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Quick Tips to Choose the Right Laptop for Your Need

Out of hundreds of laptop choices you could be confused to pick the best machine that can deliver the required computing power! Here are some quick tips to help you in identifying the best product for your needs.

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Ashok Pandey
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The tech revolutions help manufacturers to build powerful yet compact devices. We have seen a huge growth in the industry as well as new devices with more power. 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.

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Usage

• 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

Though nowadays optical drives are not in use, most of the notebooks don’t have these drives and people are also not looking at this. Lack of optical drive helps to reduce weight as well as size. Screen size and battery capacity are other major factors in portability. If you are hungry for a powerful yet compact machine then ultrabooks could be a perfect choice. 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.

Looks

Want to flaunt with metallic shell or a colorful body? Various beautiful designs are available, choose the one that suits you.

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Operating Systems

Don’t go with masses, OS is like heart of your machine that helps to manage software and hardware as well as interact with you. Before making a decision you must understand what  options are available and which one could be the right decision for 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.

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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, PC Linux OS, and Open Source 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

Laptop, notebook, and 2-in-1; screen sizes range from 10 to 17 inches. 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. People looking for portability can go for 10 to 11-inches devices.

Screen resolution

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

• HD: 1366×768 resolutions, standard on mainstream laptops, good for basic computing tasks.

• HD+: 1600×900 resolutions, great for casual gaming and watching movies.

• Full HD: 1920×1080 resolutions, enables to enjoy Blu-ray movies and play video games with the higher level of detail.

• QHD (Quad HD): 2560×1440 resolutions, ideal for professional photo and graphics work as well as high-def movies and games.

• QHD+: 3200×1800 resolutions, the extremely high pixel density creates crisp detail and sharp text

• Retina display: 2304×1440, 2560×1600 and 2880×1800 resolutions are available in Apple’s 12”, 13.3” and 15.6” laptop displays, respectively.

• 4K Ultra HD: 3840×2160 resolution, boasts four times the pixels of Full HD, creating rich colors and images for viewing and editing incredibly lifelike images and graphics.

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Display Technology

Notebooks come with various displays having different colors and brightness levels. 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.

Processor

The computing ability of a laptop purely depends upon the processor (CPU). The largest variety of processors found in laptops is from Intel, while some also offer AMD processors. Here’s how they differ:

Intel processors’ family:

• Core i7: The choice of “power users” for hard core 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.

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AMD Processors’ family:

• 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

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.

Battery

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 displays as well.

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 ones like VGA, LAN ports etc. However, that can be managed using external USB or HDMI connectors.

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