There are a number of factors to bear in mind when buying your first laptop computer.
The first step is to decide what you will need it for. Will it be small and compact for business meetings, or will you need it with a bigger screen and decent graphics for gaming? Whatever your requirements we’ve outlined some points you should think about before taking the plunge.
Budget
Obvious, but very important. For less than £500 you’re likely only to get a basic machine without frills such as wireless connectivity or 3D graphics. Better equipped laptops start from around the £700 mark and upwards of £1000 will get you quite a lot for your money. How much you decide to spend will be dictated by what you need the laptop for and what specification you need.
Top buy for under £500: Gateway MT3104b is basic but is only £399!
How much power?
If you do lots of travelling, you may want to opt for a thin and lightweight laptop. But with portability there are some obvious compromises – a smaller screen, a slower processor, and less chance of gameworthy graphics. Also smaller laptops aren’t always more expensive. Smaller and lighter components do cost more to build, but larger laptops can carry desktop computer processors, have faster graphics components, and tremendous screens for huge entertainment potential. Beware though as all these contribute to a shorter battery life, although many laptops have extra external battery packs you can buy.
Processor speed
The processor is often considered the brains of the computer and needless to say the faster the processor the better the computer performance. Right now it’s a straight fight between Intel and AMD, with AMD arguably the better value for money. Whichever one you choose you should always keep in mind what you will be using the computer for as these vary in price considerably, but both these manufacturers’ processors are designed for portability and power efficiency.
Graphics performance
Laptops can now compete with desktop computers for quality of graphics. However we suggest only going with the best if you need the best. Gaming, video production and 3D graphics will all need a very good card as will having a large screen, but if you only have a small 15inch screen and are just using it for word documents and spreadsheets graphics are likely to be less important. A word of caution – the graphics card can be the single most expensive component you buy so don’t get what you don’t need. The two major players are ATi and nVidia with ATi the leader at present in the laptop market.
Hard Drive
With hard drives, consider 40GB a minimum size. Larger capacity drives – 60GB or 80GB – are often available as optional extras. If you’re going to be storing a lot of digital videos or photos, you may even choose to opt for more.
Memory
Like hard drive size, the amount of memory you need is relative to what you want to do. For entry level we recommend getting a laptop with at least 512MB of RAM. If you’re looking to run several applications at once on your laptop, or use big applications such as Adobe Photoshop, you’ll probably want a minimum of 1GB but don’t worry memory is something you can upgrade later.
Screen
Again this is down to usage but it is important that your screen has a good viewing angle. Gamers should look for a great screen with a high refresh rate as well as a good size. Also check the screen will actually be bright enough for you and you can see it from a distance if that’s what you’ll require. Widescreen displays are now increasingly. Not only do these provide far better screen resolutions, but they offer much more space on screen, so it’s easier to edit things like Excel documents. Whatever size you go for will depend on what you need to use your laptop for and, more crucially, where you’ll need to carry it.
Screen queen: Acer Aspire 9813WKMi comes with a whopping 20.1 inch screen.
Published on 10th January 2007
