Things to Consider When Buying a Laptop

Modern laptops have plenty of advantages compared to stationary PCs: they are portable, they don’t occupy the whole table in a room thanks to a much smaller size, plus today’s laptops can be as powerful as PCs. Due to constant evolution of technologies, there’s a need to periodically change the laptops for a more modern one. Indeed, laptops become more compact yet more powerful. To help you to select the best laptop that will totally suit your needs, we made a list of things to consider when buying a laptop.

Main Purpose
To select the best laptop that suits your needs, try to define what the main purpose of the laptop is – gaming, working, web browsing, etc. Let’s say, if you want a gaming laptop, no doubt it should be very powerful. If you are using a laptop for work, it should be of decent productivity. A laptop for just browsing the web shouldn’t be too advanced in its characteristics.

Size
If you are looking for a gaming laptop or are not planning to travel with or take the laptop out of your apartment, then the size of the desktop is probably the bigger the better. In case there’s sometimes a need to carry the laptop around with you, then opt for a smaller laptop, preferably with a lesser weight.

OS
Decide for yourself if you’re on team Windows or team Mac, and which OS you are going to use primarily. In addition to that, you can always check out the new Chromium OS laptops as they are raising in popularity slowly but steadily.

Brand
The most popular laptop brands are Acer and Asus; they are well-known for their great quality-value ratio. HP, Dell and Sony release powerful laptops made of high quality materials, however they are often more pricey than Acer and Asus. Consider Lenovo machines if you’re on a budget — they still provide decent quality. Apple laptops will definitely cost you an arm and a leg, but if you’re going to work on Mac OS, this is your only option. Samsung can be a good choice if you’re looking for an elegant and stylish laptop. Opt for Toshiba machines if you’re searching for a top-quality monitor as that’s their thing.

Material
There’s no need to explain that a laptop made of aluminum or metal alloys will serve you longer, will not overheat as much, and have a lesser weight than the same laptop made from plastic. In addition to that, if you’re planning to move the laptop, the possibility of damaging a plastic surface is much higher than an aluminum one.

Configuration
Unfortunately, unlike with a stationary PC, you can’t upgrade a laptop later on in case you find out it’s not powerful enough for you. Since a laptop is going to be used for several years with the same configuration, it’s always more reasonable to opt for the more powerful ones available.

Processor
While selecting the best processor, pay attention to the GHz number (this is basically the value of the speed of work of the processor) and the number of cores (this influences the whole productivity of the machine). As for the processor speed, 2 to 4 GHz will be sufficient for a basic laptop; 4 to 6 GHz will work perfectly even with the advanced needs. As for the cores, two cores are great for both personal and business goals of a laptop; opt for four if you’re looking for a gaming laptop.

RAM
Regarding RAM, for working with the majority of the programs and even games, 4GB will be pretty much enough. Increase this value to 8GB if you’re going to use the laptop for resources consuming games or programs.

Hard Drive
The hard drive value is the volume of disk space you can use for storing files on your laptop. In most cases, 500GB of hard drive will be enough for storing the needed files. A quite popular type of hard drive is a solid state drive (SSD) — it’s an external memory storage that considerably increases the whole speed of the laptop’s functioning.

Graphic Chip
There are two types of graphic chips: integrated and discrete. Opt for a discrete graphic chip if you’re going to play games, work with video files of HD resolution or with programs for creating 3D objects. If none of the above listed is in your plans, you’ll be perfectly fine with an integrated graphic chip.

Battery Life
Pay attention to the battery life of a laptop if you’re looking for a machine to take around with you. You should think, the more the better in such a case. For those who will only use a laptop at home, this parameter is not that significant. Here’s a tip on how to prolong your laptop’s battery life: never use a battery when plugged in. The laptop should be plugged to an outlet only if the battery is charging. In all the other cases, either use the battery until you have power or use the cord with the battery removed.

Reviews
It’s a basic rule of all shopping – never buy something without reading the reviews. Search for reviews on Amazon and on laptop-reviewing blogs and forums. Only if the majority of the reviews are pro, the selected laptop model is worthy of being purchased.

Finding the right laptop is not that difficult, you just need to apply the right filters you consider important while searching. Use our laptop buying guide to narrow down the number of machines that correspond to your demands. As soon as a new laptop is purchased, the first thing you should do is install all the most-needed programs on it. Our guide of how to download the best software and avoid malware will help you with that.