How to Buy a Laptop

How to Buy a Laptop

Planning on buying a laptop? Here are few things you should consider to get the best buy for your needs.

You live a hectic life and often find yourself running from one place to another. Access to a personal computer (PC) is critical to your work and life. You cart a load of documents and 'must-have' applications around in a high-capacity pen drive but it still isn't enough. It's time to face facts and accept that you need a laptop. Here are a few things you should keep in mind when buying a laptop.

The purpose

What you are primarily going to use your laptop for will define the kind of budget to set and the features to look for. If your work involves the use of Excel and Word, and connecting to the Internet, then a high-end specification laptop is not required. Instead one should look for a laptop that comes with inbuilt wireless connectivity support and a PC card slot.

The specifications

Though a laptop's specification varies from user to user, there are some bare requirements that should be kept in mind. Ideally, look for a laptop that has a 1.75 Ghz processor. With the new Windows Vista, opt for a laptop with at least 1GB of random access memory (RAM) for normal computing requirements. Hard disk space should be a minimum of 80 GB, considering that the sizes of today's new applications are growing larger.

Another specification to look out for is a DVD combo drive that can read DVD discs and burn CDs. If you plan to use your laptop to listen to music, test the speaker quality by playing some music. Ideally, you shouldn't have to struggle to listen to the music when on full volume, even with ambient sounds. The battery life of the laptop is also an important factor to be considered. If you will spend most of your time away from a power source, then invest in a battery that gives you adequate support.

The weight

The weight of the laptop could be an important factor, depending on how mobile you will be with your laptop. If you are a sales person and need to constantly lug your laptop around, try to opt for a lightweight laptop. The weight of the laptop is also connected to the size of the laptop. A small form factor laptop with an 8-inch screen will be lighter than a 15-inch laptop.

The screen

Choosing a laptop with the correct type of screen to suit your working conditions is crucial. If the screen is too glossy it is likely that it will reflect, and will not be visible in a bright room or in sunlight. A matte-effect screen is preferred over a glossy one and is worth the additional expense. A customer has the choice of going for a normal or wide aspect screen. The wide aspect screen is better suited for working with long excel sheets, image editing, or to have a widescreen effect while watching movies. For other text editing, multimedia, and gaming purposes, a normal screen is better suited.

Laptops with touch screens are also becoming common. These are considered to be laptop tablet PCs and offer the customer handwriting recognition features. The screen in these laptops can swivel 360 degrees.

Add-on features

Today laptops come with a number of add-on features. These include built-in web cameras, memory card readers, and support for high-definition video out. They have in-built micro phones. Most laptops come with bundled software apart from the operating system (OS) installation. You could look for a laptop that provides an easy data recovery solution or which can automatically re-format or re-install your OS. Laptops also come with advanced security features such as integrated fingerprint recognition and even face recognition.

Brands to consider

Some of the most popular laptop brands to consider are Lenovo, HP, Acer, and Fujitsu. Apple computer has a line of laptops which run on their proprietary OSX OS. There are specialised laptops which focus on delivering high-end 3D acceleration graphics, manufactured by companies such as Alienware. Such laptops are suitable for gaming and 3D art work.

Do you think laptops can be used only for business purposes? Will laptops replace desktops in the future? What are the disadvantages of working with laptops? To share your experiences, views, and tips, click here.

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