Everything You Need to Know Before Buying a Laptop

New developments and innovations are stepping up in the marketplace, and in last few years, we have seen a huge growth. These developments not only enhance user experience but also reduce the cost, thereby, making powerful machines affordable for masses.

Several devices are being launched with various features, keeping user’s demand at the top. Every user has his own requirement and specific devices are available for your needs.

What you want to do with your laptop?

• Light use: Want to surf the Internet, pay bills, social networking, emails, watching videos and photos, etc.
• Average use: Organizing and managing data (like the spreadsheet and document creation), operating some productivity applications, games and streaming music and movies, etc.
• Demanding use: Multitasking, graphic processing, image and video editing, managing operational tasks, browsing interact with multiples tabs

Portability: A light and portable device

Small or portable laptops may lack an optical drive, which reduces the device’s weight as well as size. Screen size, built-in storage capacity and battery capacity are other major factors in portability. Convertibles or 2-in-1 laptops could be a vital choice for people who are looking for a device that can work in various modes including laptop, tablet, etc. This comes with the power of a laptop and portability of a tablet. These devices provide the functionality of touch-screen with versatile displays that shift or detach into a tablet.

Looks: Device to flaunt with

From classic to stylish, with every kind of design available, choose the one that suits your personality or which you like to have. Most of the devices come with base classic design, yet a few simple tweaks can change the entire look and feel.

Operating Systems: The latest Windows, Mac Or Linux

It’s not only about choosing the OS that can run your device, its like heart of your machine that helps to manage software and hardware as well as interact with you. Before making a decision you must consider the OS which is familiar to you.

Benefits of Windows OS

• Flexible operating system
• Windows notebooks have a wide price range
• A wide array of features from touch screens to fingerprint readers to dual graphics chips
• Cortana voice assistant
• The latest Windows 10 OS has the ability to switch between tablet and desktop modes
• Millions of desktop programs available, including the major productivity, graphics, video, and development software.

Benefits of Apple OS

• MacBooks come pre-installed with Apple’s Mac OS X
• Similar functionality to Windows 10, but has different looks
• Elegant and easy-to-use interface
• Historically had fewer issues with viruses and malware.

Benefits of Linux OS

• Free distros available for various usage and devices
• Switch to any OS anytime without paying a penny downloaded and install legally on as many devices you want
• Open source distro can be customized to be whatever you want it to be
• Comparatively less malware and virus attacks than Windows and Mac machines
• Linux typically does not slow down over time, as it can’t be easily bogged down with spyware, viruses, trojans, etc.
• Popular distros such as Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, andOpenSUSE offer excellent software repositories within their package managers where virtually any type of software can be downloaded and installed on your Linux system for free.

Screen size: Choose as per your convenience

Laptop screen sizes range from 11 to 17 inches. if you travel a lot because smaller screen laptops are also lighter and more convenient to work on while on the move or on a flight. Larger screens of course, offer more desktop real-estate. Typically, 14-15 inch screen size is fine for routine productivity work, while screens larger than that can be useful for graphics intensive work, enjoying games and movies. You should also keep in mind that larger screen size also increase the overall size, weight, and power consumption of the laptop, among other factors of course!

Screen resolution

Laptop screens come in a range of resolutions (measured in pixels, horizontal x vertical):

• HD: 1366x768 resolutions, standard on mainstream laptops, good for basic computing tasks.
• HD+: 1600x900 resolutions, great for casual gaming and watching movies.
• Full HD: 1920x1080 resolutions, enables to enjoy Blu-ray movies and play video games with the higher level of detail.
• QHD (Quad HD): 2560x1440 resolutions, ideal for professional photo and graphics work as well as high-def movies and games.
• QHD+: 3200x1800 resolutions, the extremely high pixel density creates crisp detail and sharp text
• Retina display: 2304x1440, 2560x1600 and 2880x1800 resolutions are available in Apple’s 12”, 13.3” and 15.6” laptop displays, respectively.
• 4K Ultra HD: 3840x2160 resolution, boasts four times the pixels of Full HD, creating rich colors and images for viewing and editing incredibly lifelike images and graphics.

Display Technology

Notebooks come with various displays having different colors and brightness levels. LED backlighting displays produce bright colors without draining the battery. Want to enjoy games and movies, etc. with your friends and family then choose a display with an IPS panel for wider viewing angles. Some laptops also come with a touch screen, but go for the models that let you detach the screen and use it as a tablet or rotate it 360 degrees in different positions. Regular laptops with touch screen don’t make too much sense.

Which Processor?

The compute capability of a laptop purely depends upon the in-built processor. The largest variety of processors found in laptops are from Intel, while some also offer AMD processors. Here’s how they differ:

Intel Processors

Majority of laptops come with Intel’s processors, such as:

• Core i7: The choice of “power users” like hardcore gamers, graphic designers, photographers, and videographers.
• Core i5: Mid-grade Core processor and one of the most common Intel processors currently in use.
• Core i3: More than adequate for everyday e-mail, surfing the Internet and productivity tasks.
• Core M: A processor designed for ultra slim devices, providing power for day-to-day tasks.
• Intel Atom: These are usually found in netbooks or laptops meant for doing very lightweight work like web browsing, email, and word processing.
• Intel Celeron: These are a notch higher than Intel Atom processor based laptops, and can be used for heavier work, but they’re still less powerful than the Core ‘i’ series of processors.

AMD Processors

AMD’s 6th Gen A-series processor is designed to handle extensive and intense tasks easily.

• FX: Delivers extensive processing power and graphics performance
• A10: With 10 compute cores, it brings processing power for graphics, work, and play
• A8: Powerful computing capabilities and smooth entertainment experiences

How Much Memory?

If you are going to do multitasking, then consider getting high-capacity RAM. A minimum of 2 GB RAM is required for basic computing, but for intensive performance 6 GB or more is recommended. Most laptops come with 2 GB to 8 GB pre-installed. If you need even more then consider getting the laptop that offers you to add more memory.

Internal Storage

Mainly two types of drives, HDD, and SDD, come with laptops in which traditional hard disk drives are more common. Though HDDs are less-expensive than SSDs, but at the same time they are thick and heavy. Solid state drives or flash storage are lighter, faster, cooler and quieter than hard drives, but expensive. Some laptops come with hybrid storage option, combining a hard drive with a solid state drive for the benefits of both.

Battery Life

Battery life claims range from a few hours up to 12 hours or more. The larger capacity of battery meaning, higher battery backup is one aspect, though it depends on your usage habits and display as well. The battery measured in mAh, go for the higher capacity battery to get longer juice for your laptop.

Connectivity

You required some essential connectivity ports, including USB, HDMI, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. With portable devices, you may not find all the connectivity ports which you can get with bulky one’s like VGA, LAN ports etc. However, that can be managed using external USB or HDMI connectors.

We have tested various devices in our lab having different USPs, from entry level laptops to high-end convertibles.