Why buy a laptop under Rs 20,000?
Not everyone needs a razor-thin laptop or a laptop to run high-end PC games. Sometimes a basic laptop is all they need to make occasional Skype calls, run Word, Excel or other office applications, or watch movies or TV shows. Students living in hostels need a basic computer for their assignments and projects for which a budget laptop should suffice.
Sometimes you need a second computer at home for your kids and other family members to do basic tasks. Today’s budget laptops are often good enough for basic photo editing, which you can’t always do easily on your phone or tablet.
Best Laptops Under Rs 20,000
Acer Aspire 3 (A315-32)
Of all the laptops we have tested under Rs 20,000, we found that Acer Aspire 3 (A315-32) Great performance at the best price. It is quite thin which we liked. The plastic body is well built, there is not much flex in the lid or keyboard area. The lid can be tilted up to 180 degrees so you can work comfortably.
It is one of the few laptops in this segment that has access to the RAM and hard drive through the bottom for easy upgrades. The laptop comes with Windows 10 pre-installed, along with some handy apps that help keep drivers and software up to date. The laptop is equipped with an Intel Pentium Silver N5000 quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 1TB hard drive and Wi-Fi 802.11ac.
In tests like file compression and video encoding, the Aspire 3 (A315-32) took the least time compared to other laptops we tested. Battery life is also good, you will be able to do most of your day’s work on a single charge.
The Aspire 3 (A315-32) is not a perfect laptop and the reason behind this is that Acer has given such good specifications in this price segment but has compromised a bit on the display and speakers. The viewing angles are also not the best and the brightness could have been better. The stereo speakers are placed at the bottom and when loud volume is played from them, the sound is not good.
It is one of the heaviest laptops we have tested. Overall, if you want a big screen and don’t mind a low resolution, the Aspire 3 (A315-32) is a great option for you at Rs 19,990.
iBall CompBook Netizen 4G
We have tested several iBall laptops over the years but the company’s latest launch was a while back CompBook Netizen 4G A unique offering, especially considering its price. This laptop comes with a 4G SIM slot which lets you stay connected to the internet at all times.
This feature can prove useful for those who travel frequently and do not want to bother with 4G dongles or tethering from the phone. Battery life is quite good and we easily managed to do all the tasks on it for a day on light workload. CompBook Netizen has a full-HD display, due to which images and text look sharp on the 14-inch panel.
The inbuilt storage is 64GB which is decent. There is a compartment at the bottom of the CompBook Netizen 4G where you can install a 2.5-inch SSD or a hard drive. Some of the things where it lags behind other rival devices are its CPU power and its build quality.
This laptop uses Intel Celeron N3350 processor which is quite old. Its single and multi-core performance is also not good, due to which file compression and video encoding take more time. The plastic body does not feel very strong nor does it give a premium look. This laptop is available in India for Rs 14,990. Asus provides laptops with better looks in this range.
How we chose these best budget laptops under Rs 20,000
Our main criteria in this segment was that the laptop should have Windows 10 pre-installed. There are many options that come with just DOS or free Linux which are sold at a lower price. Such laptops can prove to be a better option for you only if you have already purchased a Windows license or are comfortable with Linux for general web browsing and such tasks.
Secondly, we have ignored older laptop models that come with weaker and older CPUs. This has limited our search. You cannot expect Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen CPUs in the price segment under Rs 20,000. In this segment, you will only find laptops equipped with Intel Pentium or Celeron CPUs.
We have ignored laptops based on Intel’s older Atom X5 series and AMD E2 and A-series APUs as these are quite old now. The Intel Pentium Silver N5000 is a good CPU. It is new and also reduces power consumption. It comes with DDR4 memory support.
Pentium N3xxx series laptops are usually available in this price segment. It is a bit old, so in some models you will get only four cores. Intel Celeron processors are not as powerful as the Pentium series. Celeron N4000 is a new CPU but it has only two cores.
We have focused on laptop models that are available on online e-commerce sites, so that customers can easily purchase them if they wish. Most of these models should also be available at offline retail stores in India, if you are hesitant to buy a laptop online.
One thing you should know is that the prices of laptops keep fluctuating. In such a situation, the price of laptops coming under Rs 20,000 in our list may also increase slightly.
Asus VivoBook X540MA
The VivoBook X540MA laptop is powered by the Intel Celeron N4000 CPU and comes with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. The selection of USB ports on this laptop is good, although all of them are placed on one side and are very close to each other. So if you are using a USB device with a plug that is wider than usual, it may block the adjacent port.
You get a DVD drive in this model, which comes in handy when you need to back up. The laptop is a bit heavy. The plastic and colour scheme make it look a bit cheap. The performance is slow, the viewing angles of the HD display are poor. The battery life is not good either and there are better options available for around Rs 18,990.
Asus E203N
This laptop of Asus brand is available right now Rs 12,990 Available in . It uses the older Intel Celeron N3350 CPU, but its compact size may appeal to most people. It is thin and light and also has a USB Type-C port which is not seen in this segment. The 11.6-inch display is not very big, but at least the HD resolution is not too low at this size.
The biggest problem is the laptop’s storage. Only 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 32GB of eMMC flash memory is not enough for Windows and your applications. Windows boot is fast but we were not able to run many things during the test because of the storage issue. If you are going to use web-based apps or you do most of your work on the browser then this should not be a big problem for you. Asus E203N has a microSD card slot with the help of which you can expand the storage if needed.
HP 15-Bs589TU
At the time of writing this article, the price of HP Notebook 15-BS589TU was around Rs 19,789. We could not test this laptop but at this price you will get Intel Pentium N3710 quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, DVD writer, three USB ports, HDMI and LAN port in this laptop. It comes with HD webcam and 41WHr battery.
iBall Compbook Premio v2.0
CompBook Premio Version 2.0 has a powerful Intel Pentium N4200 CPU and comes with 4GB of RAM. It is light and portable, and also comes with Windows 10. Its battery life is also good. Rs 17,235 Available in , the 32GB onboard flash storage is too little for apps and files. As we mentioned in our review, we found that the plastic body bends easily. The display panel is also not very good. Battery life, on the other hand, is quite good.
iBall Compbook Marvel 6
iBall Compbook Marvel 6 price of Rs 11,990 For this price, you get a full-HD 14-inch display, 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. Storage can be a problem for you if you store a lot of files.
The CPU is good for basic tasks but still a bit weaker than other options. The body and trackpad aren’t sturdy, but there is a compartment on the bottom of this laptop where you can add a 2.5-inch hard drive. Like the CompBook Premio version 2.0, its battery life is also good.