laptop buying guide
In this modern world, one of the most important items to use is a laptop or computer. Laptops have become a part of our daily life for surfing the internet, writing articles, making presentations or projects and it is also a great device for entertainment like watching movies or listening to music on a laptop is also a very convenient. The laptop market is an example of monopolistic competition market, where you can find slightly different products with different ranges, so what laptop can be best for you, depends on your needs and budget. In this post, you can get an idea of what the things to consider before buying new laptops.
• Pick a platform
Most of the laptops come with one of these operating systems: Chrome OS, Windows or Mac OS X. Operating system of any computer is known as the heart of it. Windows is the most popular and most flexible operating system of any laptop. Notebooks of Windows range in price from $200 to several thousand dollars. Mac OS X is made for MacBooks only as it is Apple’s own operating system that has superior multi-touch gestures. Chrome OS is designed by Google based on Linux kernel. Chrome OS is highly portable and inexpensive also offers good battery life.
• Size
What screen size you should buy, depends on the type of work you do. Usually, laptop screen size ranges from 11-17-inches. 11 to 12-inches screen size is best for thinnest and lightest laptops that usually weigh 2.5 to 3.5 pounds. 13 to 14-inches screen size is meant for the best balance of usability and portability, weighs 4 pounds. 15-inches laptops are most popular sizes. 17 to 18-inches screen size laptops are meant to stay on the desk all day.
• Screen quality
A better picture quality screen display makes your day. There are some laptop resolutions such as HD, HD+, Full HD, Retina display, and QHAD. These resolutions are meant for different works. HD resolution (1366 x 1766) is for mainstream laptops that are good for email, web surfing and basic computing. HD+ (1600 x 1900) resolution is great for casual gaming and for watching DVD movies. Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution is meant to play video games, watch Blu-ray movies. Retina display (2304 x 1440) resolution is found in Apple’s 12-inches, 13.3-inches, and 15.6-inches laptop displays. QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution is best for professional photo and graphics work. 4 K Ulta-HD (3840-2160) resolution is ideal for editing and viewing incredibly lifelike graphics and images.
• Keyboard quality
For the typing part, buy a laptop that has a comfortable keyboard and accurate numbers and space between keys.
• Processors
The processor is the brain of any laptop. It works in the combination with system’s memory to run the complex software on the laptop. One of these two processors are featured in the laptops, one is Intel and second is AMD processor. Intel is used in Windows and MacBook laptops. It has core series including Core M, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7.
Core M was designed for providing plenty of power to day to day emailing and surfing without much drainage on battery life, Core i3 is an entry level core processor which is adequate for common activities like listening to music, surfing the internet, emailing etc. Corei5 is a mid-grade core processor, it is powerful enough for all computing tasks and multitasks as well. Corei7 is the Intel’s top most consumer processor and it is designed for videographers, photographers, graphic designers, hardcore gamers, for projects in 3D.
• RAM
Random Access Memory helps processor to tackle the multiple tasks at once. The minimum memory of 2GB is required on every laptop and a 6GB memory is recommended for people who are into graphics or video editing. Well, most of the laptops come with pre-installed 4 to 8 GB RAM but in case you want to extend, you can expand it to 32 GB.
• Storage
There are two drives for internal storage in laptops, one is hard disk drives and second is solid state drives (SSDs). Hard drives offer large storage capacity whereas SSDs is popularly known for high speed and performance of a laptop. SSDs are many lighters, cooler than hard drives and expensive too. Hard disk drives are relatively inexpensive and it adds weight and thickness to a laptop. For day to day web surfing and document creation, a 5400 rpm drive is enough whereas for large files a 7200rpm drive is sufficient in hard drives. SSDs are also called flash storage and these are faster than hard disk drives but typically with far less storage capacity. Flash storage is noiseless, negligible heat production, an advantage in power efficiency, weight, and physical size.
• Battery Life
12 hours battery life is claimed by many manufacturers although the laptop enhancements play a significant role in draining the battery of your laptop such as higher resolution screens, fast hard drives and increased processing power.
• Optical drive
Basic computing users may do with a CD-DVD combo drive. Although, high-end users want to get one with DVD/CDRW combo drive.
Final Words:
If you have the question in mind – what laptop should I buy? Then above mentioned features are necessary features of any laptop, and of course, you need to balance these features with your needs and budget. Well, perhaps, somewhere you may have to compromise on some things as when it comes to the high-level features and low-cost laptops, the requirement doesn’t meet.
