[rudra]

Hello everyone,
                           I need some help deciding the best laptop to buy for a friend under certain conditions which I am going to mention below. First, let me tell you that I know I can google and all. Still I wanted to see what you would go for in my situation. So here goes the details,

  She works at a power distribution corporation and she is paying for her own laptop. There is no hard budget constraint, but she does not want to go for surface pro or some such costly blingy top class amazing piece of tech just for the fun. What she wants is

1) be able to run softwares to design and analyse electrical and electronic ( i guess) circuits and analyse them on it.

2) All normal communication, media consumption and browsing stuff without a hitch. That is a given.

3) She has a desktop and so is not too concerned about being able to play games on it.

4) Good backup. That might be a no brainer for some. 

5) Hopefully a processor and graphics system that stays relevant for the next couple years. I am thinking Ryzen mobile APU with vega or Intel 10th gen mobile ones here.

  SO ... I dunno. Budget might be 40 or 50 thousand or even more. Just do your best. A couple thousand more or less does not matter. But it should add some value and be justifiable.

  I would like some personal input from your replies. Please dont post random comments or copy or rewrite stuff from internet.

I dont mind you mentioning a very latest article talking about the latest gen laptops that just came out in the market and with some good analysis and valid points though.

Thanks a lot.

[xdude]

I prefer Desktop to Laptops because things can easily go wrong with Laptops are replacements are costly also you need to send it to a repair shop rather than do it your self. So personally I use a Tab and a Desktop. But last month I had to go Laptop shopping for 2 of my friends. So I kinda got an idea what we have in local market. One of the most important thing for me when buying a laptop is Warrenty. From last experince I know it can be a nightmare.

Anyway my personal choice is Dell. I have bought Dell, HP, Toshiba and Lenovo Laptops for my friends and my self. Those Dell models outlived every other brand. These Dell laptops Which I have bought are mid range and budget range. So they don't look fancy. Also for some reason here, Dell Mid range laptops can be in nearly same price range of a High-end model from other brands. But I have never had to cliam warrenty for those Dell models I bought.

Looks like your price range is around 700 USD. I was looking for models in the same range. Same as you do I was not looking for a gaming laptop. Also, VGA was not top in my list. I was trying to get Max RAM and best processor for that price range. Since these would be 64bit models I wanted to go for 16GB RAM. I was not too picky about the processor. I wanted something in range of Core-i5, highest Gen possible for the budget. Sadly most of this range models offered 8GB RAM.

Options I had were,

Dell Inspiron 15 5000 - > This one was around 650-750 USD

This one has a i5-7200U Processor, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB HDD, 128GB SSD, 15.6" Display etc. I like this one very much. When it comes to local laptop prices it was a really good deal. I wish I could buy it for my self. Only if it had 16GB RAM.. Even without that it looks great. This model is very very new, like released in late December 2019.

oh they had same setup with AMD ryzen 7 2700u for nearly same price but you would get either 1TB HDD or 256GB SSD. SSD one was like 50 USD more than HDD one.

They has higher end model called Dell G5 which has 8th Gen Core i7-8750H Processor. But this model is nearly 900 USD so didn't want to check more about it.

[rudra]

Edit..

I am so sorry. I forgot to thank you for taking time to write such a long and helpful post from your personal experience xdude. Thanks again !!

I was checking some online options. Dell inspiron has models with 10th gen i3 and i5 at around 45k more or less. I am not going to buy anything below 10th gen for anybody. That is like a new rule in my life when it comes to intel laptop processors.

Also what amazed me is i saw ASUS TUF laptop with r5 3550H and rx graphics at around 45k. That is an amazing laptop and runs even games very well. I also think if in power saver mode using on chip graphics, the battery will last quite a long time. This laptop launched at 50k, then went upto 60k and now at 45k ..wooow

other of its model with the same processor and gtx graphics or bigger (17) screens is like 10k / 15k more. But who wants those. not me. hehe

Anyways, I am thinking like why the hk i see loads of ryzen 3500U only laptops but no 3550H only laptops. They are basically the same processor with the U at 15W and H at 35 watt and hence like 5-8 percent more performance. I need to search more.

Also I am of the opinion to wait a little bit and see how the new 4000 series mobile processors are going to do. I think they are gonna wreck havoc on the market and finally take away even the laptop crown from intel too.

Intel still has the idle state power consumption crown to themselves and hence slightly longer battery life. But i guess ryzen 4000 series is going to just murder them there too.

