There are other choices too that shares similar pros and cons like HP Envy 13, Asus UX430UA and Xiaomi Mi Air. Also UX331UN. There's also Thinkpad E480/E580 with entry level IPS.

Similar pros and cons: Good IPS panel, good build quality, good battery life, mediocre cooling under load (problem in 13 inch Ultrabooks and UX430), soldered RAM etc. You can check out Notebookcheck reviews to compare.

UX430UA has 8250U model in Malaysia. Try to find. UX430 and UX331 have different designs. Compare with NBC reviews.

Mi Air is available from importers (Lelong got), many ppl buy too. Warranty handled by importer though.

E480 can be configured with 1080p IPS panel

Level51 W15-Lite (N950TP6) with desktop CPU
Dell G7 (UHD model would be better for your usage)
MSI GE Raider (CFL-H)

You can get a cheaper price from lowyat and online stores

If you don't mind weaker GPU, MX150 laptops like Acer Aspire 5 (8550U model with IPS and 128GB SSD) should be good enough. Need to upgrade RAM and maybe repaste (if the thermal paste job is bad). i5 model also good (no noticeable performance difference) but has TN panel and no SSD (need to manually upgrade). KBL-R CPU needs tuning though for better performance.

Consider Swift 3 15 too, choose between 8250U+MX150 or 2500U+RX540 (Intel+Nvidia model is slightly better IMO due to efficiency and software related reasons). Has soldered 8GB RAM though which means no future RAM upgrades. Comes with 256GB SSD. Entry level IPS.

This post has been edited by ZM Fong: May 15 2018, 12:20 AM

Why don't go for G7?

Dell G7 7588 with CFL-H CPU

Is battery life important to you? You might need to increase your budget if you want dGPU+light weight. Also, thin laptops with small chassis (13 inch for instance) will have mediocre cooling.

This post has been edited by ZM Fong: May 15 2018, 02:17 PM

Who said that?

Asus UX331UN

13 inch laptops don't have good cooling. Anyway, go for something with KBL-R CPU like Asus UX331 and HP Envy 13

Soldered on board. Cannot remove

Where did you find the Ideapad 330? Still not launched yet in Malaysia

What are your requirements? For 2k budget you might want to consider used Thinkpad like T430, T520 and T440s. If you prefer new, consider Chuwi stuffs

You need to increase your budget

Y520 (7300HQ, 1050, IPS), Aspire 5 (8250U, MX150, TN) or Ideapad 320s 14 (8250U, 920MX D5, IPS) with manually RAM and SSD upgrades.

Any special requirements like how much RAM, display size, weight etc?

Ideapad 120s 14
Ideapad 320s 14 (Intel)
Ideapad 510s 14
Spin 3 14 (i3, OKish build quality)
Chuwi stuffs
Aspire 3 (Ryzen, OKish build quality)

Dell G7

I'll suggest used Thinkpads like T430 and T520. You need to up your budget if you want the best user experience, otherwise need to sacrifice things like no SSD, low RAM (4GB), poor build quality, poor battery life, poor display etc

Dell G3 (8300H+1050, need RAM+SSD upgrades)
Acer Swift 3 15 (not 14 inch model)
Acer Aspire 6 Avengers edition (need RAM+SSD upgrades)
Lenovo Y520 (7700HQ+1050, need RAM+SSD upgrades)

Vivobooks generally have mediocre build quality

Not significant, only clock speed difference