The Top 10 Things You Should Consider Before Buying A New Laptop- Naira Fame.
Nairafame-
0
Computer expert, Nairafame brings to you the top 10 things to consider when buying a new laptop:
Which laptop should you buy?
This isn’t a question with a
clear obvious answer. No matter your price category, there are simply
too many different types of laptops to choose from. More to the point,
there is no single best laptop because there is no single kind of user.
Everyone
wants something different. Some people care more about specs. Others
care more about screens. You might care more about having a laptop
that looks good than having one that can run graphically demanding
games. You might not. So when people ask us which laptop or laptop brand
is the best, we don't give them an easy answer.
Instead, we give them a list.
A set of criteria that
everyone should give some consideration towards before splurging on a
new device. Ultimately, it's your money. Taking the time to research and
think about how best to spend it might sound
a little more tedious and time-consuming than dropping into your local
JB Hi-Fi, flashing that cash and walking out with A Shiny New Thing.
However, in the long run, it increases the likelihood of you both saving
money and ending up with a product that actually suits your needs.
1. Size & Form-Factor
When it comes to laptops, size matters.
Depending
on what you plan to be doing with your next laptop, you’ll want to make
sure you pick the size that’s the right fit for you. Size isn’t like
the RAM or ROM of a laptop, you can’t upgrade it later. You’re locked into whatever form-factor you select up-front, so choose wisely.
Laptops
sizes tend to start at 11.6-inches and go all the way up to 17.3
inches. Most brands and OEMS like HP, Dell, ASUS and Acer tend to offer
three display sizes - 13.3-inch, 15.6-inch and 17.3-inches. However,
some vendors do sell laptops that fall outside these sizes including
11.6-inches, 12.5-inches and 14-inches.
Obviously, if portability
is your priority, you’ll want to go for a smaller-sized Windows laptop.
They tend to be thinner and lighter than their larger counterparts.
Look for laptops that have a screen that is either 12.5-inches or
13.3-inches in size, and a weight between 1kg and 1.5kgs.
However, keep in mind that smaller-sized 13.3-inch machines often
don’t support the same high-end Intel Core CPUs or discrete graphics
cards you’ll be able to find in their 15.6-inch counterparts. Most of
the time, they’ll also feature a less-robust selection of ports. If the
kind of work you intend to be using your new laptop for requires a
larger display or standalone graphics power, you’ll probably need to
look at a larger size.
Beyond specific sizings, there are several
different classes of laptop to choose from. Ultrabooks tend to favor a
slim and lightweight form-factor over high-end performance. Things like
the ASUS Zenbook (review here) and Lenovo’s Yoga (review here) devices fall into this category.
By
contrast, Notebooks tend to offer a good mix of power and portability.
If you’re looking at notebooks, a good place to start is the Dell XPS 13 (review here) and HP’s Envy x360 (review here).
Convertibles
(also known as 2-in-1 laptops or 2-in-1 PCs) expand on this by adding
the ability to fold away (or remove) the keyboard and use your new
laptop in tablet mode. Products like Microsoft’s Surface Go (review here) and Acer’s Chromebooks fall into this category.
Finally, traditional clamshell and gaming laptops tend to boast bulkier form-factors but significantly-beefier specs.
The most important thing to consider here when looking for the best
laptop you can buy is that you think about what you’re going to need
that laptop to do. It’s rarely ever a case of one size fits all. Some
users need something lighter and more portable. Other users need
discrete graphics for things like video editing or running high end
games. If you need a PC with an optical drive or long battery life,
you’ll almost certainly have to look for something larger.
Once
you’ve worked out the size and form-factor of laptop you’re looking
for, the search for the best one becomes that much easier - since you
can filter your search results by those parameters.
2. Screen Quality
Since you’ll probably end up staring at
your laptop screen hours at a time, you’ll probably want to make sure
it's as painless as possible to do so. For this, you'll need a screen
that is comfortable to look at and feels natural to use.
To start with, you’ll want to consider whether you want your next laptop to have a touchscreen at all.
These
days, touchscreens are very common and they can make some tasks easier
than others. Some brands include this feature as standard. Others will
demand a modest surcharge.
Unfortunately, opting for a
touchscreen can sometimes add a glossiness to the display. Though not a
universal trait among touch-sensitive displays, glossier screens are
often a little more susceptible to glare. This can be a definite
drawback if you’re gaming, watching content or editing images and video
content.
Modern touchscreens are much better than their
predecessors but, some of the above details persist and if you're more
of a natural typist, you might want to consider going for a laptop that
doesn’t have a touchscreen.
