Laptop Buying Guide - What to Consider When Buying A Laptop

Ready to buy a laptop for work or personal use?

As you might be aware, there are tons of brands and specification when it comes to a laptop and like any other items, shopping for laptops, whatever it is, is not as easy as it seems in theory.

For some people, shopping can be fun but finding the right items that one need can be quite difficult.This is as a result of the fact that it has to do with making a choice.

We make choices every day but the major issue is in knowing whether we are making the right choice and what to go with among different options.

In the case of buying a laptop, it is even more serious because realistically, buying a laptop is as trivial as shopping for clothes might be.

It is usually needed and because it is electronics, more thought has to be given to it.

Apart from that, there are so many brands, price ranges, and specifications that finding a suitable one can be quite tasking.

The point of this list is to help you make informed choices and know the factors to consider before making your choice.

5 Major Considerations When Buying A Laptop

Budget

Budgeting on the amount of money you want to spend on your new laptop is the first step. Different people have different purchasing power, for example, a student who is looking for a study laptop will probably be looking to use less amount of money than someone who is earning a salary and looking for a laptop that they can carry around for work. Either way, they can both get a decent laptop, but they have to set a budget that they can work with.

Processing Power (CPU)

A CPU is the main part of a laptop and it defines your machines’ processing speed. Consider the kind of work you will be handling with your laptop. If you are looking to play the latest games or edit videos with your laptop then you will need a powerful processor, in this case consider Core i3 and Core i5. If you are looking for a super-fast processing speed, then go for Intel core i7 series laptop. Notably, recent generations are more powerful as they can process more work at high speeds in less time.

RAM

Even when you are on a tight budget, you need a laptop with at least a 4 GB RAM and above. Random access memory helps speed up the process of the application on your laptop. It allows more than one application to run at the same time. The heavier the task, the larger the RAM. Tasks like graphics designing and video editing require more than a 4 GB RAM.

Hard Disk Drive

This is basically the storage system for your laptop where all your documents, image, videos and other system files are kept. How much storage space you need is up to the kind of work you are involved in. A Solid state drive (SSD) is the best as it offers more speed than a hard drive. It is also lighter and runs silently compared to a hard drive.

Screen and Keyboard Build Quality

Whatever kind of tasks you are handling with your laptop, you need a quality screen and keyboard. When typing, you don’t want a keyboard with keys that keep sticking in, you want a comfortable keyboard with full-sized keys that respond fast. Also, consider a keyboard with some backlight which is easy to use in dimly lit environments.

As for the screen, the size matters. The minimum size you can get is 14.1 inches, if you are considering watching a lot of movies and playing games on your laptop, go for a bigger screen like 17 inches. For normal office tasks, 15.6 inches would be ok. To easily navigate on your laptop, you can opt for a touch screen, also consider anti-glare features.

Before buying a laptop, do a little homework, search online for laptop reviews. Talk to different people who own the kind of laptop you are targeting and find out how they would rate it.