Help choosing laptop for < 35k

Hi,looking for a laptop and I was hoping that people here could suggest me something.

Looking for a 14" or 15.6" laptop, 14" preferred.
A better sound card will be a pleasant plus point.

Usage is CPU centric but not much multi-tasking required...
General office apps, IE 9 and music apps(using headphones) are the major uses for the machine.

Brand is important - HP & Sony are the two decent choices Ive come to terms with.

Decent graphics card is probably not an option in laptops but GPU usage is little to none - only 2D graphics is important, 3D not so much. Still, something like GT430M is welcome if possible in budget.

Please suggest should I wait for Ivy bridge based machines to arrive? As they will have quite a bit higher battery backup??

how long your dad can wait? 3rd gen core i3 & i5 variants are yet to be launched. and once launched add 30-40days at least in availability.

Mayne... cant wait that much at alllll...!!!!

Maybe a month at the very max!!!!!

So basically IB is out of question ??

forget Ivy. buy fastest SB based lappy you can find.

Samsung NP300E5Z-S08IN. else get the MSI from the other thread.

Pick up HP Sleekbook - the one having Trinity when it comes out in India.

IB won't give you a day & night difference in battery back up. Just a 5-10% max increment. But HD4000 is something you could wait for. But your dad will hardly use even HD3000, so no point waiting for IB.

Your priority should be (& is) reliability and best bet I would say is go for Thinkpad E420 (i5 version) @ 36k.

Sam - This samsung looks like a good option... is something similar available in 14" ..Core i3 will also do... core i5 is overkill!!

@MSI - Little hesitant to go for an MSI laptop... will keep it as a 2nd option though...

ico - That will be 50k+ I think.. ? Or is it for less?? (Looks pretty awesome though!)
I need the laptop soon cant wait for too long also!!...

^Around 600$-700$ (expected), but the waiting time can be long.

Stick to 14" instead of 15"6. Trust me they're much heavy

Sujay - Waiting for IB sure doesnt seem like a feasible option...

Thinkpad is good but config wise Samsung/Sleekbook seem to be better balanced options... Thinkpad is very thick too... My father is currently using an HP Pavilion 6516TX so looking for something like that... usage is not at all rugged..

Yep this time gng for 14" only.... but there's no options in 14" with even a basic GPU.. dont know what to do...

sleekbook looks like a decent option if it lands in India for ~30k price point..

if it comes to India soon enough i can probably go for that...

$$Lionking$$ said:
Thinkpad is good but config wise Samsung/Sleekbook seem to be better balanced options... Thinkpad is very thick too...

You dad is never gonna fill 750GB and you can always add 2GB RAM, 700 bucks more. No brand can give you more peace of mind than thinkpad. One of my bro has 7-8 yrs old thinkpad and it still runs like charm. And its nothing like its "too" thick. Its of course a bit thick but that's due to its tank like built quality. Last your choice.

$$Lionking$$ said:
Yep this time gng for 14" only.... but there's no options in 14" with even a basic GPU.. dont know what to do...

You know the capabilities of HD3000, right ? Its as good as any "basic" GPU.

Sujay - Agreed, Thinkpad's quality is unbeatable but not looking for something as rugged as a Thinkpad - like you said your bro has -7-8 years old Thinkpad - Holy cow!!

Looking for a laptop to use for 3-4 years.. basically nothing of the sort of Dell Vostro / Thinkpad.. dont know what are these called business class laptops??..

Tension free laptops

The samsung one which is suggested by SAM is a very good laptop

Thinkpads are now built by Lenovo, right? From my personal experience, Lenovo is sh*t. IBM Thinkpads were a class of their own.

I am too looking for a laptop for my dad. Same budget, same usage. So Instead of opening up a new thread I decided to hijack this one.

Anyway I prefer Dell over all other laptops in that price range. But the Samsung one looks good too. What about the build quality? And what are the capabilities of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX GPU that it has?

Oh and might I add... 24x7 runtime capability. I want to be able to run it all day and don't want it to stop working in a month. Also is it harmful to keep a laptop on standby for extended periods of time while connected to power supply?

A

If you are ok with samsung and AMD processors then I will again suggest this laptop - Samsung NP305E4A-S02IN

It has 4gb Ram,1tb HDD, Win7 HP + radeon 6470m @32k.. :shock:

Again your choice if you are ok AMD quad core processors..

papul1993 said:
Thinkpads are now built by Lenovo, right? From my personal experience, Lenovo is sh*t. IBM Thinkpads were a class of their own.

