Top 3 Laptops at Rs. 40,000

Since Dell allows you to customize laptops online, we have upped the Dell 1300’s configuration to what fits best in Rs. 40,000. The upgrades include changing the hard drive from 40GB to 60GB and a 6 cell battery instead of a 4 cell. The 6 cell battery increases the weight of the laptop by 100 grams making it touch 2.9 Kgs.

When it comes to laptop screens, larger isn't necessarily better. Almost this entire range features a resolution of 1280x800 pixels (except the Compaq V2655TS, it has a 14" screen size with a resolution of 1280 x 768), be it a 14", or a 15". With a bigger screen size, the overall dimension of a laptop increases, which makes it more difficult to lug around. So, the one we like the best here is Dell's 14.1" screen.

Manufacturers realize how rampant piracy is in India. Hence they bundle their laptops with DOS or Linux operating system to reduce the costs knowing that nine out of ten times the user would install a pirated copy of Windows XP. Dell is the only manufacturer which offers Windows XP home bundled with the laptop, whereas Compaq chooses FreeDOS and the Acer comes with Linux.

With regards to the card slot, Dell offers the latest ExpressCard slot whereas the other two offer a regular PCMCIA card slot. ExpressCard slots provide much greater bandwidth (USB 2.0: 480 Mb/s, PCI Express: 2.5Gb/s) and will provide solutions for TV tuners, FireWire400 and 800 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and e-SATA. ExpressCard slots also allow you to use wireless internet cards for accessing internet anywhere on the go. Reliance and Airtel have recently launched ExpressCards.

This laptop comes with a CD Writer/DVD-ROM Combo drive and has a neat nylon case bundled with it. As with the other two laptops, the Dell doesn't come with any additional features like integrated Bluetooth or a built-in card reader. Again, internet connectivity options are standard with a 56k Modem, 10/100 LAN and 802.11 b/g wireless LAN.

Compaq Presario V2655TS (Rs 39,510)

We have run you through almost all of this laptop's specifications in the previous two laptop descriptions, nevertheless we will elaborate on the important points again. We suggest you 'must' look at the comprehensive specification at the last page for ease of comparison.

The V2655TS is the least pricey among the three and also has the least powerful processor (Pentium M 725A) with the clock speed of 1.6 GHz. The memory is adequate with 512MB of 333 MHz DDR memory doing the duty.

The place this one loses out is its 40GB P-ATA hard drive. A computer is one of the most versatile entertainment devices, and if you wish to use it for that purpose, then 40 gigs is way too less storage for all the videos and music you'd like to put on your laptop. But if you strictly want to use your laptop for business alone, then 40 GB should do just fine.

Screen size is similar to the Dell, but with a bit lower resolution at 1280 x 768 pixels. The rest is pretty much standard, 56k Modem, 10/100 LAN, 802.11 b/g wireless LAN, a Combo Drive and a 6 six cell battery which will last you anything between 2 to 3 hours.