Best Bang for the Buck laptops

[Eterno]

Hi guys. I looking for a new laptop as my former one broke, but I am getting crazy choosing one as the products of the market here differ a lot of others countries. And is very difficult to guide myself. Everything seems to be more expensive here. Please if you can help me out, 14 inch max.

 

This are the specs of my broken laptop (which was fine, but I suppose it would be reasonable to get something better, I am looking for a balance between quality and price below 18000b):

Processor

CPU

Intel Core i3-5005U (2.0 GHz, 3 MB L3 Cache)

Chipset

Mobile Intel Express Chipset

Graphic System

Graphic Card

NVIDIA GeForce 920M (2GB GDDR3)

Display

Size

14 inch (1366x768) HD

Type

Glare – จอกระจก

Touch Screen

Main Memory

Memory

4 GB DDR3L

Hard Disk Drive

Hard Disk

500 GB 5400 RPM

[lopburi3]

Take a look at these Chuwi - not your usual brand outside of China but seems to work well (got one for granddaughter a year ago and no issues).  

https://www.lazada.co.th/shop-traditional-laptops/chuwi/

[seancbk]

check out http://invadeit.co.th/    Run by farangs.

[Laza 45]

Depends how much money you want to spend..  I got a Acer Core i5 2.3 gh   Nvida Geforce card 940MX .. 4 GB dedicated ram ... 8 GB memory..   500 GB HDD..  20k Bt  Banana IT.. Windows 10 installed (with license).. got it a year ago.. love it.. 15.4 screen.. 

[Shiver]

I'm not sure about the resolution on the model you've chosen, depends what you're using it for.

 

These days I just go to the website for InvadeIT (in BKK).  Never compared prices, but their service is excellent, and they'll assign an English speaker if you're writing or calling in English (can't say what the case is for other languages).

I've had Asus recommended to me, had a Dell, both both desktops, and both failed after a couple of years.

 

Currently using a Lenovo laptop with 200Gb SSD  which is sweet as... and a Dell 'all in one' desktop 1TB HDD at the moment and they're both good, except....why do all manufacturers have so few USB ports?  They're under powered power supplies too if you're using external devices that draw power from USB.  You don't have to tolerate that with a separate box for the computer, you can put 1Kw+ in there if you like.

I've recently ordered a small touch screen laptop (Dell) for our bricks and mortar business.  It's 15.5" so that also doesn't fit your spec, but it was only 15K baht, so I think you're in the ball park with your pricing for a basic laptop.  Again, depends what you want it for.  If just email and basic web browsing then it would be hard to pick a bad one.

 

[manchega]

lenevo thinkpad all the way if you want reliable performance, go for x series, either carbon, performance or 240 very portable, hook it up to a big screen wherever you want and you have incredible computing power

[Dario]

Hi, I was in the same position a few months ago. Buying a laptop in Thailand is a No-Go for me. As conventional hard drives are awefully slow, you need to have an SSD drive to boot the machine. An Apple Macbook Air with only 128GB SSD and 8GB Ram and a 13.3" screen cost 39'900 Baht in Thailand.  I decided to ordered my laptop in the USA with Amazon. I paid only shipping and 7% VAT as there is no import duty on laptops. I bought a 15.6" HP 2018 model with 12GB Ram and 1TB S-ATA hard disk. I replaced the S-ATA 1TB hard disk with a Samsung 512 GB SSD (8'600 Baht on Lazada) and use the 1TB S-ATA as external hard disk. Voila, a much superior laptop than Apple McBook Air 128GB and cheaper. By the way, I ordered my laptop on Amazon on a Monday afternoon and it arrived at my home on Friday the same week at 13:00. There is no laptop in this price category available in Thailand, guaranteed.

[gaff]

Isn't it stupid to buy any laptop without at least i7 core in 2018 ?

SSD is also a must, wondering why any laptop is sold without now.

Invadeit is overpriced and they never have stock, I find them ridiculous.

 

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by gaff

[jippytum]

I would recommend Acer . From my personal experience  the after sales service and two year Guarantee with several service centers offer a  good option 

[observer90210]

Macbook pro,  rules !! 

[mikecha]

microsoft pro 64gb super cnuse as laptop or tablet  just have to buy click on keyboard 

[david555]

https://www.jib.co.th/web/pricelist/pricelist_main/25

 

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by david555

[NoshowJones]

Lenova, I have the two in one Yoga. quite near your specifics.

