Which laptop is best? Factors To Consider When Buying New Laptop
Top 7 Important Factors To Consider When Buying New Laptop in 2021
Laptops are small enough to carry around from one place to another. For its size, performance is incredible in multi-tasking. But Choosing the right laptop is confusing. Most of the time we end up with the wrong laptop for our work. This is my small suggestion for selecting a suitable laptop for your work within a budget.
After reading this guide 100% guarantee you will find best laptop for your work.
Compare to tablets and phones it’s more suitable for professional and serious work. Using this tool for work or play in the home, on travel, college & workplace. there are various types of sizes, performance, and portability options. Most of the time, budget plays a major role when purchasing a laptop. So selection bit complicate. Final question Which laptop is best?
I will help you select best laptop for your work.
Minimum Requirements in 2021:
1) At least 8GB DDR4 RAM
2) Processor maximum frequency more than 2Ghz
3) Processor Node size not more than 12nm.
4) Storage at least 100GB SSD.
5) At least 2 USB 3.0 Port (Type-C or Normal USB Port Type-A)
Things to Consider Before Buying a Laptop:
1) Operating System
User Experience depends on the operating system. Commercial laptops come with three major operating systems. They are Windows, Mac OS, Chrome OS.
• Windows
Windows 10 offers great flexibility, a wide range of applications, Cortana voice assistant, Windows Hello authentication, and Touch screen support. A large number of manufacturers make different types of laptops so price, quality, performance varies a lot depending upon brands and models. A large number of business-related software available for Windows than any other OS.
• Mac OS
Mac OS gives the same experience as windows but offers better security and battery life. Price is higher than same windows laptop. The application range is not wide as windows. But it gives a smooth workflow. Newline M1 chip machines are very efficient at the same time they offer great battery life. But hardware options are limited.
• Chrome OS
Chrome OS is suitable for kids and those who spend most of the time in web browsing, email, and stream video. It offers a large number of web apps. Online workflow is good. Offline/Without the internet, its functions are limited. Google is working and extending offline features. But compared to Windows and Mac OS it is far behind in offline features. It’s a simple and more straightforward interface.
Which is the best OS:
Gaming: Windows is Best. A huge user base attracts developers to create games. Games are optimized for Windows.
Price: Windows laptops come in all price range; MacBook prices are medium and high end. Chrome book comes in a low-price range. For the same component, device Chromebooks are cheap. MacBooks are expensive. Windows laptops are the middle of these two.
Touchscreen: Windows and Chrome OS support touch screen. MacBook not support a touch screen.
Battery Life: first MacBook then Chromebook at last windows.
Security: Chrome OS is best (it’s the only browser-based So…) than MacOS at last Windows.
Upgradability: Windows (Most of the Windows laptops offer upgradability)
Storage: Windows (most windows laptops allow change and add additional storage)
2) Display
The display is a very important factor in user experience. When using a laptop most of the time you will look at the display. There are 3 display types TN, IPS, OLED. TN displays are less expensive, low image quality, poor viewing angle. IPS displays are expensive, high image quality, good viewing angle. OLED displays are more expensive, vibrant, and high image quality, Very good viewing angle. OLED panels only come in some windows high-end devices. If the manufacturer doesn’t advertise as IPS or OLED it’s definitely a cheap TN Display.
Laptops come from 10 to 17.3 inches. it measured diagonally from one side top corner to the opposite side bottom corner. Larger displays are good for working but less portable. Smaller thin laptops come with 10 to 12 inch displays. 13 and 14 inch laptops give a balance between performance and portability. If you travel with a laptop, don’t go more than 14 inch laptop. 15.6 inch laptop is standard size but portability is not good. If you want a large display for video editing, gaming, multitasking 17.3 inch laptop is an excellent choice.
Resolution is the major factor to consider. Higher the resolution you can see more detail. Low budget laptops come with standard 1366x768 resolution. Modern laptops have come with a 1920x1080 resolution display. It is the balance between price, performance, battery life. 4k display offers crisper images and text. The price is high. Quality is amazing, but higher pixels drain the battery quickly. In gaming, GPU has to produce 4k frames again battery drain and performance drop. If you set resolution below 4k in games, it looks blurry. watching below 4k resolution movie or video also looks blurry.
3) Weight
When carrying & using a laptop on lap weight is a most considerable factor. For portability below 1.5kg laptops are good. More than 1.8kg laptops are not comfortable. Unless you have a tight budget and dedicated works that need a high-performance system. Gaming & dedicated graphic card laptops weigh more than normal laptops. New ARM laptop weigh less than the same performance normal laptop. But Games are not developed for these Laptops. ARM laptops graphics performance is very less compared to dedicated Nvidia/AMD graphics card devices. Example: Apple MacBook m1, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 Windows laptop.
The ideal weight of normal laptops:
10 to 13 inch below — 1.3 kg
14 inch — 1.5KG
15.6 inch more than — 1.5KG
17.3 inch more than — 2KG
I have 2 laptops Acer (1.8KG) & Lenovo (2.2KG). When carrying laptop 1.8KG Acer laptop it feels comfortable compared to 2.2KG laptop. Heavy weight laptop feels like I put stone in my backpack. Only 400gram difference. Light weight laptops are too comfortable to hold and carry.