Credit: Dell
Next up, be sure to look at the resolution on any laptop you’re
thinking of buying. A 1920x1080-pixel resolution (Full HD) should be
considered the minimum if you want plenty of space to line up windows
and keep things in view.If you splurge on something a little sharper, you probably won't regret it though.
Select
modern laptops also now offer 4K resolutions. However, these high-end
display panels are generally a costly add-on to an already-expensive
product. They're only really going to be worth it for those who really
need them. For example, content creation professionals.
Photographers
and videographers will also want to privilege laptops that offer better
color accuracy and support wider color gamut and HDR standards over
those that don't. The key things you're looking for here are Delta E
< 1 color accuracy and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
If
you’re a gamer, it’s also worth taking the time to check the refresh
rate on the display of any potential laptop. A faster refresh rate can
often provide a sometimes provide a competitive advantage in online
games, as it enables a smoother and more responsive play experience.
Ideally, you want something with less than 5ms response time or a
refresh rate greater than 144Hz.
Lastly, viewing angles are
extremely important. A laptop screen that touts IPS (in-plane switching)
technology offers the widest viewing angles and the best user comfort.
Chances are you’re not always going to be using your laptop in its
natural habitat, so a laptop with an IPS display is usually preferred
over the opposite.
If possible, take the time to go into a store and try to feel out the
differences between different displays for yourself. If your eyes can't
see much of a difference between a laptop with a FHD display and one
with a 4K one, it might not be worth paying the premium for the latter.
Just
keep in mind that display models usually have the settings cranked to
the maximum in order to catch your eyes. Otherwise, be sure to check out
reviews like those on PC World to get a good overview of the product
and whether or not its screen will be able to suit your needs. In 2020,
most major laptop displays hit the mark but those that don't make
themselves quickly known often when subjected to the scrutiny of a
professional reviewer.
3. Keyboard quality
For
long typing sessions, you’ll need to get a laptop that has a
comfortable keyboard. You don’t want to get a keyboard that packs in
every key under the sun (think keyboards that have squished in number
pads) because that can translate to a poor overall user experience when
hunting for specifics like the arrow or delete keys.
Credit: HP
You want a keyboard that has a comfortable layout with full-sized
keys and some space around the arrow keys. The keys should have adequate
travel on the downstroke and snappy responsiveness when you let them
go.
Make sure the keyboard is also backlit. At face value, that
might seem like a superficial detail but backlist keys make it much
easier to see what you're typing in dimly lit environments.
As
with the screen, it helps to try before you buy, especially if your
main task will be typing. Chances are, you're going to find the most
comfort with what you know here. If you're used to typing on a laptop
keyboard that stretches all the way to the edge of the chassis, you're
probably going to find laptops that opt for the same or a similar layout
to be easier to type on than the alternatives.
4. CPU
It’s hard to go past any of Intel’s Core-based CPUs when buying a new
laptop. Even if you're not versed in the technical details, there's a
good chance you've seen the stickers plastered on all new laptops for
the silicon giant's Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 propcessors.
For
many users, an Intel Core Processor offer the best performance when it
comes to multitasking and multimedia tasks. Core i3-based notebooks are
generally found in entry-level systems, while Core i5 makes up the
majority of mainstream computers.
Core i7-based systems are for
those of you who want the best performance from your laptop. However,
note that with a Core i7-based system, heat coming through the base of
the laptop can be cause for concern, especially if you plan to actually
use the laptop on your lap a lot of the time.
Some larger laptops also now incorporate Intel's i9 Core processors.
Laptops running on i9 Core processors are even more powerful than
laptops running on i7 Core processors. They're able to rival desktops
for performance but they do come with a significantly-higher cost than a
laptop with an i7, i5 or i3 Core Processor.
Select
vendors now also offer laptops and notebooks that run on AMD’s Ryzen
Mobile CPUs. If you’re a gamer, this can be a particularly compelling
option worth considering. Ryzen Mobile CPUs tend to be paired with AMD’s
own Vega graphics chipsets, which are currently far better for gaming
than Intel’s own onboard graphics.
There are a few caveats here
but, since laptops powered by AMD's Ryzen Mobile chips tend to be
slightly cheaper than their Intel counterparts, they can represent
better value for money. Just be sure to read up on our breakdown of the differences first.
5. RAM
In the old days, you rarely needed more than 4GB of RAM or more to get the best out of your system.
More RAM
allows for more applications to be run at the same time, and for more
data to be quickly accessible by the system at any one time, which comes
in handy for tasks such as editing photos or video content.
