WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING A NEW LAPTOP? - COMPLETE LAPTOP BUYING GUIDE
Everyone likes to own a laptop that is comfortable to carry with and helps you complete all your varied functions. When planning to buy a new laptop you will have a lot of questions in your head like what type should I buy? Which will be more comfortable for my use? Is it worth the money spent?. Adding to your confusion comes a wide variety of laptops with varied sizes, features, and prices. Making a choice from these can be quite challenging. But don't worry, this article will help you make the right decision.
Budget
Budget is the key factor that finally decides which laptop you should go with. When planning to buy a new laptop, lot and lots of models, brands, specifications, etc comes to our mind. But we could only buy the one we need based on the price range we planned. All the rest come within the planned budget. So, Plan your budget first and then go for the laptops within your range. If you are able to spend more money, you can own a decent laptop with great specifications.
Brand
When you are looking to buy a new laptop with all the necessary specifications, brand matters a lot more. Some of the leading brands include Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, etc. Before buying, you can conduct proper study about various brands and can opt the best that really suits you from any of the top brands.
Warranty & Service
When you buy a new laptop, warranty is one of the key factors to consider. Once you decide to buy a new laptop, its important to know the availability of authorized service centers of the particular brand with proper after sales service and best warranty offers. Today, almost all companies come with exciting extended warranty offers. So, do some research on the reviews of the one that you are looking for and choose the best. Always keep in mind to check the availability of service centers in your city.
Pick the right size
choosing the size of the laptop will depend upon your usage type. Let it be for travel purpose, business, or for work it will vary accordingly. If portability is what you are looking for then probably should go for smaller sized laptops. Size of the laptop is categorized based on the diagonal size of the screen in inches.
• 11 to 12 inches: This model is considered to be the thinnest and weighs from 2.5 to 3.5 pounds
• 13 to 14 inches: Best for both portability and usability. This weights under 4 pounds.
• 15 inches: Most popular size that weigh from 4.5 to 6.5 pounds.
• 17 to 18 inches: This system is mostly preferred for high processing power and supports high-end games and other heavy works.
Screen resolution
one of the most important aspects of a laptop is its screen resolution. If you are a person who uses laptops on a daily basis then go for eye soothing displays. The minimum resolution you usually find is 1,366 x 768 pixels. This is suitable for performing most of the tasks and also supports to work on multiple applications at the same time. To get a better idea it will be advised for you to visit your nearest store. Having a higher screen resolution will help you see icons and texts way easier and clear. Based on your eyesight and working preferences, you can decide which one suits you the best.
Keyboard
if you are a person with long working hours then you must probably go for comfortable keyboards which provides enough spaces between the keys. Make sure that the keys respond to your actions immediately, also for better experience go for a keyboard with backlighting as it helps prevent your eyes from straining during darkness. Make sure you go through some reviews to know the real problems regarding the keyboard.
Touchpad
A touchpad acts as the key to your communication towards your laptop. Make sure your touchpad responds to multiple gestures. Many laptop touchpads are awful where it does not respond to the finger movements quickly. Having a poor touchpad will make you feel uneasy about your laptop due to its slow response. Most of the latest laptops come with Microsoft-approved Precision touchpads.
Connectivity
Comparing with desktop PC, a laptop has a few numbers of ports available for the plugin. certain laptops come up with only 2 USB ports, so if you are a person who wants to plug in many things at a time you won't be able to. Say, for instance, your mouse is plugged in one port and you have your printer on the other, then there is no room for your mobile connection. In that case, you will be forced to unplug any of it. Make sure you have a clear idea about your needs. Nowadays most laptops are launched with 3 ports enabling faster data transfer. One of the drawbacks of the modern laptops is that they don't have in-built DVD drives, so if you want to burns discs then probably should go for the USB model providing your required facilities.
Performance
The more memory a computer holds, the faster it will perform. 8 GB is the most commonly found, but on higher-end devices, its found up to 16GB. If you are looking for a cheap laptop, opting 4GB will be a better option. Intel Core i3 processor will be best suited for office works and web browsing. For a more intensive task, the Core i5 chip will be more accurate as it supports large images, editing, and encoding video. Core i7 is super quick and shows the best possible performance, it will be a good option for you if you are willing to spend more.
Graphics
If you are to use your laptop for normal purposes, then the in-built graphics card will do the job. But for playing high-end games or to work with any heavy software you will need an Nvidia or AMD graphics chipset. Browsing through the reviews will help you have a better idea about which chipset suits your function the best.
Battery life
For a person who travels with the laptop, the battery life will be more important than size or weight. Five to ten hours is the average expected battery life for the general laptop. Highly portable laptops come with ten hours of battery backup. Go for consumers review to get a sincere opinion regarding the battery life as there are chances that the in-store staff might boast about it hiding the reality.
Storage
Finally the storage. SSD makes your laptop boost faster and makes it quicker and more responsive. Most of the high-end laptops come with SSDs that use PCI-Express standard, which is quite faster than a regular SSD and also shows a huge difference in performance. Its recommended to at least have a 120GB SSD if your files are mostly stored in the cloud. For home use, a 500 GB storage model will be enough. Having a hybrid "SSHD' drive helps the programming load faster.