Recently, I decided to buy my own laptop as the portability and mobility advantages of having my own became more attractive.
So, with great enthusiasm and anticipation, I went to the Internet to help me decide. I thought I would make up my mind quickly. Unfortunately, it took quite a while before I found the one laptop to satisfy my needs and preferences. The main reason was the quantity and variety of information (both commercial and technical) I was presented with on the Internet.
I hope the rest of this article helps you in your quest and saves you valuable time in finding the laptop most suitable to you.
Decide on what features you need:
Before you embark on your quest via the Internet, I suggest you make notes of your preferred features and the reason for them. This will allow you to focus and will greatly help you to save time on your searches.
An important factor to consider is upgradeability. While the laptop you choose may be ideal for your current requirements you may (or will) have a need to upgrade. You do not want to invest in a laptop which you may have to sell or discard within a relatively short time because you need more.
The two most important factors to consider in upgradeability are memory (RAM) and hard disk space. For some laptops you can also upgrade the CPU.
These are the important features you will need to consider:
The CPU (Processor):
This is the engine that will drive your laptop's performance. Ideally you should choose the fastest CPU available. CPU speed is measured in GHz (e.g. 1.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz, and 2.0 GHz or more). However, this will depend on your budget and what you will use the laptop for. Generally, normal tasks such as email, Word Processing and surfing the Internet do not require a fast CPU. Processing complex spreadsheets, playing games and using other CPU intensive applications will offer better performance with a fast CPU.
The latest CPUs fall into 3 categories. These are the single core CPUs, Core Duo (Intel), Core 2 Duo (Intel) and X2 (e.g. Turion 64 X2) for AMD processors.
The Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and AMD X2 CPUs are better suited for multi tasking/processing. This usually means you will get better performance if you are burning a DVD while processing your complex Spreadsheet or playing games. The processing load will be shared across 2 CPUs. In the case of a single core CPU, only 1 CPU will be handling the requirements of multi tasks.
Note that the Intel Core 2 Duo and the AMD X2 processors are 64 bit compatible. The other 32 bit processors can address memory (RAM) up to about 4 Gigabytes while the 64 bit CPUs will address memory up to about 16 Gigabytes. To make use of the 64 bit capabilities you must run 64 bit operating systems and software. However most laptops these days will only take a maximum of 4 Gigabytes of memory. Budget permitting (there usually is not a big price difference), go for the 64 bit processors so you will have the choice of running 32 bit or 64 bit. Microsoft Windows XP and Vista have 64 bit versions. I understand 64 bit processing may offer performance improvements. However, there is a lot of literature on the Web about this subject. See the following http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit for some technical info.
The Memory (RAM):
The on board memory is another important feature (the more the better). Not having enough memory will significantly affect your laptop's performance. A recommended minimum nowadays is 1 Gigabyte of memory. Consider that Windows Vista can require about 500 megabytes (1/2 a Gigabyte) of memory for the operating system. This means having a laptop with 512 Megabytes of memory will impact on performance as the system will be paging memory to your hard disk and slow down processing of tasks and applications. Some experts even recommend 2 Gigabytes of memory as a minimum.
It is important to establish the maximum amount of memory the laptop can accommodate. Some laptops will accommodate a maximum of 2 Gigabytes while others will allow a maximum of 4 Gigabytes. Budget permitting, get a laptop that can be upgraded to 4 Gigabytes of memory. The more memory you have will allow for better multitasking with good performance.
The Hard Disk (HDD):
The hard disk capacity and speed are important features. This is where you will have all you installed software and your precious data (e.g. documents, photos, database etc...). The bigger the better as you will have enough room to store the information for ready access. Nowadays, 40 Gigabytes of hard disk space is considered a minimum. Consider that Windows Vista requires 15 Gigabytes or more of disk space to install. You should consider getting a laptop with about 80 Gigabytes or more disk space. This will allow enough room for storage.
It is important to ensure that you can upgrade your hard disk to a higher capacity if required. It is frustrating to run out of disk space and have to archive information on (for example) CDs or DVDs.