I am too looking for a laptop for my dad. Same budget, same usage. So Instead of opening up a new thread I decided to hijack this one.

Anyway I prefer Dell over all other laptops in that price range. But the Samsung one looks good too. What about the build quality? And what are the capabilities of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX GPU that it has?

Oh and might I add... 24x7 runtime capability. I want to be able to run it all day and don't want it to stop working in a month. Also is it harmful to keep a laptop on standby for extended periods of time while connected to power supply?

Lenovo does makes thinkpads now but the quality is almost the same. Plus its servicing is done by IBM itself.
520MX provide a improvement of 10-20% over hd3000.
Yes, you can keep your laptop at stand by on battery for long but keep a balance between running on battery and power. For 24*7 purpose, again thinkpad is best.

Abhi191 said:
If you are ok with samsung and AMD processors then I will again suggest this laptop - Samsung NP305E4A-S02IN

It has 4gb Ram,1tb HDD, Win7 HP + radeon 6470m @32k..

Again your choice if you are ok AMD quad core processors..

Nice find again.

anantarora - yeah only con with that samsung 1 is that its 15.6" im looking for a 14" one - they're way more portable... Anyways keeping the MSI & Samsung ones on the backburner, If I dont find a decent 14 incher ill stick with one of these!

Abhi191 - I'm ok with AMD CPU's but looking for something like this - Dual Core @ 3.0GHz as opposed to Quad Core @ 1.5GHz. Little to no multitasking required, but higher clock speed...

Off to HP showroom!

Sleekbook is really compelling with its price tag lets see what Dealer can tell about availability........

Sleekbook looks really nice. Please update us about its availability, pricing and other details which get from the dealer.

I have been hearing a lot of bad after sales service stories regarding HP laptops. Even digit wrote something about it in late 2010 IIRC. I wonder if those issues still exists.

HP is well known for heating issues.

$$Lionking$$ said:
Off to HP showroom! Sleekbook is really compelling with its price tag lets see what Dealer can tell about availability........

is it available here already? :shock:

papul1993 said:
I have been hearing a lot of bad after sales service stories regarding HP laptops. Even digit wrote something about it in late 2010 IIRC. I wonder if those issues still exists.

you have heard? i have seen

Sam -
Sleekbooks - no, they're not available, i asked them when the will be available - dealer says
- August.

Using HP since 2001 and extremely satisfied with quality of products and service both!!
What issues did you com across??

$$Lionking$$ said:
Sam -
Sleekbooks - no, they're not available, i asked them when the will be available - dealer says
- August.

Using HP since 2001 and extremely satisfied with quality of products and service both!!
What issues did you com across??

will be launched in June here. So should be available by July.

Heating (touchpad border & the side) & bad placement of exhaust. have used a friends old C2D based HP and exhaust was under the lappy. lastly the motherboard failure rate is lot higher than what you normally expect (due to overheating i guess).

Hey guys..
I also need a lappy for my dad. He will be using it only for basic internet and busy accounting software and i may also use it for net browsing and lil bit of gaming.
Help me out..!!

dashing.sujay said:
Your priority should be (& is) reliability and best bet I would say is go for Thinkpad E420 (i5 version) @ 36k.

. . . . .

coolnikhil said:
Hey guys..
I also need a lappy for my dad. He will be using it only for basic internet and busy accounting software and i may also use it for net browsing and lil bit of gaming.
Help me out..!!

Budget?
Better create a new thread and fill this:
Questionnaire for laptop/notebook purchase

W

Benchmark that separates a laptop designed by cost controllers from a laptop designed by product people is subtle. Better laptops come with comprehensive hardware diagnostics. All manufacturers have them. But only better manufacturers provide them for free.

For example, when room temperatures approached 40 degrees C, then strange screen 'crashes' would occur. What failed? Manufacturer diagnostics determined that one memory location in the video processor was defective. Screen would only crash when a particular data was loaded in that memory. And only when room temperature increased to that normal and higher temperature.

I would have trashed the laptop out of frustration without those diagnostics. Instead I found a failure even before the warranty expired. A minimally sufficient machine includes comprehensive hardware diagnostics for free. All laptops have them. Only better manufacturers will provide them.

H

@coolnikhil, please start a new thread or go through *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-netbooks/153888-laptop-buying-reference-guide.html for your query, closing the thread