Before You buy a Laptop PC

By : Denny Wijaya

laptops computer

Due their mobility and performances laptop systems have grown more popular. Many organizations replace their desktop PCs with laptops. There are many types that have tag as desktop replacement,  but only a few can perform at the same level ,especially when it comes to graphics. This guide will help you to look at some of the points before you purchase your new or next laptop system.

Size and Weight

The size and weight of a laptop is important. How mobile is you?, is the first question. Desktop replacements have equivalent power to desktop systems but they are big and heavy (around 17” screen size and 4.6 Kgs), by those criteria Desktop replacements systems a little bit annoying to carry around. Ultra Portable Laptops or now called Netbooks offer light weight and sizes but for those advantages they sacrifice optical drives and performance. When shopping for a laptop don’t forget to consider the weight of accessories such as AC adapter when you travelling. It will much easier , if you choose something that you want to carry not just their powerful performance.

Processors (CPU)

Second question is what do your laptop for?. The type of processors for laptop system will vary based upon the price, size and machine’s purpose. Mobile processors typically were slower than desktop CPUs. But after the launching of Dual core and later types that opinion has changed, although if you compare from the same series, mobile version always have a lower performance. Dual-core & later processors are common and help with multitasking but they drains battery much more than Intel Atom series, so if you want to stay away from AC Adapter, I suggest you to pick the Netbook.

Memory (RAM)

Laptops are using a different form factor for the Ram, they used SO-DIMM and generally have two slots with limited maximum memory compared to desktops. So better to check this before you buy, it is also useful to find out how to upgrade the RAM, is it can be done yourself or not. Netbooks usually have 1 GB preinstalled RAM while bigger laptops have 2 GB preinstalled.

Battery life

Of course you don’t want to carry 15 minutes computer, so better to check how many cells the laptop has compared to the performance they offer. The bigger performance they has need bigger cells to keep them life.

Displays and Video

Wide screen displays are now standard for laptop. The video on a laptop computer is generally using shared memory and generated by processor chipset, not a dedicated one, although some of them has an dedicated graphics card installed. The larger the display, the higher the resolution will typically be. If you use your laptop to generate 3D images or rendering video, better to choose a dedicated graphics, if not the standard shared memory graphics will do.

Drives

How many files will you carry?, If you don’t use optical drives often (you can buy an external optical drives), and just doing Office documents, Notebooks is very recommended for you, some of them has SSD drives to make better data  protection from shocks. If you need more storages, HDD drives laptops is for you.

Networking

Almost every laptop now has a built in Wi-Fi card, modem and USB ports. While other connectivity such as 3G cards or Bluetooth can be bought separately. (infrared is outdated I think J)

Warranty Support

When buying a system, make sure to get at least a 1 year warranty from the manufacturer, if you’d like you can also buy an extended warranty