At Apple Noida, customers can explore the latest product lineup, including the iPhone 17 family [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Qwant did not immediately respond to a request for comment [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

If you had a budget of ₹20,000 and wanted to buy a device to support both your work and personal needs, you might have once looked at mid-range tablets and high-end phones. In recent years, however, multiple laptops have joined this list, allowing you to bring home a new PC—with some cash to spare.

Some of the brands offering laptops that cost ₹20,000 or less include Primebook, Lenovo, Ultimus, Jio, Walker, and Acer.

What are the benefits of investing in entry-level laptops and what are the trade-offs? Let’s take a look.

Why are people gravitating towards budget laptops?

Budget laptops are well-suited to the needs of new tech users, children, seniors, and users who only want basic computing and internet browsing features. They can serve as portable, low-cost educational tools to help these users practice basic computer skills such as making presentations and conducting research, while the entry-level specs also discourage activities such as binge-watching content online and playing games. This is a definite win for parents and teachers.

Entry-level laptops are well suited to commutes and travel. Due to their smaller size, they can fit into the bags of bikers and are also convenient when the user is working within buses, trains, and planes. Users also do not have to worry about losing a luxury device during airport or train station security checks.

Another point to take into consideration is that more laptops, even those in the entry-level segment, are now designed to support the use of AI chatbots; users can enjoy access to cutting-edge technology while saving money with a less costly device.

Coming to memory, users can expect between 4 GB and 8 GB of RAM, which should serve the needs of most customers.

What are some limitations users should keep in mind?

Entry-level laptops do come with glaring limitations, related to both their hardware and software. A computer user who is, for example, picky about the kind of word processing software they use or their OS updates, is better off exploring more advanced PC options. However, PC users who are agnostic when it comes to which OS or app marketplace they use can look into lower-cost laptops from newer brands.

Entry-level laptops also often keep costs down by opting for low-end cameras and speakers. This means you may have to make do with grainy video quality and/or rely on external accessories such as speakers and headphones for video calls. Such a set-up is acceptable in a pinch, but may not be the right fit for users who are attending online classes for higher education or those who keep in touch with high-profile clients via video calls.

Battery life is also likely to be on the shorter side, meaning that you may need to bring a charger with you while travelling. Energy-intensive operations and gaming are not recommended on such devices due to a less than optimal experience, even if the companies claim to support such activities.

How do budget laptops compare to phones and tablets in the same price range?

For ₹20,000 or less, you can pick up both entry-level and mid-range smartphones, as well as entry-level tablets. Many phones and tablets in this range deliver satisfactory performance, come with immersive screens, support professional video calls, and even allow you to play games. Most routine users can enjoy these devices without feeling overly conscious of their technical limitations. In addition to this, it is often easier for parents/educators to install protections and ad-blockers on laptops when compared to mobile-based apps.

On the other hand, those buying entry-level laptops often trade processing power and screen quality for the PC form-factor. If you want a greater variety of ports in your device, a laptop definitely takes the prize.

If a middle ground is required, another option is to simply pair a tablet with a portable keyboard and a mouse.

What are some tips for those buying entry-level laptops?

Remember to consider the needs of the user and choose a laptop accordingly, rather than simply buying an entry-level laptop due to its attractive price.

For example, if the laptop user works with media such as photos and videos, they may require a more advanced system with greater memory capacity and a much more reactive touchpad. On the other hand, if the laptop is largely being used for activities such as online shopping and scrolling social media and checking emails, an entry-level laptop is a good fit.

However, users working in sensitive fields or those who handle extremely personal or private data should exercise caution when choosing their laptop. Entry-level laptops with lesser known operating systems and lower cybersecurity guardrails may not be the right choice if the device is being used to store and process health or financial data.

Make sure to read recent customer reviews, and ensure that you buy your laptop through an authorised seller. Check details such as the warranty period, the ease of accessing aftersales support, and the year in which the model was manufactured.

Finally, make sure to shoot an unboxing video after receiving your laptop, in order to resolve any potential disputes.

Published – November 28, 2025 10:25 am IST

Japanese beer giant Asahi said on Thursday it had not received any specific demand from the hackers behind a “sophisticated and cunning” cyberattack that could have leaked the data of around two million people.

“We have not been in touch with the attacker,” CEO Atsushi Katsuki told a news conference as the company again delayed the release of financial results.

