Dear all, I need some recommendations, purchasing laptop soon. Multiple recommendations are welcomed, the more the better!

1. Preferred Brand
Any brand EXCEPT Lenovo.
Lenovo is pretty infamous for their pre-installed malwares/adwares/bloatwares/crapwares.
Currently using Acer Aspire E5-571G, pretty satisfied with everyday performance, but for some reason it crashes occasionally and the motherboard or HDD needs replacement every 10 months to 12 months.

2. Budget
MYR2500 (soft limit), MYR3200 (hard limit)

3. Usage
Multipurpose.
60% web browsing (with ≥10 browser tabs open)
15% videos / music
15% MS Word, MS Powerpoint, PDF document viewing or editing
5% Steam / Origin / Garena games
5% File and data transfer / storage


4. Screen
Approximately 15 inches or 15.6 inches

5. Notes
* Seeking for laptops with long battery life (MINIMUM 7 hours, preferring ≥10 hours)
* Seeking for laptop brands with good after-sales service availability. (Not preferring brands like MSI which only have ONE service centre in the entire country - any repairs will be a big hassle / problem)
* NOT looking for convertible / 2-in-1 laptops or touchscreen laptops, as these laptops sacrifice durability for these functions, or come with hefty price tags for these functions.

Thanks for your reply. I had already bought a new laptop this morning without checking LYN (I assumed that nobody would ever reply after some waiting).

OH GOD I'M SO ANGRY AT MYSELF NOW

I initially aimed to purchase the Acer Aspire E5-575G-54G7 (15.6" i5 7200U, 4GB DDR4 SDRAM, 1 TB, NV 940MX, W10H), or your third suggestion, Acer Aspire F5-573G-556W (15.6" i5-7200U, 4GB, 1TB, 128GB, NV 940MX, W10H).

I ended up purchasing Acer F5-573G-57VD (15.6" i5 6200U, 4GB DDR4 SDRAM, 1TB, 128GB, NV 940MX, W10H) for MYR2699.

However, I find 4 problems pretty quickly that made me regret my purchase.



1. Battery Capacity
One of the first things I did after the purchase was to check the battery capacity. As you can see from the image above, the battery of my new laptop could only hold about 82% of its design capacity just an hour after purchase. This seems pretty bad for a new laptop, considering that the laptop my mother bought recently had a design capacity of 48000, and could actually hold over 49000+ one month after regular use.

People say that purchasing tech gadgets is always a hit-and-miss. I feel like I have "missed" plenty of times. Is this supposed to be normal for a new laptop, or should I bring this device back to the seller?

2. Battery Design
Given that I need to run my computer(s) for close to 20 hours daily, I thought I could at least attempt to prolong the lifespan of the battery by removing the battery and using the device plugged-in. To my horror, the battery for Aspire F15 F5-573G-57VD is built-in. There is no way to remove the battery without unscrewing the entire bottom panel.

I realized too late. I should have spent more time to check, but given that I was too preoccupied with the specs and the laptop was wrapped in cling film, I couldn't really see until after purchase.

3. Processor
As mentioned earlier, Acer Aspire F5-573G-556W was one of the laptops I planned to purchase. I told the shopkeeper that I wanted to see Acer Aspire F5-573G, thinking that all "573G" laptops are just the same. She recommended the "last 573G model they have", which is on display. Thinking that is the same model as the one I saw online (and you recommended), I didn't notice that the F5-573G-57VD comes with only i5 6200U processor, instead of the i5 7200U processor.

4. Pixellation
The screen will pixellate randomly, and the pixellations will disappear when I mouse over the weird black / colourful pixels. It's not easy to predict (only comes occasionally) and hard to duplicate. Is this something worth worrying about, or just something insignificant?

Bonus: Price
Only after purchasing the laptop for a hefty price of MYR2699, I learned that the exact same model of laptop is available for sale on Lazada for only MYR2448.

Please excuse me while I go stab myself.