Team-BHP - The Laptop Thread: Configs, deals & questions

Team, don't know if this is the right thread to post this query. Mods please move to appropriate thread.

In my office laptop (Dell Latitude), on the VPN connect dialogue box there are a handful of VPN locations out of which Chennai VPN is my preferred one as I am based there. Now whenever I use my Airtel mobile as hotspot to connect to VPN the dialogue box shows a quick scan being done across all VPN locations and finally shows not able to connect.
Now the fun part is I am able to connect to Chennai VPN if I use my wife's Jio or Idea hotspot or even my son's Airtel hotspot. Once connection from the other hotspot is established, it accepts my hotspot for staying connected to the VPN.
In automotive parlance it is like getting a jump start done every morning.
My office IT chap was not able to give a satisfactory reply.
This is particularly worrying when I am not at home in Chennai where i have a broadband connection but in my native where I have to depend on mobile hotspot.
Please let me know what could be the issue.
Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajivr1612 (Post 5111558)

I had gone through this kind of issue back in first lockdown, though I had office desktop back then. I was using Airtel hotspot and faced this issue of not connecting to VPN/ internet. My IT team asked me to use USB extension board to plug in the USB WiFi adopter and it worked ! The office desktop came with zebronics adopter, it was giving me too much trouble, suddenly disconnecting and what not. I bought TP Link WN725N adopter from Amazon and plugged it in directly to the desktop. No issues later on. I suggest you try using WiFi adopter along with USB board. Also check if your laptop software is updated, specifically router related drivers. If it still doesn't work, ask them for new machine :)

Just an Information post to particularly avoid this HP laptop.

Amazon Link

Happened with me twice. as I had got replacement for the 1st one with the same model.

So I purchased this laptop for my mother who would use it her office work, some browsing and watch web-series.

Looking at the specs, Intel i3 11th gen with 8 GB ram and 1 TB HDD, this looked quite a performer. I was surprised at the way it went. The setup took almost 2 hours and the restarts took more than a minute.

In comparison, my i3 i10 gen with 4 GB ram could do 3 restarts in the time this model booted once.

This laptop also heated quite a lot and the battery life was less comparatively; probably due to the conventional HDD as the HDD utilization was 100% most of the time.

I think the conventional HDDs are not up to the performance marks these new gen processors and memory units demand.
An M.2 SSD is must for the performance, atleast have the windows installed in that.

In an increasingly proprietary world where tech companies are fighting modularity and right to repair tooth & nail, a refreshing new player that aims to go the opposite way: Framework.

A laptop with virtually nothing soldered on, every module swappable and they even offer a cheaper price for a DIY assemble-it-yourself model! One hopes this is the future, not the proprietary, boxed-in, 'replace your entire device because one component died and we won't sell you the spare part or let anyone repair it' nonsense the major players are peddling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rkTgPt3M4k

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamahunter (Post 5111598)

I think the conventional HDDs are not up to the performance marks these new gen processors and memory units demand.
An M.2 SSD is must for the performance, atleast have the windows installed in that.

Even a SATA SSD upgrade does wonders for an old laptop/desktop. Moreover, with Windows 10 and the upcoming Windows 11, the OS installed on SSD is a must. Otherwise it just ruins the whole experience. Microsoft has not accepted/declared publicly that their Windows 10 OS works well only if OS is installed on a SSD due to fear of backlash. However, many Mircosoft employees who have worked on/are working on Windows 10 OS have admitted in forums like Reddit and other tech forums that to have a good experience on Win 10, SSD is a must

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamahunter (Post 5111598)

The ordeal for this laptop replacement/return was quite surprising.

I ordered this laptop and on realization of the slowness raised a return request.
A per amazon's policies, they sent a technician to check it. His expertise - he was not aware of what's a task manager.
I called up amazon again, they insisted for another round of checkup and said that another technician will visit this time. Unfortunately, it was the same agent.
Agent told me offline, that their company(3rd party on contract basis with Amazon) fines them for any problem other than visible/functional damage. Asked me to pay up Rs.1200 cash and he will file some damage claim. 1200 would cover his fine he said. Suspecting a foul play, in return I asked him to raise a return request there itself with an email proof. And would pay up only on I getting a full refund. He walked away.
Had to call up and explain the amazon technical team again about the issue. And they send me a replacement with same configuration. As expected it was the exact same issue with the replacement piece.
Again called up amazon and explained the problem for a good 45 mins with images. Finally the return was approved and received a refund after 2 days.

Ordered another model, this time a i3 11th gen, 8 gb ram with 512 SSD, and man the setup and updates were breeze.
The entire setup was completed within 15 minutes including a couple of additional software. Going ahead can add a 1 TB HDD if required. Would highly recommend this model if one is looking out for typical home usage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamahunter (Post 5111598)

Looking at the specs, Intel i3 11th gen with 8 GB ram and 1 TB HDD, this looked quite a performer. I was surprised at the way it went. The setup took almost 2 hours and the restarts took more than a minute.

