You'll have to take a few images and movies on a pen drive/cell phone, and see how they look on laptops in showrooms to judge. All things being equal matte displays are preferable to glossy displays.

4) Performance -
RAM - You need 8GB RAM. But if you buy a laptop with 8GB included, it costs almost Rs.40,000, even though the processor isn't very powerful. If you buy a laptop with 4GB RAM (or 8GB), 500MB is used for the display, giving you only 3.5GB, which will really impact performance. You don't have to buy 8GB now, but it should be easy for you to add RAM in the future. For that you need a laptop with 2 RAM slots, one of which is unused. Some HP's have only 1 slot, and a lot of ASUS laptops have either no slot, or just one. Some Toshiba's with 4GB use both RAM slots, so upgrading becomes more expensive.

Processor - Ideally you should get an i5, but they can be expensive. If you're getting an i3, the also consider an AMD A6/A8. They perform about the same, and have about the same battery life. I'm referring to the current gen AMD A6/A8 running at 1.8 - 2.4 Ghz, not the older series which was much too slow.

Discrete GPU - nice to have, but not essential.

HDD - 500GB min, anything extra's a bonus. I wouldn't pay a premium of more than Rs.1000 for a model with a larger HDD. But you may need the extra storage, and want to pay extra. But, you can get 1TB external HDD's for about Rs.4000, and they're only going to get cheaper, so keep that in mind if you're considering spending more only for a larger HDD. Also, it's good practise to backup/store your documents and photos online, because HDD's do fail.

5) Battery - If you're getting an Intel i3/i5 get something with at least a 4 cell battery, if an AMD A6/A8 then 3 cell.

6) OS - Most laptops come with Windows 8, which can be upgraded for free to 8.1

7)Connectivity - Minimum 3 USB ports, card reader and an HDMi and ethernet port. If it's got VGA out, then that's a bonus.

8) Price - You can get all of this in an i3(4th Gen) or AMD A8 setup for less than Rs.30,000. An i5(4th Gen) will cost closer to Rs.40,000. Go for either an AMD A6/A8 or Intel i3/i5 (4th Gen+). They use DDR3 low voltage RAM giving you better battery life, and this type of RAM(1.35v) will be more popular in the future. Finding RAM running at 1.5v may be difficult 1-2 years from now.

9)Brands - I think Dell's are the most solidly built, followed by HP. But, it all depends on the series you choose. The cheaper laptops feel flimsy regardless of brand. Asus is an exception here, but I wouldn't consider them as they tend not to have free RAM slots, and they skimp on the battery.

10) Freebies and Promos - Republic days not far away, and you should be seeing some offers pretty soon.

My recent experience.
I bought a Lenovo G50-45 a couple of months ago. It's got an AMD A8/4GB RAM/500GB HDD. I'm happy with those specs, and it's performance for daily use. But I will be upgrading to 8GB soon. I get about 4 -5 hrs of battery life with the screen set to low brightness. The laptop rarely gets hot, and it's pretty quiet.
I like how sleek the laptop is, but it's made of cheap plastic, and it feels pretty flimsy. The speakers aren't very good either, and the display, though bright enough, and clear enough is of pretty poor quality. Colours don't render well and there's a lot of banding. It's not something I notice in daily use, but it will affect you if you're doing image editing.[DOUBLEPOST=1421477964][/DOUBLEPOST]Since you're going to be using it mainly at home, why not get a desktop?
It won't cost less, and it'll occupy more space, and use more power, but you'll get the advantage of a bigger, better screen, a nicer keyboard/mouse, faster hard-drive, and better speakers.

devilsmind · Jan 17, 2015

NGOvolunteer said:
ff to Croma to check some Lenovo models then,thanks!

i got 2 years of additional warranty by paying Rs 500 extra at Croma, They usually give good offers on festive seasons, On 26th jan they might come up with new offers/discount or free extended warranties!!

vivek.krishnan · Jan 17, 2015

Buy a Lenovo B 50 70 laptop. Sturdy, comes with three years warranty ( 1 year standard + 2 year upgrade free on online form filling), and fits your budget.

hotshot05 · Jan 17, 2015

Check the Lenovo offers before buying.
As far as I know, the offers for free/nominal cost Warranty upgrade have ended on 31st Dec 2014. But still check with the Lenovo exclusive shops. Those guys would know if any offer is available.

I got a Lenovo Z50-70 last month from Amazon for 38k (i5, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM, 1080p screen, DOS, discrete graphics). I got 1+2 years warranty for free using the Lenovo offer. Screen quality is bad/ok but build quality is good enough for me. And 1080p screen comes in handy when watching movies. No more pixellated movies

Sanav3 · Jan 17, 2015

The extended warranty offer for Lenevo B series has been extended till end of march according to Amazon.

vivek.krishnan · Jan 17, 2015

^ Yep, thats why I mentioned the same!

