laptop-guide

Laptop Reviews and Recommendations :

Table of Contents:

1. Acer Predator Helios 300(2019) [17”]
2. Dell Inspiron 3543 (15”)
3. Lenovo Legion 5i
4. Asus G14 2020
5. Dell Inspiron 5570
6. Acer Predator Helios 300
7. Apple Macbook Air
8. Dell Inspiron 5570
9. HP ENVY 13T
10. Lenovo IdeaPad
11. Dell Inspiron 5583
12. Dell Inspiron 5570
13. HP Pavilion Power 2018
14. Acer Aspire A315-51
15. Acer Predator Triton 500

1. Laptop: Acer Predator Helios 300(2019) [17”]

• Duration Used: about 1.5 years
• Price Range: Bought at 178k (Nrs.) exact
• Specs (Initial)
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H @ 2.59GHz base clock (6 cores)
  • GPU - Intel UHD Graphics 630 + 6 GB Nvidia GTX-1660ti
  • Memory - 16GB DDR4, 2667 MHz
  • Storage - 1 TB HDD + 256gig SSD
• Review
  • Pros - Godly gaming laptop, for programming, rendering, video editing and basically runs everything that’s not RTX based (chrome can have it’s fill and you’ll still have memory to spare )
  • Cons - Expensive, battery life 2hrs (extended upto 3hrs), and I might sound like a broken record but EXPENSIVE. The colour accuracy isn’t that great so might want a separate monitor

2. Laptop: Dell Inspiron 3543 (15”)

• Duration Used: about 5 years (is a hand-me-down been using personally for 1.5 yrs)
• Price Range: Bought at ~ 81k (Nrs.) (in china)
• Specs (Initial/Current)
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5500U @ 2.4GHz base boosts to 2.92GHz (dual core 4 threads)
  • GPU - Intel UHD Graphics 5500+ 2 GB Nvidia 840m
  • Memory - 8 GB DDR4, 1600Mhz
  • Storage - 1 TB HDD
• Review
  • Pros - Highly upgrade-able with dual RAM slots, Numeric keypad makes life easier, easy access to ram and HDD and replaceable battery module others too general.
  • Cons - No keyboard back-light. Battery-life (expectedly) has become non existent. Single channel memory with a very slow hard drive results in horrendous boot time after such a long use. -All in all its a pretty balanced(&powerful) laptop for its time. Capable enough to game competitive fps with ~50 fps consistent with few frame drops) and even run light blender renders.
• Recommendation
  • Add SSD

3. Laptop: Lenovo Legion 5i

• Duration Used: about 2 months
• Price Range: Bought at ~ Nrs.130k
• Specs (Initial)
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H @ 2.6GHz
  • GPU - 4 GB Nvidia GTX 1650
  • Memory - 8 GB DDR4 +8GB
  • Storage - 512 GB SSD (HDD soon™️)

• Pros: Highly upgrade-able with dual RAM slots (I’ve used it though), Numeric keypad makes life easier, Lenovo Vantage slaps, 3 mode of operations for processor (turbo boost), keyboard back-light.

• Cons: Slight overheating but nothing serious, less portable owing to its heavy weight (not to the point you can’t actually carry it around)

• Overall Verdict: Its a balanced(& powerful) laptop

4. Laptop: Asus G14 2020

• Duration Used: about 3 months
• Price Range: Bought at $1199
• Specs (Initial)
  • CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS 3.0 GHz
  • GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q
  • Memory - 16GB DDR4, 3200 MHz
  • Storage - 1 TB SSD
• Pros : Very powerful device, can do anything based on my needs, good battery life, light device(1.6 kg)
• Cons: Expensive, No webcam, no number pad

5. Laptop: Dell Inspiron 5570 (15”)

• Duration Used: about 3 years
• Price Range: Bought at 65k (Nrs.) exact
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8250U @ 1.60GHz (4 cores)
  • GPU - Intel UHD Graphics 620 + 2 GB AMD Topaz XT Radeon R7
  • Memory - 4 GB DDR4, 2400 MT/s
  • Storage - 1 TB HDD

• Pros: Highly upgradeable with dual RAM slots and SSD space, Dell providing excellent linux support as usual, numeric keypad makes life easier, others too general

• Cons: Win 10 support is not recommended with 4 GB RAM, difficult to travel around with due to slightly heavy weight and 15” size, short battery life (1 hr of online class), not for gaming/graphic design

• Recommendation: upgrade your RAM (make use of the extra slot)

6. Laptop: Acer Predator Helios 300

• Duration Used: about 2.5 years
• Price Range: Bought at £1299
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H @ 2.2GHz base clock (6 cores), upto 4.1Ghz
  • GPU - Intel UHD Graphics 630 + 6 GB Nvidia GTX-1060
  • Memory - 16GB DDR4, 2666 MHz
  • Storage - 1 TB HDD (Bought later) + 256gig SSD
• Review
  • Pros: An absolute BEAST of a gaming laptop, CAN DO ABSOLUTELY everything, rendering, gaming, coding, movies, animation. The Works. BIG bang for the buck. Can handle easily multiple monitors for Editing and other stuff
  • Cons: Very Expensive, battery life a max of 2hrs. ..and with this particular model, a HEATING PROBLEM. So ye, basically it’s a case of it being overclocked by default, so u need to undervolt it to get it working decently

