The laptop has become a ubiquitous accessory in our modern life. The process of choosing a right laptop for you involves some serious research. You need to know what you want in a laptop and how much you are able to spend on a laptop. Based on this, you will have to assign your priorities and when it comes to choosing the right attributes for your laptop you will need to consider these aspects also:
– Processor (CPU) – it undertakes millions of operations per second and it is not necessary to own the fastest chip but the latest technology will make wonders happen for your laptop. The popular manufacturers are Intel and AMD.
– Memory (RAM) – the greater the amount of memory in your laptop, the greater will be the performance of your device. Most of the new laptops feature memory capacities from 2 GB to 16 GB.
– Screen – the most common screen size found in a laptop is 15.6 inches. It can vary from 13.3 inches to 20 inches.
– Keyboard and Touchpad – these are the key components which let you type and manoeuvre screen respectively. Its quality and ease of use is very important.
– Hard Disk Drive (HDD) – hard disk capacities range from 160 GB to about 2 TB and the most common hard disk capacities found in laptop are 250GB and 320 GB.
– Graphics Card (GPU) – there is two types of graphics cards and they are either integrated or dedicated. Integrated graphics cards are cheaper than dedicated graphics cards but there is substantial decrease in graphical power when compared to dedicated graphics cards.
– Optical Drive (ODD) – DVD drives are common in laptops with Blu-ray drives being the latest technology nowadays.
– Operating system (OS) – while the most preferred OS is Windows 7, it’s been given a run for its money by Apple’s own Mac OSX Leopard. Both are user-friendly, with support for multitasking, and let you finish your work quickly and easily.
– Other important aspects to watch out for include – battery life (about 7 – 8 hours. are ideal), weight/portability (it should be fairly portable device), connectivity options (Wireless LAN, Ethernet Ports, USB Ports, Bluetooth Option, Firewire Connectivity, HDMI Ports), Card Reader etc.
Laptops are also sorted according to different users such as students, business traveller, photographer/videographer, gamer, home user etc. Low price and high portability define laptops for student usage. Business travelers require laptops which are sturdy and tough, all the while having great security features and good battery life.
For a photographer/videographer, laptops should be capable of powerful processing, discrete graphics, large and super-fast hard disk capacity. The requirements of a gamer are far more advanced as they need top of the line laptops for their usage. Home user needs a laptop through which his basic computational needs can be addressed.
As laptop configurations change constantly, it is wise to invest carefully on a laptop that caters to your needs.
