Your next laptop is worth waiting for:
If you’re thinking of buying a new laptop now, I would strongly advise to wait a bit. Unless your primary computing machine has died or you immediately need to get a laptop, there are compelling reasons to wait until at least late Q3(July, August, and September) or ideally Q4(October, November, December), to buy a new machine, especially if you are looking for a Windows PC.
Microsoft is about to release Windows 8; and this changes everything. Windows 8 is a paradigm shift, only comparable to what Windows 95 was to the personal computing scene more than 17 years back. Windows 8’s metro interface is significantly affecting the hardware as Metro interface is primarily designed for touch. Many laptops by Q4 will have have multi touch capacitive screens. Laptops inspired from likes of Lenovo Yoga,Asus transformer,Dell Inspiron Duo will blur the lines between laptops and tablets. Then of course there will be x86 based Windows 8 pro tablets. Which un-like android tablets and ipads will be full fledged PCs capable of doing real work once plugged in with USB/Bluetooth keyboard-mouse.
Also, this year Intel is releasing its 22nm Ivy Bridge architecture based CPUs. Few of the Ivy Bridge processors are out, but the real meat of the series still remains.
So the best thing to do is to hold on to you money a bit longer.Otherwise your new purchased hardware will be instantly outdated with no Ivy Bridge and no Touch interface. But if holding on isn’t an option..read on.
These look good to me:
15” screen size:
01.) HP Pavilion DV6-7012TX
Processor + Motherboard | Core i5 2450M @2.5GHz on Intel HM77 (2nd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 6 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 640 GB @5400rpm |
GPU | NVidia 630M (pretty good for laptop gaming) |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v4.0; 3 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link, here Rs52k |
02.) Asus K55VM-SX086D
Processor + Motherboard | Core i7 3610M @3.3G Hz on Intel HM77 (3rd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 8 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 1 TB @5400rpm |
GPU | NVidia 630M (pretty good for laptop gaming) |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v4.0; 1 x USB 2.0, 2 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link here Rs54.5k |
14’” screen size:
03.) HP Pavilion DV4-5009TX
Processor + Motherboard | Core i5 2450M @2.5GHz on Intel HM77 (2nd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 6 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 640 GB @5400rpm |
GPU | NVidia 630M (pretty good for laptop gaming) |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v4.0; 1 x USB 2.0, 2 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link here Rs50k |
04.) HP Pavilion DV4-5008TX
Processor + Motherboard | Core i5 2450M @2.5GHz on Intel HM77 (2nd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 6 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 640 GB @5400rpm |
GPU | NVidia 630M (pretty good for laptop gaming) |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v4.0; 1 x USB 2.0, 2 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link here Rs 50k |
14” ultrabooks:
Ultrabooks are the next evolutionary step in laptops. Ultrabook is a specification given out by Intel for ultrathin laptops with very fast sleep/resume and very long battery life(possible in part by new low powered Intel chips). Many Ultrabooks optimized for Windows 8 will be equipped with touch pannels by late Q3 early Q4.
05.) HP Envy 4-1002TU
Processor + Motherboard | Core i3 2367M @1.4 GHz on Intel HM77 (2nd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 4 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 500 GB @5400rpm |
GPU | No dedicated GPU. Intel 3000 HD. |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v4.0; 1 x USB 2.0, 2 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link here Rs 42k |
06.) HP Envy 4-1025TX
Processor + Motherboard | Core i5 3317U @1.7 GHz on Intel HM77 (3rd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 4 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 500 GB @5400rpm |
GPU | ATI Radeon 7670M. (pretty good for laptop gaming. Best in this list) |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v4.0; 1 x USB 2.0, 2 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link here Rs53k |
07.) Samsung NP530U4B
Processor + Motherboard | Core i5 2467M @1.6 GHz on Intel HM77 (2nd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 6 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 1 TB @5400rpm |
GPU | ATI Radeon 7550M. |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v3.0; 1 x USB 2.0, 2 X USB 3.0 |
Link + Price | Flipkart link here Rs 51k |
MacBook pro:
If you want to get a MacBook pro in this price range then you would have to hurry up and buy the cheapest Mac Book pro from the 2011 refresh. The 2012 models are obscenely over priced.
MacBook Pro 13.3-inch | MacBook Pro 13.3-inch | MacBook Pro 15.4-inch | MacBook Pro 15.4-inch | MacBook Pro With Retina Display 15.4-inch |
500GB @5400 rpm | 500GB @5400 rpm | 500GB @5400 rpm | 500GB @5400 rpm | 256GB Flash |
2.5GHz Intel Core i5 | 2.9GHz Intel Core i7 | 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 | 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 | 2.3GHz/2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 |
4GB | 8GB | 4GB | 8GB | 8GB |
Intel HD Graphics 4000 | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M |
Rs. 81,900 | Rs. 99,000 | Rs. 1,22,900 | Rs. 152,900 | Rs. 1,52,900 – 1,92,900 |
So the 2012 refresh is out of budget for this price range.
But if you like shiny glowing logo and outdated hardware you can get yourself the cheapest MacBook pro from the 2011 line up (before the stocks run out).
Processor + Motherboard | Core i5 @ 2.5 GHz on Intel HM77 (2nd Generation) |
---|---|
RAM | 4 GB (0 unused slots) |
HDD | 500 GB @5400rpm |
GPU | Intel HD 3000. (no dedicated graphics card) |
Bluetooth; USB | Bluetooth v3.0; 1 x USB 2.0, No USB 3 |
Link | Ebay link here Rs65-69k |
I see no reason to get this. I stress this because one of my friends is about to turn to the dark side. It is an inferior product hardware wise with less ram, last gen processor, no dedicated graphics card and no USB 3 ports. If it’s the Mac OSX that you are after, then you can look into Hackintosh. Its possible to run Mac OSX natively on any of the above listed PCs. My primary desktop duel boots into Mac OSX and Win 7. Ill be posting a guide on hackintosh soon. Be warned: Setting up a hackintosh is not easy. Initial setup, research, getting drivers will take significant time. But once done, it will run as if its running on apple machine. So in my opinion, its not really worth paying extra money(‘apple tax’) to purchase the slowest and most expensive machine on this.
Also read: Microsoft announces own brand tablets!