suggest a laptop around 50-60K

Since I'll be moving away from home for higher studies, Its time to say good bye to my Desktop finally

and get a laptop for myself. Budget is around 50-60K.

Though this is supposed to be a Laptop for college, I'll be using it basically for casual gaming,watching movies, browsing and regular stuff that I do with my desktop. Though I'm not a hardcore gamer that I used to be, I still like playing some good titles and their sequels, some of which require a good GPU. So I need a laptop with good GPU in this budget.

Currently I have Dell studio and Sony waio E series in mind. I was waiting for the Dell XPS series upgrades, but looks like it's gonna take some more time.

No Acer/HP please, first I don't like Acer's build quality and secondly I had first hand experience with HP after sales service. So I'm not gonna buy HP even if its 100 times better.

Please suggest some good Laptop configurations for my budget

Get Sony Vaio E series with FullHD display. it is truly stunning piece of laptop.

Thanks for suggestion anna.
Yeah I never had vaio in mind until I came over one in Croma. Looks rock solid and display is brilliant. Though it doesn't offer customizations like Dell, still looks like a good option. The assortment of customizations in Dell Studio series is confusing me !!!!!!!!!
So are the numerous models in E-series. Can you suggest any specific E-series model from the list. Product Comparison : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India

So here are my requirements to be exact.

I'm spoiled by my Dell S2409 monitor

, so I'm considering Full HD.

Confusion with proccy selection i3/i5/i7??????

This Dell studio 14 with i7 looks tempting, The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

What do you say anna???

Coming to the GPU, what I came to know is that HD5650 is a good gpu for gaming and only Sony has it as option, Dell doesn't.

In the mean time, a TE member who is a Dell employee offered me 8% discount if I opt for 3 yr warranty, else 3% on standard warranty. Should I consider this???

If I'm not wrong you own a Vaio E - series right!! You might have compared your Vaio with any Dell Studio of your friends/colleagues. So valuable inputs from you side would help me a lot in my decision anna

nah, i thought of purchasing that vaio E but instead went for Aviator (as having a bike turned out to be more useful for me than having a laptop)

this was the one I was talking about : VPCEB26FG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India

only downside is that it comes with core i3 which is a dual core processor.
in Dell, most of core i5 laptops are actually dual core i5s. that i7 model that you shared, though has a very good CPU, has 14" and extremely weak HD4530. A better config would be "T540613IN8", dell studio 15 with core i7 and HD5450.

Sony too is giving 3yr warranty extension but am not sure whether they cover accidental damage, which Dell Complete cover covers well. Talk to SOny folks, if they do cover, VAIO E series is a good one. processor, GPU and display complement each other well and it's a balanced config. If you want to go for dell studio, look for core i3/i5 + HD56xx + 15.6" fullHD

btw, do you really want to play games on these laptops?

How is MSI GX 640??? It comes with HD5850 1GB GDDR5 which looks like far superior to 5650 *bit.ly/bytbAb

Gaming??? Yes anna, Don't want to regret later

afaik, MSI makes good gaming laptops but but but have no idea how good their support is and how reliable their laptops are. one thing I can say is that their ASS may not match that of Dell's and Sony's. For laptops, ASS is as important as hardware.

Hmmm still unable to decide anna, Any dell Studio 15 Configurations ??

I have configured this in Dell Studio 15 *bit.ly/bl3QakThe Dell Online Store: Build Your System

How good is this config and any suggestions on more customization

*img822.imageshack.us/img822/8192/thedellonlinestorebuild.jpg

^^Pretty good config.How about a 9 cell battery?

red dragon said:
^^Pretty good config.How about a 9 cell battery?

Heard that it sticks out unlike 6 cell battery and hence opted it out.
Will consider it if doesn't kill the looks

BTW what do you think is better, the above config or this from Vaio?? VPCEB26FG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India

dell offers the worst graphic card otherwise they are best in laptop department.

sony offers ati 5650 (under clocked )with full HD (graphics card will struggle to play games at full HD with High Graphics)

so decides as per ur needs.

My only grouse with Sony E is that it offers 5650 only with i3. The only model with i5+5650 is in 17in category, which would be bulky and I am not keen on anything >15in.

Since I'm most active in late night

having a backlit keyboard seems to be an advantage for me, as I can switch off the lights and happily use KB

. Does Sony have a backlit option too???

Right now I've narrowed down to the Dell Studio with above config or Sony Vaio E.

