Laptop buyer's guide
A laptop or notebook – as they’re sometimes called - is a self-contained portable PC that can run for at least an hour or two from an integrated battery pack. They integrate everything you need to do most computing tasks in a notebook-sized device including the display, keyboard and all the components required to run a PC.
The big advantage of laptops is their portable nature, and some models can offer up to eight hours of battery-based running time. Similarly their small size means even large 17-inch models are easily put away once you’ve finished using them, so they don’t clutter up your home when not in use.
With prices now equal to, or even below that of their desktop equivalents, laptops are just as popular as desktop systems. The main disadvantage of laptops is they’re generally not as powerful as desktop systems, offering reduced processor and 3D graphics power. They’re also not usually capable of being upgraded much, beyond perhaps adding additional memory.
When choosing a laptop it’s important to understand how price is balanced against performance. If you want to use a laptop at home or in the office for internet access or business work then an entry-level model will suffice. Look for Intel Celeron and Pentium or AMD Athlon and Sempron processors.
If you don’t plan on travelling with the laptop you can consider models with screens up to 19 inches in size. But if you plan to use a laptop on the move then models with a 15-inch screen or less are more portable and weigh less. Specific ultra-portable designs will also provide bigger capacity batteries for a longer running time. Look out for Intel Core and Pentium ULV models or AMD Turion processors.
Gaming performance with laptops tends to be poor unless you opt for models with NVIDIA or ATI dedicated graphics, found on higher-end models. High-end processors for laptops are the Intel Core i5/i7 or AMD Athlon II.
As a guide here are a few select examples of system specifications for different grades of systems:
Home and business work
Processor:Intel Celeron, Pentium or AMD Sempron
Memory:2GB
Hard drive: 120GB+
Graphics: Integrated
Display: 15 to 17 inches
Optical drive: DVD rewriter
Ultra portable
Processor: Intel Core/Pentium ULV or AMD Turion
Memory: 3GB+
Hard drive: 250GB+
Graphics: Integrated
Display 11 to 15 inches
Optical drive: N/A
Gaming and high-end user
Processor: Intel Core i5/i7 or AMD Athlon II
Memory: 4GB+
Hard drive: 500GB+
Graphics: AMD Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce
Display: 15 inches+
Optical drive: DVD rewriter or Blu-ray
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