Come festive season and we all run to grab the best deals and discounts on offer. The laptop sales sky rocket during this time as most of us wait for deals to go live. As the newer technology comes time to time, we all become eager to grab that, this situation become more prominent in the case of laptop purchasing. As the prices of laptop coming down, people prefer to buy an laptop instead of a PC. Before you hastily make a purchase decision based on the amount of free goodies, we recommend reading through the laptop buying guide below –
Which Processor?
For some, this might be the most important parameter to look at, while for the rest not quite as much. If you’re a light to moderate laptop user, it’s best to go for at least Intel Core i3 2310M processor as most of your work would comprise of editing and creating text documents and Excel sheets, and surfing the web. If you are light gamer and also do some video or photo editing work then the Inter Core i5 2430M processor should be the minimum. For hardcore gamers and geeks we recommend the Intel Core i7 2670QM processor to match their demanding graphics and computing needs.
Battery Life
A lot depends on the hardware that affects your battery life. An average set up ships with a 6 cells battery which would give you run time of about 3 hours under normal usage. However, if you up your budget by a few thousands you can opt for a 9 cells battery or a 12 cells battery which would just double your backup.
USB 3.0
With a transfer rate of about 480 MB/second, USB 3.0 is the future. Make sure your laptop ships with at least one port of USB 3.0 to future proof your laptop.
SSD or HDD?
This has been the subject of quite some debate over the past few months. The decision to choose between an SSD and HDD solely depends on how much you’re willing to spend on your laptop. While regular HDD prices are falling each day, having one in your machine doesn’t future proof it, SSDs are more reliable and quicker, but are more expensive then HDDs.
Screen Size
The screen size of your laptop dictates how portable your machine is. As it directly impacts its overall weight, the bigger the screen size the more difficult it is to move about with. If accurate color representation matters to you a lot, then look for and RGB LED backlit screen which should ensure a whiter and richer color experience. A good full HD 1080P display is what you should be looking at, but laptops with such screens are generally.
Keyboard
This might not strike you as an important factor to look at, but most of the dust attracted by your laptop accumulates in between keys. A Chiclets keyboard adds a refreshing look and feel to your machine while doing with any dust particles, apart from being great to type on. But this is a subjective choice, test drive your prospective laptop’s keyboard before purchasing it.
Do I need Windows?
Not really, if you’re a Linux fan boy then you wouldn’t need it. Opting for Linux will surely save you money which you can invest in upgrading your hardware. Be sure before opting for this route, you’ll be putting food on some Open Source developer’s table, which is a good thing.
Build Quality
More important factors to look at are the weight of the laptop, overall form factor and durability. Of course your machine shouldn’t be built like a tank, but then it shouldn’t be too fragile either. Look for a sturdy chassis which will last you till your next laptop upgrade.
Memory
Most of the laptops are built equipped with at least 2 GB of RAM which is sufficient for general and normal computing works. But if you need some extra speed for your extra ordinary works or gaming then you should consider upgrading your RAM module to 3 or 4 GB. Try to get all amount of your RAM into single chip, there should be an option opened for future up gradation.
