Help in deciding laptop of 60-70k range!

[shyam057cs]

Hi ppl,

First of all this is an awesome place to get much needed user reviews and advices, thanks to all members for this.

Now, I need some advice on selecting a laptop..I have read this, Help me choose between Dell Inspiron 15R SE vs Samsung 550p , but even after reading it I couldnt make a decision as my needs were different. Now after 1- 1.5 months of research I am gettin crazy due to plethora of choices.. pls help me choose a laptop with the followin criteria-

Budget - 60-70k

Size- 14 or 15.6 ( preferably lighter in weight but not very important)

No Brand likes or dislikes but wud prefer decent ASS.

I would be using it primarily (in order of importance) rogramming(sw dev),movies,music,browsing and reading up stuff, gaming(just a casual gamer).

I would like a high resolution, minimum of 1600x900 or full Hd (i love moviesss ). But I am concerned whether a Full hd in 15.6 would makes fonts very tiny and difficult to read (programmin shudnt become a pain ). Need some honest feedback on that..I am using kinda old laptop now, so I am not really able to appreciate the difference in glossy or matte finish, so u need to enlighten me!

One final criteria is that it should be future proof, atleast for 2-3 years minimum.

At this stage, my final choices are
1 .Inspiron 15rse (with full hd) at abt 65k ( I am student of NIT Calicut, so I hope will be gettin a good discount ..any info on this ?? )
2. Samsung np550-p5c-s02in at abt 62k ( concerned abt heatin nd throttlin issues , but i am very mch impressed by specs, jbl speakers, design)
3. Sony S Series SVS15115FNB at 70k ,SVS15115FN : S Series : VAIO™ Laptop & Computer : Sony India ,(specs are not that great, but awesome design)
4. Sony E series , at 65k ,SVE14A16FN : E Series : VAIO™ Laptop & Computer : Sony India

I am totally confused, and some fresh prespective would help me now..

[RON28]

i think you will watch more movies and less gaming...so better go for DELL 15R SE with 1920x1080p resolution.

[Abhishek Nama]

Hi ppl,
1 .Inspiron 15rse (with full hd) at abt 65k ( I am student of NIT Calicut, so I hope will be gettin a good discount ..any info on this ?? )

AFAIK The student discount is just 5%.

[shyam057cs]

i think you will watch more movies and less gaming...so better go for DELL 15R SE with 1920x1080p resolution.

Thanks for replying . As I said I am concerned whether fullHD in 15.6 can make fonts tiny and make reading an issue,after spending 65k I wouldnt want to tinker with the zoom settings of the browser each time or dpi settings of Os which all sw may not take kindly..
hopin an experienced user can comment on this..also the fact that many have complained batteries are an issue

[ratul]

Thanks for replying . As I said I am concerned whether fullHD in 15.6 can make fonts tiny and make reading an issue,after spending 65k I wouldnt want to tinker with the zoom settings of the browser each time or dpi settings of Os which all sw may not take kindly..
hopin an experienced user can comment on this..also the fact that many have complained batteries are an issue

for that, you can reach to the nearest DELL showroom, and try the model there for resolution..
and AFAIK, you can adjust the DPI and many other settings to make text large enough to be properly readable...

[RON28]

Thanks for replying . As I said I am concerned whether fullHD in 15.6 can make fonts tiny and make reading an issue,after spending 65k I wouldnt want to tinker with the zoom settings of the browser each time or dpi settings of Os which all sw may not take kindly..
hopin an experienced user can comment on this..also the fact that many have complained batteries are an issue

google DPI, you will know what it it...and there are settings to change the text in windows 7...so don't worry.

[Conan]

Having lived in the NIT Calicut hostels for 4 years, I can tell you one thing. Don't even think about heavy duty gaming on any lappy, least of all without a notebook cooler (People who live in Calicut don't know what winter is). Btw CS, AOE, DOTA, FIFA etc. played over LAN for long hours is not "heavy gaming".
If gaming is not a priority, then pick any laptop, your choice.
For movies, nothing beats Full HD (Dell 15R SE). For long periods of browsing and reading, a matte screen definitely has its advantages (Samsung NP550) as it causes a little less eye strain. I wouldn't worry about music because none of the hostel rooms are so big that a laptop speaker won't suffice (Unless you want to treat the whole corridor to your choice of music, in which case buy separate speakers).
Lastly, if video en/decoding, graphics design and gaming isn't your thing, go for i5 over i7. Friendlier on the pocket, cooler on the temps, and better battery life.

[shyam057cs]

Having lived in the NIT Calicut hostels for 4 years

Glad to meet another NITCian..jus curious to knw which branch nd year did u passout?

If gaming is not a priority, then pick any laptop, your choice.
For movies, nothing beats Full HD (Dell 15R SE). For long periods of browsing and reading, a matte screen definitely has its advantages (Samsung NP550) as it causes a little less eye strain. I wouldn't worry about music because none of the hostel rooms are so big that a laptop speaker won't suffice (Unless you want to treat the whole corridor to your choice of music, in which case buy separate speakers).
Lastly, if video en/decoding, graphics design and gaming isn't your thing, go for i5 over i7. Friendlier on the pocket, cooler on the temps, and better battery life.

