I need to buy a laptop for my college this year as a CS major, mainly for coding and some college work. I went to Aditya Vision a few days ago and saw this Dell laptop (the one in the middle) with two price tags – one showing ₹74,400 and the other ₹88,800.
I'm a complete rookie when it comes to laptop specs, so I want to know if it's worth it. It's a huge amount of money, and I'm not sure if the Dell is worth that price.
I remember the salesperson saying it has a i5, 13th gen, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage, and it's a Dell Inspiron 15 something.
Please help.
(https://i.ibb.co/pv8h3VSL/yax4djpj49yg1.jpg)
Better laptops are available online.
Hi, I'm a final‑year engineering student. I do coding and use tools like MATLAB for simulations. If you don't plan to do machine learning or model training later, a laptop with at least an i5 or Ryzen 5 will do; i7 is a plus. An external graphics card isn't necessary unless you want gaming or heavy AI work. Avoid ARM‑based laptops with Snapdragon processors. Choose a laptop with good after‑sales service in your city. Hope it helps.
If your college work doesn't need Windows, a MacBook is a solid option at that price range.
If you need Windows, here's the bare minimum:
- 16 GB DDR5 RAM
- 512 GB SSD
- i5 or Ryzen 5 (latest generation)
- Dedicated graphics card (NVIDIA or AMD)
At this price point you'd have to look at a gaming laptop. It will give you better performance and power, and the upgrade options are good for the long run.
Go for a MacBook Air M5, use the student discount plus any card discount and you can get it close to 1 lakh. It's totally worth the money for a CS major background.
There are mainly three processor series: U, H, and HX. U‑series is fine for moderate coding like web development, H‑series can handle heavier programming tasks, and HX‑series offers desktop‑level performance.
Going with an H‑series would be good for you, and you may not need a dedicated GPU like an RTX.
My recommendations for laptops under ₹80 k:
- Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 (i7‑13620H)
- Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5 (Ryzen 7 7735HS)
- Asus Vivobook S16 (Core 5 210H)