With the growing competition in the market, it’s becoming difficult to choose the ideal laptop for your needs. Brands are putting a lot of effort among the competition to make sure their products achieve the highest growth and popularity in the market. But, the main question here arises, how can you choose what’s the best laptop for you among hundreds of options? Keep reading this laptop buying guide as it will answer all your questions and you’ll know everything by the end of this article.
A laptop is the second most portable gadget you can carry if you’re not stable at a single place. The features a laptop can offer are too wide and while it lacks the speed and performance of a desktop, it can still do the job on the go. If portability is a factor for buying this device, you should make the right choice and select the best laptop ideal for you.
With this being said, let’s have a look at the factors you should consider while buying a laptop.
1. Purpose of Buying
The first question you should ask yourself is why do you need it for? Consider this as an example: If you’re a gamer and a business professional, you might be interested in gaming from time to time but if you buy a proper business series laptop, you won’t be able to do that. A business series lacks the adequate amount of graphics required to run some of the demanding games in the market. For such business and casual work, you might be looking for best laptops under 50000.
On the other hand, if you’re a business professional and have no need for gaming, high-end laptops with graphics cards shouldn’t be on your bucket list. It depends on what your usage is and what tasks you are going to perform on your system.
This was just a basic walkthrough. There are many more factors to consider while buying a laptop. This point is just to make sure you know the purpose of buying your laptop.
2. Operating System
The three widely used operating systems in the market are Windows, macOS, and Linux. All of them have their pros and cons but let’s go through a brief as to how they work and if you should consider buying them or not.
Windows
This is a widely used operating system throughout the world. If you’re on a budget, going for a Windows-based operating system would be the right choice. Windows OS has a smooth and easy-to-use UI. If you’re not familiar with other operating systems and don’t want to try out the new ones, this one would be the perfect choice for you.
macOS
Apple has one of the most premium services in the market including its operating system which is macOS. The operating system is buttery smooth and since the optimization is top-notch, users aren’t going to face lag anytime soon. If you’re a gamer, Apple is not suggested at any cost as the graphics provided by the company are next to none. Apple devices are only intended for business purposes only.
Linux
The final edition to the list is Linux. Being an open-source platform, it gives you the freedom to do what you want and tweak your OS accordingly. The software can be retrieved free of cost in Linux distributions. This platform is widely used by people in the coding and hacking industries. Also, Linux-based laptops are budget-friendly.
3. Display
The display of the laptop is directly proportional to its portability. If you’re going to travel a lot, a lightweight and small-sized laptop is always preferred over big display ones. There are different sorts of displays available in the market but here we have focused on two of the most popular categories. We’ll divide them into sections you can understand easily.
Travel Sized
These laptops are basically ideal for travelling. The display size can be anywhere between 12 inches to 14 inches. Anything below 12 would put a lot of strain on your eyes damaging them for the long run. Make sure to keep this in mind. The bigger the screen size, the heavier it becomes which will be difficult to carry.
Desktop Sized
If you’re sitting in a single place for some time, these laptops will be perfect for your needs. Although a PC would be preferred in this case, if you travel once in a while, you might need a good laptop with you. These laptops can also be used as a second monitor to your PC as they come with a whopping 17-18 inch display. Do note that these are heavy so you might have a problem in carrying them to places. These laptops are also equipped with a heavy processor and a dedicated GPU which is why they’re ideally known as gaming laptops.
Also, if you have a little extra budget to exhaust, going for an OLED display would be perfect for you as they can give you the most vibrant quality to watch movies or play games. Display quality is a must for any type of laptop so invest accordingly if it fits your pocket.
4. Laptop or……a Tablet?
If you’re looking for a laptop that can also work as a tablet, 2-in-1 laptops are quite trending right now. They can act as a tablet when you need them and turn your old fashion laptop into a tablet by folding them. Yes, some people also call them “foldable laptops”. You can turn them 360’ and there you have a single screen that has touch-enabled to do everything you want.
Wait! That’s not it. If you have a decent budget, you can also opt for the higher models of these 2-in-1 laptops where the screen can be detached from the keyword. That makes it a standalone tablet perfect for taking down notes or designing something that doesn’t hurt your hand holding it. The only downfall for such laptops is their performance. If you’re expecting some power-packed results from this series, we’re not just there yet.
5. Specifications
Coming to the most important part you should be worried about is the specifications of the laptop. There are a lot of factors involved including CPU, RAM, Graphics, Ports, Storage. Details won’t be discussed here but we’re going to give you a brief on how you can decide the right spec for your laptop.
