In this post, I’d like to discuss the need to buy a laptop and what to look for when purchasing one.
Firstly, you’ll need to ask yourself five important questions before making any purchase. More details about it can be read here.
Secondly, the price should not be the only one that determines the value of the laptop you need. Here are things to consider when purchasing a laptop:
Specifications
There are many specifications when it comes to laptops and other electronic devices.
The very first step to decide what you need, is how you will use the laptop. Is it only for word processing, budgeting, surfing the internet, streaming movies, listening to podcasts, playing games, or all of them?
Screen Size and Quality
Size
Laptop screen sizes generally range from 11.6 to 17.3 inches. If you plan to work all day using your laptop, prioritising the screen size may be a wise idea as you don’t want to squint all day because the screen size is too small.
Quality
The screen quality is also known as ‘resolution’.
A full High Definition (HD) resolution, which is 1920×1080-pixel resolution, is usually sufficient to do most works.
However, if you’re a 3D gamer, photographer, videographer, animator, or anyone who works with images, you’ll need a laptop that comes with 4K resolutions (known as UHD: Ultra High Definition) as they have better colour accuracy and support wider colour gamut.
Storage
Generally speaking, there are three types of storage that are built in laptops: Hard Disk, Solid State Drive (SSD) and Hybrid Drive.
Briefly, laptops with hard disk storage are cheaper but slower, but have large storage capacity than ones with SSD, while Hybrid Drive is a tad slower than SSD but faster than Hard Disk storage.
If you use your laptop mainly for light work instead of intensive gaming, professional photo/video editing, or animation, a Hard Disk storage is sufficient.
Battery Life
By looking at the rating of the battery in Watt-hours (Wh) or milliamp-hours (mAh), you can get a quick idea about how long the battery can last. The larger these figures are, the longer the battery can last.
But of course, it depends on how you use the laptop. If you stream lots of online video, transfer files over a wireless network continuously, actively remain connected to Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth devices, and run many applications in the background, then the battery is likely to drain faster than what is indicated on the rating of the battery.
CPU
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit, known as ‘processor’.
“Since it is solely responsible for executing commands within programs, the faster your CPU, the faster many applications run.”
Source: Digital Trends.
But CPU is not the only one that can make it or break it when it comes to playing 3D games because CPU can neither easily render the latest 3D games nor store information, and this is where graphic cards and memory come into play.
GPU
GPU is an acronym for Graphic Cards Unit, or known as ‘graphic cards’.
Briefly speaking, there are two types of graphic cards: integrated and dedicated. Integrated graphic cards are cheaper than the dedicated ones.
If you use your laptop just for word processing, internet browsing, light gaming, and other light activities, then you’re good with integrated graphic cards.
If you use your laptop for 3D modelling, latest 3D gaming, multiple-timeline editing in Premiere pro, applying Photoshop filters across multiple layers, then a dedicated GPU is a better option.
RAM
RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory. It temporarily stores data, serving as the computer’s “working” memory.
“In general, the more RAM a device has, the faster it will perform.”
Source: Webopedia
If you use your laptop for basic activities like typing, blogging, basic calculation, connecting to social media, and uploading photos, a 4-Gb RAM is more than sufficient.
But if you use your laptop for advanced gaming and want the best experience, you should be looking at getting a 32-Gb RAM.
Operating System (OS)
If you’re familiar with Windows and not interested in spending time learning about any other OS like Chrome, Linux, or IOS, then stick with Windows.
Keyboard Quality
If you use your laptop mainly to type, you’ll want to choose the one that has comfortable keyboard, unless you have your own portable keyboard that you can plug in to your laptop.
Warranty
This is a must have as you’ll never know the laptop may break down somewhere down the line within just six months. Not only the duration of the warranty, you’ll also need to know what is covered in the warranty, if it only covers parts or both parts and labour. How easy it is to resolve a problem and where the servicing will take place is also important to know.