There
are a few interesting terms that you might see when looking into RAM
specs, here's what you essentially need to know about them. Alongside
the brand and capacity of any RAM stick, you're gonna find the letters
DDR. There's also usually a number attached. For example, the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED laptop
has two 8GB sticks of DDR4 RAM. This acronym stands for Double Data
Rate and the number that comes after it refers to the generation of
component design.
The most recent generation of RAM hardware is DDR4 but
DDR5 RAM is expected to land sometime in 2021. As a rule, higher
numbers are better than lower numbers here and most motherboards can
only support certain generations of RAM. Thankfully,
since you're looking at buying a laptop, you don't have too much to
worry about here since no sane OEM is going to stick incompatible RAM
into a prebuilt machine.
The number that comes after the DDR designation is a little more significant. That's the transfer speed. Similar
to the clock-speed on a CPU, this number measures the default
theoretical maximum transfer speed. Again, higher is better here. Higher
speeds means stuff happens faster.
Another detail to note here is whether or not the RAM in your laptop is single or dual-channel.
In most everyday use cases, this might not make a huge difference but,
if you're trying to weigh up your options, a laptop with dual-channel is
generally more desirable than one with an equivalent amount of
single-channel memory clocked at the same transfer speed. This is
because dual-channel RAM is able to transfer a greater amount of data at
once.
In conclusion, while having more RAM is always going
to be better than having less RAM, most users aren't going to feel the
difference between having 16GB and having 32GB unless they're running
the kinds of RAM-heavy applications where that 16GB or a secondary
channel is going to make a big difference. Since RAM is relatively cheap
and often easy to upgrade in modern laptops, it's usually smarter and
safer to buy for what you need here rather than what you might.
6. Storage
Hard
drives used to be all the rage, but these days they’ve mostly out of
favor, especially for thin and light laptops. This is because they can
be slow, somewhat bulky, and produce noticeable heat and noise.
A
solid state drive (SSD), on the other hand, offers a lot more speed
than a hard drive, runs silently, and can be installed in a form factor
that doesn’t add too much to the weight and bulk of a laptop. As a
result of these clear benefits, most OEMs have embraced SSD storage as
the standard for laptops.
Stick to an SSD for your new laptop
and you’ll love the speed with which it can load programs, access your
data, and also how quickly it can boot up your system.
The
only problem is that SSDs don’t offer as much capacity. This means that
SSD storage is often more expensive in terms of dollars-to-gigabytes
than traditional hard drives. You’ll be stuck with a drive that’s
either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB in size, but costs a lot more than one with
a 1TB or 2TB hard drive would.
To compensate, many laptop and PC
OEMs now pair a smaller SSD with a larger hard drive. This allows
consumers to get the speed benefits of keeping their operating system on
SSD storage while also having adequate storage space for the rest of
their data.
If you opt to go for something with this
two-pronged setup, you'll generally want an SSD with a minimum of 256GB
of storage and a secondary drive with no less than 1TB. Alternatively,
if your laptop only has a single SSD drive at its disposal, you'll want
to make sure if includes no less than 512GB of storage space.
The newest, fastest laptops also have NVMe solid-state drives
which are even faster than traditional SSDs but also more expensive. If
you're buying a new laptop in 2020, you'll want one with an SSD.
However, that being said, don't feel overly pressured to spend extra on
the latest model here. While it is true that more recent SSDs boast
better speeds than older models, the biggest advantages you're enjoy
here are tied more to the fundamental advances that SSDs offer over
traditional hard drive storage.
7. Battery Life
Manufacturer-quoted battery life is almost never indicative of what the real-world experience of using a laptop is like.
There
are simply too many variables that affect battery life. There is the
screen brightness, the screen resolution, the number of applications you
have running in the background plus whether or not you actively remain
connected to Wi Fi networks or Bluetooth devices.
Credit: ASUS
ASUS Zenbook Pro 15
The operating system a laptop runs on can also play a major role in
determining battery life. It’s for this reason that ultrabooks and
convertibles running on Chrome OS tend to offer superior battery life
than those running on Windows 10.
If you run programs that need
lots of processing, stream lots of online video, play graphics-intensive
games or if you transfer lots of files over a wireless network, then
your battery will drain a lot sooner than what the vendor has quoted.
If you run programs that need lots of processing, stream
lots of online video, play graphics-intensive games or if you transfer
lots of files over a wireless network, then your battery will drain a
lot sooner than what the vendor has quoted.
A
good practice here is to look at the rating of the battery in
Watt-hours (Wh) or milliamp-hours (mAh). The larger these figures are,
the longer the battery can last. For a 13.3in Ultrabook, for example, a
battery with a rating from 44Wh to 50Wh will give you the best results.Another
key thing to look for here is fast-charging. Much like modern
smartphones, many new laptops also support fast-charging, which is
always good in a pinch.
