Decent-ish laptop under $700?

[boey]

So my mum is going to give me around $700 USD for a laptop. I might go into a cybersecurity course so the things I’d be doing on the laptop shouldn’t be too demanding(ie coding, playing music, using chrome etc.) 

 

I want to spend as little as possible, while still not having a cancerous time using the laptop. Maybe a decent CPU and a small ssd for boot drive? I want it to be light too. Any recommendations?

 

I’m not in any hurry to get this laptop, probably closer to the end of the year so I could probably wait for Zen 2 laptops but I wanna see the rough price range I’d go for so I can plan ahead(Planning to use leftovers to upgrade my PC)

[genexis_x]

You're from Singapore? Any links of online stores? Budget in SGD?

 

Any preference on weight, battery life and display size?

[avimakkar]

This one looks decent

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAEYA8J29971&ignorebbr=1

[boey]

7 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

You're from Singapore? Any links of online stores? Budget in SGD?

 

Any preference on weight, battery life and display size?

Yes I’m in singapore and I’m okay with a lot of online stores, not sure which one to go for though. $700 as in USD but I’d like to spend as little as possible. I just want to see the rough pricing of whatever laptop so I can get an idea of how much I need to spend and how much leftover I’d have to spend on my own PC

 

Display size can be anything, maybe minimum 13”? Don’t need anything too big. I’m not sure about battery life or weight, not too sure what is considered ‘normal’ since I barely use laptops.

[boey]

4 minutes ago, avimakkar said:

This one looks decent

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAEYA8J29971&ignorebbr=1

That looks pretty decent, I could probably get a cheaper one though, don’t think I’d need 16GB of RAM or Vega 8 integrated graphics. For $600 looks really good though

[genexis_x]

3 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

I’m okay with a lot of online stores

$700 as in USD

Give me some:

8 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Any links of online stores

And also budget in SGD unless you're not buying in Singapore: (please answer properly next time)

8 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Budget in SGD?

[boey]

6 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Give me some:

And also budget in SGD unless you're not buying in Singapore: (please answer properly next time)

I’m not planning to buy a laptop now(not yet at least). I just wanna find a specific laptop that matches the specs I want to I can look at the price range(not specific price) I’d have to go for, so I can plan my spending. Budget is $700USD or $1000SGD, but like I said, I wanna spend as little as possible. For a singaporean online store, there is https://www.lazada.sg/ . I wouldn’t mind a link to something like newegg or amazon though, I just wanna see the rough price. Sorry for any confusion from my original post

 

[genexis_x]

18 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

matches the specs

You have to understand that buying laptop isn't just specs

19 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

$1000SGD

I assumed that you need a fairly light+long battery life laptop so there you go:

Acer Swift 3 14 SF314-54-54DP - slightly over budget

Lenovo Ideapad 330s 15 81F5010FSB +RAM

 

From Newegg (Singapore):

Lenovo Ideapad 720s 13 81BV008FUS - good sRGB IPS, non-upgradable RAM

Acer Swift 3 14 SF314-54-53BQ

Lenovo Ideapad 330s 15 81F5000EUS

[boey]

1 hour ago, GeneXiS_X said:

You have to understand that buying laptop isn't just specs

Sorry I don’t dabble with laptops, what else do I have to consider besides specs and price?

[markr54632]

7 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

Sorry I don’t dabble with laptops, what else do I have to consider besides specs and price?

Unfortunately quality control on the laptop side of things is crap lately. Each specific model needs to be researched. It is not uncommon to see laptops thermal throttle incredibly low under normal usage.

 

At 700 you are not going to have anything leftover after buying a usable laptop. Honestly you are going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as laptops go. Since you are going to be going to school this is also not an area you will want to skimp on as it will likely become your main system for the next couple years. 

[genexis_x]

26 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

Sorry I don’t dabble with laptops, what else do I have to consider besides specs and price?

Many things: Build quality, input devices, display quality, sometimes battery life, cooling solution....there are many

[boey]

54 minutes ago, markr54632 said:

Unfortunately quality control on the laptop side of things is crap lately. Each specific model needs to be researched. It is not uncommon to see laptops thermal throttle incredibly low under normal usage.

 

At 700 you are not going to have anything leftover after buying a usable laptop. Honestly you are going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as laptops go. Since you are going to be going to school this is also not an area you will want to skimp on as it will likely become your main system for the next couple years. 

3 years. I’ll only be using it in school, if I’m doing work at home and I can transfer it to my PC I’d do that. 

[boey]

40 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Many things: Build quality, input devices, display quality, sometimes battery life, cooling solution....there are many

I’ll spend some time looking for reviews etc. then, thanks

[markr54632]

19 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

3 years. I’ll only be using it in school, if I’m doing work at home and I can transfer it to my PC I’d do that. 

Don't count on being able to do that. If you end up working on a group project, or studying in a group you don't want to be the person with the slowest laptop that holds the whole group up.

[genexis_x]

29 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

I’ll spend some time looking for reviews etc. then, thanks

No need to do research, I've already done it for you