A laptop is a useful device for everyday life, both for professional and personal matters. The situation arises when you need to purchase one. You need to know what to look for when buying a laptop The choice of a laptop can be quite arduous given the wide range of models available on the market. To make an optimal choice and according to your budget, you must take into account your needs and many technical criteria. In this article, we will tell you what to look for when buying a laptop to help you make the best choice for your next buy.
To choose the best laptop model for your need, it is essential to know what to look for. The processor, RAM, hard drive capacity, and other important details such as screen size and resolution are all crucial factors to consider.
What To Look For When Buying A Laptop ?
To avoid a lengthy research process, you should ask yourself what’s the purpose of the laptop you want to buy. Is it for school? for gaming ? for work? for video-editing? you can establish indispensable features that your laptop should have by taking into account the use of the laptop. These may include sound quality, hard drive capacity, image quality, or battery life.
1.The processor
A computer’s processor is the most important component. This is because the performance of a machine is determined by the nature of its processor. Its characteristics depend on four main elements:
- The processor model
- The processor’s frequency
- The number of cores of the processor
- The size of the processor’s cache memory.
The number of cores is for example the feature that allows the processor to perform several tasks simultaneously. the more the processor has cores, the more simultaneous tasks it can execute at the same time. As a result, the time it takes to perform a task is reduced. The processor’s cache memory stores data in memory. A high cache memory boosts the speed of the computer. r. The frequency of the processor determines the number of operations it can perform given a certain period of time. The higher the processor’s frequency is, the faster it can execute and perform operations.
2. RAM
It is important to know that the processor works in unison with the RAM memory, for efficiency purposes, your processor saves the data it might need quickly in RAM memory instead of having to retrieve it each time from your hard drive. This allows your laptop to run faster because it can access the data it needs faster. The more RAM your laptop has, the more data it can store in memory to be accessed quickly. If your PC has to perform several simultaneous tasks or heavy operations, it is recommended to have a powerful processor and a lot of RAM. For example, a laptop designed for video editing will need a lot of RAM because your processor needs to store large video files in RAM while you work so that it can access them quickly.
3. The Hard Drive Capacity and Speed
The hard drive is used to store files on the laptop. Most laptops have hard drives with a capacity of 500 GB, but there are some models that can hold 1 TB of space or more.
This is a crucial factor to consider when purchasing a laptop. If you need a lot of storage space get a laptop with a large capacity (1TB or more) if your computer is intended for normal use, a 500GB drive will do.
You should know that there are several types of hard drives:
- A hard disk with platters (traditional hard disk)
- And SSD hard disk
The type of hard drive determines the speed at which information flows on the hard drive (reading and writing)
The speed of reading and writing data on traditional hard drives is determined by the number of rotations per minute (RPM) of the drive. This speed is usually between 5400 and 7200 RPM. If you want to get a laptop where the data on the disk circulates quickly, you should get a laptop with a hard disk with a high RPM speed, 7200 RPM is usually enough for any use of the laptop.
An SSD is a hard drive that uses flash memory to store data. This type of drive is extremely fast, unfortunately the capacity of this type of drive is generally smaller than a traditional hard drive. so if you would rather have a very fast laptop with little storage memory than a slow laptop with a lot of storage capacity, look into a laptop with an SSD.
4. The Graphic Card
The graphics card determines the processing performance of the graphics elements. If you play games or edit videos, you will usually need to look for a powerful, fast graphics card with lots of memory.
If you are just a regular laptop user (for studies, watching movies, etc), the integrated graphic card of your processor that comes on all modern laptops is more than enough for you.
5. The autonomy of the battery
The autonomy is the maximum duration during which the laptop can work. You should know that models equipped with the latest generation of batteries have greater autonomy.
A good quality laptop has a battery life of between 3 and 6 hours. If you are a person who uses his laptop a lot outdoors where a recharging outlet is not always available, to attend classes at the university, for example, it is extremely important to look at the battery autonomy of the laptop before buying it.
5. The Screen Size
Laptops with 15-, 17- or 19-inch screens are the most popular laptops on the market. These larger sizes are suitable for gamers and people who spend long hours working on a screen. It allows you to have better visibility, to see more things on your screen at the same time, and thus to be more productive or simply to better enjoy your movie.
6. Your Budget
If you are buying a laptop to work at the office (Excel, Word, etc) or to study, you don’t need to look for a high-end laptop, count on a budget of 200$ to 500$ to get what you need.
As for laptops for video editing or gaming on modern games, prices will quickly rise. Pay attention to the price of the graphics card, the processor, and the RAM if you want more capacity in order to find the best value.
7. Other elements to look when buying laptop
You should know that there are other criteria to look for when buying a laptop. The brand of the laptop can help you make your choice because some brands are more known for the reliability of their laptops than others (for example, Lenovo Thinkpad laptops are known for their solidity and are used a lot in the professional environment).
The other things to look at when buying a laptop are:
- The system that comes with the laptop (Windows, Linux, ChromeOS etc.)
- The number of available USB and HDMI ports
- The availability of a DVD drive
- The laptop material (Aluminum ? assorted plastic ?)
- The availability of a numeric keypad
- etc
Conclusion
I hope this little guide has helped you determine what to look for when buying a laptop. Usually, it takes only a few seconds to know if a laptop is right for you when you look at its specifications. Always look at the features of the laptops before choosing what you are going to buy so that you don’t end up with a laptop that is inefficient in your daily life.
