What’s a good quality laptop? What specs to look for in a laptop? – These are the questions everyone asks before buying a new laptop. But there is no specific answer to this. The best laptop varies depending on the usage requirement of you.
The options are plenty from which one has to choose.
Some people care more about the specifications before buying their laptop. Others focus on the outlook, screen, and display. The suggestion to buy a genuine laptop depends thoroughly on the purpose of using the gadget.
Which Factors To Look For In A Laptop?
Here is a list of what things to look for in a laptop concerning your purpose of having one.
Size Matters!
Here, size does not imply the storage or RAM of the laptop. That falls under the hardware specification. Here, size means the inch-to-inch measurement of your laptop that you cannot upgrade later.
Depending upon the portability and usage, you should be choosing your new laptop. Choose a size that fits your needs.
Most of the brands like ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, and HP offers display size in three variants – 17.3-inch, 15.6-inch, and 13.3 inches. Apart from them, several vendors offer laptop sizes dissimilar to notable companies. Their laptop sizes include a 14-inch display, 12.5 inches, and 11.6-inch displays.
If portability is your only preference, go for a small windows laptop. The smaller laptops are light in weight, easy to carry, and thinner when compared to the other laptops.
To get the best portable ones, select laptops that are of size 13.3-inch or 12.5 inches and weighs around 1.5kg to 1kg.
NOTE: These portable laptops are not meant to give the best hardware performance as a high-end CPU processor one. Most of the time, they don’t support dedicated graphics cards, which means you can’t play high-end games and can get slower after prolonged use. If your work does not demand any of the above, choosing a light-weight, thin laptop will be a happy purchase.
High-tier gaming laptops tend to be bulky, typically to accommodate better specs, desktop-like hardware, and larger screens.
Display Quality
Work or entertainment, the eye contact with your laptop screen will be for hours. It is safer to go for a laptop display screen, which feels natural and comfortable for your eyes.
When talking about a laptop screen, the option to choose a touch screen or regular screen deserves mention.
Nowadays, touch screen laptops are very popular in the market as they are easy to use than regular ones. Some laptop brands have introduced this feature as their everyday one. Other brands place decent pricing.
A touchscreen laptop might look glossier in the beginning. But for gaming, watching movies, or editing video content, it can create a fuss.
If you are a typist, choose a laptop where you can type peacefully – where the keys will be smooth enough for all-day typing.
A Full HD (1902×1080 pixel resolution) will be minimum if you want to keep all the tabs lined in a window. Modern touch screen laptops have 4K resolutions once you pay generously for the device. For professional video creators or editors, spending on high-end displays is worth an investment.
These laptops support a wider color gamut, HDR Standards with better color accuracy.
Gamers should choose a gaming laptop, screen displays with a refresh rate greater than 144 Hz, or response time less than 5ms.
For all-purpose usage, a laptop screen with IPS technology will give you the best wide-angle view. This specific technology is compatible with every environment and habitat. That is why most of the buyer’s inclination is towards the IPS technology laptop screen.
Keyboard Quality
If you are a writer, your first and foremost demand for a laptop is a comfortable keyboard for prolonged typing sessions.
Higher budget laptops offer beautiful keyboard layouts with spaces in between the keys. The best advantage of this specification is you can repair them separately.
If shortly, any of the keys get worn out or damaged, the service center will charge you for changing one single key instead of the whole panel.
Non-spacious keyboards do not allow this option. You have to replace the whole layout instead of replacing a single key.
Make sure that your keyboard has a backlight. If you love working under dim light, the backlit keyboard will make the keys visible without mere difficulties.
CPU
Now when the appearance factors are over, let’s talk about the real techie specs.
Going past Intel Core-based CPU is hard in the long list of what things to look for in a laptop. If you are not into the technical stuff, give a fair glance at the blue and white, square-shaped sticker that is glued on every laptop mentioning Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 processors.
According to many performance tests, Intel offers the best performance in terms of multimedia and multitasking. The notebooks that are based on Core i3 processors are for beginner level systems while the Core i5 ones lead the market in mainstream computing.
The Core i7 bases computer systems give the all-time best performance. The only problem that arises after the prolonged use of Core i7 notebooks is they tend to heat up a lot. If you prefer to keep the laptop on your lap while using, you can still use a Core i7 notebook but with an additional cooling pad attached at the base of the laptop.
On a greater scale, the Intel i9 processor runs thoroughly on several high budget laptops. They are the most powerful in today’s market than the i7 processors. They can robustly compete with desktop performance.
Intel’s rival is AMD, which in the last years their Ryzen CPU models have been growing in popularity and also a thing to consider, some brands have started to manufacture models with AMD Ryzen CPUs.
GPU
If you play games, create 3D graphics, or do high-resolution video editing, you’ll need a laptop with a dedicated graphics processing unit (GPU) from AMD or Nvidia.
At the moment, the majority of gaming notebooks come with Nvidia GeForce GTX or RTX GPUs.
These cards can also be found in some high-end non-gaming laptops as well.
But if you don’t play games, create 3D graphics or do high-resolution video editing, an integrated graphics chip (one that shares system memory) will work just fine and is found in most laptops.
RAM
The more the RAM size, the more smoothly you can multitask on your device.
Gone are the days when more than 4GB RAM size is a luxury for the desk.
