Whether it’s an equipment upgrade or a first purchase, choosing the right gear for your day to day use is hard. With all of the brand names like HP, ASUS, Acer, Toshiba and the like, mixed with the wide variety of features offered by each, there is a lot of complicated information that can prove to be daunting if you aren’t quite sure what you’re looking at. Last week we gave our advice on Routers, so this week lets delve into the world of Laptops. Welcome back to #TechTuesday
Breaking Down The Components
So when purchasing a laptop, there is one major factor to consider before you can make any kind of step forward with the decision. What are you using it for? Are you a student looking for something lightweight to bring to class for note taking and 3am energy drink induced paper writing? Are you delving into audio video editing and need something to be able to synthesize your media more effectively? A gamer trying to get that last quest done before your boss wanders by your cubicle? There are all sorts of applications when it comes to laptops, and determining your specific need is going to generate a massive difference in your price point.
After you’ve squared away what your actual uses are, we then look at three major components that all users will focus on. The processor, the RAM, and the storage.
The Central Processing Unit, or CPU is essentially the heart of your computer. When a program is run on your machine, it runs through your CPU which executes the code that will be translated within its systems, then executed to give you the return. While it is not the sole component for determining the speed of your machine, it does play a major part in how well your computer can multitask. If you’re looking at mostly note taking, some light media streaming, and general use you can usually get away with a lower end processor, something running around the 2.4GHz mark that would be common in cheaper laptops. If you’re into much more intensive work, like gaming or video encoding, that is where you’re going to look at the i5s, i7s, and above. If you’re not planning for that kind of change, do yourself a favor and save the few hundred dollars that the BestBuy rep you talked to is trying to convince you to spend.
Next is the Random Access Memory, or RAM. RAM is the component in your machine that takes data for a program, and temporarily stores it to reference the data easier, and thus lets the familiar processes of a program be executed more quickly and run smoothly. As you might guess, the more RAM you have in your machine, the more efficiently it can access this data, and the more it can store in its banks. You’ll notice a correlation here with the CPU, where the lower tier of use like a student or a home use machine would be able to easily fly by with 4 Gigabyes (GB) of RAM, where the heavy power users would be looking at as much as 8GB to 16GB. A good practice here is to take into consideration how much multitasking you will be doing on your machine. If you often keep several browsers open, music playing, and have a lot of data to process, a bit of extra RAM would do you good. The nice thing about RAM though, is that if you don’t have enough down the line, it is one of the easiest and most inexpensive components to upgrade!
Finally, there is storage. This comes in the fashion of either a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD). Now, this gets a bit more complex as the necessity can vary very greatly in this no matter what kind of user you are. Hard Disk Drives are a tried and true long existing technology that are still the most commonly used drives in most machines today. While they run slower than a Solid State Drive, they per dollar hold a vast amount more data than a Solid State Drive will. If you need a lot of storage space, an HDD will be the more economic solution, as the technology has been developed for so long now that it is almost half the price for twice the amount of storage. However, Solid State Technology is not by any means inferior due to its age. The technology has been blossoming and advancing for a few years now, and the costs are dropping every day. Solid State Drives have faster read write times, because they operate more akin to a Flash Drive, where a Hard Disk Drive operates more like a DVD. Solid States have no moving parts, unlike HDDs, and thus run much more quietly, They are great for those whom use a lot of cloud storage, or just do not need a whole lot of space to use. Coupled with the vastly increased speeds the drives operate at, a solid state will often give a noticeable increase in how your machine runs both on an operating system level, and a program level. Due to the speed the drive can read and write data, it means that more data can be processed due to the shorter amount of time it takes to access that data. For your general home user, this will come down strictly to what kind of space you need. A solid state will often come in around 250GB to 500GB in most laptops, where an HDD can be as much as 2 Terabytes to 3 Terabytes (Thats 2048GB to 3072GB, or about four to six times the size). For the more heavy power users like gamers and media enthusiasts, you want to consider if you need more storage, or simply want faster access times. A solid state will increase load times and help with encoding times, but a HDD will offer you hand and foot more storage room to operate with.
What’s In A Name?
Of course, when purchasing a laptop there is also the factor of Brand to consider. Ultimately on a hardware level, the differences in equipment from brand to brand are going to be minimal. But on a quality and a support level, the brand can be a major choosing point. Of course, with past experiences with certain manufacturers we all tend to develop a brand loyalty. Personally, I have come to favor ASUS as a brand. While their equipment can tend to be a slight bit higher on the price scale, their customer support and quality of hardware is just above and beyond. Manufacturers such as HP and Sony are known for being dependable with their equipment. Dell has a history of up and down with the quality of their devices, but often release very solid higher end machines with great performance, and a very good customer support experience. Samsung comes in the middle, with very great equipment but often times priced much higher than their competitors due to paying the brand name royalties in your purchase. They offer great service plans, but often can be very costly and use a lot of their own proprietary parts. Ultimately, while I can make my recommendations on a brand, it does come down to the customer experience you have had.
