Budget 41-50k College Laptop with light gaming - Team red only

Z

zish18

Recruit
Hi

I want to buy a laptop for college alongside building a gaming pc at home hence no need for a dgpu in the laptop itself:
I'm willing to wait till july-August (if AMDs 8th gen CPUs become more mainstream in laptops)
Usecase is coding, media consumption and light gaming (minecraft, f1).

budget: <58k (ideally 45-55)
cpu: AMD only - r7 needed (HS preferred over U)
gpu - none (AMD's iGPU)
ram: 16gb non-soldered (1 slot can be soldered) - [I don't mind buying a cheaper 8gb version with an emtpy slot to upgrade it myself]
hinge: should be 1 big hinge (no 2 hinge designs - bad experience with lenovo yoga 520)
display: 16:10, anti-glare
size: 14'-16'
condition: new (no used)
usb-c charging needed

storage: any
speakers: any
webcam: any
ethernet: not necessary
Resolution, Refresh rate: Prefer to have either 120Hz or higher res screen but it's optional.

NO MSI, ACER

2 laptops I've shortlisted for now:

1. https://www.amazon.in/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Graphics-Keyboard-21JRS00U00/dp/B0C7HYBQW1/
Con: Ryzen 5 and U processor
2. Asus Vivobook 16x - 5800HS
Con: 5th gen Ryzen - I would prefer 7840HS or 8840HS instead if possible.

Please do advice if U processors would be enough to do the job for me, iirc Zen 4 has the Radeon 780M graphics rather than Vega which is a huge step up.
UPDATE:
I visited croma, reliance digital, asus and lenovo's stores today.
Croma and reliance were useless.
I finessed the guy in asus though, I showed him this website where the price is given without gst while the incl gst price is written in small.
He believed it completely and said that he's willing to sell the same spec for 48 to me, he also gave me another option, a 7730u vivobook oled for 57k but I could haggle it down to 54k
I visited lenovo and tried the e14 thinkpad chassis, the trackpad and keyboard are too small for what I desire but I'm getting a 7530u for 46k there.
Best case scenario is to get an e15/e16 with 7730u for 55k but lenovo's website is overpricing it rn for 65k or a zenbook with similar specs under 60k.
 
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I guess Lenovo (probably something like a Legion or IdeaPad model) is your best bet. You don't need to have 8000 series (8x4x) because it's currently just the same Zen4 with updated AI module I think, so a 7000 series should do just fine. ThinkPads are overpriced may not be VFM compared to Legion/IdeaPad/others - they just want to milk buyers who lust after the old IBM brand mainly for it's solid build and linux support haha.
.

edit:

@zish18 the U series should be just fine for your usage... explore the available options on lenovo.com itself and watch for sales/deals using certain credit cards... you dont get deals elsewhere except maybe Lenovo brand stores.
 
Hi, I found an absolute cracker of a deal while digging Lenovo's website. It's an ideapad slim with 8845hs, 16gb DDR5 (albeit soldered) for 62k. I think I'm gonna take that with student discount and maybe take 32gb ram instead.
 
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Cost me 63k after all cashbacks and discounts. Exceeded my budget but had to future proof on RAM which forced the display upgrade. The zen 4 processor is much better than any 7730u or 5800hs and I felt like it was completely worth it. I used these following coupon codes:

UNBOX35: 3.5k off (if item is >70k) else use UNBOX17: 1.7k off or CUSTOMOFF (2-5k depending on cart and sale)
Student discount: 7% on the whole cart (got me 5.5k off)
Credit card cashback: 10% on whole amount upto 10k (7k off for me, cashback comes after delivery of product)
Not a coupon but they give away a lenovo laptop bag for 1 rupee if you buy a laptop from them.
 
The 8845hs has a 780m igpu which is more than enough for casual gaming. Oled obviously excellent for media consumption. Maybe would have been nicer with a 67-75Wh battery. Still a great deal.
 
Kubdya Khavis said:
The 8845hs has a 780m igpu which is more than enough for casual gaming. Oled obviously excellent for media consumption. Maybe would have been nicer with a 67-75Wh battery. Still a great deal.
Click to expand...
Certainly, for this price I really can't complain haha. I would've preferred upgradable ram, 1 more m.2 slot and a matte screen but deals like these don't come often hence had to go for it asap. The lenovo website is really great if one has the patience to dig through and mess with coupons.
 
Kubdya Khavis said:
Did you check any asus alternatives?
Click to expand...
I did, there was a 5800hs vivobook 16x for 48k (after hagging with the rep) and a 7730u oled vivobook for 57k. The 7730u is effectively a 5800u hence I was more drawn towards the Zen 4 8840HS. In the US market I did find a Zenbook 14 oled with a 7840hs (basically the 8845hs with less AI gizmo) for $800 which is a solid deal but I couldn't wait till october for a relative to drop by, plus the Lenovo was overall the better deal than all of them. I've mentioned some other options in the first post.
 
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