What price range does entry-level mean? If you're a little bit adventurous and want cheap, environmentally friendly and robust, we at LI swear by second-hand Thinkpads via OLX or similar sites. Even a 3-6 year old Thinkpad model, many of which are available cheaply due to corporate cast-offs or end-of-life for between Rs 15,000 to 45,000, will likely still run and run for years and perform well, though you may need to do some research about which ones you like and at some point replace the battery yourself or through an electronics shop.

Many in the Thinkpad X1 series (4th generation and up generally great) are some of the nicest, thinnest and lightest laptops money can buy and you're going to love, if you can find them, and can go from Rs 30,000 to Rs 45,000 or more (new they often cost between Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 lakh).

Slightly cheaper are the X250 series or thereabouts (like X240 or X260 - bigger numbers are usually newer and better), which have a smaller screen than the X1 but are still very light and have long battery lives. Very popular for business users.

Then you have the cheaper and less elegant & chunkier T series (T440, T450 or higher models are new enough - do a bit of googling on the exact model and whether it works for you). They have solid battery life and can be had for as little as Rs 20,000 or less sometimes, depending on how old a model you're getting. They are nearly endlessly repairable and upgradeable and will get the job done.

Whatever laptop you get, try to make sure you get at least 8GB of RAM if possible (though this can also in some models be upgraded by your electronics shop expert for not much money) and an SSD hard drive (which most modern laptops have).

If you're buying new there are lots of entry-level options, though the build quality likely won't be as good as even an old Thinkpad but would be interested in other readers' suggestions and favourite brands and specs...

Absolutely! I bought a second hand ThinkPad X230 five years ago for about Rs. 23,000/- (after upgrading it to 256 SSD 8 GB Ram Windows 10 as suggested in the second last paragraph in sr. no. 3). It's battery is gone and it has minor heating problems every once in a while but its still my work computer. Of course there are no warranties or guaranties. But its still worth the risk.

Completely agree with the post regarding the Thinkpads. Even I got a laptop a few months ago and was trying to find a suitable Thinkpad. Keep in mind that most of them come with 14-inch screens and you might want to go for a higher screen size if you plan to consume content on the laptop (which sacrificing ON the portability aspect a bit). Additionally, you'd have to get a pirated version of Windows to be able to use the latest software on that Laptop since the official Windows is around 13-14k.

General pointers:
1) SSD is a must now (even 256 GB work)
2) > 4GB RAM should be good
3) Please don't go for newer brands as their after-sales might be in their nascent stage

Get a brand new Dell with basic support + accidental damage for 3 year. I recently got a 14" Vostro for my sister.
Dell has the best customer support, nothing comes close. Should you face any issue, they will come to your place and fix it for you, no need to find the service centre and then deposit the laptop there for days.
Though you should really specify your budget here to get the best advice.

I'd suggest you buy an iPad for 30k with an add on keyboard, mouse and monitor. if you are into litigation.

Will help you save space and money. the amount of time you spend on drafting is comparitively much lesser than the amount of time spent on reading. For reading and making notes, nothing is better than an iPad / Surface. New iPad and Surface is expensive. So go for the old iPad model. If you want a larger screen, use a dock and connect with a 5k worth monitor each at home and office.

I think you should be able to buy a brand new with a lesser configuration at around 20K. We lawyers need only a machine with basic word processing skills. You can very well spare the extra moolah on getting the best in the business licensed MS Office software.

I beg to differ with LI on the Thinkpad thing which is out of reach for an entry level associate. While i do agree that a Thinkpad adds value and has that MIL STD durability, it comes at a price. I also don't see the point in investing in a processor heavy laptop like a Core i7 or even an 8GB RAM with a graphics card unless you want to have a shot at PUBG in your spare time(which i reckon is a far cry considering that you are occupied in the mundane law firm work).

Oh how can i forget a laptop with a decent camera now that we have become so accustomed to Zoom and MS Teams and lets not forget the virtual hearings which are here to stay.

The likes of ASUS, Lenovo, HCL with even an AMD chip will serve your purpose.

Okay - whatever you do, don't go for a cheap computer. You want access to applications, be able to chat on zoom (audio and visual clarity), connect to bigger screen, performance advantage when going through 100's of DD documents or a 600 page pdf. Believe me, a good device will massively save your time, your money, and give you space to do your thing. Best bet is the Microsoft Surface laptop, or the M1 Macs (gives you access to literally all good applications), or any other device that can promise good speed. Don't go below i5 and 10th gen in any case. You will cry.

I have used an Acer laptop that cost me 28.5k, for the first 4 years of my law firm life. Nothing fancy, but I worked on it, played games, watched movies and TV shows, for at least 12-14 hours a day. The battery started deteriorating after 3.5 years, and needed to be replaced after 4 years. I preferred to have an external wireless mouse and keyboard.

I have been using Apple Macbook since last five years. The major plus points are the portability and battery life. I recently upgraded to the Macbook Air with M1 chip. The battery lasts me through multiple hearings, few hours of teams call, a small break on Netflix, amongst other things and then some the next day. One thing that does bother sometimes is the lack of ease of use of MS Word application on Mac OS. However I would still choose Apple Macbook over those available in the same price range. It smoothly runs Citrix as well ;), for those who are into that.