Continuing from where we left in part 1 of this blog..
Chipset Consideration (Intel or AMD)
I have personal experience with Intel platform only and when I spend around 20K INR, I usually do not experiment. Only consideration worth looking into is later generations, so chip-set will be later generations too.
Graphics Consideration (Intel/ATI/NVidia)
Intel GMA will suffice for needs of both casual and normal users. I am just a casual gamer and last games I played were like Skyrim , Borderlands, Torchlight 2. All of these played well on Intel GMA with medium to low settings. Games were playable with decent frame rates, i will suggest not to look for dedicated graphics card / memory for normal use.
If you want to play 3D games and that too big ones then only consider dedicated graphics memory. Also consider this, if you are buying a laptop below Rs-30K with even low-end graphics chips like Nvidia 820m or AMD Radeon HD R5 M230. You will not be able to play big games with high settings, only with mid-low settings you will get more frame rates, gaming experience will be relativly smoother in comparison of on-board Intel GMA, but nothing to brag about.
Don't think that Intel graphics are bad, they are decent performing chip and some issue comes from shared memory. Usually on-board Intel GMA, shares your slower system memory for V-RAM while ATI and Nvidia comes with their own graphics memory. So performance is better for dedicated memory graphics card in comparison to ones with shared memory. If you are into playing strategy games, card games, flash games and online games then Intel GMA will have you covered.
Getting to the point Intel GMA may struggle to run bigger 3D games, but don't expect wonders from entry level ATI and Nvidia graphics chips usually found in laptops.
Brand Consideration (Acer/Toshiba/ASUS/Fujitsu/Dell/HP/Lenova/Sony)
Simply, I do not ever think on brand for me whats under the hood is important. and if you are buying in Rs 20K +/- range you are buying mass produced Chinese laptops, Company will not matter.
I have bought a number of laptops for friends and family and mostly when I choose the brand it was more due to prices then company name. Here is my personal take on Brands of laptop. mind you, I was the one giving support to these laptops, one way or another, so generally company service support didn't mattered.
You may decide to spend a little more bucks for company giving better support.
Acer - Good Looking Stuff, durable bought 3 of these only one to die was an AMD Turion rest all working well. till date.
Toshiba - bought 3 of these good sturdy laptops, quality wise great.
ASUS - absolute gems you cannot go wrong with ASUS bought 4 so far every one of them still working and going strong..
Fujitsu - bought 2 interesting stuff, last one had like 4 ports and 3 usb 3.0 and 1 usb 2.0 with one usb 3.0 as charging port, HDMI not best looker but certainly good. no problems so far
DELL- avoid these, hmm.. Bought 4 of these and all had one or another problem, battery dies in 1+ year, charger get busted some serious flaw with connector design, motherboard starts acting up
but they have best screen if you are buying Inspiron laptops. cool colors and soothing to eyes.
HP/Compaq - HP worked great until i was too sick of them, Compaq died twice until i was too fed up to repair it.
Lenova - some of my friends have got them, I only had a second hand think pad of IBM design and it was a absolute tank. i hear good stuff about them but somehow never get around to buying them.
Sony viao - Never had pleasure of buying Sony because when I buy, I look for the cheapest stuff and Sony is not cheap.
OS (Windows or Linux or DOS)
If you have a licensed windows then buy Linux or DOS ones they are cheaper.
If you are a Casual user / New user (read not used to/dependent on windows) buy Linux laptops
Ubuntu ones are now very user friendly and you can use them quite easily. There is some learning curve then it is also with windows newer version. Chrome books are also an option here.
If you want windows one only and specifically windows 7, try finding windows 7 licenses on sale,
I got one for my dad from old computer dealer, who bought a dead laptop for spares and sold me windows license with sticker for 500 INR. I know it is not transferable but it works on my dad's computer and does not give pirated copy message and system get regular updates. A lot of people buy laptops when their old laptop dies and since they cannot sell many parts for cash and if their new laptop comes with OS pre-installed this may be an option.
Best is to find a deal with OS pre-installed for couples of bucks more.
A lot of people ask me that, some dealer or another offered to install a pirated copy of the OS, why do I even spend money for OS. My advise is that you should probably not pirate the OS, as there are so many files and malicious code may be hiding inside some files that have installed with system privileges. You may never detect that, and your online security is compromised. Nowadays almost all computer sold have a way to connect to internet. It has become so easy to go online now. If you are saving confidential private files, use internet banking, use online shopping you will be vulnerable to cyber crime, by choosing to pirate OS (kind of cyber crime) you have introduced an IT security threat, It's just a matter of time before it will becomes an incident.
Now in part 3 of this blog series , we will look at Value Added Bundles and some last minute doubts.
