5 Most Important Features To Consider When buying a Laptop
Buying a laptop should be a breeze, but you would be surprised how involving it is. Finding the right laptop for you is anything but a walk to the park. There are just too many variables at play.
If you expect to stomp into a shop and leave with a perfect laptop, you are in for a huge disappointment.
So, what should you do? Before you embark on this journey to discover your perfect match, ask yourself these three questions; how much is your budget, what tasks will you perform with this laptop, and whether or not you need to carry it around.
With that in mind, The following are the 5 features to consider while buying a laptop.
The Size
What is your answer? Do you need to carry your laptop to work or school daily? If you do, tread carefully around here. You do not want to have to bear four kilograms on your back all day long.
Laptop sizes range between 11.6 inches to 17.3 inches. 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch laptops are the most adopted among users. If you need a large display, do not shy away from 17.3-inch laptops in fear of bulkiness; there are numerous slim laptops designed to balance size and weight.
One significant drawback of the small-sized laptops is their lack of space to incorporate a variety of connectivity ports, expansion slots(for adding memory) and, optical disks (for inserting CDs). Therefore, if you fancy a small, portable laptop, Make sure it has enough USB ports, an HDMI port, a networking port, and a VGA port if you need one.
Screen Quality
There is no one way to tell if a screen is of the best quality for you. It is mainly dependent on user needs. Back to the second question, Do you need the laptop for gaming, graphics editing, or just daily office work?
First, you need to consider the possibility of a touch screen. It is perfect for a home laptop but a bad idea for video editors, gamers, and natural typists, because it adds some glossiness to the screen resulting in glare.
Secondly, in 2021, 1080P(FULL HD) should be the least you consider for screen resolution. If you can, 4k and 8k would not hurt, especially if you are in the content creation industry.
Finally, avoid anything less than 144hz refresh rates or greater than 5ms response time if you are a gamer.
The CPU Or Processor
Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 are rather words you have already come across. The other players in CPU manufacturing are AMD, and most recently, Apple featuring their M1 chips.
As you probably already know, core i7 is better than Core i5 which is subsequently faster than Core i3. For a typical laptop, A Core i5 will do just fine. If you need a home laptop for browsing and such tasks, a Core i3 is sufficient. Core i7 and its superior core i9 are best for high-end gaming and other CPU intensive tasks.
Beyond the core series, Intel boasts a Xeon processor developed for select machines and workstations.
AMD processors are gaining more popularity by the day. Their processors and high-quality graphics cards have played a substantial role in attracting gaming gurus and graphics editors. These processors are customized to provide unmatched performance for much less cost. They are clearly worth considering.
Approaching the end of the fateful year 2020, Apple introduced a revolutionary CPU that utilizes the RISC instructions rather than the typical CISC instructions. This difference makes it 5 times faster and provides twice the battery life offered by intel processors. As of January 2021, the M1 laptops do not support some applications. They are currently on review hence not the best choice for a working laptop.
Processor generation is a factor most people fail to consider when choosing a core series processor. Chances are that a 10th generation core i3 is faster than a 7th generation core i7 so, choose wisely. Other factors include the clock speed and the number of cores in a CPU. A general rule is that more is better.
Primary Memory Or RAM
RAM (random access memory) is a virtual scratchpad in which a computer does its operations in real-time. Unlike some years back, today, 4GB RAM is hardly enough.
Aim for a laptop with at least 8GB RAM or 16GB for graphics-intensive operations and gaming. If you need 32GB, go for it -as long as you can afford it -. Either way, despite what you choose, the good news is that you can upgrade your RAM.
Choosing RAM is not just about the amount of storage; speed is also a vital factor. Most RAM sticks have engravings such as DDR4–4400 which, help you determine the speed. However, since you are buying a prebuilt laptop, be sure to enquire about the speed and choose accordingly.
Laptop Storage
If you have owned an external hard disk, you must be familiar with its vibration once plugged in. Unlike SSDs(solid-state drives), The movable parts of an HDD(hard disk drive) slows and heats a laptop making it uncomfortable to use on your lap. Moreover, the bulkiness of an HDD adds significantly to the weight of a laptop reducing its portability.
SSDs are just like flash disks. They are smaller in size and their read- writes are much faster- about three times-. The catch is that better performance means a higher price. You will be stuck with 128, 256, or 512 MBs of SSD that are worth more than TBs of Hard disk.
Nowadays, Select laptops incorporate both SSD and HDD on the same. The SSD is used for the operating system-to to ensure optimum performance-and HDD for storing other files. Another brilliant idea is buying a laptop with an SSD and supplementing it with an external hard disk.
Final Words
Besides the above, Other features would include a long-lasting battery of at least 44–50 watts, a quality backlit keyboard with all keys functioning and making sure you have 3.0 USB ports and not 2.0.
Remember, perfect does not exist. Don’t anticipate ticks in every feature. Just strive to give it your best shot.
Feel free to stage your thoughts or ask a question.
