In today’s world of various technologies, when people are thinking about owning a drone as personal property, owning a laptop has become a very common thing. The laptop is used in day to day work nowadays. There are many people whose earning is entirely through working on a laptop with proper internet connection. There is no surprise if someone is doing his entire work from home and earning better. As a matter of fact, as of today, the more people work from home the better control on the spread of the virus. The pandemic is so striking that the one infected sometimes does not have any symptoms. It is better if less people move out for work.
You are lucky if you are earning from home through working on a laptop or the one who has got the opportunity and need to buy a laptop. How to choose a laptop if you want to do some work on it? Well, you need to know what kind of you are going to do. Whether it is technical, managerial, or a simple data entry, content writing, etc. Based on requirements one can see the various laptop specifications and decide which type to buy. There are many types of models that are now available at competitive rates but one must ensure to buy a one fulfilling his needs and some additional features knowing that which laptop is best to serve him.
Whenever you plan to buy a laptop, you can do market research of the current features of the various laptops. Now the information is also available on several websites so there is again no need to go out in search of shops. You can easily browse various sites owned by laptop companies like Compaq, Dell, and other giants. All companies claim that theirs is the best laptop, but it’s your need and choice so you need to understand which laptop should I buy.
Here we can study from some tips about the best way to adopt before buying any laptop. You need to know what capacity of RAM, ROM is sufficient, what should be the size and weight of the laptop, whether portability is more desired of size of screen, etc. Like this, there are many things one must consider and finalize before buying a laptop. Need and setup both are important for your work. One needs to decide about features also as too many features are not going to help for a longer time run. Along with the knowledge of features, you can also study a little bit about maintenance because if you do the regular maintenance then the laptop won’t trouble you for a longer period. Consider the below guidelines on how to buy a laptop.
- Decide on form factor: – One must decide what type of laptop he wants to purchase. He can also make a list of what works he is going to perform on a laptop and the expert can guide him to buy one. There are different types in the market and the expert can guide correctly based on the work requirement. Some laptop features in the market
- Ultraportables – these laptops have a screen size of 11 to 14 inches and are light-weight with full features. They have a good screen quality, storage capacity, and a good battery life.
- Mid-weight – These are typically trending 15.6 inches screen budget laptops. They are in more demand due to their multi-use capability. More ports along with powerful gaming, built-in set up of DVD or Blu-ray drive.
- Hybrids – Most recent laptops with features like touch screen and rotating or/and removable screen. The screen can be rotated to the desired angle or reverse-folded, or even with two screens.
- Performance of CPU: – The Central Processing Unit is the heart of the computer. The general thumb rule related to processors is to buy the fastest one you can afford. There is one point to consider while doing this and that is, different brands with the same GHz may not have similar operational speed, it can differ. One should also decide about the cores you want on your laptop. Most of the works can be carried out with dual-core. There are triple-core and quad-core processors too. some basic options are explained below –
Intel Core i7
Intel holds the fastest chips in its third generation. Core i7 is paired with discrete graphics processing unit (GPU). Some of them though are, dual-core, some are quad-core, and some have low-voltage chips (low performance but longer battery life). Generally, low-voltage chips are associated with ultraportable laptops.
Core i5
The workhorse of the industry with dual-core, quad-core, and low-voltage variants. Core i5 is the mainstream laptop model. Though the newer parts 2 and 3 are out, the older Core i5 is much better for carrying out the day to day work. Core i5 processor laptop will come with Intel HD graphics or a discrete graphics card from AMD or Nvidia depending on the size of the laptop.
AMD A8
A quad-core A8’s performance is in between Intel’s dual-core Core i3 and Core i5 depending on the speed of the clock.
Core i3
Exclusively paired with Intel HD graphics, these processors are in their third generation. The applications of it are most suitable for only basics like word processing, image viewing, listening to music, or internet browsing. These low powers, low-performance chips still exist and tend to power 11 to 14-inch machines. Intel Atom, AMD C series, AMD E series are some of the examples.