Edited August 2, 2018 by possum1931

[4evermaat]

Should be i5 or higher.  8th gen intel or higher. 

 

SSD or large HHD with dvd drive.  Buy a converter kit to have hdd as 2nd drive using DVD drive slot; make main drive a 240/480gb SSD (unless there is a free m2 port where you can add an ssd drive. 

 

Do NOT buy anything less than 8th gen intel. 7th gen at a HUGE discount is an exception.  But many shops still selling "New" 5th, 6th, 7th gen processors with new pricing... <deleted>? 

[OneMoreFarang]

What is "best"? fast? lots of hard disk space? the smaller the better? Gaming performance? Long battery life?

There is no such thing as "best".

 

What do you want to do with the notebook (office, video editing, playing games) and where do you want to do it (on long trips without power, in one or two locations with power, etc.) There are many different scenarios and for each of them another notebook will be best.

[ravip]

3 hours ago, gaff said:

Isn't it stupid to buy any laptop without at least i7 core in 2018 ?

SSD is also a must, wondering why any laptop is sold without now.

Invadeit is overpriced and they never have stock, I find them ridiculous.

 

 

If you are not in to 'heavy' computing i7 is not really necessary.

[sammieuk1]

If you are looking for one to avoid I recommend the Acer swift 3 ryzen5 its a dog slow as a commodore and 64 overheats just loading a waste of 23k?

[atyclb]

1 hour ago, sammieuk1 said:

If you are looking for one to avoid I recommend the Acer swift 3 ryzen5 its a dog slow as a commodore and 64 overheats just loading a waste of 23k?

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12709/the-acer-swift-3-sf31541-review-ryzen-meets-laptop/8

[gaff]

2 hours ago, ravip said:

If you are not in to 'heavy' computing i7 is not really necessary.

 

Yes but why buying $hit when paying a bit more give you the best ? I understand that many people buy japanese cars, but I don't...

Same as computers, people might keep them so many years that they will be slower and less performant, so better buy something really good at first and not change it for long.

I hate apple  but still I understand why people buy them and keep them 10 years...

 

[guzzi850m2]

I7 is not nesseary unless you are heavily into video editing and the latest fastest games.

My new i5 8th gen flies and are okay for photo editing, not a gamer.

Get min Full HD or you will likely regret it.

I also bought mine from Amazon, don't want a Thai/English mixed keyboard.

Edited August 2, 2018 by guzzi850m2

[Shiver]

6 hours ago, guzzi850m2 said:

I7 is not nesseary unless you are heavily into video editing and the latest fastest games.

My new i5 8th gen flies and are okay for photo editing, not a gamer.

Get min Full HD or you will likely regret it.

I also bought mine from Amazon, don't want a Thai/English mixed keyboard.

For desktop, first thing I do is throw away the keyboard and buy a 'clickety' keyboard.  Same for laptop when at home.  They work like a champ if you can type, and are surprisingly inexpensive.  These days you find them as gamer keyboards and lots to choose from (Bye bye my beloved IBM 1992 series 'new' when bought keyboard...I'll miss you the most - lasted more than 20 years for $20).  They've become cool these days so price reflects that.

Agree re display resolution, easily missed if a casual user.  Not a show stopper, but worth paying attention to, whatever the brand you finally go for.

[Dario]

14 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Macbook pro,  rules !! 

Where?

[ravip]

9 hours ago, gaff said:

 

Yes but why buying $hit when paying a bit more give you the best ? I understand that many people buy japanese cars, but I don't...

Same as computers, people might keep them so many years that they will be slower and less performant, so better buy something really good at first and not change it for long.

I hate apple  but still I understand why people buy them and keep them 10 years...

 

This is entirely a matter of personal opinion. For example, same as saying I buy only Rolex watches as they are the best in the market.

[manchega]

no its not, cheap shit performs like shit, quality stuff performs and lasts until obscelescence,  still have an old ibm thinkpad x series in the drawer, works fine with open source OS

 

have a graveyrd list of HP and others that just were not worth it

 

 

[xen]

Personally, i would look at either ASUS or Dell. Never had a Dell that has given problems except for a hard drive. My wife has an ASUS 13inch a laptop - light, easy to carry and reliable still after 3 years. My stepdaughter sometimes takes it to school because of it almost as trendy amongst her group as an Apple and it withstands her treatment of it. I would go for a SDD for all OS, and for storage, I would still use a good oldfashioned portable hard drive for files and back-up. I would also consider looking at AMD as a substitute for Intel but do your research first and what is available. I have had more AMD s than Intel and after 30 + years I have only overheated one because I stupidly covered a fan hole with books. This is my experience for what it is worth. 

