Basics to definitely ponder upon and why do they matter:

• Price: Everyone has a certain budget, in all the requirements one should first decide the budget. A flexible budget with a variation of base +/- 5k is a good estimate to have for it. Say for example, a budget of 40k +/- 5k, etc. This is the first factor which will shorten your range of a good laptop, the goal should always be buying the appropriate laptop in that budget, which gets the job done.
• Branch: This will decide wheter it's recommended to go for a windows laptop or Mac. ECE (and other "core" branches) have several software/apps like Vivado/Virtuoso/AutoCAD/HFSS etc which are not available on Mac so you might face problems. If you have a Mac, you may borrow a windows laptop from your friends so it's manageable and each year there are several people who manage.
• Coding: Anyone with an entry level laptop and 8 GB of RAM can run most of the coding that you will do in the college - Codeforces, Leetcode, HDLs, etc so a bare minimum laptop will do it, therefore it's a factor which hardly matters. *Insert Padhai vaaste Gaming laptop jaruri hunda*
• SSD or HDD: Go for SSD!!! always. If you have an old laptop with HDD and you don't want to get a new laptop, invest in getting SSD and RAM Maxxing. SSDs are way way faster than HDD => Boot time, Application loading etc everything is faster (as it depends on the read/write speed which is miles ahead in Solid State Devices)
• RAM: It highly depends on the use case: a) Only coding + Mild Gaming => 8 GB b) Gaming => 16 GB is very good for many high end games c) AAA Games + Maybe Locally training AI => 24 GB or 32 GB. If I had to recommend a number, 16 GB is pretty decent in 99% of all use cases
• Screen: There are many factors to judge different screens like Refresh Rate, Display Technology (CRT, LED, OLED, AMOLED are the main ones), Display Size and Resolution. For refresh rate, 60Hz is the average and will contribute in a 60 FPS Gaming experience, other options are 120 Hz, 144 Hz - Go for them only if you have high gaming aspirations or Video Editing aspirations. LED Display is pretty decent, if going for a OLED/AMOLED display MAKE SURE TO READ ABOUT SCREEN BURNS OF THAT PARTICULAR MODEL AND WHAT THE COMPANY DOES TO PREVENT IT - Screen Saver etc *Je*kmate Logo Burned into screen*
• Carrying it around: Mind It a Gaming Laptop is very heavy and has a trash battery life so you'll have to carry it's heavy charger around. The Laptop+Charger weight can go upto 3-3.2kgs and it becomes a headache after sometime to carry around, to library, classes, labs etc. Normal gaming like GTA, valorant, minecraft, can be done on normal laptops as well. A good weight range is 1.6kg - 2.2 kgs (excluding charger) for middle end gaming laptops as well.
• Build Quality & After Sales: Do checkout reddit and other discussion forums of the build quality + after sales services for your laptop. For example HP Victus is infamous for it's hinge issues, Lenovo LOQ for it's Motherboard Short Circuit issues etc. Do look for these problems if they are prevalent on a large scale and moreover how's the company intenting to fix it afterwards i.e. the after sales service and what's the status in the city you'll be taking your college.
• Processor: There are two types of processors available in the market - ARM one (all the apple laptops have this + search Android Laptops) and x86_64 or amd64 (all Intel and AMD laptops have these). ARM Processors are miles ahead in terms of battery life while x86_64 laptops are miles ahead in flexibility i.e. the variety of stuff you can do on them. Performance wise, it depends, for some use cases ARM > x86_64 (Video editing etc), for others it's the other way around. I will cover how to compare different processors but a thumb rule is the generation, version and the power it consumes i.e. the suffix 'U', 'P', 'H', 'HS' or 'HX'

Rule of Thumb when comparing two laptops or considering a laptop:

1. The first one is always the price. If your budget is 60k, there's no point comparing/considering a 100k laptop. If buying a college laptop, ~(40k-60k) is a more than sufficient budget.
2. Second one is defining the use case - It may look like one of the following => (Padhai, Coding, Youtube/Movies, No Games) or (Padhai, Coding, Mild Games) or (Padhai, Coding, Heavy games or video editing or Local AI/ML)
3. Third one is whether you should go for a Mac or not - It depends on 1st thumb rule and your branch. If you don't have the budget, debate ended. If you have the budget but you are in a core branch and don't want to face the hassle, don't buy a Mac. This doesn't mean that people in ECE/other core don't even buy a Mac or buying a Mac will end your college life, people have adjusted and made their way out so it's not something to fear too much. Now, when to buy a Mac - You have the Budget AND You only want to do Padhai+Coding+watching movies (Mac has a really good screen) AND you have No Gaming Aspirations (It's next to impossible to pirate games on Mac and Idts you want to pay for games) AND you want to end up being technically retarded (I am a Mac Hater)
4. Performance - Performance depends on mainly two things Processor and a bit of RAM. Let's assume that RAM is same. Comparing two processors is a hectic task, but we can make it easy if we compare ARM vs x86_64 then among Intel and AMD processors and then between AMD and Intel Processor. Search for CPU Benchmarks and compare. When Looking at two different processors, look on, in order THEIR SERIES then THEIR GENERATIONS (a newer generation i3 obliterates an old i7 => i3 13th gen >>> i7 7th gen). Same for AMD ones. At the end, look for the prefixes, 'U' means Ultra Low Power - Good Battery, Not so Good Performance. Similary for other prefixes, now => approximately In terms of performance U<P<HS<H<HX and inverse in terms of Battery life. ARM also has very good performance but it depends on the use case. What if you want to play Forza on Mac, on paper you might have good performance but what if you can't afford/pirate the game.
5. GPU (Optional, Budget dependent and whether you want to play games or not): If you want to do heavy gaming then only go for a GPU that too higher generations because old ones have less VRAM => A good CPU's Integrated GPU with fast DDR 5/6 RAM will obliterate a 3050/3060 with 4/6 GB VRAM. If you want to do AI ML, college level AI ML usually doesn't asks for a Dedicated GPU as you can use Google Colab or other cloud services. If going for a GPU, the comparing factor between two Models should be a weighted average of GPU Performance + The VRAM you are getting + The TGP (Total Graphics Power) => NEVER BUY A GAMING LAPTOP WITH A 65W/75W TGP, this means you are paying the price for the GPU but its power is capped, giving you bad performance for the price, avoid " light/thin gaming laptops" under 70-80k.
6. If the CPU and GPU Performance of two laptops are same => First Compare the Screen and Build Quality, then After sales services and then Battery
7. Fancy Features like Touchscreen Laptops, 360 degree foldable, Stylus, AI Inside, etc => Depends on you, I don't have anything to say

General Facts to keep in mind:

• If you are into video editing or extreme binge watching. You need a colour accurate display. The newer OLEDs are the best in the category and obviously more expensive, followed by a 100 SRGB LCD, followed by a 45% NTSC. Do look out for Screen Burns and methods to tackle them
• Do not get any laptop that is older than Ryzen 5 7000 series or Intel i3 12th generation.
• Always try to avail Student Benefits and buy from official retail stores (More detail on this in Tips and Tricks section)
• 91mobiles.com is an extremely helpful website with a ton of filters, options to easily compare multiple laptops and buying links.
• Soldered RAM is better for gaming, and always see gaming tests of the laptop on youtube if you are into gaming.
• If on a high budget(>100k), hardly anything matters, just make sure you don't end up getting scammed by buying a Pentium Processor with 256 MB RAM. Also don't get a GPU below 4050.
• Thin and Light laptops should be your priority if on a medium budget and no gaming aspiration

Some Tips and Tricks:

1. Look out for Festival Sales, Big Billion Days etc if buying Online, delay and wait if you can. I'd personally wont buy a laptop online
2. Get the Exact Model Number of your Desired laptop and get the number of the nearest retail store => Checkout the price of the exact model on the official Catalogue, available on the website, and call the retailer to confirm if it's the same. For example I bought my 97k launch price laptop, whose price after 6 months was swinging between 60k-75k at 60k (It's currently at 80k btw) just by checking it's exact price of the exact model on the website. A non official retailer will have his own price so always buy from the official retailer => also listed on the brands official site
3. 91mobiles.com hands down eyes closed best website to view and compare. DONT BUY FROM HERE OBVIOUSLY
4. After Sales Service and Issues/Red Flags in build quality => Reddit is a gold mine for this
5. Maybe Wait until you get your Institute ID Card to avail Student Benefits + If possible, look out for GST Benefits as well.
6. Don't be lazy and hope someone else will spoon feed you and suggest you your laptop.

It is almost certain now that Al is not that impressive, particularly LLMs, as much as it is hyped. It requires a lot of power and resources to function, since energy isn't infinite on earth, surely one day in the near future LLM companies will be asked to shut down their loss making tactics of selling and hyping up LLMs and focus more on research rather than selling. Be it the product Al or all the infrastructure built around Al - data centers etc.

When such time comes, what will happen to the chip design industry, will it be hit badly ? Will chip designers lose their jobs like SWEs lost theirs in 2001 dot com bubble burst ? When will it happen or will it ever happen or am I just being pessimistic?

And, will it be a good time then to be a Software Engineer rather than a Hardware Engineer ?

It is almost certain now that AI is not that impressive, particularly LLMs, as much as it is hyped. It requires a lot of power and resources to function, since energy isn't infinite on earth, surely one day in the near future LLM companies will be asked to shut down their loss making tactics of selling and hyping up LLMs and focus more on research rather than selling. Be it the product AI or all the infrastructure built around AI - data centers etc.

When such time comes, what will happen to the chip design industry, will it be hit badly ? Will chip designers lose their jobs like SWEs lost theirs in 2001 dot com bubble burst ? When will it happen or will it ever happen or am I just being pessimistic ?