NGOvolunteer · Jan 17, 2015

Every single one of you deserves a thanks from me, from the bottom of my heart

so thankful and kind so as to help me! I just did not want to repeat the same mistake that I did last time and buy something as crap as this acer aspire again! I am glad that i came here for guidance

So i went to croma and ezone today and browsed around, because i wanted to check for myself by seeing how the laptop feels in hand. I will buy from flipkart eventually as my daughter also got some gift vouchers which i can use for the purchase. I just wanted to confirm-I will not have any issues later on in registering the product and claiming the warranty (god forbid,I don't want to go to another service center again,but still) if i buy from flipkart,right?

So I liked dell inspiron,looked sturdy,but then I started working on the keys,wasn't that good. Hp was okay but frankly by now i have heard so many bad things about hp that i am biased against them. there was no toshiba,so that is out. then i saw asus which wasn't great build wise but overall i liked it. then lenovo which was good enough looks wise. so ultimately just looks wise and feels wise,i liked lenovo,dell,asus and then i came back and checked on flipkart and i (AND my daughter) have zeroed down on-

Lenovo Z50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 1TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) (59-436412) Rs.43990 Price in India - Buy Lenovo Z50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 1TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) (59-436412) SIlver Online - Lenovo : Flipkart.com

Dell Inspiron 3542 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (354254500iS) Rs.38490 Price in India - Buy Dell Inspiron 3542 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (354254500iS) Online - Dell : Flipkart.com

Lenovo G 50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci3/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (59-436419) Rs.32490 Price in India - Buy Lenovo G 50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci3/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (59-436419) SIlver Online - Lenovo : Flipkart.com

so i will buy one of these,now just need to confer with daughter.i am leaning more towards lenovo so far,daughter for some reason likes dell more (she says her friends all recommend dell because its customer service is beyond excellent or something and lenovo supposedly has bad after sales or something-these kids!) i don't want anything just for show,so i think eventually i will be able to get her to my side *grin*

hotshot05 · Jan 17, 2015

NGOvolunteer said:
Every single one of you deserves a thanks from me, from the bottom of my heart

so thankful and kind so as to help me! I just did not want to repeat the same mistake that I did last time and buy something as crap as this acer aspire again! I am glad that i came here for guidance

So i went to croma and ezone today and browsed around, because i wanted to check for myself by seeing how the laptop feels in hand. I will buy from flipkart eventually as my daughter also got some gift vouchers which i can use for the purchase. I just wanted to confirm-I will not have any issues later on in registering the product and claiming the warranty (god forbid,I don't want to go to another service center again,but still) if i buy from flipkart,right?

So I liked dell inspiron,looked sturdy,but then I started working on the keys,wasn't that good. Hp was okay but frankly by now i have heard so many bad things about hp that i am biased against them. there was no toshiba,so that is out. then i saw asus which wasn't great build wise but overall i liked it. then lenovo which was good enough looks wise. so ultimately just looks wise and feels wise,i liked lenovo,dell,asus and then i came back and checked on flipkart and i (AND my daughter) have zeroed down on-

Lenovo Z50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 1TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) (59-436412) Rs.43990 Price in India - Buy Lenovo Z50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 1TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) (59-436412) SIlver Online - Lenovo : Flipkart.com

Dell Inspiron 3542 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (354254500iS) Rs.38490 Price in India - Buy Dell Inspiron 3542 Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (354254500iS) Online - Dell : Flipkart.com

Lenovo G 50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci3/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (59-436419) Rs.32490 Price in India - Buy Lenovo G 50-70 Notebook (4th Gen Ci3/ 4GB/ 500GB/ Win8.1) (59-436419) SIlver Online - Lenovo : Flipkart.com

so i will buy one of these,now just need to confer with daughter.i am leaning more towards lenovo so far,daughter for some reason likes dell more (she says her friends all recommend dell because its customer service is beyond excellent or something and lenovo supposedly has bad after sales or something-these kids!) i don't want anything just for show,so i think eventually i will be able to get her to my side *grin*

Get the Z50-70
I have it. The resolution is great for watching movies.

If you buy from Flipkart, buy from WSRetail only. If buying from Amazon, buy from Cloudtail or Rocky Marketing seller.
These three sellers are Lenovo authorised. The rest can be a hit or miss affair.

I bought from a dufferent seller and my warranty extension request was honoured. But I was taking a chance since I was getting the laptop at a very good price.

