How to find the right laptop
In the past few years, choosing the right laptop has become less of a matter of budget, and more about research and options.
With faster, more energy efficient processors available, as well as improved RAM and more powerful integrated GPUs, the choice is considerably broader now, compared to five or six years ago.
With that said, finding the perfect laptop, from a consumer perspective, comes down to five basic factors:
- Purpose
- Performance
- Expansion options
- Ability to upgrade
- Security
Why do you need a laptop?
Purpose plays a big role in steering you towards buying the right device. As mentioned earlier, the array of specs and choices available to consumers, has multiplied in recent years. Even devices once considered experimental, and borderline entry-level, are now much more powerful and versatile a machine, like Google Chromebook, made by Samsung, Asus and Toshiba, to name a few, whose pricing starts at less than $180.
When choosing a laptop, it’s important to understand that limiting your options based on a perceived notion that “smaller is slower”, may lead you to miss out on a device capable of delivering much better performance than you’d expect.
While it’s not hard to imagine a low-cost laptop being powerful enough to be useful for the average consumer, the opposite end of the spectrum features portable computers breaking yet another myth, in reference to desktop-class performance.
Machines in this range, may include business class laptops, such as some of the higher-end Asus Multimedia Series X55, featuring 16GB or RAM, 240GB SSD, nVidia GTX 950M GPU, and a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 processor.
By this token, when budget is not a concern, high-end laptops can be just as powerful as desktop PCs, and in some cases, they are capable of pushing even further boundaries.
Performance is not just a matter of speed
Performance in a laptop is a pretty long equation that takes into consideration multiple factors. Starting from the kind of storage available, laptops with solid state drives will deliver better, more stable performance than those featuring old-fashioned spinning drives.
The effect that SSDs have on a system is that when the operating system runs out of physical memory, it needs to create virtual memory from empty space on available internal storage. Accessing virtual memory for applications on an HDD will be considerably slower and prone to errors, than it would be when using an SSD.
With that said, having actual physical RAM available helps a lot, depending on the task. For instance, when working with large datasets on spreadsheets, or in any task that involves working with large amounts of data to be available in memory, more RAM makes a big difference, even more than processing speed.
On the other hand, when processing of information becomes the higher priority, a decent CPU is definitely a factor. For instance, anything from 3D gaming, to audio/video production and beyond, required faster processing, to deliver a smooth experience.
Laptops that fit this category, range from business devices like the Lenovo Thinkpad, Toshiba Tecra, and of course, hybrid options like Microsoft Surface Pro 4, all the way up to Microsoft Surface Book, in the mid-high range, and the Asus ROG Series and MSI G Series, on the extreme end of the gaming spectrum.
Last, but not the least, display resolution has also become less of an issue in recent years, as computer displays have reached a level of refinement in colors, sharpness, resolution and contract, to a point where even entry level options could have been considered high-end, only a few short years ago.
Expansion ports
Choosing how many, and what ports you need on a laptop, ties in with the first point, in reference to purpose. If most of the tasks required by a laptop involve Internet use, such as working with cloud applications, or streaming content, then expansion may not matter as much. In the past, wired connections were a requirement, as most peripherals didn’t have wireless interfaces like today. Nowadays, printers, scanners, external drives and other peripherals, work over WiFi and no longer require physical tethering to a computer, which reduces the number of ports needed on a laptop.
As a matter of fact, in many cases, laptop ports are used to recharge other mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets.
With that said, video connectors are becoming more relevant nowadays, as more users like the option of expanding their desktop onto a higher resolution screen. For instance, the Microsoft Surface Book supports as many as two 4K external displays, and even further than that, when used with a Surface Dock.
Most new displays support three common types of connectors: DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI, with a number of displays still featuring the good-old VGA connector, mostly for legacy purposes.
For best performance with new displays, especially in the 4K range, DisplayPort and HDMI connectors are recommended.
Upgrade options
Laptops have a longer lifespan than they used to, and it’s nice to know that upgrade options are available as required. While some entry-level laptops may be a little more limited than others when it comes to upgrading RAM or internal storage, most mid-range laptops are capable of providing a certain flexibility.
It goes without saying that certain components, at least in most cases, cannot be upgraded, much like anything that is integrated into the logic board, such as the GPU and the CPU.
Security
Keeping your data private and secure is a bit easier than it used to be, especially with hardware-based security features like Secure Boot, and Windows Hello biometric authentication. Fingerprint readers, Intel RealSense 3D cameras, and other hardware capable of providing a higher level of security when logging into Windows are becoming more common in newer devices, aside from the Surface Book and Surface Pro. Mid-range options featuring biometric authentication using fingerprint recognition may include ThinkPad, Fujitsu Lifebook and Panasonic Toughbook laptops, the latter of which also offer semi-rugged and rugged options, making them perfect for outdoor use.