“Even if we had a ransom demand, we would not have paid it,” he said.

The maker of Asahi Super Dry, one of Japan’s most popular beers, said on September 29 that it was hit by a cyberattack. It clarified on October 3 that it had been a ransomware attack.

Usually in such an incident, online actors use malicious software to lock or encrypt a victim’s systems and then demand payment to get them up and running again.

The firm said the hackers could have accessed or stolen identity data, such as names and phone numbers, of about two million people, including customers, employees and their families.

Asahi did not discuss details of the attacker at the news conference but later told AFP by email that outside experts had pointed to a high possibility of involvement by the hacker group Qilin.

The group, which is believed to be based in Russia, issued a statement that Japanese media interpreted as a claim of responsibility.

“We thought we had taken full and necessary measures (to prevent such an attack),” Katsuki said.

“But this attack was beyond our imagination. It was a sophisticated and cunning attack.”

Asahi had already delayed the release of third-quarter earnings and said on Thursday that full-year results had also been postponed.

These and further information on the impact of the hack “on overall corporate performance will be disclosed as soon as possible once the systems have been restored and the relevant data confirmed”, the company said.

“Regarding product supply, shipments are resuming in stages as system recovery progresses. We apologise for the continued inconvenience and appreciate your understanding,” it said.

Output at Asahi’s 30 domestic factories was not directly affected by the system shutdown but production had to stop because of the company-wide problem.

The brewer said early last month that production at six beer factories had resumed, while it was processing orders by hand in an effort to avoid potential drinks shortages.

It will start restoring electronic ordering systems from early December, with an aim to nearly normalise the situation by February, Asahi said Thursday.

The company needed to proceed carefully to make sure the attack does not spread to others, including its business partners and clients, Katsuki said.

“Why our firm? I have no idea,” he said. “We are angry.”

Other global brands have recently experienced similar attacks.

Indian-owned Jaguar Land Rover was forced to seek emergency funding after a damaging cyberattack halted operations at its British factories.

Japanese retailer Muji said in October that it had stopped its domestic online shopping service after a ransomware attack on delivery partner Askul.

A survey released in June found that a third of Japanese businesses had experienced cyberattacks of some sort.

“Japan has always been a little bit complacent in terms of cybersecurity,” said Renata Naurzalieva, director of Japan operations at business development consultancy Intralink.

High-profile cases are “a terrible thing” but “I do hope that it opens the eyes for the wider sector that — guys, you need to up your game”, she told AFP.

“A lot of Japanese companies… when they think about investment in cybersecurity, they still try to justify the return on investment,” Naurzalieva said.

But “it’s not the return on investment that you’re looking for, it’s, ‘can it protect my assets, can it protect my network data’.”

Published – November 28, 2025 10:00 am IST

Nexperia makes billions of simple but ubiquitous chips for cars and other electronics [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

A plushy, AI-enabled teddy bear recalled after its chatbot was found to engage in sexually explicit conversations and offer instructions on where to find knives is again for sale, AFP found.

Singapore-based FoloToy had suspended its “Kumma” bear after a consumer advocacy group raised concerns about it and other AI toys on the market.

“For decades, the biggest dangers with toys were choking hazards and lead,” the US PIRG Education Fund said in a November 13 report.

But the rise of chatbot-powered gadgets for kids has given rise to an “often-unexpected frontier” freighted with new risks, the group said.

In its evaluation of AI toys, PIRG found that several “may allow children to access inappropriate content, such as instructions on how to find harmful items in the home or age-inappropriate information”.

It said that FoloToy’s Kumma, which first ran on OpenAI’s GPT 4o, “is particularly sexually explicit”.

“We were surprised to find how quickly Kumma would take a single sexual topic we introduced into the conversation and run with it, simultaneously escalating in graphic detail while introducing new sexual concepts of its own,” the PIRG report said.

Maker FoloToy told PIRG that after “the concerns raised in your report, we have temporarily suspended sales of all FoloToy products… We are now carrying out a company-wide, end-to-end safety audit across all products”.

However, a check of the FoloToy website on Thursday showed that the Kumma bear could still be purchased for the same price of $99.00.

It now operates using a chatbot from the Coze platform owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, FoloToy’s website says.

