You want to buy a new laptop and you’re lost in the specs? Don’t worry, we have gathered the most important aspects that you should look for in a laptop.
It is not easy for even the most experienced to choose the right one from the huge offer of the laptop market, especially for those who are not that passionate about tech and gadgets. It is very easy to get lost between gigabytes and other professional terms when gathering and browsing information, so we have now gathered the most important aspects – without any good-sounding advertising slang – based on which you will be able to choose the ideal device for you.
1. Purpose
As a first step, you need to consider what you are going to use your laptop for? What features do you need to perform because you can rank the other expectations based on that.
Those who e.g. would use the notebook at home only to surf the internet, Facebook, read email, watch Youtube video, listen to music, need a completely different laptop with a lower set of equipment than someone playing computer games, designing in 3D, or running high-performance graphics programs on their new device.
For this reason, it is very important to determine what tasks you will be using the machine for, as this will greatly narrow the supply and also affect the price category.
Once you have exactly what you are going to use it for, you can already choose from specific pre-selected categories using our special notebook filter: I am looking for a laptop for business, home / general, or gamer purposes.
What is the difference between them?
In business machines, more attention is paid to material use and safety functions during manufacturing. Data security (e.g. fingerprint reader, TPM chip, BitLocker) is more robust and durable in business. Here, it is not a design appearance, but the knowledge that will be paramount. Companies, entrepreneurs who use the notebook they buy for work every day (also called workstations) do not risk falling out of work because the device is faulty. There may also be extra demands on business laptops for home use types such as long battery life, special ports, 4G modem, dust, water, impact resistance, longer warranty time. These extras, of course, can cost more than a notebook for family use.
The domestic/general use laptops for business machines are lighter, slim, colorful, aesthetically pleasant who can better express the user’s individuality. With these laptops, the manufacturers have strived for everyone to find the right type for their needs and budget, be it video viewing, image editing, or just simple Word, Excel, Internet use. Don’t be misguided you can have fun on these laptops as well. You can play some online games like blackjack, poker, or any downloadable game with small requirements. But don’t expect to be able to play a game like Cyberpunk 2077.
And now the gamer machines. These are specially developed for high performance, they are equipped with a more powerful processor and video card, so they can withstand fast computing tasks (the image is not torn), no matter how big the game is. Their cooling systems are also special so that the system does not heat up or collapse in the heat of the game.
Within these groups, manufacturers differentiate between entry-level, mid-range, and high-end laptops. The price difference is usually due to differences in performance (processor, memory, VGA) and equipment (HDD, SDD, display, operating system).
2. Drive
What is still very important to determine before buying a laptop is the type of drive, which can be HDD, SSD, or hybrid, which is a combination of the two.
What is the drive? Basically, we store all our data on the hard drive. Therefore, it is one of the most important parts of our machine, and contrary to the misconception, the size of the hard drive does not affect the speed of our machine at all. The type of hard drive is what affects speed!
SSDs are like hard drives, but they are made with new technology for data storage, which is much faster. The SSD, as opposed to the HDD, is a memory chip module, similar to normal RAM, that accesses all of the storage substantially simultaneously, so its read speed is 6x 7x faster than a traditional HDD.
On HDD versions, a mechanically moving head reads the data, so it’s a little slower. The SSD has no moving parts, no motor to drive, no heat load, lower power consumption, and lighter, so the laptop itself loses weight when replacing an HDD. Essentially, the HDD is slower because when reading from the disk, there is a positioning time until the head rises above that data, while the SSD immediately reaches all the data and there is no need to wait for the head to move.
The “disadvantage” of an SSD over an HDD is that they are more expensive due to the above difference and also have a smaller capacity than their HDD counterparts.
Here you need to consider whether you need 500-1000 GB of storage because I would use these documents all the time, so is it worth sacrificing speed in return? Many people choose the solution of having a 128 GB SSD machine and storing movies, music, pictures on external storage. We have several solutions to choose from!
For example, from a laptop with a factory 1000GB HDD storage, you can disassemble the Winchester and replace it with a 128GB SSD, of course without losing the warranty. (You can choose the storage sizes according to how much you need, in comparison: 1000 GB of storage is enough for 537 thousand for 6.5-megapixel images, but even for 218 thousand for 16-megapixel photos. For average users, the space is likely to last for many, many years. sufficient.)
In addition, factory HYBRID drives are also available on the laptop market. In this situation, the laptop also has an SSD and HDD drive at the same time. You can search for such machines specifically for the storage type. There is also a version where the SSD is only small, but exactly enough to load the operating system (at least 32GB) from here, so the speed will be maintained, but the space required for data storage will also be preserved. In practice, this seems to be a good idea to install high-computing or data-intensive programs on the SSD drive, as this will load data faster, which does not require the speed to go to the HDD, e.g. photos, videos, and other documents.
So for those who definitely need speed because of the programs and games, choose an SSD laptop, but those who are satisfied with the “traditional” speed and need more space should decide on the HDD. There are plenty of choices, so the configuration you choose can be almost completely customized in this area.
3. Processor
Most people tend to make a mistake at this specification because the specific model number says nothing to them, although it is very important to choose the right processor for us. The processor is one of the most important parts of a laptop because it is the central computing unit. The speed of this affects the performance of the device, so it is important to choose the right one because this battery cannot be expanded or replaced later!
There are currently two major processor manufacturers in the laptop market, INTEL, and AMD. Machines with an AMD processor are a bit cheaper, so we’ll come across these entry-level machines, but that doesn’t mean they’re a low-end in terms of performance either. INTEL is the largest processor manufacturer today, and most machines have this processor in different generations.
We want to dispel some misconceptions: the internet will not be faster from buying a laptop with a faster processor. Speed here means that high-definition games do not run intermittently, multiple windows can be used at the same time without slowing down, but if e.g. we watch a movie on the internet or play and stop while it is the fault of the internet and not the processor.
Conclusion
It’s very important to gather around your needs. It’s best if you write down your needs regarding the laptop. After that, based on your needs you can choose the right laptop more easily for yourself. Now that you understand the purpose of the drive and processor you will have a deeper understanding of these terms.