 

Also my last Apple product, an iPod classic, just stuffed up this morning. Lost all my music but it is about time I moved onto a music player that is worthwhile. There are some good ones out there but are not cheap and actually play FLAC and other digital formats.  Good-bye Apple. Sorry, probably irrelevant to the question asked.

[OneMoreFarang]

Intel i3, i5, i7 are marketing names. Some i5 and faster than some i7 and some i3 are faster than i5.

When people insist you have to buy i7 to get power then that is a sign that Intel's marketing works - and not so much that the person who makes such recommendation knows what he is talking about.

 

Often more powerful processors use more energy which means shorter usage time with the same battery and stronger (louder) fans and more heat.

 

Some time ago I bough a MS Surface with the smallest CPU which had no fan. It works perfectly fine for me for what I bought it for. Once I used a more powerful tablet PC with a fast CPU and a big fan. The hot air output was on the side where people often told the tablet. It just got too hot.

So much about powerful (i7) CPUs...

[Mattd]

8 minutes ago, xen said:

Never had a Dell that has given problems except for a hard drive.

I would advise the opposite!

I purchased a very expensive XPS 13 all singing, all dancing model in mid 2016, it came with 4 years warranty etc. in March this year, I noticed a big bulge around the keyboard and trackpad, so called their support and was told it was the battery, they refused to have anything to do with this, after some research this is a VERY common problem with modern Dell laptops, one which they recognise, but do not warrant after 12 months, despite what you pay for in additional warranty period.

Ended up replacing the battery myself, luckily had a mate coming from the UK, so got one off Amazon (they are not available to buy here).

The old battery had swollen to about 8 times the thickness of the new one, thankfully it did not catch fire or explode!

[OneMoreFarang]

7 minutes ago, Mattd said:

I would advise the opposite!

I purchased a very expensive XPS 13 all singing, all dancing model in mid 2016, it came with 4 years warranty etc. in March this year, I noticed a big bulge around the keyboard and trackpad, so called their support and was told it was the battery, they refused to have anything to do with this, after some research this is a VERY common problem with modern Dell laptops, one which they recognise, but do not warrant after 12 months, despite what you pay for in additional warranty period.

Ended up replacing the battery myself, luckily had a mate coming from the UK, so got one off Amazon (they are not available to buy here).

The old battery had swollen to about 8 times the thickness of the new one, thankfully it did not catch fire or explode!

Many companies don't include the battery in warranty for more than one year, not just DELL.

[Stocky]

10 minutes ago, Mattd said:

I would advise the opposite!

I purchased a very expensive XPS 13 all singing, all dancing model in mid 2016, it came with 4 years warranty etc. in March this year, I noticed a big bulge around the keyboard and trackpad, so called their support and was told it was the battery, they refused to have anything to do with this, after some research this is a VERY common problem with modern Dell laptops, one which they recognise, but do not warrant after 12 months, despite what you pay for in additional warranty period.

Ended up replacing the battery myself, luckily had a mate coming from the UK, so got one off Amazon (they are not available to buy here).

The old battery had swollen to about 8 times the thickness of the new one, thankfully it did not catch fire or explode!

Dell are much the same as most manufacturers, the battery is only covered for the first 12 months. You obviously failed to read the details of the warranty.

 

I've been a Dell user for many years, I currently have two Dell laptops an ageing Precision M4800 and a slightly younger Precision M3800, neither have had any problems. I've had a dozen or so Dells over the years and all have performed well, I had one screen failure, but Dell sent someone to replace the screen within 48hrs. 

[Mattd]

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Many companies don't include the battery in warranty for more than one year, not just DELL.

Agreed, the difference is that this is a very common problem for DELL laptops and one that they acknowledge, they had exactly the same issue with the XPS 15 and DID replace those outside of the one year period.

What annoyed me more than anything was the attitude of their support personnel, lackadaisical and rude, when you consider the saga that Samsung had with their battery issues and the consequent financial losses, then you would have thought that any electronic device makers who use Lithium ION batteries in their products would be acutely aware of the cause and effect of knowingly using badly designed batteries.

Also, not only does it affect the battery, it damages the whole laptop due to the severe swelling.