7. Laptop: Apple Macbook Air(early 2015)

• Duration Used: about 5 years
• Price Range: Bought at ~ Nrs.126k
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) 1.6 Ghz Dual-core Intel core i5
  • GPU - Intel HD 6000
  • Memory - 8 GB DDR4
  • Storage - 256 GB Flash(basically Apple’s early way of defining an SSD-esque storage)
• Review
  • Pros: A true notebook; extremely lightweight and effortlessly sleek. Extremely longlasting, have been going at this baby for the past 5 years, shows little to no signs of wear and tear. Capable of any handling sort of load you throw at it. Huge battery life
  • Cons: BAD for deep learning*. Lack of any kind of GPU support on those last gen lineup of Macs. Proved to be a logistical difficulty when lab teachers in 1st year implored you to install pirated versions of Proteus. Can’t natively install Windows in m1 lineups
• Recommendation 10/10 recommend the new M1 macbooks. For 899(student discount) you get performance beating ultrabooks in the $1500-1700 price range. Would have personally bought an m1 macbook if not for its inability to support tensorflow.

8. Laptop Dell Inspiron 5570 (15”)

• Duration Used: 3 years
• Price Range: 100k ( Paid Monthly Payments of ~6k for 18 months )
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz
  • GPU - Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 and Radeon (TM) 530
  • Memory - 8.00 GB (Upgradable)
  • Storage - 128GB SSD & 1TB HDD
• Review
  • Pros: Business Designed Laptop, Good stereo speakers, Great support and reparability inside the country and also good customer service by their website too, Good keyboard. Great options of Ports.
  • Cons: Abysmal battery life 2 hours when brand new but now, Barely an hour in zorin OS and 40 mins max on windows, Keyboard’s kinda loud to type in public/Library ( May vary ), No backlit Keyboard, weighs a bit high, No good for gaming and even weaker performance when not plugged in.
• Recommendation Although a great laptop for its time, better laptops are out there. Get an SSD if you do buy one.

9. Laptop: HP ENVY 13T (2019)

• Duration Used: 1.5 years
• Price Range: $912
• Specs (Initial)
  • CPU - 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8565U (quad-core, 8MB cache)
  • GPU -Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 and Nvidia GeForce MX250
  • Memory -8GB DDR4 (2,400MHz; onboard)
  • Storage - 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD
  • Screen-13.3-inch, Full HD (1,920 x 1,080, 16:9 aspect ratio, IPS, 60Hz)
• Review:
  • Pros: Attractive, lightweight chassis Decent performance for the build Very good and bright display, I mean very good for 1080p, colors pop Long battery life (10hrs movie play back after 1.5 years of initial purchase) Crisp, powerful speakers for its size(fine tuned by Bang & Olufsen) Electronic physical webcam kill switch Genuine windows digitally licensed to your personal Microsoft account Windows hello login through fingerprint scanner is always a win. (Doesn’t have windows hello face tho) Some people may take it as a con but is dead silent during basic web surfing and light tasks
  • Cons: Barrel port charging Very minimal I/O ports, 2 regular sized USB and a single type C, No RJ-45 port, No HDMI port, has micro-sd card port instead of full sized sd card slot. soldered ram, can’t upgrade anything other than wifi-card down the line which is also a big hassle due to ultrabook nature. I don’t game but probably won’t be a good gaming experience Noticeable coil whine occasionally It has glossy finish and works as a mirror in outdoor settings

10. Laptop: Lenovo IdeaPad 310

• Duration Used: Since class 11 ( now in 2nd year )
• Price Range: Forgot exactly but should be around 70K
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - intel i5 7200U
  • GPU - intel uhd 630
  • Memory - 4gb onoard/soldered + one free sodimm slot (which then died for some reason :PepeHands~3: , stuck with 4 gigs)
  • Storage - 1TB HDD
• Review
  • Pros: Okay for light task like pdfs and webpages photoshop and stuff with 8gigs you could multitask rather well.
  • Cons: It was okay until the ram slot died. Once got so hot that the rubber pads fell off. Know that you arent gonna do anything blender, video editing, gaming or even fucking Visual studio with 4 gigs. Even 8 gigs blenders viewport was bad and VS and jetbrains stuff lagged to death. it has served me decent on the nessasaries.

