What are the best Laptops to buy at under Php 25k?

Paul Pintang asks, “Good morning. Sir, any laptop suggestions within 18k-25k price range. TIA for Minor games, photoshop, lightroom but mostly po for Microsoft offices”

Finding the right laptop to suite your needs could be a pain, believe us we know. You could easily be overwhelmed by what specs to look at and which manufacturer to buy from, but don’t worry we got you covered.

Here are some easy questions to ponder when looking for the right mobile work or game station for you:

1. How will you use the laptop?
   • Will you be using it for gaming? Do you need to create content? Are you going to use it for AutoCAD and other architectural / engineering apps? Do you just generally need a mobile workstation? Once you know the main use of your laptop you would be able to easily narrow down your choices.
2. How much are you willing to spend?
   • Set a spending limit. That way, you would be able to narrow down your choices even further.
3. Will this be a long term or short term buy?
   • Are you planning to buy a laptop to last you as long as possible, or do you just really need one now? Certain laptops have a headroom for upgrades while others do not; be sure to look at which components of the laptop you are buying are upgradable if you plan on doing so.
4. What are your personal preferences?
   • This is more attachment or loyalty to a certain brand, or a liking for a particular color, style, or form factor. This should always be the last thing you should decide on unless you are that type of person that cannot live without a certain feature set. (*ahem* RGB *ahem*)

Author’s Note: All laptops listed below are those with the Intel’s latest or a generation lower specs that are readily available in the market and are still in stock. Only the main specs (CPU, GPU, RAM, and Storage) were checked and compared.

With that out the way, here are some choices:

At about Php 18-20k, you would be able to buy laptops with Intel’s Pentium Quad Core series of processors, up to 1TB of storage and about 4GB of ram. These laptops are generally used for light tasks and workloads such as web browsing and Microsoft Office.

Due to having no dedicated graphics cards, these laptops would struggle at mid to heavy games, though light games like League Of Legends or Dota 2 would still be playable at low settings. Video editing and rendering would be slow and hard for these laptops, but light photo editing would be possible.

Here are a few laptops you could buy for Php 18-20k with the above-mentioned specs (Arranged by price):

Asus VivoBook Max X541NA (Php 17,995, PC Express)
Specs:

Display	15.6″ (16:9) LED backlit HD (1366×768)
Processor	Intel Pentium N4200 1.10 GHz Processor (2M Cache, up to 2.5 GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel® CPU (Intel HD 505)
RAM	4GB DDR3
Internal Storage	500GB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

 

 

Dell Inspiron 14 3462  (Php 18,490, Villman)
Specs:

Display	14” HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display
Processor	Intel Pentium N4200 1.10 GHz Processor (2M Cache, up to 2.5 GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel® CPU (Intel HD 505)
RAM	4GB DDR3
Internal Storage	500GB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

Acer Aspire ES1-332 (Php 18,490, PC Express)
Specs:

Display	13.3” HD 1366 x 768 resolution High-brightness Acer ComfyView LED-backlit TFT LCD 16:9 aspect ratio, Mercury free, Environment-friendly
Processor	Intel Pentium N4200 1.10 GHz Processor (2M Cache, up to 2.5 GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel® CPU (Intel HD 505)
RAM	4GB DDR3
Internal Storage	500GB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

There are some exceptions: you may occasionally find laptops with Core i3s like the Lenovo IdeaPad 110 for less than 20k. The catch? It doesn’t have an operating system, so you may need to dig up a copy laying at home, or you would have to buy one which would make your total expenses above 20k.

Lenovo IdeaPad 110-14ISK (Php 19,992, Villman)
Specs:

At about 21-23k, you would be able to buy Intel Core i3U laptops easier since this is its usual price point, basically, it would be paired with 500gb-1TB storage and 4gb of Ram.  Intel U processors like the i3-6006U are the low-power versions of Intel’s chips geared towards ultrabooks and lighter notebooks. These laptops have better on-board graphics cards but are still not enough to be able to play games intensively or do graphically heavy tasks. It would be able to play League of Legends or Dota 2 at mediums settings now. Video and Photo editing are better than the N4200 but it’s still slow and hard.

Here are a few choices at the Php 21-23k (Arranged by Price):

Acer Aspire ES1-433 (Php 20,990, PC Express)
Specs:

Display	14-inch HD 1366 x 768 resolution Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD, 16:9 aspect ratio, Mercury free, Environment friendly
Processor	Intel Core i3-6006U Processor (3M Cache, 2.00GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel® CPU (Intel HD 520)
RAM	4GB DDR4
Internal Storage	500GB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

 

HP Notebook 14 BS560TU (Php 22,980, Villman)
Specs:

Display	14-inch HD WLED Brightview (1366×768) SVA
Processor	Intel Core i3-6006U Processor (3M Cache, 2.00GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel® CPU (Intel HD 520)
RAM	4GB DDR4
Internal Storage	500GB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

 

Asus VivoBook Max X441UA (Php 22,995, PC Express)
Specs:

Display	14-inch HD
Processor	Intel Core i3-6006U Processor (3M Cache, 2.00GHz)
GPU	Integrated Intel® CPU (Intel HD 520)
RAM	4GB DDR3
Internal Storage	1TB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

 

 

 

And finally, at about 25k, you would be able to buy a Laptop with an i3U processor and a dedicated GPU, which means you would be able to do heavier tasks. Video editing, however, isn’t affected that much since rendering is dependent on the processor and not the GPU but photo editing would noticeably improve. You can now enter the territory of some AAA games like GTA V and Metal Gear Solid V although only at low settings, lighter games like League of Legends and Dota 2 would now be playable at medium settings.

Here is our top pick for the under 25k laptop category:

LENOVO 110-14ISK (80UC005GPH) (Php 22,990, PC Express Online)
Specs:

Display	14-inch HD
Processor	Intel Core i3-6006U Processor (3M Cache, 2.00GHz)
GPU	Radeon R5 M430 2GB
RAM	4GB DDR3
Internal Storage	1TB SATA HDD
Operating System	Windows 10

There you have it these are your choices for laptops under Php 25k.

Please be advised that prices are subject to change without prior notice. Some retailers may offer different prices than those posted above.