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So the best thing to do is to hold on to you money a bit longer.Otherwise your new purchased hardware will be instantly outdated with no Ivy Bridge and no Touch interface.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!