Looks like with Sony I need to compromise one component for another, whereas in Dell I can configure what ever I want. But the impeccable build quality and design of Sony is too tempting to ignore and go for Studio 15 :-|

with studio u will not get numpad also

I don't use the number pad much , so that is not an issue

Harsha,

The difference between core i5 520M and core i3 330M isn't stellar and this difference is easily negated by superior GPU on Vaio. But do remember that none of the GPUs are good for FullHD gaming but can give you very good AV decoding performance.

also, Vaio doesn't come with backlit keypad if I am right.

Gaming : Vaio
night usage and long term support : Studio

Is turbo boost advantage of i5 effective over i3 or is it just a gimmick. The reason why I chose i5 is that I wanted to be future proof.

basically my usage will be in this order || Browsing/college use >> Music >> Movies >> Gaming.

---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:26 PM ----------

Also heard that text on 1080P laptop displays look too small, that I either have to increase font size in windows or use ctrl + in FF to read it clearly. I couldn't check this coz no HD screen of 15 in size is on Display here. Can anyone using those screens shed some light on it.

Or should I stick to lower resolutions??

text on 1080p shouldn't be a problem given the dpi settings that win7 provides. I saw the FullHD of E-series and almost almost threw away 50k (that was saved aside for Aviator).

It was too good.

btw, why not come to Bangalore this weekend? You will get a perfect idea and can walk away with the laptop that suites your needs.

there are Vaio and Dell flagship stores where you can test the laptops. Better than pulling hair and checking online reviews

I am interested in this thread. As I m going to be on the same boat as you, in a couple of months.

My friend got a studio 15 i5 recently from Uk. I'm impressed with overall quality and feel. Its thin, solid and lite for a 15 incher.
It's got a 1GB ATI graphics.

And these laptop graphic cards are so confusing!! to choose between them.

@vulpine
yeah the number of available mobile GPU's is very confusing. The fact that even the top of the line mobile gpu's are just equivalent to desktop 9800GT, is more confusing !!!!!!

Anyways here is the complete list of available mobile gpu's and their benchmarks.

Notebookcheck: Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List

Notebookcheck: Comparison of Graphic Cards

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hii, you can check out sony vaio ea16. its 14 inch with core i5 and ati 5650 but the gpu is underclocked for better cooling. Great build and looks, price around 60k

Thanks for the info, I already have that in my list :))

Hello friends, i visited dell shop in mumbai, as well as contact dell sales person on phone. Actually me & my friends are planning to buy laptop. We are buying 2 studio 15 and 3 inspiron 15R.

But dell shop is not giving us any discount. Sales person is also giving 5% discount on studio and 3% on inspiron that is under EPP.

They should give us more discount since we are purchasing 5 laptops. Can anyone suggest me where will i get good discount.

And one more question, wich apple mac book model i can get in max 60k?
I have heard apple give educational discount ?

ruturaj3 said:
Hello friends, i visited dell shop in mumbai, as well as contact dell sales person on phone. Actually me & my friends are planning to buy laptop. We are buying 2 studio 15 and 3 inspiron 15R.

But dell shop is not giving us any discount. Sales person is also giving 5% discount on studio and 3% on inspiron that is under EPP.

They should give us more discount since we are purchasing 5 laptops. Can anyone suggest me where will i get good discount.

And one more question, wich apple mac book model i can get in max 60k?
I have heard apple give educational discount ?

1) go to stores like Croma or ezone. they are open for bargain
2) you can get macbook 13 which is totally not worth the 61k price tag.

desiibond said:
1) go to stores like Croma or ezone. they are open for bargain
2) you can get macbook 13 which is totally not worth the 61k price tag.

I went to croma there was dell counter, but those guys said we are from dell only, they allow me to do modification in cofig frm dell site and told me same amount as site shown plus 900 for delivery charges.

desiibond said:
1) go to stores like Croma or ezone. they are open for bargain

Dude...bargaining in Chroma/eZone! How's that possible? Let alone bargaining, I had hard time asking them to give me discounts on some of the latest purchases (viz. Refrigerator, LCD TV,Printer)

Looks like Dell's customization menu has changed The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

I'm still confused with my options

sriharsha_madineni said:
Looks like Dell's customization menu has changed The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

I'm still confused with my options

Ya same as us & uk site.

hey man u are in for luck i say....there is actually a perfect laptop as per ur requirements and that too at a lot less price......its the acer aspire 5740G 6979.....this is possibliy the best laptop in the performance -price category...this one has got an i5 430m i guess(the model no i dont remeber ..of the cup,but as far as i can remeber it stated a trbo boost clock speed of 2.83 ghz...and 4gb of ddr3 ram 500 gb 5400 rpm hdd,1 gb ati 5650 dx11 card...and win7 hp 64bit and wifi n and yeah ......finally this one comes at killer price of 43k......try to get this one from a local electonic store...possibily a jumbo,staple or croma...they also have offers for tat photon + and carry case right now...so possibily this one will defintaely fit ur bill....alsoi will warn u for one thing this one desnt stand out in terms of aesthetics..and styling a very basic looking gemstone design thats very common to all acer aspire laptops...so now i will post u the linke to the review of the laptop,gpu,and the vids shopwing unboxing and test results....

