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Laptop Buyers Guide

Relationship Between Size and Performance

This is a very important consideration when purchasing a laptop.  Laptops by their nature are portable, and therefore the smaller the size, the easier it is to get around.  There is however a trade off with performance, as the smaller the laptop the less likely it is to be fast and / or will be able to run multiple applications. 

Technology is improving all the time, and therefore smaller models are getting increasingly more powerful, however it does mean that you need to carefully consider what you will be using before deciding on the model.  If its mainly for brosing the web, then a smaller laptop will probably suffice, however if you are going to be running some heavy processing applications, or multiple applications at the same time, it is probably worth going for the extra bulk, to improve the usability.

Battery Life

Battery life on laptops tend to fall into 1 hour 30 mins, up to around 5 hours for the average laptop.  A general rule of thumb is that the larger the screen size, and the type of application you are running, the more quickly the battery will run down.  For example, watching a DVD is a power intensive application.   So therefore if you are intending to buy a laptop to watch movies on the train or plane you will want something with a large battery, and a smaller screen size. 

Most laptops have a power management control in the control panel, so a handy tip to prolong the battery life when you are traveling is to turn down the brightness of your screen.  

RAM

Random Access Memory is the amount of data that can be quickly accessed in any order, ie random.  Therefore the larger the RAM of a laptop, the more applications you can run at the same time without impacting on the performance of the machine.

For the latest operating systems, you'll want at least 1GB of RAM, although 2GB is preferable for the average computing needs.  If you find a laptop that you particularly like, you can also choose to upgrade the RAM to improve the performance without having to buy a new machine.

Processor

The laptop processor or CPU is effectively the brain of the laptop.  The processor is what performs the millions of calculations required to run the various programs.  Processor speed is expressed as gigahertz (GHz).  Many laptops now have duel core processors which means there are actually two processors on the same chip that share the processing between them, and this therefore makes the machine much more efficient and faster.

Most new laptops tend to have a processor in the 2.1 to 2.5 GHz range, although 1.6 GHz is still very common on low spec models.

Screen Size

There are two main elements to take into account when deciding on a screen, resolution and size.  Screen size on laptops ranges from 7 to 22 inches, and this will determine the overall size of the laptop.  The resolution of the screen rises from 1024 x 600 to 1920 x 1200 pixels, and this factor determines how much can be displayed at any one time.  For gaming applications, the higher resolution adds to the overall experience. 

Graphics Cards

Graphics cards produce the quality of the image on the monitor that you are watching.   Therefore it is really a case of what you are using the laptop for, that will determine how important the graphics card is.  For most users, the preinstalled graphics card will usually suffice, however if you are going to be using it for gaming then it pays to get a laptop with a 3D graphics card, as you will certainly notice the difference in performance. 

Graphics cards can also be reasonably easily upgraded, so another option is to choose your favourite laptop, and then upgrade the graphics card to improve performance.

Hard Drive

This is the size of your laptops memory.  The higher the capacity, the more photos, music, videos, and other program files you can store.  Most people would want a hard drive of at least 160GB. 

If you do have files that take up a lot of space such as a large music library then you can always store these on an external hard drive and connect it to your laptop as needed.  The hard drive can also be replaced at some point if you want to increase the capacity but don’t want to buy a new laptop.

Connectivity 

The connectivity is the number of input/output ports that a laptop has that allows you to connect it to external products.  USB or firewire ports are used for connecting to external products such as camcorders or mp3 players.  They can also be used for laptop accessories such as speakers and wireless dongles.  Therefore if you are likely to connect more than 1 external product in addition to any accessories, you will want at least 3, but ideally 4 ports.

An HDMI port is used to connect your laptop to a HDTV or monitor.  The HDMI cable is necessary to get the full high definition effect.

VGA and DVI ports primarily used for connecting to monitors, but can also be used to connect to a television.

See the video below which gives a basic overview on what to look for when buying a laptop.