Budget 41-50k 14 inch Touch screen laptop with great screen and future proof for a friend

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JMak

Yeah.. I am at it ;)
Adept
A friend is in need and was asking me, but as usual I dunno crap so ahsin troubling you guys

A light weight great 2 in 1 touch screen laptop ( touch is not that big a requirement though but would be great)
Windows based for productivity like ms office, pdf viewer and editor email etc

Media consumption is also on the cards

Please suggest something that's future proof for the use case scenario for atleast 4 or 5 years..

He can wait for the upcoming sale to purchase as well.

Please do help
Thanks in advance.
 
Getting all of that under 50k is a tall order, especially the touch screen; from what I've seen, most laptops in this price range have poor displays, even if they check all the other boxes. I know both Infinix and Realme have sub-30k options that have been reviewed well and have good displays, but they do use processors that are a year or two old. There's also the Honor MagicBook 14 - satisfies all the requirements except for the touch screen and goes for less than 50k (at least when I got mine). And if you can go a bit higher, Xiaomi has some excellent options that start in that range too. The issue with Honor and Xiaomi though is that the RAM is soldered, so you have to buy it with whatever you think you'll need up front.

As for future-proofing, it really depends on what kind of usage your friend has - it's hard to say how long a machine will be good for without that context.
 
Getting all of that under 50k is a tall order, especially the touch screen; from what I've seen, most laptops in this price range have poor displays, even if they check all the other boxes. I know both Infinix and Realme have sub-30k options that have been reviewed well and have good displays, but they do use processors that are a year or two old. There's also the Honor MagicBook 14 - satisfies all the requirements except for the touch screen and goes for less than 50k (at least when I got mine). And if you can go a bit higher, Xiaomi has some excellent options that start in that range too. The issue with Honor and Xiaomi though is that the RAM is soldered, so you have to buy it with whatever you think you'll need up front.

As for future-proofing, it really depends on what kind of usage your friend has - it's hard to say how long a machine will be good for without that context.
I can ask him to push the budget till 60 as well, future proofing is in terms of productivity work for office, nothing that's too resource consuming like video editing or something similar...
Meant for a teacher if that helps.. Just to keep assignments in order, attendance sheets of children and similar school things
 
In that case, I'd recommend something like this or this - excellent displays, good build quality, and more than enough performance for office work for many years to come. You can even get extended warranty direct from Xiaomi for them, which of course pushes up the price, but you can still get the 14 inch with 3 years of total warranty for about 60k. Your friend could also just buy something cheaper like the Infinix X1 and upgrade sooner than planned, but if performance isn't a huge requirement there's not much point in doing so IMO.

Do note that there are touchscreen options in this price bracket, but I'm not aware of any with a good display, build and internals for under 60k. You may also want to keep an eye on the Marketplace here, might find something significantly cheaper that makes it worthwhile to go for second hand.
 
 
Mi is indeed good.. Will suggest
Thanks both of you.
How is this btw, someone shared this as well

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 (2021), 14-inch (35.56 cm) FHD Touch, Intel Core i3-1115G4 11th Gen, 2-in-1 Laptop (8GB/512GB SSD/Office 2021/Windows 11/Integrated Graphics/Black/1.5 kg), TP470EA-EC312WS https://amzn.eu/d/fHjiyT3
 
Mi is indeed good.. Will suggest
Thanks both of you.
How is this btw, someone shared this as well

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 (2021), 14-inch (35.56 cm) FHD Touch, Intel Core i3-1115G4 11th Gen, 2-in-1 Laptop (8GB/512GB SSD/Office 2021/Windows 11/Integrated Graphics/Black/1.5 kg), TP470EA-EC312WS https://amzn.eu/d/fHjiyT3
Go to showroom and check build quality of all laptops. Lenovo, asus vivo etc are too much plasticky.
 
ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 (2021), 14-inch (35.56 cm) FHD Touch, Intel Core i3-1115G4 11th Gen, 2-in-1 Laptop (8GB/512GB SSD/Office 2021/Windows 11/Integrated Graphics/Black/1.5 kg), TP470EA-EC312WS https://amzn.eu/d/fHjiyT3
I think I've checked this one out before, and if I remember correctly it has a poor display, something like ~60% sRGB color gamut coverage, meaning it'll likely look quite dull and lifeless, not to mention inaccurate (though that's a different metric altogether). For context, most decent phones these days come with >95% sRGB displays and decent accuracy (once you turn off the "Vivid" mode). IMO, 90% sRGB coverage is the bare minimum you should accept if you care about viewing quality at all. If the laptop in question has a good value for this spec, they often put it in the product description on e-commerce sites, and a lot of manufacturers put the value (good or bad) in the detailed specifications for that particular machine on their website.

Having good gamut coverage doesn't guarantee that it'll be a good or accurate display, but like I said, it's a minimum - if you want to go the extra mile and get something accurate as well, you'll have to check out individual reviews for the average ΔE (delta E) values: <2 is generally considered professional grade, 2-4 is good for consumers, >6 is usually considered poor. Getting this information is a lot harder though, since measuring color gamut and accuracy requires equipment that costs a couple hundred dollars (at least), and a lot of review sites either don't bother with it or can't afford it. This is especially problematic since there are some models that are popular only in developing countries like India, where almost no one makes those measurements, and to make matters worse, sometimes the reviews that come up are for a different SKU from a different region with different components than what's available to you locally. This difficulty is why I generally just tell people to look for color gamut coverage (a spec that's easier to find) and be done with it.

P.S. Some manufacturers have started listing NTSC color gamut coverage instead of or in addition to sRGB, the former being the US standard for broadcast television and the latter being the standard for most content on the web and basically anything you do on a computer, so that's the only one you really have to worry about. While they're not directly comparable, 72% NTSC usually corresponds to >96% sRGB coverage, so that's your benchmark. A lot of subpar screens with <65% sRGB will be advertised as 45% NTSC, so you should avoid those.
 
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Of these, I'd say the Mi Notebook Pro is the best built and most premium option, but in terms of spec the Vivobook Pro 14 OLED probably wins. Depending on how important look and feel is to your friend, I'd go with one of those. I would avoid the HP, as I've had bad experiences with their convertibles, and the screen on this particular one is subpar.
 
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