1.Acer Aspire 5740G Owners Lounge
2.Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
3.YouTube - Acer Aspire 5740G (unboxing)

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check acer 5820TG Lappy.

Thanks for the suggestions, but no ACER please, mentioned that in my first post. Not interested in ACER

Hey guys was gonna open a new thread then realized this thread is 90% similar to what i have in mind. So hoping OP doesnt mind...

I too have a DELL STUDIO 15 in mind. My customized version comes to around 58k.
My requirement will primarily be Simulation Applications (Matlab, Scilab, Multisim), PCB Design (Eagle), etc. Also a bit of programming.
Secondly web browsing, multimedia.
Finally, infrequent gaming.
Also say I want to use it for 4 years atleast.

1>So assuming my requirements dont change, will a studio 15 kind of config suffice that long (ie, with some prodding in the last year)??

2>And also are features like backlit keyboard(optional), slot loading (included) worth their cost?

3>What is improvement in battery uptime (in %) in a 9 cell over a 6 cell?

4>Finally, is a 1080p display overkill for 15.6" display?? And also will it make the text font appear unreadabily small??

5>Also I want to use a addon card which can let me attach a serial port to my laptop. Does Studio 15 have the slot for it?
EDIT: okay, did a search seems that I can use USB-to-SERIAL port adapters for this.

Will be greatful for any knowledgeable insights.

No problem at all dude

As for me, I have finalized Sony Vaio VPCEB26FG. Now the only ambiguity is where to buy it

I wish Sony India had offered the same customizations like US/UK Sonystyle.com. It would have made my config better. Since there are no customizations in India I had to settle for i3.

The problem with Sony's models in India is, for eg if one model has i5 & Full HD, it has onboard HD graphics, If it has ATI 5650 & Full HD, then there is no i5 option , if it had i5 & ATI 5650, then there is no Full HD option :pullhair:

!!!!!!!! Sony :censored:

^thanks man

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sriharsha_madineni said:
Thanks for the suggestions, but no ACER please, mentioned that in my first post. Not interested in ACER

i also didnt like acer untill i spotted 5820tg model on the net. it claims 8 hrs of battry bakup and u can switch the gpu on/off. i think u should hv a look on it. thnx

sriharsha_madineni said:
The problem with Sony's models in India is, for eg if one model has i5 & Full HD, it has onboard HD graphics, If it has ATI 5650 & Full HD, then there is no i5 option , if it had i5 & ATI 5650, then there is no Full HD option !!!!!!!! Sony

So Sony vaio E is the outcome of this thread.
Why u opted out dell studio? I wud be interested to know.

@Vulpine

Dell Studio15 was my first & only choice until I saw Vaio E @Croma,Jubilee Hills. First impression was, Build quality and Finish is better, Keyboard and touch pad is nice, Screen looks good. Most importantly it's SONY.

Even after all this I was still confused between Vaio and Studio 15. Finally the decision making criteria turned out to be the Graphics Card. While Studio offered max 5470(low end card), Sony had 5650(mid range and almost 3x powerful) standard on many models. My only compromise with Vaio was the processor, Since no model came with i5 + 5650 + Full HD, I had to settle for i3 + 5650 + Full HD. 5650 makes up for the lack of i5 though.

If sony India offers the same customizations as it's US & UK Counterparts, then Vaio range would be kicka$$. Until then one has to compromise one component or other.

I'm a sucker for Sony's Products, most of the electronic items at home are of Sony, Even my earlier PC Monitor was of Sony make(HS 75P). So I always had a dream of owning a Vaio someday and the prospect of owing one now was tempting and the lack of good graphics card on Dell, made way for the Vaio E :))

Guys got my Vaio Today :))

Posted Pics and First impression here, in Post your Purchase thread

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sriharsha can u tell me u dont like HP tht much?
well all my friends here have HP laptops n none of them have a problem n tell me theyre r very reliable even after warranty, i havent a single problem in HP laptops untill recently one of my friend's WiFi connectivity stopped wokin ever since he wiped his laptop with a wet cloth n his metallic keyboard gives small electric shocks...
Except tht every1 say HP is the best.