CPU
As you might be aware, the CPU is the brain of a computer. You need it to be fast and efficient. It all boils down to what fits your pocket and fulfills your needs. You can either go for Intel or AMD which has a lot of options depending on your budget.
Intel has the I series whereas AMD has the Ryzen series. If you need something budget efficient, the Ryzen series is the ideal choice to look at. AMD has seen exponential growth in the desktop industry where Intel was leading the charge. AMD offers more cores and threads which work all-rounder in terms of gaming or other graphic-demanding tasks.
In the end, it is about the budget you have. If you want a high-end laptop, you should either go for the Intel i9, i7, or AMD Ryzen 7 series. AMD would be the one to go if you want to spare a couple of bucks and the recently launched CPUs are a good choice.
Motherboard
If we talk about the motherboard, you have many options in it. But as per our personal use, we have used both MSI and Gigabyte. We can undoubtedly say that you can go for any of them.
GPU
The only reason to go for a GPU-based laptop is if you’re a gamer. Otherwise, these laptops are quite heavy and bulky which makes them harder to carry. If you decide to for one, AMD and Nvidia, you can choose either of them but AMD is capitalizing the market in every aspect this year.
RAM
If you want smooth multitasking in your system, you need to have good RAM. Some applications like Google Chrome take a lot of RAM which can lag your system and cause it to crash. The ideal choice would be 8GB but you need to do deep research on what your purpose is and how much RAM you might need to make your system process the programs smoothly.
If you’re extremely low on budget 4GB RAM works out for low usage and if you run 10 applications at a single time, you might want 32GB at least in your system.
Storage
The regular hard drives are just not ideal to buy right now. When you have SSDs at your disposal, there’s no point in choosing the slow old fashioned HDD. While HDDs are cheaper and they provide you 3 times more storage than SSDs, the speed is quite low.
If you’re running low on budget, choosing a low-storage SSD should be an ideal choice for you. One of the major advantages of an SSD is the quick bootup. The bootup speed can be as fast as 3 seconds whereas it takes quite some time to boot up on an HDD. One of the fastest SSDs right now is the NVME collection which is the most trending right now.
Related Article: How to Make Bootable USB Pendrive (Easiest Ways).
Ports
This might not be one of the biggest things to consider while buying but it comes in handy while handling multiple peripherals to your device. Laptops these days are limited to 2-3 USB ports which might be an issue if you’re a gamer because two of them would be occupied for a mouse and a keyboard. Therefore, depending on your usage you should check if the laptop has a lightning port, etc to fit your needs.
Another thing you should check is the transfer speed of the USB which should match the latest generation of pen drives and hard disks these days. You should never buy something outdated unless you’re on a budget.
Battery
In the end, it comes down to your usage and needs. If you need to travel a lot, you should choose a business series that is compact and has great battery life. Do note, if you choose to go for a higher battery size, the device might get a little heavy which may or may not affect your journey.
On the other hand, if you’re a gamer, battery life wouldn’t matter as for gaming laptops, you need to plug and play for the best experience. That’s how gaming on a laptop is optimized.
Budget
This should be the top factor and priority. Setting up a dedicated budget for a laptop. Just don’t look at the specifications and go for something you like and exhaust your pockets. Always decide the right budget and then start looking for a device.
If you’re on a tight budget, laptops are available for as low as $150 on the market but everything will be limited. You cannot expect a high-end laptop at this price point. Laptops below $200 will be limited in every aspect and they’re usually required for basic data entry work and entertainment purposes.
If budget is not an issue for you, depending on your work, you can either go for premium MacBooks or high-end gaming laptops. These systems will give you everything. From premium design and finish to the best specifications you can ask for. If you are unable to decide, you should check the laptop guide at Average Indian.
Check Out: How to Enter Bios Windows 10 on Startup [Proper Guide].
What Else?
One of the last things to consider is the brand. Why? Laptops have some issues in the future and you should buy a trusted brand for the best after-sales service. Some of the brands provide good specifications in their laptops but have very bad after-sales service. Apple, Razer, and Dell have the best customer support in the entire world which might help you make a decision. Other brands like HP and Asus have fairly good service.
Usage and budget are what should be considered when buying a laptop. You should analyze all the options properly and then decide what’s best for you. Some technicalities might not fit in your budget but again, it’s something you can work with. Be wise and we hope this guide helped you decide what’s the best choice for you.
