Things to Consider When Buying Laptops
Selecting the best laptop within the estimated budget is really stressful because we have to consider many specifications, features, and benefits while buying the laptop. The different attractive marketing tactics played by the companies make the selection of laptops more confusing and difficult, which makes the purchase of a budget fit the best laptop like steering a minefield. Laptops vary on the basis of CPU speed, size, RAM, graphics capability, storage, etc. The requirements of one laptop can be entirely different from another laptop which raises confusion among the buyer while purchasing the laptops. In this article, you will learn different things to consider that you have to keep in your mind before or while buying the laptops.
What are the specifications of a good laptop in Nepal ?
Category | specifications of a good laptop |
Screen Size | 15.6 is the standard size of laptops but you can consider 12 to 14 inches screens as they are easily portable and offer better usability. |
Display Type | You can choose IPS if you want to have great viewing angles. |
RAM and ROM | You need to choose laptops with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage for conducting multi-task in the laptop |
Battery | You can select the laptop with around 9 hours of battery life. |
Processor
The speed of your laptop to control the varieties of operations and functions depends upon the processor of that device. The most popular brands of processor are Intel and Ryzen in the market. While Selecting the processors, you have to consider the following things.
- Generation of the processor
- The date of release
- Number of cores and threads
Intel i7 or Ryzen 7 and above is usually preferred by the advanced users. Mid-level users usually go with Intel core i5 and Ryzen 5. Before purchasing the processor go through the details of the processor, check and compare the capacity and performance of the processor.
RAM
RAM ( Random Access Memory) is the temporary storage device where the intermediate data at the time of processing operation is stored. The size of RAM determines the experience of the laptop. The larger is the size of RAM the smoothest is the experience. The size of RAM varies from 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB in the market. While selecting the laptop you have to remember that choosing the laptop with enough RAM for handling your requirements is foremost.
Storage
There are two types of storage options available; HDD and SSD in the market. SSD is comparatively faster than HDD as it is based on modern technology and also is a bit more expensive in cost. On the basis of your requirements, you can select from 128GB to 1TB of storage .
S.N. | Basis of Comparison | HDD | SSD |
1. | Performance | Moderate | Excellent |
2. | Power Consumption | 6-15 watts | 2-5 Watts. |
3. | Durability | 2-5 % failure rate | 0.5% failure rate |
4. | Running Capabilities | Requires more space | Less energy and speed. |
5. | Seek Time and Rotational Latency | Inferior to SSD as it needs to spin to obtain data | Better to HDD. |
6. | Access Time | 5.5-8 ms | 0.1 ms |
7. | Starting Time | Takes more time | Super quick and much upper-level to HDD. |
8. | Data Transfer Rate | 400-500 ms | 20 ms |
9. | Cost | Cheaper than SSD | Expensive |
Weight
Weight of the laptop is one of the determining factors while buying the laptop as the portability of the device becomes a great issue for students and professionals who need to carry it everywhere. The laptop with lighter weight will be better and easily portable but it can be a bit expensive and you may not get a full keyboard. The laptop with a bigger display size is usually heavier. You can check the weight and dimensions present on the specifications while buying the laptop.
Display
One of the important parameters while choosing the laptop is Display. You have to consider the quality,size, resolution and touch sensitivity of the display while selecting the laptops. Matte and anti-glare display is more beneficial to the one who will be looking at the laptop’s screen for a longer time. Touch screen displays can be more beneficial if you are a graphics designer. Display with high resolution offers you a pleasant experience of viewing.
Battery
You need to consider the battery life of the laptop while purchasing it and be sure that the battery is Lithium-ion or of similar newer technology. Consider following things to find out the average battery life of your laptop.
Check the Watt-Hour of the battery present on the product specification of the battery.
Check the detailed specification of the battery and find out the maximum expected wattage of a laptop.
Using the formula– Watt-hours/estimated wattage, find out the approximate battery life in hours.
Graphics
There are implanted graphics cards in the laptop which is very advantageous to gamers and designers as they operate heavy-duty graphics based applications. NVIDIA and AMD are generally the most popular cards among all the graphics cards. You can also use external graphics cards by adding the adapter which is expensive. You have to select the laptop with good graphics. You can choose simple to depicted graphics according to your need and requirements.
Connectivity
Another major parameter while selecting a laptop is connectivity. The pretty standard needs of the laptop is a USB port. You need to check the generation of a USB port along with the data transfer rate. Modern laptops include the option of Type C USB and ThunderBolt port.
Port Standard | Data Transfer Rate/ Speed | USB Connector Types | Cable Length |
USB 1.1 | 12 Mbps | USB -AUSB-B | 3 m |
USB 2.0 | 480 Mbps | USB -A USB-B USB Micro-A USB Micro-B USB Mini-A USB Mini-B Type C | 5 m |
USB 3.1 | 5 Gbps | USB -A USB-B USB Micro-B Type C | 3 m |
USB 3.2 | 20 Gbps | USB -A USB-B USB Micro-B Type C | 3 m |
USB 4 | 40 Gbps | Type-C | 0.8m |
Laptop specifications list
Windows | MAC |
---|---|
Intel Core i7 or i9 processor | 64-bits supported Multicore Intel-processor,Intel Core 2 of i5 or i7 edition |
processor : Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor of 1.8 GHz or faster. | MacOS version : 10.12 or higher |
Microsoft Windows 10 | SSD harddrive with at least 256 GB |
SSD harddrive with at least 256 GB | Minimum RAM : 8 GB RAM Recommended : 16GB RAM |
Minimum RAM : 8 GB RAM Recommended : 16 GB RAM | Free disk space for MAC : 8 GB |
Free disk space : 3.1 GB | Retina Screen : 16 bits colours Recommended graphics card: At least 2 GB. |
Minimum Screen Resolution: 1280×800 Graphics cards: Nvidia or ATI having at least 2GB dedicated memory; | OpenGL 2.0 support |
Other Considerations
- Check the budget
- Checkout the laptop body
- Inspect the Screen Condition
- Test keyboard and mouse
- Check the ports and drives
- Check Wireless Connectivity
- Check Webcam and speakers
- Check Battery health