Gaming is definitely not a priority, it is just an added benefit for me. Since I need movies and long periods of browsing and reading , your answer again puts me into dilemna But wait can we add removable matte screen guard or sumtn for laptops like we do for smartphones ? That may solve my problem

Agreed our hostel rooms are small, but I will pass out this year so I am planning to take this lappy around and good speakers always helps! My choice of i7 is just to make it future proof. Is it true that i7 drains battery higher than i5..or is less cooler..actually have heard havin i5 nd gt650 was an issue with np550-s01in or sumtn. I maybe totally wrong so plz educate me on this..

[shyam057cs]

AFAIK The student discount is just 5%.

I just enquired with their customer sales rep and they have reduced the student discount to 3% last month or sumtn he said.

[shyam057cs]

google DPI, you will know what it it...and there are settings to change the text in windows 7...so don't worry.

I did google dpi and read about changing the settings, but then I read issues that some of the software wont work well when you change the dpi. As Ratul said , going to a showroom and checking it out myself seems the best solution..

[Abhishek Nama]

I just enquired with their customer sales rep and they have reduced the student discount to 3% last month or sumtn he said.

That really sucks

[Conan]

Glad to meet another NITCian..jus curious to knw which branch nd year did u passout?
PE, batch of 2009


Gaming is definitely not a priority, it is just an added benefit for me. Since I need movies and long periods of browsing and reading , your answer again puts me into dilemna But wait can we add removable matte screen guard or sumtn for laptops like we do for smartphones ? That may solve my problem
Yes, it can be done. I recently put a matte finish screen guard on my S2. On looking closely at the icons, slight distortion can be noticed. But, being a touch screen phone, it feels good to use. A laptop screen doesn't have touch interface so no finger smudges, but more importantly, it uses a standard RGB layout rather than a pentile matrix layout that Samsung uses for its AMOLED displays, so, there might be further distortion observed in case of the laptop. But, you are going to have to see and use it in person to actually decide on it.

Agreed our hostel rooms are small, but I will pass out this year so I am planning to take this lappy around and good speakers always helps!
I doubt any laptop priced above 50k will have low quality speakers. But, yes, the Samsung's 2.1 system is really good. It's even better than my old laptop's speaker, which were also JBL.

My choice of i7 is just to make it future proof.
Ask the people who bought 2nd gen i7 processors. They got trolled by Intel, whose 3rd gen i5 processors rival the old i7 in performance (which is not a bad thing). Nothing can guarantee the future.

Is it true that i7 drains battery higher than i5..or is less cooler..actually have heard havin i5 nd gt650 was an issue with np550-s01in or sumtn. I maybe totally wrong so plz educate me on this.
Intel's site rates the i7 3610qm (Samsung i7 model) at 45W & i5 3210m (Samsung i5 model) at 35W, so, the i5 obviously consumes less power and hence generates less heat. There were throttling issues on some laptops, both i5 & i7. But in your case, unless you are playing the latest games at high settings for long hours, I doubt you'll ever run into a throttling issue (you may not face an issue even then). Plus, there are workarounds to avoid throttling.

Bottom line is, this is a really difficult category (Multimedia Laptops) to pick and choose between different laptops. You've got to compromise on one front or the other, especially, since you are in India.
I've used Dell laptops in the past, you wouldn't be disappointed, also, the ASS is quite good. And it's not like you can not play games on 15R SE, just not as well as on the Sammy (Did i mention I own the i7 model of Samsung NP550?).
Since the screen and speakers seem to be a priority for you, i'd suggest seeing a live demo of both the laptops. Otherwise, you may have to prioritize between the screen and speaker.

[shyam057cs]

Thanks a lot Conan for your awesome detailed reply

After careful consideration I have decided to move away from both dell 15r se and sammy np550. I realised I dont need that super awesome graphics card as games arent really a priority for me. As a programmer , great performance and a light weight laptop with a good screen would be more useful I figured , so I am considering to take Sony E series 14 A , Rs 65k SVE14A16FN : E Series : VAIO™ Laptop & Computer : Sony India
which has i7-3612 (35 watts TDP) with high performance, as well as low power consumption and moderate heat generation.With 1600*900 in 14 inch screen, I would be gettin a good display though not non-reflective like Sammy ,an useful backlit keyboard, weight is only 2.7kg, and a handy AMD 7670M -1GB just in case I'm gamin! When I searched around,I found this lappy has better than avg battery and overall seems to be a nice package. I know it has only 4GB(1600 mts) of ram but I plan to upgrade it to 8GB in case I find its performance lacking.. Now all I want is some fresh opinion on this from you people..maybe some criticism of this lap which I have have overlooked.. thanx again