- The quality of the laptop screen: – Taking inspiration from Apple, the manufacturers are now giving special attention to the laptop screens. In-plane switching (IPS) screens are now rolled out rapidly. More focus is given on good clarity and better display with high resolution. The new Windows 8 laptop is equipped with a full HD (1920X1080) IPS screen. This suits on any size laptop from 12.5-inch to 15.5-inch screens. Full HD runs on some of 11.6-inch laptops as well.
Apple has the most amazing crisp retina display of all laptops. It is available on its 13.3-inch and 15.4-inch MacBook Pros. A 15.6-inch 1366X768 screen manages to fit about 100 pixels in each square inch. The MacBook Pro Retina 15.4-inch fits 200 pixels at 2880X1800 screen. Thus it is called HiDPl due to its high resolution.
Another feature added to the feather in the cap is, the rotating and touchscreen. The touchscreen and rotating or removable screens are a sensational revolution in the laptop field.
- Memory capacity of the laptop: – it is always best to get a laptop with sufficient RAM. This helps you run the additional applications together. It is also required to maintain the correct gap between memory acquired by work done and free memory. It is beneficial to have additional memory to balance the work because in current days the external sockets for memory won’t be easy to access. The following categories explain how to fulfill your requirement by choosing the correct model.
512MB – 1 GB – It is just fine only if you are working on really a small scale. It’s just like a notebook and is too limited to operate web browsing or modern apps on it. You are likely to suffer due to the slow speed of operation.
2GB – It is nowadays an entry-level and suitable for office work and basic internet browsing. Tends to slow down periodically though.
4GB – 4GB is a nice balanced capacity and perfect for office work and 3D gaming, graphics, and video editing.
8GB or higher – Recommended for usage of all purposes. You can take care of all your tasks with 8GB or higher.
** For laptops of 4GB and above you will need to run a 64-bit operating system to take advantage of all available memory.
- Choose a laptop suitable for typing: – Day by day the sizes of laptops are decreasing. This has resulted in the decrease of the keyboard too. One must select the laptop which is matching to your typing style and operation-friendly. You can try typing on the new laptop before buying to have a feel of your comfort. Pay attention especially on the space bar, Ctrl, Shift, and Del/Backward keys, which we operate the most while doing work.
- Graphics features: – While thinking about how to choose a laptop one must not forget about the graphics features. Currently, laptops with integrated graphics are the most popular and also fulfill the requirement of most people. With the entry of Intel HD Graphics on Core i3, the level is already upgraded. If you wish to get video watching, image viewing, or just web browsing the laptops with integrated graphics are having high demands.
- The ports number: – While buying the laptop, see that it has at least two ports though three to four are better. USB 2.0 is slower than USB 3.0, so you can also opt for USB 3.0. Try to involve an HDMI or mini DisplayPort output. There is Thunderbolt too, which will give double DisplayPort, high-speed storage devices, video capture devices, or connect to a hub to provide extra ports like USB 3.0, Ethernet, and more.
Many laptops will not have HDMI or DisplayPort support so most users need to depend on Wi-Fi. If you need a high-speed connection then you need to install an adaptor for getting HDMI or DisplayPort to your laptop.
- Compatible with Wi-Fi: – Most laptops will come along with the standard feature called 802.11n. This will operate on two frequencies, mainstream laptops supporting 2.4GHz and premium laptops supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. 2.4GHz has a greater range but the speed is slow. It will come across a lot of interference too, either from neighbors Wi-Fi or from other elements that use the 2.4GHz spectrum. 5GHz will have greater speed and less interference but the range is smaller
- Type of battery: – Usually the battery life of most laptops will be covered only one year. Typical batteries will have 2000mAh (milliamp hours) and 6000mAh. You should select 6000mAh if possible. Another aspect is cells. Around 4 to 12 cells can be accommodated in a compartment. This is outdated nowadays and practically difficult to use if any available. One needs to confirm the replacement schedule of the battery as you have to take the laptop to the service centre if the battery dies.
