“How to choose a laptop?” – is a question worthy of the program. For great minds to spend two minutes (along with an extra one) discussing what is essential in a portable computer. Weight? Video card? RAM? Type of screen? The answer is “Yes” because a laptop is chosen based on the purpose for which it is purchased. For example, a replacement for a desktop PC for everything, a tool to work on the road, to watch videos, and so on.
Now we will tell you what a laptop consists of and tell you which laptop to choose based on your wishes. For example, if you need a computer to play Online sic bo at Bollywood, you can select the most specific device.
The convenience of the device
Before buying a laptop, you must decide what you need it for. It would help if you also understood what part of the financial resources you are willing to allocate to its purchase. It so happens that the laptop is more expensive than a desktop PC with the same characteristics. After all, the manufacturer must carefully put all the contents into a compact form and consider cooling, design, and other parameters. One power supply can weigh more than a laptop on a desktop computer!
When you buy a laptop, you pay for the device’s comfort, portability, and ability to carry it anywhere. You can change places of work: living room, kitchen and, what the heck, the toilet! It is a current problem for remote workers, by the way. Or you travel a lot, but you always need access to a working Excel spreadsheet or other vital programs. A laptop is a complete ecosystem. A very rare laptop owner “gets into” the device’s insides, changing something in it. So you need to understand why you need this device.
Screen diagonal
The bigger the diagonal, the better. On a screen with a large diagonal, you can open more windows to distribute many documents with texts, which will be a tangible help in work. In addition, games on a powerful panel look cooler; when watching movies, the effect of immersion is enhanced.
But if the notebook is used at home and brought to work, it can be helpful on the road; when traveling – large size can be a disadvantage. Therefore, choosing a diagonal should be guided only by your needs and preferences.
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Planning to use your laptop only at home, at the table, occasionally carry it to the kitchen and take it to bed (not the best idea!) – pay attention to models from 16 inches and above.
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Taking your laptop with you? Models ranging from 11 to 14 inches are your choice. They won’t take up unnecessary space in your bag.
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Constantly torn between home, work, and cottage? Do you need documents to prepare and watch videos on YouTube and google seedlings? Then laptops with a diagonal of 14-16 inches – that’s what the doctor prescribed!
Types of matrixes
The quality characteristics of the laptop screen, in the first place, depending on the type of liquid crystal matrix used. At the moment, there are four main types of matrices. All have names in the form of acronyms: TN, VA, IPS, and OLED.
TN-like matrices.
Old technology. Very inexpensive and easy to manufacture, therefore often used in aircraft, machine tools, medical and other equipment with a display. In terms of quality, they may differ from each other. The most advanced have wide enough horizontal viewing angles due to additional layers of liquid crystals. But the vertical review is low in all without exception, so the picture on the screen begins to fade even at a slight angle. This technological drawback is the most critical for laptops because you can use them not only sitting at the table but also lying on your lap and even lying down.
VA-like
VA matrixes with color rendering are already much better. And the vertical viewing angles are noticeably wider than on TN. For multimedia entertainment, they will suit just fine because there are also models with high refresh rates and low latency. Not to mention the deepest blacks, which is achieved through a high contrast ratio. In this regard, VA is noticeably superior to IPS.
IPS
IPS panels boast the highest color fidelity to accepted standards. Well-calibrated from factory models can be used in amateur and semi-professional photography, graphics, and printing activities. But such accuracy-oriented color models may not be too fast. Another thing is models with a scanning frequency of 120 Hz and higher. And even they will be significantly superior to TN in color accuracy.
OLED
It is a technology based on organic light-emitting diodes. Produces the most transparent and realistic image. Black is perfect and is much better than the VA matrix. Latency is also extremely low. Because each sub-pixel emits light independently, no additional backlight layer is suitable for weight and is very relevant for laptops.
Processor
You will probably find a processor with two cores in the most inexpensive laptops: Athlon from AMD or Celeron and Atom from Intel. Their processing power is enough for simple tasks such as working with documents and Internet surfing. But they perform their duties slowly enough.
Hard drive
Laptops are put drives of two types: SSD or HDD. SSDs are faster, more modern, and more reliable devices. Although the price advantage for the exact capacity will be off their side, you should prefer them. On the other hand, HDD can be considered only if you need storage for large amounts of data that do not care about read and write performance. For example, images, documents, and archival materials of a different order.
The minimum amount of SSD storage found in laptops is 128 GB. It is a very fair value by today’s standards. However, the Windows 10-11 operating system will immediately occupy half of this volume. And subsequently, the space will shrink even more due to updates.
RAM
The optimal RAM size today is 8 GB. Buy a laptop model with less than that only as a last resort: 4 GB may not be enough if you open many tabs in the Internet browser. Furthermore, some models are equipped with only one memory slot, and to increase the amount, and you will have to buy a new card with a larger capacity and replace it with the old one, thus adding to your hassle. Note that models with 4 GB are top-rated; they are often installed in laptops for studies.