11. Laptop: Dell Inspiron 5583

• Duration Used: 1.5 years
• Price Range: 90k Nrs (SSD upgrade included)
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8565U (quad-core, 8MB cache)
  • GPU -Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 and Nvidia GeForce MX130(4GB version custom made for DELL)
  • Memory -8GB DDR4 (with an extra slot empty)
  • Storage - 1TB HDD + 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (upgraded later)
  • Screen-15.6”-inch, Full HD (1,920 x 1,080, 16:9 aspect ratio, 60Hz, IPS Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display)
• Review
  • Pros: Being dell , has an excellent support for linux (the NVIDIA GPU may sometimes give you a hassle). Lots of ports (in today’s standards) : 3 USB type-A, 1 USB type-C, 1 optical drive(Who uses ot these days, but nice to have), ethernet, full sized HDMI, earphone-mic mixture jack, barrel jack, SD card reader. Numeric keyboard (makes a difference) and a fingerprint sensor. Expandable RAM, SSD. Wonderful build quality (dropped twice, littel scratch and a little broken chassis but nothing terrible and unbearable). Others are kinda general.
  • Cons: Sometimes overheats (when heating the fan runs just over the WASD keys spreading more heat there. Kinda okay for gaming (Don’t expect anything great). A little bit on the heavier side (when compared with other notebooks)

12. Laptop: Dell Inspiron 5570

• Duration Used: 3 years
• Price Range: 70k Nrs
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz 1.80 GHz
  • GPU - Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 and AMD Radeon 530 (2GB)
  • Memory - 4GB DDR4, upgraded to 8GB
  • Storage - 1TB HDD + 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (upgraded later)
• Review
  • Pros: Pretty good laptop for programming purposes, if you wanna stuffs like web development, but definitely not for heavy stuffs like Game dev.Good keyboard. A lot of ports: 2 USB 3.0 ports + 1 USB 2.0 port, USB type C port (no Thunderbolt, but I haven’t used it either), HDMI, Ethernet, headphone jack.Also has a DVD driver
  • Cons: Not that good for heavy gaming. Heavy games run great in medium settings, but expect overheating. (Happened last time I played Batman Arkham Knight)Need to replace battery after 2 years. Unlike Vostro, Latitude and older Inspiron models, doesn’t have a removable battery, you need to actually open the back cover to replace it.
• Recommendation Great student laptop, great if you just want to do minimal stuffs like surfing the internet, watching movies and word processing. Not that good for heavy tasks.

13. Laptop: HP Pavilion Power 2018

• Duration Used: 2+ years
• Price Range: Around 100k
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - I5 8th Gen
  • GPU - Nvidia GeForce 1050
  • Memory - 8GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM [Expandable upto 16 gb maybe]
  • Storage -1TB HDD 7200RPM
• Review
  • Pros: Pretty good for the price range. Keyboard is decent enough for normal typing uses too. Good Cooling Systems
  • Cons:Lets not talk about the Elan Mousepad, just forget its presence. Brightness is not that good for outdoor conditions. HDD gets used to 100% alot
• Recommendation SSD upgrade is a must

14. Laptop: Acer Aspire A315-51

• Duration Used: 3.5 years +
• Price Range: Costs around 40k ig
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6006U CPU @ 2.00GHz
  • GPU - Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
  • Memory - 4 GB DDR4 SDRAM
  • Storage - 1TB HDD initially (it stopped working 4 months ago so I now have just 120 GB M.2 SSD :< and nothing else)
• Review

  • Pros: There isn’t any. But, suprisingly its working fine except for that HDD damage. And works fine for enough chrome tabs. Oh.. it has upgradable RAM and SSD slots so I could upgrade it. Still gives 3-5 hr battery for normal use 15.6’’ screen size and has Numeric keypad. Its very cheap.

  • Cons: Pretty much every thing except its price Heavy wt and size so not portable at all Not for gaming or any heavy stuffs When HDD started to lag few months back using it I experienced hell. But with new SSD it runs pretty smooth. ig its okay for its price.

15. Laptop: Acer Predator Triton 500

• Duration Used: 1 year+
• Price Range: Around 200k
• Specs (Initial):
  • CPU - I7 8th Gen
  • GPU - NVIDIA RTX 2060
  • Memory - 16GB DDR4 2667 MT/s RAM (Expandable upto 32 gb)
  • Storage - 512 NVME ssd
  • Dimension - 14.1 x 10.0 x 0.7 inches
• Review
  • Pros:
    • Ultra portable yet powerful Laptop. So pretty easy on back and RTX with tensor cores you would get reasonable Model Train performance, if you in to Deep Learning. Does fine in almost all Machine Learning stuff.
    • Full Metal build, if you like such kind of thing.
    • You can do gaming, if you are into it,also if you are in windows, keyboard got some fancy tricks.
    • At last, overall great notebook experience.
  • Cons:
    • [Linux] Its so thin (less than inch) and no manually fan control so thermals peaks rather quickly,hence not really lap friendly while gaming and other heavy work. In windows, its fine with max fan setting available.
    • Little costly, and if Part failure occurs you have to import things. I found this laptop rather uncommon in Nepal than its cousins (Helios 300s).
• Recommendation: Great laptop, and last for future both aesthetic and capability wise. But got some trade-off.