A good laptop under ₹40k to learn programming

"Sir, suggest me a good laptop to learn programming. I don't play games. I watch movies occasionally. I am looking for a budget-friendly laptop under ₹40k."

I get asked this question quite frequently. My audience is primarily students learning full-stack web development. I have bought, provisioned or used at least a dozen laptops for work in the last decade.

Based on my experience, here is my usual recommendation:

1. Chipset: AMD Ryzen 5 (recommended) or Intel i5. Do NOT settle for Ryzen 3 or i3.
2. Memory: 8GB RAM if the hard disk is SSD. 16GB RAM otherwise.
3. Display: FHD (1080p) resolution. You don't need a 2k or 4k display unless you do high-res graphics or gaming.
4. Brand: I suggest Lenovo over other brands (personal experience).
5. Operating system: If you want to learn web programming, use a Linux OS. I suggest KDE Neon. If you are not feeling adventurous, use Windows with WSL.

The Lenovo V15 laptop checks all the boxes,

• AMD Ryzen 5 5500U
• 8GB RAM
• 512GB SSD
• 15.6 in FHD display
• Option to choose between DOS and Windows OS.

If you want to buy a laptop and install your preferred Linux OS, get the Lenovo V15 with DOS

If you need Windows, get the Lenovo V15 with Windows 11