LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

Country

India (will be moving to Europe next year for my master’s degree)

Budget

₹60,000-- ₹70,000 (around $700--$850 USD)

Are you open to refurbs/used options?

Maybe, if reliable

Screen size

14"–15.6"

Weight limit

Preferably lightweight since I’ll carry it daily to university/campus

Purpose

Academic/research laptop for long-term heavy student usage

Form factor

Standard/Clamshell laptop

Intended usage

• Heavy academic research and study work

• ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and other AI tools

• Canva

• Notion, NotebookLM and note-taking apps

• Microsoft Teams/Zoom for lectures

• Research work, presentations and multitasking

• Lots of browser tabs, PDFs, journals and recorded lectures open together

I’ll probably spend long hours on it every day, so I want something that stays smooth even with heavy multitasking and doesn’t start lagging after 2–3 years.

I don’t game at all, so gaming performance is not a priority.

Desired battery life

At least 7–9 hours of real-world usage

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

Performance > Battery life > Weight > Size

Info/Requirements

• Want the laptop to comfortably last around 7–8 years

• Good build quality and thermals are important

• Reliable keyboard and display for long study sessions

• Since I’ll be moving to Europe, repairability and after-sales service matter a lot. I’d prefer something that can be repaired there at a reasonable cost if needed

• Not leaning towards MacBooks because Apple repairs can become very expensive abroad

• I honestly don’t know much about tech/laptop technicalities, so beginner-friendly suggestions would really help 😭

• Please also suggest the ideal RAM/storage specs I should target in 2026 for this type of usage