Laptop Buying Tips

How Will You Use It?

The first question you need to ask yourself before buying a new laptop is: How will I use it? If your uses only include web browsing and editing the occasional word document or spreadsheet, you will probably be more than happy with a cheap laptop with just the basics.
On the other hand, if you want a highly customized gaming laptop you may end up in another price category altogether, and should pay close attention to the individual components – especially the graphics card in this case.
Basically, doing a little research before you get a new laptop can save you a lot of money. Reading our laptop reviews is one way of avoiding nasty surprises when buying a new laptop. Also check with our user-specific buying guides for some essential tips on what to look for.

General Recommendations

Another important thing to keep in mind is that no matter how much money you spend on a laptop, it will invariably feel old in a few years. Technology evolves, and there’s no such thing as a future-proof laptop. It’s more important to pick a laptop that you think you’ll be comfortable with for as long as you plan to keep it. The average lifespan of a laptop (or any computer) is highly subjective, but somewhere between two and three years is a sensible guideline for the average user.

Basic Laptops

If your computer needs only extend to web surfing, sending some emails and word processing there’s no need to spend a fortune on a high-end machine. Any laptop available on the market today is capable of these things. The main thing to consider here other than the cost is whether you need portability or usability. 
Netbooks are incredibly popular nowadays – they are highly portable laptops with 9 or 10-inch screens and also very affordable. Although if you plan to use one as your primary computer you should know that the hardware in a netbook is much less powerful compared to laptops in mainstream sizes. In a larger budget laptop you will also have more screen real estate and can work comfortably for extended periods. 

Upgrading

Generally speaking, a laptop can’t be upgraded as easily as a desktop PC. Some parts can’t be replaced at all as they are soldered or glued to the motherboard. More often than not this includes the CPU and graphics card. However, there are some parts that you can easily change or upgrade yourself – most notably hard drive and RAM memory. 

Laptop Components

To put it simply, laptop components are miniaturized versions of their desktop counterparts. For this reason they tend to be both pricier and less powerful. Producing miniaturized hardware is more expensive, and although prices have dropped considerably in the last few years, there’s still a noticeable difference on most parts.
When building a laptop, the manufacturer also has to consider how to dispose of the heat generated by the different components in an efficient way, which is difficult due to the limited space allowed by most laptop casings. Therefore laptop components usually run at lower speeds, as to avoid excessive heat building up inside the laptop.
There are many good reasons to learn more about the individual components in a laptop – not least to know what you’re buying, as it’s not always as simple as comparing MHz’s or GB’s. Also consult our glossary if you just need quick help with a difficult word or acronym.

Processor/CPU

Having a fast processor does not automatically make everything in your computer super fast, but it has the largest overall impact on system speed of all the other individual components. The CPU – or Central Processing Unit – performs all the essential calculations in your PC, for everything from core services to your running applications. 
Intel is currently the leading CPU manufacturer, and responsible for the Core, Atom and Centrino brand names among others. AMD is the runner-up with its Turion, Turion Ultra mobile processors, while VIA and other smaller manufacturers cater to the lower-end or embedded markets. Intel is in the lead in terms of performance, but AMD processors are quite capable as well and may offer a competitive price to performance ratio. 
Comparing the speed of different processors is done in MHz or GHz, although this is not valid for comparing different brands or types of processors. A 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, for example, is very small and power efficient, but it’s slower than an Intel Celeron processor at the same 1.6GHz clock speed and a lot slower than any mainstream dual-core AMD or Intel CPU.

Graphics Card/GPU

The graphics card is traditionally thought of as a gaming component – and it is, but nowadays the GPU is also used in several other scenarios and will probably take over even more of the CPU’s workload in the future. Applications for photo, video editing and HD video playback already use the GPU to offload the processor by performing parallel computations. 
If you want to be able to play games on your laptop, it’s crucial that you get one with a fast mobile GPU from either ATI or Nvidia. In laptops it’s more common with an integrated GPU from Intel such as the GMA950 or 4500MHD, but these are practically useless for modern games. 

RAM

Whenever you open a file or an application, its data is placed in the RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory. When you run out of memory the computer starts “swapping” the content of the memory to the hard drive (which is a lot slower), making it slow down considerably. To put it simply: the more RAM you have, the more applications and files can be open simultaneously without effecting performance. 
There are different kinds of RAM with different speeds, and laptops use a smaller variant than desktops. The fastest memory is currently DDR3, although clock frequencies and timings may vary.

Storage

By computer standards, hard drives are built on ancient technology, and it's currently on its way towards being replaced by solid state drives (SSDs), which are a lot faster, less power-hungry, and have no moving parts - also making them more durable.
However, the cost of solid state drives relative to their storage capacity is still very high, and most new laptops continue to ship with conventional hard drives.
How much hard drive space you need again depends on how you use your computer. If you use it to store your music, photo and video collection there is no upper limit – other than the physical limitations of the technology. The largest notebook hard drives today can store 500GB of data. If you just use the laptop at work and store spreadsheets and other office documents you don’t need that much space.