[RavenAvi]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

U series would have better battery life and the prices are also lower, and the laptops would be thinner and lighter. So I would agree to wait for those unless you have a specific high workload something like a workstation.
The 8th gen laptops are already available online and at some stores. I'm sure your friend will get it in a few days.

Thank you for the valuable inputs, Agam.

Got myself an ASUS Vivobook S15 S510UN-BQ139T (in brushed Gold shade) @ Rs.80,000/-.

Initial impressions are excellent so far. Thin, light, super fast and convenient.

Dell (5570) & HP (SS100TX) offerings had 8 GB RAM, no SSD and older 940MX graphics configs at roughly the same price. Hence, this felt VFM compared to them.

[h@r$h@l]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

1. Yes you can wipe it out, given that there is no password at boot(BIOS) i.e. it can be done if you can reach the windows login screen.



You can either wipe the whole disk

Hey,

Thanks for that.

Any pointers how I can go about doing this??

I can get to the windows log in screen. No issues there. Even got into bios to change the boot order.

I would prefer doing a clean install & start fresh.
Any pointers / help would be highly appreciated.

Regards,

[Aroy]

In older IBM Thinkpads, IBM had a partition for diagnosis and reinstalling the OS. If it is there in your Laptop, an option should be displayed during startup sequence (before or after the BIOS dialog).

The only problem is if this access is also password protected, in which case you will have to install OS from a CD/DVD/USB Drive.

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Thank you for the valuable inputs, Agam.

Got myself an ASUS Vivobook S15 S510UN-BQ139T (in brushed Gold shade) @ Rs.80,000/-.

Good choice. Did they stop Touchscreen on new Vivobooks?
I have been using 2 Asus Vivobooks S550 (15") and S400 (14") both with touchscreens for the past 5 years. The 15" Vivobook was bought from Flipkart and it is my workhorse. It has been online 12-16 hours 6 days a week. The batteries are almost dying and the SSD has started giving errors, but the laptop still runs with its original OS and boots up in a few secs. The good thing was that the 32GB SSD was used only for caching and hence disabling the SSD did not cause any issues with the OS.

The 14" version of Vivobook was bought from US and that one has a Sandisk SSD compared to the Kingston SSD in my Indian version. That one work great and still gives 4+ hours on batteries. Asus has come a long way in terms of reliability with its Premium laptops.

However I am not happy with their SSD offerings in its Indian versions. Even my friends SSD on his Zenbook failed in < 3 years and that too was a Kingston. Do check the brand of SSD used in your laptop.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by h@r$h@l

Hey,

Thanks for that.

Any pointers how I can go about doing this??

I can get to the windows log in screen. No issues there. Even got into bios to change the boot order.

I would prefer doing a clean install & start fresh.
Any pointers / help would be highly appreciated.

Regards,

You can do that by installing a new OS from a bootable usb drive. Just Google making a bootable usb for the version of Windows you want. Since you already have a laptop running 7, you can get the iso file from any source, even torrents and then put it's original key in.

[sharktale]

Planning to spend moolah on a new laptop.

Contender 1 :

Apple MacBook Air Core i5 5th Gen - (8 GB/128 GB SSD/Mac OS Sierra) MQD32HN/A A1466 (13.3 inch, SIlver, 1.35 kg) @ Rs. 56990.

Contender 2 :

HP Pavilion - 15-cc132tx ( Intel Core i5-8250U Processor @1.6 GHz /8GB DDR4/2TB SATA/Windows 10 Home/15.6" FHD Display/ Silver / 2.02KG/ NVIDIA GeForce 4GB DDR3 dedicated / Microsoft Office H&S (Lifetime Version) @ Rs. 66990.

I know it's 2 different segments altogether. However, I am not sure whether I can be gaming anymore due to paucity of time. Sleeping seems like the most effective activity during that time.
Would like the opinion of people whether the MAC is still a good purchase...

https://www.flipkart.com/apple-macbo...1d62051d5441f9

[lordvader]

Originally Posted by sharktale

Planning to spend moolah on a new laptop.

Contender 1 : Apple MacBook Air

Contender 2 : HP Pavilion - 15-cc132tx

Apple is a good buy if you plan to use the laptop for surfing and multimedia. I bought Air and it has been a wonderful experience.

