With too many laptop models offered by different companies in the market today, it is difficult to choose what is right for you. You might be mistaken by choosing something because of how it looks, massive advertising or brand consciousness. While window shopping for laptops, here are very important guidelines for you to follow before spending hard earned money on something that you will regret later on.
Buying Guide for Laptop:
What type of User are you?
Student:
These types of users are looking for inexpensive laptops to help them with school matters. They also need something portable and easy to bring from one class to another. Since they are students and on the loan, they can’t afford to buy luxury laptops. The cheaper the laptop is the better. They need to maximize their money and get the best deal for what it’s worth. A student needs to use laptops for its basic office functions and internet access. This is what we can suggest for Student users.
* Size, Portability and Price matters. Netbooks that are approximately 9” in screen are small and easy to carry around and does not exceed $500 in value. If your purpose is to do internet surfing and basic office work, then this is the best choice for you. But that’s just about what they can do for you. Smaller laptops mean slower in performance. Its hard drive, mother board and single core CPU are relatively not that quick to respond but it’s bearable. Video gaming on Netbooks has proven to be poor. So, this wouldn’t be a good decision if you are planning to play online games with this one. Screen is small which takes getting used to. Specs are usually around 160 gig Hard Drive and 1 gig RAM.
* Size, Portability, Price and Work Performance matters. There are Ultra Portable laptops to fit your specifications. Notebooks are better than Netbooks in terms of performance. Usually, their specs do not go below 250 gig in Hard Drive and 3 gig in RAM. Screens range between 12”-13” and usually, these notebooks are thin and ultra light at around 4lbs in weight. Take into consideration the fact that the smaller the laptop is, the less space it can provide.
Business:
These types of users are looking for portability, safety of their data, no-nonsense laptop that is capable to performing business functions such as spreadsheets and data processing. It has to be reliable and quick when internet browsing is concerned. Heavy laptops are not recommended at all, but a longer battery life would be an added plus.
* Size and Portability. Laptops should be at the most 15” in screen but not to go below 12”. A 12” laptop is easy to connect with the projector for business presentations. This is easy to bring on trips and light to handle.
* Specifications and Connectivity. A business laptop is fast and efficient to use. Multitasking would be better if RAM is around 2 gig to 4 gig. Processor must be like in speed of Dual Core or Core 2 Duo. With these specs, you could add a gaming video card but it would expensive on your part. If your goal is to use laptop for business and office matters, you don’t need to install games on it. Business Laptops are WIFI ready and has Ethernet. At least 3-4 USB ports are found to make way for external items.
* Price: A good business laptop ranges from $800 to $1200.
* Battery life. Thin batteries, shorter time allotment. You can buy the thicker and bigger batteries, however, weight is compromised. Anyway, almost everywhere has electric plugs.
Gamer and Photographer:
These types of users need all the space they can get their hands on and the higher the resolution, the better. The need massive HDD’s, powerful processors and state of the art graphics to go with it.
* Size. Forget portability. You need a 17” monitor because of the cooling requirements. These laptops drain easily because of the heat from the gaming and/or video and photo viewing, thus, a bigger laptop is needed to accommodate cooling needs. Anyway, if you’re viewing pictures and videos or playing your games, you would want to be satisfied of every detail that only a bigger screen can provide.
* Specifications. Definitely 4 gig to 8 gig RAM with lightning speed of up to 500 gig Hard Drive. It would be better to buy something with a dedicated graphics card like NVIDIA for gaming purposes. Photos, videos and music can easily consume space in your hard drive. Always go for something upgradable in the future, otherwise, you will be using external storage if your Hard Drive is full.
* Price. More than $1200 up to $4000. It is never cheap to buy laptops with top quality specifications. New models come out every year and each year, specs amaze us. But if you would settle on older models, you could get a huge discount.
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