Tips to Know before Buying a Laptop or Personal computer

Laptops or Personal computers are very essential tools for college students, business experts and many more. The capabilities, price and specifications of laptops continue to improve daily. Lots of tips and some other important factors are meant to be considered when you want to buy a laptop. This guide focuses on some of the primary concerns and points to note.

Decision number 1 (Operating System)

Your first decision should be on choice of operating system (OS) you want. You need to decide if it’s a Windows, Apple or Linux machine that you want to go for. Majority will stick to a Windows machine. People who have used Apple in the past, and are more conversant with Apple will have a lot of limited options, but will probably feel better off sticking to Apple. Linux users probably, will need to analyze compatibility issues on Linux based forums.

Decision number 2 (Budget)

Having known the operating system you want to go for, the next step will be to prepare your budget, and determine if you will need a new or used laptop. Websites for price checks and comparison would go a long way in helping you get the best deal for the laptop you finally decide to purchase.

Decision number 3 (Memory and Hard-drive Space)

Having set your budget, determine the minimum memory configuration you’ll need. I highly recommend setting 1 GB RAM as your minimum memory configuration for tablets and notebooks. Removing the random access memory (RAM) out of a computer is a common way to sell them off at lower prices. But this memory is often the weak link in some personal computer systems, thus bringing the overall performance of the machine down significantly. Loads of memory is a great equalizer in computers, and a great number of people still fail to realize that a lower end laptop with a good amount of memory will often outperform a higher end one with a lesser memory.

If you happen to be a game freak, or someone who deals mostly in digital editing field you will need a laptop with at least a video card of 128 MB; this is due to the higher graphics which it provides.
In addition, I strongly advise you go for a laptop with hard drive space of 500 GB minimum.

Decision number 4 (Weight and Screen Size)

Once you have the memory and disk size you need, and budget set, then you can start to compare the several available models for weight, ergonomics, and most essentially, screen size. Finding a suitable and correct screen size should be your primary consideration.

A good number of people are excited by the laptops with larger screens, but always fail to fully appreciate the effect of resolutions on them. Many laptops are shipped in a set with an ideal resolution, and when you switch to a higher or lower resolution, it can distort text. Some laptops with larger displays are often set at very high resolutions, thus making them difficult to read on without eye strain. Also, some of the expensive laptops possessing 15 inch screens can be more difficult to read and work on when compared with laptops having smaller screens.

1024x768 should be an acceptable resolution for the laptop monitor you are going for. Overlooking larger screens with higher resolutions can help you save quite a lot of money, and also deliver a machine that is very easy to work on and read from.

Decision number 5 (Networking Features)

Lastly, there is always networking consideration. You should go for a laptop that has full networking features which includes Bluetooth and wireless capabilities. In this age and era, it does not make a lot of sense to buy a laptop that doesn’t have Wi-Fi wireless networking capabilities. New laptops come with this standard, but older and used laptops you need to verify its presence on them. Any laptop without this capability is practically out-dated because of the constant increase in wireless accessibility around the globe.

See my post on “Tips to safeguard your computer”