best option you can blindly go for in this budget???/ ACER. within this budget you will get the best value for money without compromising on the build quality.. you will be paying some premium for sony vaios because of brand value. right now acer is providing some of the best configs for the given price and have better build quality than HPs. dont even look at lenovos and HCLs. they suck bigtime..
Trust me, my friends looking for a laptop within 30 to 35K, so we've been researching for 2 to 3 days already. you wont go wrong with acer.. you will get decent no nonsense smart looking design, 15.6 inch screen and decent hardware config.. plus, with ACER you also have the option to buy a laptop without windows preloaded (select models only) so you wont be forced to spend like 6 to 10 K just for preloaded windows. . even if the laptop costs the same as the one with windows preloaded, it will have much better hardware config.. better graphics card , larger capacity hard drive, more ram.. anything..
but your best bet would be to buy an acer laptop without windows loaded on it..even asus provides laptops without windows preloaded. .so you can have a look at them too. even asus is a good brand . just not too popular in india.. so i am not sure how good the after sales service is .. but all of these concerns are not present with acer.. Must say, the most no nonsense brand for laptops currently.
Moreover, my specific advice not to opt for dell too. i personally dont like the build quality on dells. its just too overrated.. moreover, they are known to have lots of issues.. and if you land with one, the only option you will have is for the dell guy to come and analyze the problem, confirm its a defect and their fault, send your laptop to bangalore for repair or replacement. and all this process is gonna take atleast 15 to 20 days min.. with my uncles desktop, they took a whole month.. .even if they replace fine.. but you wouldnt like repairs being carried out on a brand new product for which you've just spent 30K. you want a spick and span faultless, flawlessly running system..
Advice for brands in the order for highly recommended to not recommended:
1. ACER - GOod build quality, good value for money, smart design, nice keyboard too.
2. HP - good value for money like acer, good build quality however very slightly inferior than ACER, especially visible on select models
3. Tosiba/Asus Both good brands, might have after sales service issues. not sure about asus, but toshiba, nice rugged laptops, not very good to look at though, failing due to after sales service
4. sony. just because of premium pricing and less value for money, but , good build quality , at par with acer, good looks too
5. Lenovo - Cheap chinese company just taken over by IBM to manufacture on their behalf with much lower manufacturing costs.
6. HCL. bad build quality, bad design.. not worth it..