8. USB 3.0
These days, if a laptop has only one USB 3.0 port on it, you probably
ought to look at buying another laptop. Ideally, you should look for a
laptop that has at least a couple of these USB 3.0 ports. They're the
most common connector port in the industry and, while you can find a
dongle for anything on Amazon, it's usually a better bet to just make
sure your next laptop has them.
In addition to the baseline
utility you get from USB ports (which allow you to plug in an external
hard or SSD drive and backup your data or use conventional mouse or a
fancy keyboard with your laptop), USB 3.0 is about ten times faster than
USB 2.0. This means that data transfers over USB 3.0 take significantly
less time.
Many modern peripherals also tend to deliver the best performance on or require USB 3.0 to function at all.
Credit: Intel
thunderbolt-4-cable-100851054-orig.jpg
If possible, you should try and take things a step further and go for
a laptop with USB 3.1 ports. USB 3.1 allows for a throughput of up to
10 gigabits, double that offered by USB 3.1.
If you’re ready
to embrace USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 3 ports offer an even better option.
Thunderbolt 3 ports have a peak data transfer speed of 40 gigabits
per-second. At the moment, the peripheral ecosystem around USB Type-C
isn't quite as mature as conventional USB 3.0 but, as more device
manufacturers switch to the connector-type, it's becoming more
compelling.
9. Biometric Security
Fingerprint readers are great for logging into mobile devices and the
latest Windows 10 Operating System makes further use of them with its Windows Hello system.
People can guess your password, but few can fake a fingerprint. In
order to keep the contents of your laptop secure, a portable PC with a
fingerprint reader is usually the best way forward.
Thankfully, this feature is a pretty common inclusion on many modern laptops from major OEMs like ASUS, Dell and HP.
Some have even integrated the fingerprint sensor into the keyboard,
making it feel like a more cohesive part of the package rather than a
bolt-on.
It's cool to see the modern laptops
continue raise the bar on this particular front even if the degree to
which it matters is largely personal preference. For most people, a
standard fingerprint sensor is going to provide more than enough of
peace of mind.
10. Build quality
No matter how careful we are, most laptops
are inevitably going to find themselves, dropped, thrown and knocked
around by the rigors of everyday use. For that reason, it's worth
checking out how much testing a laptop
has undergone (the manufacturer usually crows about it) or whether
there's any sort certification that you can put your confidence behind.
Modern laptops
are often ruggedized to withstand rain and dust. Some are built
especially for the brutal educational environments - and come with
military-grade protection certifications. The most common of these
you're going to see is MIL-STD 810G.
MIL-STD-810G is a standard
used by the US Military to indicate a guaranteed minimum level of
durability. Compliant products have made it through a gauntlet of 29
separate tests that measure resistance to shock, heat, cold, humidity
and more. Though originally developed as a way to win government
contract, MIL-STD-810G has become increasingly common in consumer tech in recent years.
Manufacturers can absolutely
take their testing in-house, "ace" it and put the sticker on the box.
There's no limit on how many attempts a product has to pass a certain
test, nor even a limit on whether the same product sample needs to
survive all 29 tests or whether they can replace it with a fresh model
every step of the way. They don't even need to provide proof that the
testing ever happened.
From the perspective of any everyday
consumer, there's zero difference in how a product that was properly and
independently tested to meet MIL-STD-810G looks and how a product that
"fudged" their way into compliance with the standard looks. This is
obviously problematic.
For those reasons, MIL-STD-810G
is best used as starting place when it comes to thinking about
durability and build quality in your next laptop. It shouldn't be your
one and only consideration.
A better way to approach
the problem is to look at the laptops design and what specific claims
are being made around durability. Are the manufacturer talking up
drop-tests or spill resistance that goes beyond the usual MIL-STD-810G
spiel? That's probably a good sign.
For as ubiquitous as MIL-STD-810G is as a standard, it's
often unclear how rigorously manufacturers are applying sticking to the
spirit of the thing and, if you're keen to make sure your next laptop
can take a hit or two, it's worth looking at brands that go one-step
further.
Meet your needs and budget
Of course, you
need to balance these features with your budget and your needs, and you
might have to make some compromises. Rarely does a laptop come along
that ticks all the boxes, especially when it comes to price.
Let
us know in the comments below if you consider other aspects of a laptop
to be more important (maybe you want better gaming performance or a
rugged build, maybe you want a laptop that can turn into a tablet), and
especially let us know if you’ve already found the perfect laptop for
your needs.
Credit: Dell 
Credit: HP 
