What specs should I look for when buying a laptop?

What specs should I look for when buying a laptop?

Thinking of buying a new laptop and confused about what specs to look for? Well, you have just landed at the right place. A laptop being the best tool of working or even playing is compact enough for carrying with you along with being versatile to run diverse applications.

Previously laptops were quite expensive as compared to desktop computers, so they were thought to be a luxury item. But now with the passing years and technological advances, it has become a necessity mainly because it’s compact and portable.

Though smartphones and tablets being always popular, still most people prefer laptops over them. Having a variety of features, sizes, and prices, making the right choice itself is a challenge. So first of all your needs, need to be figured out. Laptops being lighter, smaller, faster are always easy to use.

Here are a few factors which need to be considered

What Specs Should I look for when buying a laptop?

Hard drives :

Being expensive and smaller than the desktop counterparts, the hard drive of most laptops has a capacity of 500GB to 2TB. A few laptops are having a standard drive of 100-500 GB (still being enough for a dozen movies and thousands of songs). Mostly users needing extra memory to pick up a portable and light external hard drive, having plenty of capacity.

The traditional hard drives are replaced by the newer SSD which are noticeably quite faster and similar to a USB stick. Along with consuming less power, it helps your battery to last longer while reducing the bootup time too. The SSD is less likely to crash has no moving parts too. All these benefits assist in their increased cost.

Memory

You can’t have a lot of memory along with being rich too. That’s why you can’t have a lot of storage along with having your RAM filled. After loading a program, the computer takes this information from a slower hard drive and stores it temporarily in a faster RAM drive. The more is the RAM, the more programs you can open up simultaneously, without reducing the speed.

Random access memory (RAM) simple means a much faster machine. Most laptops have a minimum RAM of 1 GB. Make sure that the laptop you are selecting has the ability of upgrading, if you can’t afford a higher RAM laptop (note: not all the machines can have an upgrade).

The speed of the processor

The traditional computers were judged exclusively by their processor’s speed. These days most of the laptops feature processors, more than sufficient for the everyday task even for internet browsing and office use applications.

If you are using your laptop for data processing, gaming, videos or even graphic designs, you will need to have a look at the processor. The traditional laptops have standard processors whereas netbooks have low voltage processors extending your battery life. If you are opting for speed, you need to go for multi-core options or high speed in GHz.

Weight

The weight of a laptop needs to be considered because the basic point behind buying it is its portability. The battery is a laptops heaviest component, so you need to have a balance between preferring a long lasting battery and a lightweight laptop. It all depends either you are an occasional traveler or always on the move.

If you are very mobile, you will prefer a light machine and plugging in won’t bother you more often. If you want a laptop for rear instances like carrying around the house or coffee shop, you can opt for a slightly heavier one with a long battery life.

The lightest and smallest laptops may weight 2 and a half pound and the heaviest can weight even 7 pounds or more. Laptops between 3 to 5 pounds are a safe spot to travel comfortably with. No doubt, lightweight laptops are much expensive than the heavier ones with similar specs.

Size

While talking about laptops, size matters a lot. You need to pick the right size. Large screens are less portable. While working with photos, movies and documents you need at least a screen size of 11 while for reading emails or surfing even 8 to 9 inches are enough. Weight is an important factor which is to be considered with screen size.

Screen resolution

Another critical factor is the resolution. If you want to have more text on the screen, you need to select a higher resolution but being smaller. The determining factor is being the maximum resolution of the screen display. The higher resolution is worth the extra money as you spend more time in front of the computer. The smallest resolution is 640 x 480 while the highest being 1600 x 1200, though a popular resolution is 1280 x 800.

Backlit screen

A new and great feature of the laptop is an LED screen. Along with being more durable, the LED lighting technology consumes less power and offers a great picture. Moreover, this less power consumption ends giving a long battery life. LED screens give a long spectrum of colors along with giving greater detail in dark areas, ending with sharper images.

Trackpads

Trackpads provide the same function in a laptop, like a mouse for desktops. Having a wide spectrum of capabilities, they are made with various materials depending on the model and manufacturer.

Keyboard

The size of the keyboard depends on the size of the screen you choose. If portability is your preference, you can enjoy a full-sized keyboard along. For big hands, small keyboards seem tough, along with missing a few of the shortcut keys. Few laptops have the traditionally raised keys while others keyboards sit flush with the laptop. Some of them also offer backlit keys helping you in the dark but at the same time draining the battery as well.

Battery life

One of the basic factors to look for is a long battery life. You need to decide how important the battery life to u is and are you willing to pay for the extra batteries. Factors that contribute to more battery life are SSD, LED screens and low power processors. The best laptops offer a battery life of almost 10 hours.

Conclusion

With the advancement in technologies, laptops have become more accessible. After considering plenty of options, you need to make the right choice. Hope this article was helpful to you for deciding what specs you need to consider when buying a laptop. Hope You have clear Idea about What specs should I look for when buying a laptop?