Introduction
Want to buy a laptop? Is someone seeking your advice? Any idea about the price? Screen size or portability? What types of hardware do you need, and how many are enough? RAM? Memory? Speed? EtcÂ… All of these questions are asked frequently, before you order your laptop or give an advice please read the following guidelines on how to buy a laptop Ultra Portable or Desktop replacement Ultraportables are best for frequent fliers who need just the essentials while on the road. Screen sizes are small -- usually 10 or 12 inches -- and their keyboards petite. Also, to make these machines so small, features such as internal optical drives, large and fast hard drives, and extra ports are frequently absent. Their batteries also need to be small and often yield as little as 2 hours of juice. New processor technologies, however, can extend battery life to beyond 4 hours. Finally, tiny tech comes at a higher cost compared with larger laptops. A balance between size, battery life, and power, thin-and-light laptops are a perfect fit for both students and business users. Their larger screens -- 14 to 15 inches -- and roomier keyboards make them more comfortable than ultraportables for longer computing sessions. Depending on usage, you can expect about 4 hours of battery life. Mainstream laptops are like budget desktops: They're good for general tasks but won't win any contests for their performance or features. Though they don't qualify as thin or light, they still offer some portability. With 14-inch or larger screens, a standard selection of ports, and big keyboards, they're suitable for everyday use. If you want desktop power, you need a desktop replacement. With screen sizes of 15 to 17 inches, travel weights as heavy as six kilos, and average battery life of less than three hours, these behemoths are not for people on the go. They can accommodate a wide range of performance parts, however, and are just right for power users of all kinds. Intel or AMD When it comes to processors, go with the fastest you can afford, regardless of the notebook's form factor. You have a lot of options, so here are the basics. Intel's Centrino line offers speed while enabling great battery life. These processors, combined with Intel's wireless LAN electronics, make up Intel's Centrino mobile technology. A new standard, codenamed Santa Rosa, is in mid-May 2007 and incorporates more features and a new socket configuration. AMD's mobile processors are generally more affordable than Intel's, but they usually lag behind Intel's on the MobileMark tests. AMD's Turion 64 X2 processors have closed the gap somewhat, but their performance is still behind the new Core 2 Duo chips. You could also go with a desktop processor from either Intel or AMD. Desktop CPUs come in a broad range of speeds and prices, but they aren't designed for mobility, so they run hotter and guzzle battery juice. Intel's Celeron processors, which come in both mobile and desktop variants, are another choice, but not a good one, because they deliver subpar performance. If you're short on dough, though, they'll suffice for basic needs. Watching a lot of DVD's Notebooks that have Wide-screen, which have an aspect ratio of 16:9, offer better, larger, sharper, and all-around better images than their 4:3 standard-screen cousins. They're great for watching DVDs, of course, but they also allow you to have two documents or Web pages open side-by-side. A spacious 17-inch wide-screen laptop is a nice luxury if you're not planning on traveling with it. Memory RAM Memory is vital to system performance, and lots of RAM lets you run more applications simultaneously. Sufficient RAM is also necessary for graphics work, image editing, and video editing, and crucial for gaming. This is especially true in notebooks, because notebook graphics processors frequently have little or no memory of their own and share the main system RAM. Adding RAM is an easy way to boost performance, but first make sure the notebook's memory sockets are accessible. (They're usually under a panel on the bottom of the system.) Here's an easy way to determine how much you need: 1GB: Adequate for running several programs at once, photo editing, and basic 3D gaming. Also the minimum required to run Vista. 2GB or more: Recommended for high-performance 3D gaming, demanding graphics work, and video editing. Keyboard As notebooks had different sizes , so do their keyboards. If possible, try some simple typing exercises before you buy. The smaller the keyboard, the more creative the vendor may have gotten with key size and placement. Pay particular attention to the spacebar, Shift, Ctrl, and Backspace/Delete keys. Be sure all are in a good location for your hand size and typing style. Touchpad Most of the current customers today rely a lot on using the mouse. With a notebook, all you get is a touch pad or pointing stick. Unless you plan on traveling with a mouse, test the notebook's input device for comfort and responsiveness. Some touch pads include extra features, such as a dedicated area for scrolling. Most of the people are never been big fans of those little pointing sticks tucked in the middle of the keyboard, because precision is tough and the little nubs wear off, requiring replacement. VGA If you're an office user and not planning on doing much graphics work or playing 3D games, shared memory should be fine. But if you have a choice, aim for a graphics chipset that shares at least 256MB of system memory. You may not find it in an ultraportable, but other notebook types may offer more robust graphics chipsets. In fact, some high-end notebooks have discrete graphics subsystems with dedicated high-speed video memory. If gaming or intensive graphics work is on the agenda, look for 256MB or 512MB of dedicated memory. Connection Ports Ports, especially USB and FireWire, are necessities, but on notebooks they're usually in short supply. At a minimum, look for two USB ports, and if you have any legacy devices, such as parallel printers, look for those ports, too. If you'd like to use a digital camcorder or iPod with your notebook, make sure the notebook has a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Connecting a monitor will require a VGA port. (If you'll be giving presentations, a VGA port is also where you'll connect a projector.) And if you want to output video to a television, find a notebook with an S-Video out or HDMI. Wireless Integrated wireless networking (Wi-Fi) has become an indispensable feature. Most notebooks ship with a choice of 802.11b or 802.11b/g. Capable of data throughput of 11Mbps, 802.11b is fine for ordinary use. Public hotspots typically use 802.11b or 802.11g. (The latter is backward-compatible with 802.11b.) Unless you're in and out of office environments, don't worry about support for 802.11a. Later this year or early next, a new standard named 802.11n is expected to be ratified and will enable speeds of up to ten times that of 802.11g. Battery Two more specs to look for in laptop batteries are capacity (measured in milliamp hours, or mAh), and the number of cells. Typical batteries have a mAh rating between 2,000mAh and 6,000mAh; higher is better. Cells are the actual compartments where power is produced and can range from four to 12; the more the better. Sound Card My recommendation: if you want to enjoy games and movies with Cristal clear sound, Get a good set of headphones, or a stereo or three-piece speaker set. Laptops generally lack the sound-processing abilities to use surround-sound speakers, but you can add it. Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook slides into a PC Card slot, providing support for up to eight-channel surround sound. HDD Notebook hard drives start at 40GB. Form factor may restrict your options, but if possible, go for at least 160GB if you'll be storing lots of image or music files. Capacity isn't the only issue. If you have a choice, select a drive with a rotational speed of at least 5,400rpm, with 7200rpm even better. The faster it spins, the faster you'll get your files. Going the Extra options There are some add-on value that you can get when you buy a laptop like : Quick-launch keys are a perfect example. You can program these buttons to launch your favorite apps, turn on your wireless radio, or switch to a power-saving mode. A few of our other favorite luxuries are built-in TV tuners, and, for photo junkies, multiformat memory-card readers. References http://www.pcworld.com/article/125647-1/article.html <http://www.pcworld.com/article/125647-1/article.html> http://www.geek.com/laptop-buyers-guide/?rfp=dta <http://www.geek.com/laptop-buyers-guide/?rfp=dta> http://www.laptopadvisor.com/ <http://www.laptopadvisor.com/> www.hp.com <http://www.hp.com/> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ----------------------------- Visit www.tsolver.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsolver/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsolver/join (Yahoo! 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