NGOvolunteer · Jan 17, 2015

So,talked to daughter,talked to hubby,getting this finally from flipkart ws retail- http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-z50-...win8-1-2gb-graph-59-429611/p/itmey8rvh4b6vnvb tomorrow

Best thing-I am giving my old pathetic acer for exchange,this shit is atleast paying me 5000 while going away,good riddance! never again looking at another acer,thank you very much! thanks everyone for suggestions and so much of guidance! Now I have never bought a laptop online,so what do i need to do when i get it,what do i check to see if everything is all right-and for this model,do i need to update any drivers or anything or just start working on it?

devilsmind · Jan 18, 2015

^^ i would have suggested you Z50-70 but as you told your Upper limit is Rs. 40,000 strictly, so told you to get the G 50-70 instead,
Z50-70 have good reviews so far..and if you are connected to the Internet, you'll get notifications for all available updates!!
After you get the laptop if you want to check if the configuration written over the box is same as your machine, just click on start--run-- type dxdiag
you'll get all hardware related information.

hotshot05 · Jan 18, 2015

NGOvolunteer said:
So,talked to daughter,talked to hubby,getting this finally from flipkart ws retail- http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-z50-...win8-1-2gb-graph-59-429611/p/itmey8rvh4b6vnvb tomorrow Best thing-I am giving my old pathetic acer for exchange,this shit is atleast paying me 5000 while going away,good riddance! never again looking at another acer,thank you very much! thanks everyone for suggestions and so much of guidance! Now I have never bought a laptop online,so what do i need to do when i get it,what do i check to see if everything is all right-and for this model,do i need to update any drivers or anything or just start working on it?

You will get Win 8 drivers in a CD/DVD which comes in the box. Most drivers would be installed though since you are buying the version with Win 8.1

blr_p · Jan 18, 2015

devilsmind said:
^^ i would have suggested you Z50-70 but as you told your Upper limit is Rs. 40,000 strictly, so told you to get the G 50-70 instead.

This is why i advocate first nailing the requirement and ignoring the stated budget. There is no way to limit a budget when product knowledge and requirements are vague. it makes no sense. Its a recipe for trouble and frustration.

As it turned out you can see that upping by 20% isn't a big deal.[DOUBLEPOST=1421581464][/DOUBLEPOST]

NGOvolunteer said:
So,talked to daughter,talked to hubby,getting this finally from flipkart ws retail- http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-z50-...win8-1-2gb-graph-59-429611/p/itmey8rvh4b6vnvb tomorrow

Seller shows as 3Arrow and not wsretail (?)

NGOvolunteer · Jan 19, 2015

Got lenovo Z50 from flipkart ws retail, wiped all data from old acer,so it is ready to be exchanged now! thanks a lot everyone! now just checking lenovo,hope it all works out well!

chiron · Jan 19, 2015

Btw, what's the difference (apart from extra ram and OS) between;
http://www.amazon.in/Lenovo-Z50-70-...&qid=1421661385&sr=8-1&keywords=lenovo+z50-70
and
http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-z50-...win8-1-2gb-graph-59-429611/p/itmey8rvh4b6vnvb

vivek.krishnan · Jan 19, 2015

chiron said:
Btw, what's the difference (apart from extra ram and OS) between;
http://www.amazon.in/Lenovo-Z50-70-59-429623-15-6-inch-N15V-GM/dp/B00O1Z3A52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421661385&sr=8-1&keywords=lenovo z50-70
and
http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-z50-...win8-1-2gb-graph-59-429611/p/itmey8rvh4b6vnvb

Additional 4GB of RAM and Windows 8.1 OEM.

The laptop with 4GB would mostly have 1x4GB (mostly), the additional 4GB should cost 2.7K more, the laptop with 8GB seems to have a 1x8GB stick!

An OEM copy of Windows costs about 4~4.5k for laptops with DOS vs Windows.

I think the OP did the right job going with Windows preinstalled, solves a lot of headaches.

OP - now register here : http://lenovopromo.net/Default.aspx for the extended warranty.

OP - please mention if you got a i7 or i5 from WS Retail.

kidrow · Jan 19, 2015

Sorry for the slight OT, but is the Lenovo Peace of Mind offer valid on all G series laptops?

As per this http://www.lenovopromo.net/FAQ.aspx , it should be.

But on Flipkart, I don't see it mentioned against all G seies laptops. For eg.,

NA here - http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-g50-...=b_1&ref=8c124873-d083-45c4-9af9-f29360c8c7cf

But specifically mentioned here - http://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-g-50...b_20&ref=6e2bf7d5-10e1-44cb-bf08-ff9420885e7f

Also, does one avail of it during checkout? Or later? If later, then where do you make the payment?

Thanks a lot.

chiron · Jan 19, 2015

36k vs 51k? I surely must be missing something.

Budget 31-40k Very Confused-which laptop to buy? Filled Questionnaire,please help urgently!

NGOvolunteer

devilsmind

NGOvolunteer

ch@ts

devilsmind

vivek.krishnan

BLR~ZRS-TX-1-MX

hotshot05

Sanav3

vivek.krishnan

BLR~ZRS-TX-1-MX

NGOvolunteer

hotshot05

NGOvolunteer

devilsmind

hotshot05

blr_p

NGOvolunteer

chiron

vivek.krishnan

BLR~ZRS-TX-1-MX

kidrow

chiron