Roadkill and Intel will mean the same thing. Haha

[xdude]

Looks like laptop prices are better there than here. Here, Core-i5 10th prosessor alone would cost 400 USD so can forget about finding a Laptop for less than 700 usd. haha. BTW why do you say you wouldn't want anything less than 10th Gen ? This only goes for laptops ? What's the reason behind this ? As for Desktop if you are not a gamer it can be a overkill. Year Before the last I got my self a desktop configured with both used and new parts. The processor was a basically 3rd Gen. Proformance wise its great. I didn't notice huge difference in machines with 6th gen processor or 7th gen. Well 10th Gen is long way from 3rd Gen so there should be a big difference.

Anyway I like that Asus model. Sounds good for the price. Does it come with both HDD and SSD for storage ?And How much RAM does it have ?

[rudra]

Why not willing to go below 10th gen for intel ? Well, let me explain with examples. Here is the ASUS laptop i was talking about,

asus tuf r5 3550

Now you can find tens, if not hundreds, of older gen intel/AMD based laptops even at higher price point than this one with much worse performance. So buying an older thing just because I liked that once or that was a top dawg once is just plain bad choice. I have not much place for such sentiments in life. 

 yes. older gens are adequate. But when I can buy the latest and better thing at almost the same price, then why go for those older ones to save just a couple thousands ? I consider that a bad call for laptops with 1 year base warranty and so many other limitations relative to desktops.

As you said, and from my experience too, laptops are very bad when it comes to upgradability, warranty period and cost for replacement. That is why I do not like them. But this is for a FRIEND.

10th gen intel chips are very good at power efficiency. so good performance and long backup.

NOTE. I forgot to mention. That laptop has a review from pewdiepie or whatever. That top dawg from youtube.

Now if it is desktop, I am all for going old gen. I myself buy used old gen parts still within warranty at heavy discounts and use or resale or both. That is fun. But I would say spending even rs 4000 for a used 8100 i3 is not ok when you can have 9100f at that or even lower, used.

[xdude]

Hey That's a one funny links. Something has totally gone wrong there.

Yes. That's true. I'm totally agreeing with you there. If you can find the latest item for cheaper, same or even slightly higher price than old items then I would too go for it. Plus, yes, when it comes to Laptops it's better take the latest you can afford.

Since the link you posted not working I did bit of search and I think I found the model you are talking about. This one ?


https://www.amazon.com/R5-3550H-Processor-Graphics-FX505DT-AH51-Keyboard/


Looks like its great ! I think if it's possible go for then 17' display than 15'. Price difference is not too big. Here, Where I live, Laptops are way too expensive.

[rudra]

@xdude
heh ! i am so sorry for not checking the link after posting. I just copy pasted from browser window

I think it is ok now. Please check. yeah. it is on indian site.

If you want your laptop to be less of a laptop and more a tabletop then i guess going above 15 inch is ok

that is what i think anyway.

17 inch is rather costly here I think. like 6 or 10 k extra. someone was saying . Didnt check. I discourage people from going above 15 (15.6).

[Mashiro]

be able to run softwares to design and analyse electrical and electronic ( i guess) circuits and analyse them on it.

To get this working ideally you may want to know which software is going to be used to do this and what its requirements are to meet them (at least). There are a lot of applications out there to do this tasks. I probably wouldn't even go to far if I would say you could even use AutoCAD to design the electrical circuits. On the other hand there is more suitable software for that like Siemens Logo! Soft, LCN, SPlan 7 and etc.

2) All normal communication, media consumption and browsing stuff without a hitch. That is a given.

That should work with pretty much anything today that is powered by a proper and modern x86 CPU (not like old Atoms that are slow and overheat from every even small task). It's of the least concern probably.

3) She has a desktop and so is not too concerned about being able to play games on it.

Great. So I would stop focusing an anything that is gaming! This includes Asus TUF. Gaming laptops apart from a few very expensive are all absolutely useless for getting real work done due to their power hungry hardware and therefore short battery lifetime.

4) Good backup. That might be a no brainer for some.

Good backup? I suppose this is about the battery? Again don't look for anything gaming. Focus on business or ultrabooks that are made to last long with hardware that has power saving in mind but that can also provide performance if needed.


So far I only see a OP post looking for one thing but all posts made towards it are all about gaming laptops (while OP post looks for a device to work with and do normal non gaming tasks).

[rudra]

He won't be running AutoCAD. I hear that the Asus Tuf r5 3550H based system is very popular and the discrete dpu can be turned off. It launched at 55 k. but now it sells at like 44/45 k. Thats why I thought It might be great.
I understand what you are suggesting. But could not find any good cheap gen 10 intel or ryzen 3000 only laptop. Do you have any model in mind ?