Budget 51-70k need a laptop for college (coding, light gaming) decent battery life, lightweight, bright panel.

2

24Karrots

Recruit
Budget is flexible above 50k, but needs to be below 60-65k.
My main use for it is going to be for coding, document work, watching videos and a lot of web browsing (need a lot of tabs open on edge), but I also want to be able to run modern games on it on lower settings, although I will mostly play Indie games (switch emulation would be a bonus but it might be unrealistic). The screen needs to be bright enough to view under light with color accuracy, anti-glare would also be good. Anything above 60hz is not a necessity as I don't play esports games, and I'm used to a 60hz screen. At least one USB-C port would be preferable, and I want the battery to last 3-4 hours minimum, nothing 3 hours and below. I also want 16 gb ram or at least an option to upgrade from 8gb without voiding warranty. Lastly, I want it to be lightweight - not bulky and heavy like a gaming laptop. As an example for gaming, I would be happy if it can run monster hunter rise at playable fps on medium settings.

I am considering the Vivobook 16x (2022) with ryzen 7 5800HS, 16GB ram and Vega 7 graphics. I was considering the 2023 version of the same with an rtx 2050 and i5-12450h, but I am not sure about ram upgradability (as it has 8gb ram) and I have heard issues with its battery life as well. There is also the fact that AMD cpus generally have better battery life, so unless this laptop is an exception I don't want to consider Intel. Please help me weigh other options as well like the vivobook pro 15, HP victus, other vivobook etc as the options are confusing.
It should be able to last 3-4 years of college.
 
I don't really have multiple suggestions, so I'll just share my experience with my laptop.

I've been happily using my Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 for college and normal day to day purposes. It lasts me 6+ hours on a normal day, but if I'm debugging and building a lot while coding, the battery life is down to 4hrs at max brightness. It cost 65K for me back in 2021-ish.

However, reviews of the recent versions make it seem like it has gotten worse over the years since I bought it. Mushy keyboard, worse display etc

My main problem with it is that RAM is not upgradeable, so I'm stuck with 16GB+swap. Though both the WiFi chipset and the NVMe drive can be replaced iirc. I bought it during Covid, so mine came with a Mediatek chipset. The WiFi+BT MTK card gave a lot of issues under Windows, but has been working fine under Linux OOTB, which was a nice surprise!

No dGPU, but I don't mind that since
  1. Battery lasts longer
  2. No worries with Linux compat
  3. Mostly works fanless
  4. The iGPU of AMD is good enough for most indie games, and ETS2. Modern games don't work too well though, but that's a non issue for me since I can't play them anyway.
Ofc, the display is not very bright, not enough to be perfectly readable under sunlight but passable otherwise, and speakers are okay. But I'm spoiled since I'm comparing it with a M1 MBP. It's not that they sound bad, it's just that there's not much low freq and the sound levels are quite low. Good enough if you need them, but I'd use earphones.

If I wanted to buy one today, I'd probably look for AMD APUs, since the iGPU are really good and they don't use all that much power either. Something like the Steam Deck but in a laptop form factor, basically.
 
24Karrots said:
I am considering the Vivobook 16x (2022) with ryzen 7 5800HS, 16GB ram and Vega 7 graphics. I was considering the 2023 version of the same with an rtx 2050 and i5-12450h, but I am not sure about ram upgradability (as it has 8gb ram) and I have heard issues with its battery life as well. There is also the fact that AMD cpus generally have better battery life, so unless this laptop is an exception I don't want to consider Intel. Please help me weigh other options as well like the vivobook pro 15, HP victus, other vivobook etc as the options are confusing.
It should be able to last 3-4 years of college.
Click to expand...

Vivobook is a productivity laptop.

In gaming refresh rate > screen quality

Also not sure if fans are big enough to take prolonged gaming loads.
The victus also throttles a little under prolonged loads + wobbly hinges
 
AMG said:
Vivobook is a productivity laptop.

In gaming refresh rate > screen quality

Also not sure if fans are big enough to take prolonged gaming loads.
The victus also throttles a little under prolonged loads + wobbly hinges
Click to expand...
I'll mostly be using it for productivity tasks, I just want it to be able to handle a few games on the side. And I don't care for anything more than 60 fps because I'm aware of the budget
 
KAKAN said:
I don't really have multiple suggestions, so I'll just share my experience with my laptop.

I've been happily using my Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 for college and normal day to day purposes. It lasts me 6+ hours on a normal day, but if I'm debugging and building a lot while coding, the battery life is down to 4hrs at max brightness. It cost 65K for me back in 2021-ish.

However, reviews of the recent versions make it seem like it has gotten worse over the years since I bought it. Mushy keyboard, worse display etc

My main problem with it is that RAM is not upgradeable, so I'm stuck with 16GB+swap. Though both the WiFi chipset and the NVMe drive can be replaced iirc. I bought it during Covid, so mine came with a Mediatek chipset. The WiFi+BT MTK card gave a lot of issues under Windows, but has been working fine under Linux OOTB, which was a nice surprise!

No dGPU, but I don't mind that since
  1. Battery lasts longer
  2. No worries with Linux compat
  3. Mostly works fanless
  4. The iGPU of AMD is good enough for most indie games, and ETS2. Modern games don't work too well though, but that's a non issue for me since I can't play them anyway.
Ofc, the display is not very bright, not enough to be perfectly readable under sunlight but passable otherwise, and speakers are okay. But I'm spoiled since I'm comparing it with a M1 MBP. It's not that they sound bad, it's just that there's not much low freq and the sound levels are quite low. Good enough if you need them, but I'd use earphones.

If I wanted to buy one today, I'd probably look for AMD APUs, since the iGPU are really good and they don't use all that much power either. Something like the Steam Deck but in a laptop form factor, basically.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your response. I'll definitely be on the lookout for AMD APUs
 
I have been using my lenovo ideapad gaming 3 since a year now, got it for 55k during sale, it has a ryzen 5 5500h processor, a GTX 1650 and 8 GB ram(upgradable to 16gb), i use it for around 8 hrs everyday for college work and playing games, runs most modern games like forza, f1, elden ring and resident evil 4(2023) on medium graphics. Battery lasts around 4 hours while doing light to moderate work. I have also checked linux compatibilty and got no issues so far. I think the ideapad gaming series would be a good option to consider.
 
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