Graphics, Flex, Ultrathins…
Now, we did go over the three major components that you want to focus on when purchasing a laptop, but I did not want to forget about a few other things to keep in mind when trying to make your purchase.
First, and I wanted to discuss these together, are the size and the graphics card installed in the machine. Your standard laptop purchase will often feature a 15 inch to 17 inch monitor, with some going as high as 23 inches or more, or as small as 7 inches. Larger screen sizes often translate into a higher resolution, and a heavier weight of the machine. While the screen size can come down often to preference and portability, it also ties in with what kind of graphical processor you’re going to want. If you’re about streaming a lot of videos, gaming on the go, or need that extra detail, you want to be looking for a machine that features an aftermarket card. That means something featured by AMD or NVidia, rather than the stock Intel HD Graphics Accelerators. If you’re just watching a few shows and YouTube, and taking notes, then the on-board graphics processor will more than suffice for you.
Other minor features that you might often see advertised in machines nowadays come in the form of “Flex” and “Ultrabook”. Lets take a moment to explore these.
Flex refers to the hinges of your laptop. When you consider a typical laptop, your hinges have a limit to how far they can be opened up. Push that any further, you’re going to have a pretty paperweight with a broken screen. Flex machines, however, take this extending to a new level, allowing you to swivel your monitor the full round of the hinges, effectively converting the laptop into a tablet. These types of machines often have touchscreen functionality, allowing you to transfer into a “Tablet” mode, and operate it just as one. This can be pretty convenient, in reality, as it allows you to use your machine in more comfortable positions while still keeping it functional.
Ultrabook refers to a style of laptop that is built with the same power of a full scale laptop, but crafted into a more low profile shell. They focus on making a small form factor machine with a reduced weight, while not sacrificing the performance and reliability. These types of machines can be extremely space saving and easy to transport, but in exchange will often cost much more than your typical machine due to the special parts used in the manufacturing process. These machines are very thin, very light, but still durable as ever.
This Is Great…
Stop, there, I already know what you’re going to say. But what do I choose? Well, if you’ve made it this far you’ve been armed with some serious information already that should help you choose your new machine. If you just scrolled through to the bottom to see what I say you should get, scroll back up and read! Whether you’re a student in need of a machine for class, or a hardcore enthusiast with a need for some mobile power, there’s a machine for both and everyone in between. Of course, while I hope reading has encouraged you to do some research of your own, I did pick out a few selections that might be right for some categories of user.
For the student toiling away in class all day, you need something low cost, effective, and efficient while still being lightweight and functional. I would recommend the
HP Probook 455 G3 ($300 via Newegg). Sporting an entry level AMD Processor at 2.2GHz, 4GB of ram, and a 500GB hard drive, as well as HP’s ongoing support plans for a further price varying by plan, it comes in as a great general use machine for a college or high school student, or a family shared machine.
For those who don’t quite need the best of the best, but still need a solid machine for their home or business, you might want to look at something along the lines of the
ASUS Zenbook UX303UA-DH51T Ultrabook ($829.99 via Newegg). Playing along the ultrabook line of machines, the Zenbook series is one of ASUS’s best releases of machines, due to combining power with portability in an attractive, effective manner. The stock model features an i5 processor, one of the middle ground processors that delivers some real power by intel, as well as a 256GB Solid State Drive and 8GB of RAM. For a few bucks more, a lot of these components can even be upgraded at purchase, or down the line further on. This kind of machine is great for the people that want to have a lightweight machine that can still handle some heavier duty tasks, and gives a more crisp display.
For our power players, we’re looking into the skies for you to find the best of the best. Thats why I want to bring your attention to the
MSI GT62VR Dominator Pro-238 ($1,799 via Newegg). With the high price point comes high performance, fantastic reliability, and killer power all backed by a big name in the mobile machine industry. MSI has a fantastic customer support, and is known for their powerhouse machines. Sporting a 7th Generation Intel i7 processor, a dedicated Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 graphics card, 16GB of ram, and both a 1TB HDD and 256GB SSD, this machine will deliver fantastic performance and speed, with no shortage of space to back it up. This of course is for those looking for some of the best of the best, the heavy processor intensive users like gamers and media developers.
Of course as always, these are just my recommendations! They are meant as a guideline for the kind of machine you might be interested in looking at. If you don’t fall into any of those three categories, use some of them as a guideline to decide where your own machine should sit, and at a price point that fits you best.