Despite that, some of the other things that I can do with macbook air are limited. Ms office is almost out of question. I installed office 2016 to use excel and it lagged as hell as it can use only one core. I haven't tried installing android sdk, not sure if its even possible. I can install a linux distro but it isn't as straightforward as in windows laptop.

Highlights are the backlit keyboard and magsafe charger. I couldn't find backlit keyboard in any windows laptops within the 60k range.

The only minus for me is a non IPS, non FHD screen. It would have been a complete package then.

[Pandher]

Originally Posted by lordvader

I haven't tried installing android sdk, not sure if its even possible. I can install a linux distro but it isn't as straightforward as in windows laptop.

Maybe install Windows on the Mac and get best of both worlds?

[lordvader]

Originally Posted by Pandher

Maybe install Windows on the Mac and get best of both worlds?

Well, yes, I have done that exactly. Installed windows 8.1 using boot camp and upgraded to windows 10. Pretty smooth and no major issues at all, except for one while partitioning the drive. But it was sorted pretty easily.

[carboy]

I have been buying Thinkpad T-Series for my employees for many years. But post GST, a T Series with 16 GB Ram & 256 GB SSD is almost 1.1 Lakhs with a 3 year on-site warranty.

I was thinking of Thinkpad L-Series as an alternative. How good is the L-series?

Usage will be for developers. They will connect the laptop to an external keyboard & Monitor while at work & use it for 8 hours and work. They will then the take the laptop home at night in case they need to do something from home or if they are planning to work from home. So the laptop will be carried from home to work everyday, but otherwise there won't be much travel involved. And work will be programming.

How is an L-Series with a 3 years on site warranty for this usage?

[JLS]

Originally Posted by carboy

..... Snip....

How is an L-Series with a 3 years on site warranty for this usage?

I am using L series since last 1.5 years. It is almost as good as T Series. If it is cost effective compared to T series, I think it is a good alternative.
Regards
JLS

[akshay81]

Originally Posted by carboy

I have been buying Thinkpad T-Series for my employees for many years. But post GST, a T Series with 16 GB Ram & 256 GB SSD is almost 1.1 Lakhs with a 3 year on-site warranty.

I was thinking of Thinkpad L-Series as an alternative. How good is the L-series?

Usage will be for developers. They will connect the laptop to an external keyboard & Monitor while at work & use it for 8 hours and work. They will then the take the laptop home at night in case they need to do something from home or if they are planning to work from home. So the laptop will be carried from home to work everyday, but otherwise there won't be much travel involved. And work will be programming.

How is an L-Series with a 3 years on site warranty for this usage?

You can also consider Dell Latitude 7480 series. It is sturdy and you can configure as per your requirements. It has carbon fiber body, 3 years Pro support, 3 years accidental damage service and costs around Rs.85K.

[govigov]

So what laptops have the best service backing in India? If I were to looking to buy a laptop to keep it for long-term, (5+ years), what brand of laptop should I look at?

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by govigov

So what laptops have the best service backing in India? If I were to looking to buy a laptop to keep it for long-term, (5+ years), what brand of laptop should I look at?

Look for laptops sold to organizations. "Enterprise" lines. They usually have better support for drivers and upgrades to some of the hardware.
Dell Latitude or similar from Lenovo or HP. They might be more expensive, but are worth it. Someone who deals with these (IT dept of large organizations) will be able to give you more specific details about the model numbers.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by lordvader

Ms office is almost out of question. I installed office 2016 to use excel and it lagged as hell as it can use only one core. I haven't tried installing android sdk, not sure if its even possible. I can install a linux distro but it isn't as straightforward as in windows laptop.

Highlights are the backlit keyboard and magsafe charger. I couldn't find backlit keyboard in any windows laptops within the 60k range.

The only minus for me is a non IPS, non FHD screen. It would have been a complete package then.

I dont know if there was an issue with your laptop but office runs absolutely fine on a MacBook Air and I am talking about the base model when it used to come with just 4GB of RAM. Even a bit of photoshopping works fine.

To the OP, if you are not going to game, MacBook will be a much better choice - long battery life, Apple's support, thin and light and therefore really portable.