RAM enables the user to use more applications at the same time with more data. To edit photos or videos, a generous RAM size is necessary because one has to focus on multiple high-end software at the same time.
What RAM size is the minimum for laptops?
Nowadays, most people consider 8GB to be the minimum size. But for heavy-duty usage, 16GB is a decent size to look upon. If you are a gamer, don’t glance at any either of the two. Go for 32 GB (or more) to get the best gaming experience every time.
Terminologies
When looking for RAM specs, there are other interesting terms to look at. For example, you will find terms like DDR when looking at specifications. DDR stands for Double Data Rate. It usually is written in a format like 8GB sticks of DDR4 RAM. The ‘4’ in DDR4 refers to the generation of the design component.
Best Version
DDR4 is the newest RAM generation before DDR5 comes into the market. Not all RAM generations are supported by every motherboard. But since this is a prebuilt laptop, there is no chance of you getting incompatible RAM to your laptop device.
Speed Of The Laptop
The number mentioned after the acronym has a little more significance. It denotes the transfer speed of your laptop (similar to the clock speed of the CPU). It measures the maximum transfer speed theoretically at default. Higher the number means the task happens faster.
Channeling (Single or Dual)
Another important factor to consider among what specs to look for in a laptop are the channeling of the RAM. A laptop with dual-channel RAM is more beneficial than a single one. The single-channel laptop means a single-channel memory clock with the same transfer speed. The dual-channel RAM is better as it can transfer more data at a single time.
Final Decision
Overall, having more RAM is any day better than having less. Most of the users do not care about the difference between 8GB or 16GB RAM. If you run applications that require sufficient RAM, go for higher versions. Since RAM is easily upgradable under “cheap” pricing, you can upgrade it in the future. For now, buy the things that you need at this moment (for RAM specification) than the things you need in the future.
Storage
Most of the buyers doubt the ultra-thin laptops about their storage. It is because they can generate heat, noise can get worst and bulky with time.
Today standard storage is an SSD (Solid State Drive). They are faster than a hard drive, easy to install in any form, and runs without a hassle. It does not add much weight to your laptop bag as a hard drive does. For such transparent benefits, most of the companies embrace SSD Storage as the default for laptops.
Stick to an SSD for what specs to look for in a laptop. It gives premium speed so that you can download programs, boot systems, and access data in a mere amount of time.
SSDs also have issues. It does not perform up to the mark according to the money you spend. That means it is expensive than a normal hard drive. A Solid State Drive (SSD) will demand a certain high amount for only 128GB or 512GB size. At the same cost, you will be getting hard drives worth 1TB or 2TB in the market.
Battery Life
The manufacturer’s commitment to battery life is never similar to the real-life experience of using a laptop.
Several factors affect the battery life of a device:
- Screen brightness
- Applications running in the background.
- Wifi/hotspot
The operating system also plays a role in determining the life of your laptop battery. This is why convertibles, Chromebook notebooks that run on Chrome OS offer high-end battery life than those of Windows 10.
If the programs you are running needs a lot of online video streaming, processing, graphics, and gaming, your battery will drain very soon than the manufacturer’s commitment.
To protect the battery life, look for laptops with batteries in Wh (Watt-hours) than mAh (Milliamp-hours). The larger the Wh is, the better results you get.
USB Specifications
Modern-day peripherals are nothing without USB ports. If your laptop has a single USB port, you need to buy another laptop soon. Choose laptops that have at least two USB ports allowing two devices at a minimum.
USB ports allow plugging external HDD/SSD Drive, mouse, fancy keyboard, or any other device externally with your keyboard. The USB 3.0 gives 10x more speed than the 2.0 version, which means data transfer will be done in very little time.
The competition gets more compelling with the availability of the USB Type-C, USB 3.1 versions in the market. You are always free to explore. But among what things to look for in a laptop, USB 3.0 means the sustainable feature.
If possible choose a laptop with at least 1 USB Type-C port, this port type allows you to connect a docking station like the one below. With this device, it is possible to expand the laptop ports and connect more devices to it. Like USB ports, ethernet ports, VGA port, HDMI port, and so on.
Security
Guessing passwords is easy, while fingerprints are impossible to copy. Luckily most of the laptops nowadays come with an integrated fingerprint sensor to the keyboard. Popular brands like HP, Dell, and ASUS give fingerprint security as the cohesive part in the packaging of the laptop.
Some other brands have introduced Face lock systems. Without your glance, it will be impossible to unlock your laptop.
If you are buying a laptop for personal use, going for only fingerprint security is doable. But in case you have any chance of someone else sneaking to your device in your absence, it is better to raise the budget and go for an infrared face recognition security system for your device.
More: Should I Cover My Laptop Camera?
Durability
Above all, choose a laptop that is sturdy enough to go in the long run. No one wants a device that is sensitive to excessive usage, dust, dirt, or extreme climatic conditions.
Since you are buying the device for daily use, search for the MIL-STD 810G durability guarantee. It is a standard proof of durability that most of the well-known brands swear by.
Closing Thoughts
It’s your hard-earned money. Give the list of criteria a check before you splurge on a brand-new laptop.
Research on your needs. Determine the maximum you can spend and go for the best option available within that range.
Look for the aforementioned factors before you end up choosing a laptop that suits and fits your needs.
