When shopping for a budget laptop, you'll most likely encounter Intel CPUs from its Pentium or Celeron series, and it's quite rare to see a Core series processor at around the Rs. 20,000 price point. Last year, we rounded up some of the best laptops under Rs. 20,000 with Windows 10, which meant and we had to compromise a bit on the CPU front with all of them.
The Zed Air CX3 budget laptop from Life Digital costs under Rs. 20,000 and is one of the few laptops which features an Intel Core i3 CPU at this price. It has a 15.6-inch full-HD display, which has decent viewing angles and colours. However, the build quality of chassis is below average as there's a lot of flex even when you apply a little pressure.
You get a good selection of ports but what's missing is a full-sized SD card reader. Istead, there's a microSD card reader, which isn't very useful in our opinion. The keys have good spacing but tactile feedback is poor. The trackpad is also generously sized but response can be erratic to simple gestures.
The Zed Air CX3 doesn't ship with Windows 10 in India, only Free DOS.With Windows running, the Core i3-5005U and 4GB of DDR3 RAM do a decent job of running simple apps. This is a 5th generation Intel CPU, which is very old but is still fairly capable in tasks like video encoding or file compression, compared to newer Celeron and Pentium chips. Sadly, for such a big laptop, battery life is just average as the Zed Air CX3 struggled to last an entire work day on one charge.
Brand | iLife |
Model | Zed Air CX3 |
Price in India | ₹19,999 |
Release date | September 2019 |
Model Number | CX3 |
Model Name | Zed Air |
Dimensions (mm) | 375.00 x 243.00 x 22.00 |
Weight (kg) | 2 |
Material | PC/ABS Plastic |
Operating system | DOS |
Battery Capacity (mAh) | 5000 |
Size | 15.60-inch |
Resolution | 1920x1080 pixels |
Touch Screen | No |
Refresh Rate | 60Hz |
Processor | Intel Core i3 5th Gen 5005U |
Base Clock Speed | 2 GHz |
RAM | 4GB |
RAM Slots | 1 |
Dedicated Graphics | No |
Graphics Processor | Integrated Intel HD Graphics 5500 |
Hard disk | 1TB |
Wi-Fi standards supported | 802.11 b/g/n |
Ethernet | Yes |
Web Camera | 0.3-megapixel |
Pointer Device | Touchpad |
Backlit Keyboard | No |
Number of USB Ports | 3 |
USB Ports | 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 3.0 (Type C) |
HDMI Port | Standard |
Headphone and Mic Combo Jack | Yes |