- Laptop speakers: – Commonly the speakers of laptop are of average quality. Due to the compressed sizes of the laptop, the speakers are so small that it doesn’t matter. If you like to have a good surround sound then you have to attach external speakers. Only a few speakers like JBL, Bang & Olufsen, Altec Lansing, or Harmon Kardon are of above-average quality.
- What should be the drive size: – The available suitable range of hard drive is 64GB to 1TB. You must choose it wisely while considering the requirement. Ideally, you must consider that in addition to your office work, you may be downloading a lot of digital images, pictures, or videos. This is a general practice and nowadays in your office work also you need to upload or download pictures and videos as a part of your work. It is recommended to start with the 256GB drive.
There are two types of hard drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) and mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs). The SSDs are smaller, faster, lighter, quieter, and use less power than HDDs but they are costly concerning per GB cost and are of lower capacities. The HDDs are full of capacity and in the budget. If you select the rotational speed of 7200rpm instead of 5400rpm, you will get the files loaded much faster.
The drawback is unlike a desktop a combination of SSD and HDD cannot be used on a laptop which would solve both the purposes of speed and cost.
- Accessories selection: – Whenever you are planning to buy a laptop, you must keep some cash extra for the accessories to buy along with the laptop. If you are long habitual of working on desktop the ‘docking station/ port replicator’ will help you to get a feel of the desktop while working on a laptop. It is the external attachment to your laptop. There are some other accessories like USB 3.0 through which you can get a DVI port, extra USB ports, Ethernet, and more. One thing to remember is that the USB 3.0 has a limited bandwidth; hence you will not get the desired speed if you try to use all the available ports at a time.
- Check the warranty terms: – If you insist to check on laptop specifications, do not forget to check the warranty terms offered with the laptop. All laptops are prone to damage and system failures. So one must try to avail the one with international warranty with, maybe, a three-year term with express service. This will ensure safety while you use your laptops during the travels. If the warranty is direct from the manufacturer, it is better in terms of getting services.
- Keyboard quality must be good: – If you are a person who is using a laptop for long typing sessions then the condition of the keyboard must be of top-class. You can opt for a laptop with a less compact keyboard so that your work becomes faster. Also, the size of the keyboard must be according to your typing style. Keyboards with full-sized keys with sufficient space around the keys are advisable. Try some typing on the laptop you chose to buy so that you can know how it will work for you. If you are moving from desktop to laptop keyboard, you may need some time to get used to the new keyboard as some of the keys are differently arranged on the laptop keyboards than that of the desktop keyboards. Ensure the keyboard is backlit so that your work will not affect in dimly lit environments.
- Modern security features: – It is the need of today that your gadgets must be equipped with high-level security to protect your data in the devices. There are many security options available nowadays including the latest Biometry security. Fingerprint reader logging was first installed on mobile phones and have developed fast usage. This is arguably the best security to protect the data. The passwords can be cracked by people but fingerprint security is not that easy to breach. If you survey which laptop is best, you may get this category in the best laptops list because of the difficulty in breaching the security. Major OEMs like Dell, ASUS, and HP have introduced this feature on their modern laptops and now it is sort of a common feature on laptops. Some laptops will have a fingerprint sensor on the keyboard itself making it more sensible than that on the screen. A step ahead of this, the ‘face recognition feature has also arrived. There is FaceID type technology that will identify the person and allow access.
Conclusion
While there are hundreds of types and models available in the markets from several companies, we have a general idea about how to choose a laptop. Once we are sure what activities or work we are going to do with the laptop we can find out which laptop is best suited for our purpose and buying a laptop will be hassle-free. We don’t have to think about big-budget laptops if there is no such need. We can focus on laptop specifications which will give the best output to us. The above points will surely help people who want to buy a laptop as it details about most of the features available on the laptops and also can guide people if they are switching from desktop to laptop or from old laptop to a new one.