Some laptops will cater for 2 hard drives. Having 2 hard drives is advantageous as you can store your software on one and data on the other. This will improve performance as there will be fewer conflicts in I/O (disk reads and writes). Again your budget will influence what disk drive(s) you get.
Get the latest SATA (Serial ATA) hard drive(s) as opposed to the older ATA (IDE) hard drive(s). You will get better I/O performance. Try and get the 7200 RPM drives as opposed to the 5400 RPM drives (RPM = Revolution Per Minute). The faster spinning drives give better performance.
Note that Apple laptops are now using Intel processors. This means that if you have a hard disk with enough space you can install Apple Mac software and Windows software by partitioning your disk drive. This gives you the ability to swap between the two.
The Screen:
The screen is an important feature to consider. After all, this is what you will be staring at and you need to be happy with the size and resolution. You want a bright crisp screen with good viewing angles especially for things like photos etc...
Make sure the screen is an Active Matrix (TFT) one and not Passive Matrix. Most laptops today come with a TFT screen. The screen resolution (number of pixels) is also important. At a minimum choose a screen with 1034 X 768 pixels which is OK for text viewing. However for more desktop space go for 1400x1050 or 1600x1200. My laptop has 1400X1050 as a maximum. Go and look at different screens at a local computer or electronics store to figure out what size and resolution you prefer. Make sure that you can see the details displayed at a fairly wide diagonal angle.
The screen size will also influence the physical size (footprint) of your laptop. The screen does contribute significantly to the price of a laptop. Go for the best your budget allows.
Other Features:
Mobile computing: Ideally you want a laptop with built in wireless networking (WIFI) and Bluetooth. This will allow you to be truly mobile and connect to trusted networks at airports etc... Alternatively you can buy separate wireless/Bluetooth modules which can plug in to USB ports. However, these may be more difficult to setup.
You may also want to have a built in modem interface for dial up via telephone lines for networking and accessing the web.
You may want to connect to a LAN via cable interface (e.g. at work). For this your laptop should be equipped with an RJ45 connection port with a built in network card.
External Devices: You will want to connect a mouse, printer, memory stick, external portable disk drive (for backups?) or scanner to your laptop. This is usually via USB ports. Make sure the USB ports are USB 2.0 and not USB 1.0. USB 2.0 is dramatically faster than USB 1.0. You should consider at least 2 to 3 USB ports.
You may want a digital media slot for reading digital camera cards. This can also be achieved with an external digital media reader via USB connection.
You may also want Express Card Slots (PCMCIA) where you can use external storage cards (some latest cards will be able to store up to 16 Gigabytes of information). The same slots can also be used for cellular phone network modems which allow you to network via the cellular phone networks.
Microphone and audio jacks are also useful as you may want to use headphones for listening to music or headphones with built in microphone for voice communication over the internet.
A 1394 port can also be useful to connect to IEEE 1394 equipment such as camcorders.
An S-Video-out jack is also useful to connect to S-Video devices such as a television, VCR, camcorder, overhead projector, or video capture card.
Reading and writing CDs and DVDs: You will want a built in CD/DVD drive. There are 2 kinds, those that can read and write CDs and only read DVDs and those that can read and write both CDs and DVDs. For those that can write DVDs there are 2 kinds, those that write single layer DVDs (about 4 Gigabytes of information) and those that can write single and double layer DVDs (about 8 Gigabytes of information). CDs and DVDs are cheap and great to archive information, backup information or distribute information (music, software, photos, and videos).
The video card/processor: This is the card/processor that is supplied with your laptop and drives the display on your screen. I do not have much knowledge on this and I am not into playing computer games. However, if you are going to play video games or use graphic intensive applications, do your homework and research to find the video card/processor most suited to your needs. Some people have been disappointed with their laptops because the video features supplied were not giving them the performance they expected. There are 2 kinds of video cards/processors, the integrated one and the dedicated one. The integrated one is built into the motherboard and shares resources such as memory. The dedicated one is separate and has its own memory. From what I understand, the dedicated ones give much better performance but at an extra cost and more demands on the cooling system and the battery. The video card/processor is not usually upgradeable in laptops. This means that your choice is very important as you probably will not be able to change your video card/processor for a better one.
I hope this information has been useful to you.
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