Laptop 30-40k How is samsung?

[sakumar79]

Hi all,
I am in need of a Laptop for office work basically (cad will be used occasionally). I currently have a 1st gen Core i5 (430M at 2.27GHz) HP laptop G62-147NR with 4GB ram and Win 7 HP which I am happy with - I want something reasonably equivalent to it...

1. Budget is 30-40k.
2. Prefer second gen i3 (which I believe is equivalent to 1st gen i5) or 2nd gen i5
3. Legal Win 7 HP is a must. If laptop recommended has DOS or Win 7 HB, cost of OS upgrade must be included in the budget.
4. RAM 3 or 4 GB. If laptop suggested has 2 GB RAM cost of inc. to 3 or 4 GB must be incl. in budget.
5. Screen size I am having 15.6"... I dont mind 14" if it will reduce weight a bit...
6. Good battery life is preferred. Mostly I am using as Desktop Replacement and portability is not a serious issue. Weight only is slightly important as I carry it every day from home to office and back.
7. Regarding brand, I prefer major brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo. Neutral to medium brands like Toshiba, Samsung and Asus. Not in favour of Acer (heard horror stories of customer support) and minor brands like MSI, etc.
8. Main usage is browsing and office work (LibreOffice). Occasionaly cad work but wont require very heavy resources (only 2d cad). Listening to music will be there and occasional light gaming (very light - no spl consideration needed) also. No movie watching...

On browsing, I find that there are some decent models in Samsung and Lenovo that will suit my requirement with i3 proccy at 33k to 34k and with i5 proccy at 37k to 38k. My questions are
1. How much difference is there between 14" screen and 15.1" screen with regard to weight and workability (office productivity). Movie watching and game playing need not be considered for this comparison.
2. Is the 4-5k price difference between i3 and i5 worth it?
3. In particular, I notice that Samsung has two models NP SF411-S01IN with i3 2310M and 300V4A-S01IN with i5 2430M with boast of graphics card and 6hrs backup... Not particular about the gfx card but the backup time is enticing. I want to know about quality of Samsung laptop products in general, any feedback on these models in particular and any feedback on their customer care service...

I have also seen many other alternatives, and I am open to all suggestions based on above requirements... Please give your thoughts...

Thanks in advance.
Arun

[thetechfreak]

HP Pavilion G6-1209AX Laptop With Dedicated Graphics: Flipkart.com: Compare, Review HP Notebook

Good one. But for CAD get a desktop. seriously

Dell- Dell Inspiron 15R 2nd Gen Ci3/ 3GB/ 320GB/ Win7 Laptop: Flipkart.com: Compare, Review Dell Notebook

[sakumar79]

@thetechfreak, thanks for your suggestion...

When I said light CAD work, it is really very light cad work since I am not in drafting - viewing drawings for taking measurements, etc... I am comfortable with it on current laptop (1st gen i3) and didnt have issues with my earlier Dell laptop (with Vista and older proccy)...

The HP laptop is promising, but
1. will they upgrade HB to HP? or should I get the anytime upgrade pack for basic to premium? Flipkart is giving it for 2.7k
2. how is the amd a6 proccy in the HP laptop compared to the 2nd gen i3 and i5 proccy

Not very interested in the dell laptop (cost seems high since only home basic is provided and cost is nearly 35k for i3 processor and 3GB RAM).

Thanks again... And how are laptops from Toshiba and Samsung in general... I know brands like Dell, HP and Lenovo but these two are not well known to me regarding reliability, etc...

Arun

[dashing.sujay]

My questions are
1. How much difference is there between 14" screen and 15.1" screen with regard to weight and workability (office productivity). Movie watching and game playing need not be considered for this comparison.
2. Is the 4-5k price difference between i3 and i5 worth it?
3. In particular, I notice that Samsung has two models NP SF411-S01IN with i3 2310M and 300V4A-S01IN with i5 2430M with boast of graphics card and 6hrs backup... Not particular about the gfx card but the backup time is enticing. I want to know about quality of Samsung laptop products in general, any feedback on these models in particular and any feedback on their customer care service...

I have also seen many other alternatives, and I am open to all suggestions based on above requirements... Please give your thoughts...

Thanks in advance.
Arun

1) Much difference. 14' = Portability + one hand handling
15' = Heavy + two hand handling

2) Yes, totally, given you require it.

3) The first model has GT520M while second has GT520MX. Both are a entry level graphics card doing no more good than on die Intel HD 3000, rather hogging battery life. 520MX is an overclocked version of 520M.

Also CAD will require a dedicated graphics power.

