General Purpose Laptop

[Tarun10]

One of my dad's friends wants a suggestion for a laptop (without touch) for general browsing, word documents, spreadsheets, etc. He won't run any other intensive apps. He wants to go with Dell as that's the brand he's used in the past but I would like recommendations for other Brands as well if you think they offer better value. I live in India so amazon.in is the best option for browsing but sometimes the manufacturer's official webpage is more accurate and cheaper. 

 

I'd think a quad-core and 8GB RAM is necessary. I find more than 3 tabs or two applications running lag and slow down performance significantly otherwise. A good FHD display with decent colors, contrast and viewing angles is a must. It'll be mostly used indoors so brightness doesn't have to be excellent. I think a 256/500 GB SSD would be preferred. But I'd like the option to add an M.2 SSD down the line. All other specs aren't important as long as they aren't terrible (like a poor cooling design). It should last around 5 hours on battery life with brightness and power settings turned down.

 

I'm currently looking at the Dell Inspiron 14 but I know some Asus and Lenovo laptops have better displays and features for the same price or less. If you could look up Indian prices and tell me if they're still a good deal with all the taxes, I'd be grateful. Anything under 800 USD is okay but the cheaper the better. Windows 10 preinstalled would be a bonus but I'd happily walk him through an install if it's necessary.

[SupaKomputa]

HP envy x360 with ryzen 4500u (if you can get one).

8gb is okay for general purpose, and 256gb ssd is enough.

Most laptop today have a spare m.2 inside, but you might wanna check some disassembly videos just to make sure.

 

 

[Tarun10]

4 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

HP envy x360 with ryzen 4500u (if you can get one).

8gb is okay for general purpose, and 256gb ssd is enough.

Most laptop today have a spare m.2 inside, but you might wanna check some disassembly videos just to make sure.

 

 

Sadly, it's 1000 USD in India now. I have an older gen version and the hinge isn't the best.

[SupaKomputa]

You probably don't need that kind of machine.

There's plenty of options less than $600 if you want to.

You can go with the less powerful version with Ryzen 4300u.

[Tarun10]

1 minute ago, SupaKomputa said:

You probably don't need that kind of machine.

There's plenty of options less than $600 if you want to.

You can go with the less powerful version with Ryzen 4300u.

Most of the latest gen Ryzen Processors haven't made it here yet. Even last gen Ryzen are hard to come by. Most of the laptops are priced up by 100 to 200 USD so it's a bit annoying trying to find good value.

[SupaKomputa]

This is for your dad's friend right?

For him, an older ryzen might be just enough.

A 2500u / 3500u should be good.

If you're using for yourself, get the 4000.

Check out Acer's Swift 3 series.

Thin and light and pretty affordable.

[Tarun10]

7 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

This is for your dad's friend right?

For him, an older ryzen might be just enough.

A 2500u / 3500u should be good.

If you're using for yourself, get the 4000.

Check out Acer's Swift 3 series.

Thin and light and pretty affordable.

Yeah any 'modern' quad core would do. Do you know how the displays are on those?

 

The cheapest Swift 3 comes with a HDD and i5 8th gen for 800 USD. Older Ryzen models are not available and the newer one is 850 USD.

[SupaKomputa]

The swift lineup usually shipped with a IPS panel, so it's pretty good for the price.

The lower model, the aspire usually have the less desirable TN panel.

Yeah, they have Ryzen, but i don't know if the 4500u is available in india, there are Ryzen 3 version too, so you can get it cheaper.

 

[Tarun10]

17 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

The swift lineup usually shipped with a IPS panel, so it's pretty good for the price.

The lower model, the aspire usually have the less desirable TN panel.

Yeah, they have Ryzen, but i don't know if the 4500u is available in india, there are Ryzen 3 version too, so you can get it cheaper.

 

Turns out Swift 3 is available for cheaper on Acer's official website. Same with Aspire. TNs usually have terrible viewing angles so I'll have to check that out.