4) Battery backup
Battery backup is very important. Battery backup depends upon various factors. Higher the number Wh (Watt-hour) and cell give more battery backup. Then battery backup depends on the processor, screen brightness, apps running in the background, an application you are using. Manufacturers advertise more battery backup. If they mansion 8hrs, then it lasts for 5–6hrs. Below 50% brightness gives most battery backup. For the same Wh battery, more number of cells gives more battery backup. For example, if two 48Wh battery one is 2 cells and another one is 3 cells. Then 3 cell battery laptop gives more battery backup than a 2 cell battery laptop. In terms of battery backup, M1 MacBook’s are best with that much performance.
Laptops improved a lot. Once gaming laptops battery backup very poor and heavy. Now it’s changed. Some gaming laptops last more than 7hrs in normal usage and weigh less than 1.8kg.
5) Normal laptop or 2 in 1
Normal laptops hinge doesn’t rotate up to 360 degrees, 2 in 1 laptop hinge rotates up to 360 degrees, or some come with a detachable keyboard as Microsoft Surface Go. You can use it as a tablet. When considering performance, 2 in 1 doesn’t give the same performance as a normal laptop. For the same specification laptop 2 in 1 costs more than one and half times of normal laptop. Most of 2 in 1 offers good IPS panel display, more engineered build device. For day-to-day use with watching movies, Netflix, video calls, writing, attending online classes, reading digital books & pdf 2 in 1 are best.
6) Processor, RAM, GPU:
- Processor
User experience, lag-free activity, smooth multi-tasking depends on the processor. Major processor brands are Intel, AMD now Apple also stepped into the market with Apple M1 ARM.
Which processor do you need? It depends on your work. I made this basic guide to select perfect processor.
These are most common processors in laptops and there uses:
· Intel Celeron, Pentium, AMD Athlon, Qualcomm ARM processors: It’s good for light users and kids. They can do school activities, normal browsing, movie watching, MS Office & document writing, online video conferences. These are low power processors & dissipates less heat. Most of the laptops are passively cooled so no fan noise. Without SSD these processors are too slow. Don’t buy only HDD devices. These processors are not for multi-tasking. When I am browsing web and playing music via Bluetooth at the same time my Intel Pentium n4200 processor laptop Use 100% CPU and music is not smooth. When loading new webpage, I can hear distortion in music.
· Intel i3, AMD Ryzen 3: Multi-tasking of above activities smoothly. Laptop comes with these processors that don’t offer dedicated GPU. Integrated GPU capable to play 4k movies, small games.
· Intel i5, AMD Ryzen 5: Good for above activities, smooth playback of 4k movies, heavy MS Office usage, light gaming, light photo editing
· Apple M1: High-performance CPU. GPU power is low compared to dedicated graphic card laptops. Performance per watt is very high. Not good for gaming.
· Intel i7, AMD Ryzen 7: Good for Gaming, Photo Editing, Video editing, and all above activities work smoothly
· Intel i9, AMD Ryzen 9: It can handle 3D works, Gaming with streaming, Heavy video editing.
U series Processors are low powered CPU.
H series processors are performance-oriented laptop processors.
Depends on your work selecting the processor is an excellent choice. ARM chip offers great battery life without compromise in performance. Windows ARM laptops offer great battery life. But not smooth as Apple M1 arm laptop. Performance of the Apple 1 processor is great.
- RAM
RAM stores all running application data. RAM is very helpful in multi-tasking. In 2021 operating systems like Windows 10, ChromeOS, MacOS 2GB ram is not enough. At least 4GB is very necessary. 4GB is not enough for editing photos and create designs, art in Adobe illustrator. For video editing at least 8GB ram is required.
DDR4 RAM: Faster and power efficient.
DDR3 RAM: Slower than DDR4 and power efficiency not good as DDR4
4 GB for normal browsing, Netflix, document editing, book reading, kids school activities.
8 GB for all above, light photo editing & 720p video editing
16 GB Video editing, Photo editing, Gaming.
32 GB Game streaming, Editing 4k video,
- GPU
All laptop processor comes with integrated GPU. That GPU built into the same die as the CPU. Integrated GPU can handle normal activities like Browsing, watching movies, Netflix, Document editing, school activities. But it’s not suitable for high-end gaming, 3D working, Professional video, and photo editing. A dedicated GPU consumes a lot of power. Integrated GPU consumes a lot less power than dedicated GPU devices. If your work on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Deep learning you must go for Nvidia GPU because of its tensor cores. Some AMD APUs are great for low-end gaming laptops.
I noticed most people giving importance only to how much GB GPU memory. Not to computing power.
7) Storage
A good amount of storage very important. In old laptops, HDDs used. But new laptops come with only SSD or SSD with HDD. HDDs are slower compared to SDDs. But SSDs are costlier, so manufacturers use small size SSD for Operating System files and 1TB HDD for storing user data. Premium laptops normally don’t use HDD. HDD makes noise from its spinning drive. SSD laptops are a quitter and lighter. Thin and light laptops only use SSD for storage. In SSDs NVME is the best option.
I bought a cheap laptop When I am perusing MBA. Its Processor: Intel Pentium N4200, only HDD storage. Response time was too slow. Opening Browser, MS office, even opening movies too slow. I thought I wasted my money. Somehow, I purchased 120GB SSD in an online offer. When I installed and transferred Operating System from HDD to SSD I noticed a Huge difference in Opening applications & Boot time. HDD boot time was more than 45 sec. Now in SSD Boot time is 20 sec. I know its not fastest boot time. My Intel i5 laptop boot time is only 7–8 sec. But adding SSD to cheap HDD laptop worth the investment. I think SSDs are very necessary for laptops.
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