I work for one of the CPU vendor. Even I have no clue why these OEMs are hell bent on spoiling the customer experience with under speced over priced devices.

Long back the should have stopped the HDD models which are horrible even for day to day tasks. A 256GB SSD would have been a better option than 1TB HDD. Also should have kept 8GB as the min memory option. Still they sell above mentioned models which crawl and bring bad name to Windows laptops as a whole.

Quote:

Again the same attitude of overpricing with out any application of mind. Who in the right mind will buy a 3.5L laptop lacking basic features like touch screen and mediocre graphics?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dark.knight (Post 5115347)

Wonder what VAIO were smoking when they came up with the pricing of the Z, 3.5 lakhs? I'd peg it at about 2 and not more. The laptop looks gorgeous though, a hunk of carbon fibre married to the latest specs makes for a good upgrade.

The price really hurts though, I can get a Thinkpad X1 Carbon at less than half price, what the hell was VAIO thinking, they priced themselves out of the market.

They all are in same range. A similar spec from Dell -4K display, 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD, 32GB Single slot DDR4, etc will be in same range of 3.xx lacs. However, Dell provides a better Graphics card here. Not sure the appreciation that this whole Carbon Fiber Chassis thing commands though. It is over priced by at-least 50-60K over the competition. Expect some discounts later rl:

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 5104448)

AMD is exceptionally good with gaming and graphics and they made sense earlier with definitive price advantages over corresponding Intel. Now, AMD Ryzen series laptops cost more than some of Intel core powered machines. Unless someone into heavy gaming / graphics, Intel is the way.

I never said, it doesn't support virtualization. I found compatibility issues with certain software.

Update:

Ordered ASUS Zenbook 14 UX425 with 11th gen Intel i5 core processor. Received a good deal form Reliance digital. Only fly in the cake, being a ultrabook, RAM and other components are soldered on and non upgradable. I will update once I receive the product.
Highlight of configuration as below, while full details can be found here.

Hi - what's the offer you got from Reliance? Could you give details please

Quote:

Originally Posted by rahulvv (Post 5116104)

Hi - what's the offer you got from Reliance? Could you give details please

It was July offer + ICICI card cashback which comes to 4000/- off on MRP. Right now, I believe they are running it with SBI cards.
Also, Asus runs an offer of 3 year extended warranty along with 1 year accident support at a discounted cost. For my model I could get it at 3000/-.

Overall experience, NICE. After decades of using HP and Dell and Thinkpads, I now understand laptops can be slick, metallic, lightweight and beautiful. rl:
The trackpad, which doubles up as number pad is of glass and comparable to Macs. Though, not having a fingerprint scanner, windows hello with facial recognition is blazing fast. I did run 2 parallel VMs with 3 GB RAM allocated to each and it ran smoothly without any hiccups. LPDDR4X did hold its mark.
Disk mark rating hovers around 1200 mark, which could have been better for the 512 SSD. But coming from an HDD that could max out at 102, I am not that complaining.
Please note, apart form the SSD, nothing and literally nothing can be upgraded and everything is soldered on to the main-board.
Keyboard travel is good and keys are spaced nicely looking at its size. Screen is comparable to my HP Elitebook. Harman/Kardon speakers are pretty good for budget Ultrabook standard.
Ports consists of 2 Thunderbolt v4s, 1 USB v3.2 and one HDMI. Excellent backup by 4-cell 67 Whrs battery and power supply is by 65-watt USB type C charger. :Cheering:

I'm on the lookout for a performance laptop that should allow me to work on a wide range of tasks. It will be used for:

Browsing and usual Internet usage (streaming, etc) - 40%
Word/Excel/PPT work - 20%
Photo Editing on Photoshop, Lightroom and Luminar (including heavy exports) - 35%
Gaming (not an absolute necessity but good to have for that odd day of gaming) - 5%

I feel a Core i5 or a Core i7 , or a Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 with at least 16 GB RAM fits my requirements but looking at the cost of these laptops, decent ones start only around 65K and even a "good enough" machine spec wise has only 8GB RAM and a poor display panel with 300 nits of brightness. I'm not really concerned about the battery life as I know and accept that a performance machine will not be battery friendly. As soon as I move to 16GB RAM configurations, prices touch the 80-90K mark and we're in the M1 Macbook Air territory now.

I'm confused whether I should get the M1 Macbook Air. It suits my requirements well - specially in the image editing/processing part as it has that amazing display panel and MacOS which comes with amazing RAM management even if it has 8GB, at around 90K with discounts thrown in (and expect a service life of about 5-7 years). The other options is to go for a high end Windows laptop with an average display and average portability with similar (or lesser) performance and be ready to expect a service life of about 4-5 years.

I'm OK with either OS and do not have any APPS which have a hard dependency on Windows / MacOS. I'm aware that there will be a learning curve which I am ready for.