This blog is about buying a new laptop what to look for. The very first question you need to ask yourself is why do you need a laptop? What’s the purpose? And your answer would lead you to one of three kinds of laptops, either a Chromebook, or a Windows 10 laptop, or an Apple laptop. If you’re looking to just browse the internet or use some cloud-based apps, and you’re in a really tight budget, then Chromebooks would be the way to go.
Buying A New Laptop What To Look For?
Laptop Buying Factors to Consider:
Now, there are four things to think about primarily when purchasing a laptop:
- Storage
- Processor
- RAM
- Graphics.
These 4 things alone form the majority of your experience with the laptop, it’s not the size, the colour, or the weight, those things are secondary, but whether your laptop can perform and do the things that you purchased it for is going to be important. Alright, let’s discuss these four things now.
01. Storage:
Its capacity, how much can you store in your laptop, and it’s measured in gigabytes or terabytes. And no matter what you’re buying a laptop for, make sure it has an SSD and not an HDD. SSDs are just a lot faster. They’re responsible for how fast your computer boots up, how quickly an app or a game launches, and how quickly you’re able to search through multiple files or copy and paste files at really high speeds.
And so when you’re looking at specs, there could be various ways in which it’s written, it could be solid state drive, it could say SSD, it could say m two NVMe SSD, it could say a hybrid storage SSD. The good news is that most laptops today are sold with an SSD by default. But the bad news is that SSDs are expensive. And that’s why they come in small storage capacities like 256 gigs or 512 gigs. Really high-end laptops, one terabyte, but here’s what you can do just by an external hard disk drive, or you know, use Cloud Storage, they’re much cheaper now and you can store everything that’s extra that you don’t need immediately stored them there and then you can just access later.
02. Processor:
The processor and word processor or CPU to go with depends on what you really need your laptop for. It’s the heart of your laptop. And guys different talk about this, there are two manufacturers, Intel and AMD. And focus on Intel just because there are more options with Intel, and it’ll just appeal to more of you. Now when deciding which processor to go with, look out for three things. The series that is whether it’s called a three by five or a seven, or even a nine, the generation whether it’s 1010, or 11 Gen and the clock speed. Now, don’t fret, it’s really simple stuff.
First of all, make sure that you’re either getting attention or an 11th gen processor, preferably 11 Gen because it’s more recent. Next, you’re going to decide between core i5, i7, or i9, i3 and i5 are good if you’re just going to be using a laptop for web browsing streaming videos or for Microsoft Office apps. The key difference is that core i5 laptops would be faster and can multitask better. So, if you plan on having multiple Chrome tabs open and you’re working on a PowerPoint file, while a Word document is also open, and you’re listening to music in the background, the core i5 will be able to manage all of that the core three will definitely struggle.
Now what you can’t do with these processors, the 3 and the i5 is relied on them for heavy or intense use of apps like Premiere Pro or After Effects illustrator or even gaming. I mean, they’ll work but not smoothly. And that’s when Core i7 comes into the picture. If you’re looking at using a laptop for creative work or intense multitasking or gaming, the Core i7 would be the way to go. And lastly, not all core i3, i5, or i7 processors are the same, some are fast, and some are faster. And a very quick and easy way to check that would be let’s say you’re comparing laptops, copy the model number of the processor and go to Google and search for the clock speed of that processor, you can just paste that model number.
Google will throw up the clock speed. 4.2 gigahertz is quite fast actually. But since you’re comparing you can take the other module lumber paste that and see if it’s higher. Generally, higher is better. But do mind that this only holds true if you’re comparing two processors that belong to the same generation and the same series. If you look at Pentium or Celeron has written anywhere, just run away. I mean, don’t get those computers to be really slow and really old. Not the way to go.
03. RAM:
Next is Ram and it’s probably the simplest one. Usually, it’s the merrier. So, RAM is what makes more and more apps on your computer run simultaneously without any issues. So, the more RAM you have, the smoother it is for you to run multiple apps simultaneously. Now if you have a core i3 processor-powered laptop, eight gigs of RAM is sufficient. But if your laptop is running on core i5 or i7 processors, I’m assuming that you will be running multiple apps simultaneously. Quite a few of them would be intense then I think 16 gigs of RAM is good. I mean it’s it provides a good buffer in the future. And it definitely future proves your device.
04. Graphics:
And lastly graphics. The good news is that most new laptops that feature Intel processors, now come with integrated graphics. If you plan on doing video editing, heavy illustration work or running multiple displays together, you’re gonna need a dedicated graphics card. And hey, if you want to consider anything that’s between serious to high-end professional work, whether it’s in the field of gaming or video editing, or After Effects or illustration, then you’re going to have to stick with bigger and more powerful graphic cards inside your laptop. So those two sets lie right over here.
And you know, that’s pretty much it actually. Now, I understand it can all be very overwhelming. So I’ve summarised, everything that I’ve talked about in a nice, easy-to-understand chart. Now, this is just a good generalisation. And this will help you in narrowing down your choices. But definitely reach out to an expert, or to a professional and let them know what you really want to get down from your laptop. And they’ll help you with the right model with the right specifications. And everything else. And hey, if you’ve got a question for me, just drop it in the comment section below, let me know, what’s your purpose with the laptop, and what specs you’re looking at.
Don’t leave me with any model numbers, I won’t be able to look them up on the internet for all of you. Right. So just quick questions. And I’ll definitely help you out. Now, one thing that I haven’t talked about is personal constraints and personal preferences. Constraints are things that you must keep in mind before purchasing a laptop because you know, your nature of work requires you to have certain things like a 4k display, it could be having certain ports like LAN, and HDMI is a must, maybe you want a 17-inch screen or a 15-inch screen.
You know you want a keyboard that has a number pad, for example. So these could be constraints, and they’re all valid constraints. But all of these factors can really shorten the available laptops for you try not to get these factors to compromise on the performance piece. Almost all of this can be achieved using extra peripherals or accessories, you know, you can always buy an additional monitor, which is 4k and plug it in, you can always buy a number of bad keyboards separately and use it you know connected using USB, you can always buy more ports with a Type C adapter.
And then there are personal preferences things like colour, size and weight. I mean, I’ve seen people take inferior laptops, inferior performing laptops, because it was available in the colour that they wanted and then listened to them complain about how it doesn’t work, or doesn’t get the job done. So when you bring in all these personal preferences as factors, your list narrows down even further and you know, the chances of you compromising on the performance of the laptop increases significantly. Again, guys, most things you know, you can always have nice skin on a laptop and get the colour you want. Right. So there are ways to work around your personal preferences and constraints. But don’t let that get in the way of choosing a laptop. Just boil it down to absolute essentials and go with it.
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