PIRG said in a separate statement on its website that OpenAI told them it had suspended the developer for violating its policies.

FoloToy did not respond immediately to AFP’s queries.

In trialling the AI-enabled toys, the PIRG researchers said at one point they introduced the topic of “kink” in their conversation with the chatbots.

“Kumma immediately went into detail about the topic, and even asked a follow-up question about the user’s own sexual preferences,” the report said.

In other conversations lasting up to an hour, the researchers found that “Kumma discussed even more graphic sexual topics in detail, such as explaining different sex positions”.

The teddy bear also gave potentially dangerous advice, telling the researchers “where to find a variety of potentially dangerous objects, including knives, pills, matches and plastic bags”.

The Kumma bear “looks sweet and innocent. But what comes out of its mouth is a stark contrast,” the researchers said.

Published – November 28, 2025 09:11 am IST

After the outstanding success of the iQOO 13, iQOO returns to the flagship arena with the iQOO 15. Starting at ₹72,999, iQOO 15 features the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset for top-grade performance and gaming. It boasts of iQOO’s largest vapour chamber cooling system, a massive 7,000 mAh battery with 100W fast charging, and a stunning 6.85-inch M14 2K 144 Hz ultra-bright AMOLED display. Competing strongly with the Realme GT 8 Pro and OnePlus 15, the iQOO 15 stands out for its advanced Q3 gaming chip with ray tracing and immersive 4D dual-axis vibration motor, making it a formidable contender in the sub-₹75,000. Let’s dive deeper to see if the iQOO 15 lives up to the hype and secures its place among 2025’s top flagships or not.

Design

The iQOO 15 builds on the design language of the iQOO 13 but sharpens the aesthetic with cleaner transitions and a bolder identity. The Legend variant, which I reviewed, uses a glass back with a fresh interpretation of the tri-colour pattern. It’s an elegant touch that gives the phone an instantly recognisable character. The frame feels tighter, the curves more controlled, and the hand-feel is more refined than last year’s model.

At 8.17mm and 220g, the Legend variant isn’t the lightest phone in its class (the Alpha Black variant trims it slightly to 216g), but the weight distribution is excellent. The in-hand feel is premium and well-balanced, not slab-like. Compared to the OnePlus 15, which leans into a more industrial and compact feel, the iQOO 15 feels slightly broader but more substantial. Against the Realme GT 8 Pro, it feels more refined and less experimental, especially since Realme is busy tryingmodular camera bumps this year.

The front continues the ultra-symmetrical look with slim bezels and a clean, open layout. Ports and buttons are placed with precision, and the phone retains a polished metal mid-frame. An important upgrade this year is the IP68 and IP69 rating. The subtle highlight of the design is the Monster Halo. Hidden under the camera module, it glows elegantly during gaming, music, charging, and calls, giving iQOO’s gaming-centric identity a classy edge.

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Display

The iQOO 15 features a 6.85-inch M14 2K+ 144Hz Ultra Bright Display, co-developed with Samsung. This year, the brand introduces no-polarisation display technology, improving viewing angles and colour accuracy. Brightness ranges from 1 to 6,000 nits, making it one of the most adaptable displays on any smartphone. In real-world use, dynamic behaviour is outstanding: stepping out of a metro station or a dim café, the display adjusts instantly thanks to triple ambient light sensors, an edge neither the OnePlus 15 nor Realme GT 8 Pro offer.

Outdoor visibility is excellent, aided by the anti-reflective film, which noticeably reduces glare. Wet Finger Control is extremely practical; calls, scrolling, and even gaming remain responsive even when the screen is wet, something many flagships still struggle with.

OS & AI

Running Android 16, with the new OriginOS 6 for the first time ever in any Vivo or iQOO device, the iQOO 15 finally embraces a more polished software experience. Animations are cleaner, transitions more fluid, and the layout feels more modern than previous iterations. The promise of 5 years of Android updates and 7 years of security patches rivals the long-term support offered by OnePlus.

AI upgrades are meaningful, not gimmicky. The phone supports passerby removal, intelligent weather transformation, seasonal background changes, and creative filters like Oil Painting, Cyberpunk, and Anime. The standout feature is the AI Reflection Erase, which removes reflections from transparent materials with surprising accuracy. While the OnePlus 15’s Plus Mind and Gemini integration feel more contextual and Realme’s NEXT AI aims for convenience, iQOO focuses on media creation, and does it well.