The HP laptop is promising, but
1. will they upgrade HB to HP? or should I get the anytime upgrade pack for basic to premium? Flipkart is giving it for 2.7k
2. how is the amd a6 proccy in the HP laptop compared to the 2nd gen i3 and i5 proccy

Thanks again... And how are laptops from Toshiba and Samsung in general... I know brands like Dell, HP and Lenovo but these two are not well known to me regarding reliability, etc...

Arun

1) No, consider any upgrade which costs you cheaper.

2) i5 >> A6 ~ i3.

A*-xxxx series processors from AMD are actually Llano CPUs and they're a perfect blend of processing power with graphics (on die GPU, thus internal CrossFire). Battery life will also be better. Go with thetechfreak's suggestion.

[thetechfreak]

Well said Sujay

BTW, I havent used much of Samsung. But Toshiba I can say they are good. A relative had it.
Overall build was good. The keyboard was very good to use. but sometimes few of their products are overpriced.

The HP one I posted is enough. Pay the premium and get HP. call Flipkart if you have doubts.

[sakumar79]

Thanks to Sujay and thetechfreak... I will call Flipkart and ask about changing from HB to HP...

@Sujay,
regarding 14" screen vs 15" screen, will the loss of screen space affect office work much? As I said earlier, watching movies and playing games are not a priority - only office work and browsing are main use of system. If there is less effect, I will definitely prefer 14" screen for the portability...

Arun

[dashing.sujay]

Well said Sujay

Thanks

Thanks to Sujay and thetechfreak... I will call Flipkart and ask about changing from HB to HP...

@Sujay,
regarding 14" screen vs 15" screen, will the loss of screen space affect office work much? As I said earlier, watching movies and playing games are not a priority - only office work and browsing are main use of system. If there is less effect, I will definitely prefer 14" screen for the portability...

Arun

For office work, don't even think 15'. Big screens will help you most in watching movies and works related to video/photo editing and other related tasks. For office works, a bit of Excel space loss is there, but its nothing Vs portability you get. Go with 15' .

[red dragon]

Get a thinkpad Edge420.

[dashing.sujay]

Get a thinkpad Edge420.

The base version of E420 costs around 43-45k and if I'm not wrong, it doesn't includes graphics card, just hd3000. And OP has already mentioned that he will be using CAD which will obviously require discrete graphics. Otherwise its a good business class lappi

[sakumar79]

Thanks guys for your posts... I did some more research and found some interesting stuff...
1. As recommended by sujay, I have decided to go for 14" screens.
2. The E420 base version starts at 38k, but has only i3 2330m, 2 GB ram and dos... Definitely not worth the price...
3. Dell and Lenovo cost used to be more competitive but now it looks like for similar config, other brands may be 2 to 4k less... Also, the customisation options in dell inspirons models nowadays looks very limited - most models I am unable to upgrade 2 GB to 3 or 4 GB, i3 to i5 or home basic to home premium on the website... As a result, I am not looking at Dell this time unless there is some VFM offer...
4. I reiterate that discrete graphics is not required. To put things in perspective, the CAD drawings are created on 5 year old Sempron machines with 512 MB DDR1 RAM... Plus, I will be using the system to review the drawings, etc only and not for creating the drawings...
5. I looked through some processor charts, and it looks like as far as 2nd gen i3s, they are better than a6 processor (in thetechfreaks recommended hp system)... So, I dont think I will look into it...
6. How are the following options:
a) Toshiba Satellite C Series C640-I4014 Laptop With Accessories: Flipkart.com: Compare, Review Toshiba Notebook - A i3 2330M, 2 GB, DOS system at 24k - after upgrade to 4 GB and Win7HP should be about 31-32k I hope...
b) Toshiba Satellite C Series C640-X4012 Laptop With Accessories: Flipkart.com: Compare, Review Toshiba Notebook - A i5 2430M, 4 GB, DOS system at 30k - should be 37k after Win7HP purchase is added
c) Sony Vaio eg2aen VPCEG2AEN : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India - A i5 2430M, 4 GB, HB system at 34.5k at computer warehouse - should be 37-37.5k after Win7HP upgrade purchase is added
d) Samsung Samsung NP300V4A-A06IN Laptop: Flipkart.com: Compare, Review Samsung Notebook - i3 2330m, 4 GB, HP system at 35k.

Thanks again
Arun

[dashing.sujay]

Rankings come to result on various aspects, you should judge them by relating them with your purpose.

Anyways, among the models you wrote, Sony is the one to go for.

[aroraanant]

Get the Sony one.
Even I was gonna suggest you that only

And I think Sujay has cleared all the OP's other doubts so I or anbody else don't need to answer them