Chipset Consideration (Intel or AMD)
I have personal experience with Intel platform only and when I spend around 20K INR, I usually do not experiment. Only consideration worth looking into is later generations, so chip-set will be later generations too.
Graphics Consideration (Intel/ATI/NVidia)
Intel GMA will suffice for needs of both casual and normal users. I am just a casual gamer and last games I played were like Skyrim , Borderlands, Torchlight 2. All of these played well on Intel GMA with medium to low settings. Games were playable with decent frame rates, i will suggest not to look for dedicated graphics card / memory for normal use.
If you want to play 3D games and that too big ones then only consider dedicated graphics memory. Also consider this, if you are buying a laptop below Rs-30K with even low-end graphics chips like Nvidia 820m or AMD Radeon HD R5 M230. You will not be able to play big games with high settings, only with mid-low settings you will get more frame rates, gaming experience will be relativly smoother in comparison of on-board Intel GMA, but nothing to brag about.
Don't think that Intel graphics are bad, they are decent performing chip and some issue comes from shared memory. Usually on-board Intel GMA, shares your slower system memory for V-RAM while ATI and Nvidia comes with their own graphics memory. So performance is better for dedicated memory graphics card in comparison to ones with shared memory. If you are into playing strategy games, card games, flash games and online games then Intel GMA will have you covered.
Getting to the point Intel GMA may struggle to run bigger 3D games, but don't expect wonders from entry level ATI and Nvidia graphics chips usually found in laptops.
Brand Consideration (Acer/Toshiba/ASUS/Fujitsu/Dell/HP/Lenova/Sony)
Simply, I do not ever think on brand for me whats under the hood is important. and if you are buying in Rs 20K +/- range you are buying mass produced Chinese laptops, Company will not matter.
I have bought a number of laptops for friends and family and mostly when I choose the brand it was more due to prices then company name. Here is my personal take on Brands of laptop. mind you, I was the one giving support to these laptops, one way or another, so generally company service support didn't mattered.
You may decide to spend a little more bucks for company giving better support.
Acer - Good Looking Stuff, durable bought 3 of these only one to die was an AMD Turion rest all working well. till date.
Toshiba - bought 3 of these good sturdy laptops, quality wise great.
ASUS - absolute gems you cannot go wrong with ASUS bought 4 so far every one of them still working and going strong..
Fujitsu - bought 2 interesting stuff, last one had like 4 ports and 3 usb 3.0 and 1 usb 2.0 with one usb 3.0 as charging port, HDMI not best looker but certainly good. no problems so far
DELL- avoid these, hmm.. Bought 4 of these and all had one or another problem, battery dies in 1+ year, charger get busted some serious flaw with connector design, motherboard starts acting up
but they have best screen if you are buying Inspiron laptops. cool colors and soothing to eyes.
HP/Compaq - HP worked great until i was too sick of them, Compaq died twice until i was too fed up to repair it.
Lenova - some of my friends have got them, I only had a second hand think pad of IBM design and it was a absolute tank. i hear good stuff about them but somehow never get around to buying them.
Sony viao - Never had pleasure of buying Sony because when I buy, I look for the cheapest stuff and Sony is not cheap.
OS (Windows or Linux or DOS)
If you have a licensed windows then buy Linux or DOS ones they are cheaper.
If you are a Casual user / New user (read not used to/dependent on windows) buy Linux laptops
Ubuntu ones are now very user friendly and you can use them quite easily. There is some learning curve then it is also with windows newer version. Chrome books are also an option here.
If you want windows one only and specifically windows 7, try finding windows 7 licenses on sale,
I got one for my dad from old computer dealer, who bought a dead laptop for spares and sold me windows license with sticker for 500 INR. I know it is not transferable but it works on my dad's computer and does not give pirated copy message and system get regular updates. A lot of people buy laptops when their old laptop dies and since they cannot sell many parts for cash and if their new laptop comes with OS pre-installed this may be an option.
Best is to find a deal with OS pre-installed for couples of bucks more.
A lot of people ask me that, some dealer or another offered to install a pirated copy of the OS, why do I even spend money for OS. My advise is that you should probably not pirate the OS, as there are so many files and malicious code may be hiding inside some files that have installed with system privileges. You may never detect that, and your online security is compromised. Nowadays almost all computer sold have a way to connect to internet. It has become so easy to go online now. If you are saving confidential private files, use internet banking, use online shopping you will be vulnerable to cyber crime, by choosing to pirate OS (kind of cyber crime) you have introduced an IT security threat, It's just a matter of time before it will becomes an incident.
Now in part 3 of this blog series , we will look at Value Added Bundles and some last minute doubts.
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