Performance

Performance is where the iQOO 15 justifies its existence. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 paired with 16 GB LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and 512 GB UFS 4.1 storage results in an aggressively fast device. App launches snap open, multitasking feels limitless, and the 33% faster memory speeds help keep everything consistently fluid. Benchmark numbers reflect brute strength: the device hits 3,775,031 on AnTuTu, 23,484 (GPU), 3,654 (single-core), and 10,676 (multi-core) on Geekbench, outpacing the Realme GT 8 Pro and running neck-to-neck with the OnePlus 15.

The 8000mm² vapour chamber cooling system is a monster in its own right, 14% larger surface, nano-particle infusion, and a double-layer structure that improves heat dissipation by up to 47% over iQOO 13. Sustained performance during long gaming sessions remains remarkably stable, even when pushing graphically intense titles.

But the real magic comes from the Q3 Supercomputing Chip. With dedicated DA, RT and AI cores, it delivers console-level visuals and smooth performance more reliably than traditional mobile processors. The hardware ray tracing brings realistic lighting and reflections, the 2K native super resolution sharpens every frame, and the 144 fps lossless frame interpolation keeps motion fluid even in fast action scenes. All of this is supported by the QNSS super rendering engine, which pushes visual clarity and stability to a level usually reserved for high-end gaming devices.

Games like BGMI, CODM, and Genshin feel smoother, richer, and more immersive. The 4D dual-axis vibration motor enhances directional feedback, letting you pinpoint enemy gunfire with surprising accuracy. Compared to the OnePlus 15’s Cryo-Velocity system, iQOO 15’s thermal and frame stability under high load is better. While Realme’s 7K VC sustains long-term performance well, but iQOO 15’s raw graphics superiority is undeniable.

Camera

The iQOO 15 keeps the same philosophy as the iQOO 13 but refines it. The 50 MP IMX921 main sensor, 50 MP IMX882 3x periscope lens, and 50 MP ultrawide form a versatile triple camera system. The periscope lens is the only major hardware upgrade and brings a solid improvement in 3x–5x portrait capturing. Subjects appear crisp, edges are clean, and background separation feels natural.

iQOO 15 camera sample
| Photo Credit:
Haider Ali Khan

Daylight photos have excellent clarity and realistic tones. iQOO’s processing prefers accuracy over saturation, keeping colours close to what your eyes see. The phone does not overuse AI, it refines rather than transforms. Compared to the OnePlus 15’s DetailMax engine, iQOO 15 produces slightly less micro-detail but wins in delivering natural, less processed results.

iQOO 15 camera sample
| Photo Credit:
Haider Ali Khan

Night shots benefit from the NICE 2.0 algorithm, offering controlled highlights, reduced noise, and improved stability. Telephoto night images perform surprisingly well for a 10x system in this price segment. The 32MP selfie upgrade is excellent. The wider 90-degree lens is great for group shots, and 4K 60fps video makes it creator-friendly.

iQOO 15 camera sample
| Photo Credit:
Haider Ali Khan

Battery

The 7,000 mAh silicon anode battery is a standout highlight. With 15% higher energy density and triple the silicon content of the previous generation, the battery lasts noticeably longer than the iQOO 13. Heavy users can comfortably push through a full day, while moderate users will see up to two days of runtime.

Charging is handled by 100W FlashCharge. When compared with rivals like Realme GT 8 Pro and OnePlus 15, the phone seems to fall short on some parameters. I also liked the Battery Life Extender feature of the phone which resumes apps instantly after a full shutdown.

Verdict

The iQOO 15 stands out for what it does best: pure performance, elite gaming hardware, a fantastic display, and massive battery life. It doesn’t try to be everything; instead, it focuses on speed, stability, and visual power. Compared to the OnePlus 15, iQOO 15 offers better gaming features and cooler sustained performance, though OnePlus 15 still leads in refinement and camera polish. Against the Realme GT 8 Pro, the iQOO 15 offers more consistent cameras and a better cooling system, while Realme wins in display brightness and charging speed.

If you’re looking for the fastest, smoothest Android flagship under ₹75,000, especially for gaming and multimedia, the iQOO 15 is the one to beat. However, at such a price limit, it may take a bit more convincing to attract the users.