Buying Laptops 101

One of the top things I have received phone calls about lately is purchasing a laptop. Although I do offer consultation on walking you through purchasing a laptop via phone for a small fee, it is really easy to find out what you need on your own by doing a little research. A good site that rates laptops based on user ratings is Eopinions (http://www.epinions.com/cmhd-Notebooks-All/show_~top_sellers). If price is no object, also check out PC World's Top 15 list at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,118253,00.asp.

What do I need to look for when buying a laptop, you ask? I answer that you should pay attention to Speed, Memory, and Hard Drive Space as the primary things. There are plenty of other options, but I will explain those later.

Speed
If the processor is Intel, choose Pentium 4 over Celeron for the processor speed. In lamens terms, a Pentium 4 is like a V8 vehicle, and the Celeron is like a 4 cylinder vehicle. The both will get you to the same place, but in a crunch when you want the power you will notice the difference. As far as processor speed, anything in the 1.5 - 2.5 GHZ range is good for the average person. Unless you are running some serious programs, having a processor over 3 GHZ not necessary. Instead, spend the extra money on some additional memory, which is discussed in the next section. The AMD Athelon is also a good processor.

Memory
The standard memory that comes on newer laptops is between 256 megs and 512 megs. I would recommend ABSOLUTELY not going any lower than 256 megs. If you are going to be doing multiple things at the same time (i.e. playing music, cruising the web, and burning a CD), you will need more memory. However, when buying a laptop it may be cheaper to buy your memory from an aftermarket company and have a professional technical (such as me) install it. Like how I slipped that in there?

Space
HD Space is essential to being able to store all your programs and files. The standard right now is between 20 - 40 gigs of space. If you have a lot of music (or plan on having a lot), have a digital camera and take a lot of pictures, and find yourself being a packrat of email attachments (I am guilty of this), then you might want to consider more space. In my opinion, the more space you get from the start, the less likely you will have to deal with backing everything up or starting over when you run out of space and have to get a bigger hard drive later.

Other Options
If you use your laptop on the run, definitely consider buying an extra battery. Most laptops only come with a battery life of 1-3 hrs, which goes by quickly when you don't have a plug around. Also take into consideration that your battery life will go twice as fast if you are doing things such as burning CD's or playing DVDs.

Laptop screen sizes are averaging from 13" to 15" right now. There are the big 17" screens, but keep in mind the bigger the screen, the heavier the laptop is to carry (my 17" Toshiba weighs just over 10 lbs.) Also note that the smaller the laptop is, the more expensive they become and the more accessories that you will probably have to carry around externally. For example, there are some really small laptops that require you to have to hook up the CD-ROM on the outside with a USB cord.

Other options that are nice (but not necessary) are things like an internal wireless card. This will allow you connect at places like Kinko's, Starbucks, libraries, and other places with "hotspots." You can order external wireless cards later, but then you have to plug and unplug them everytime you want to use them.

Personal Preferences

Now, for my personal opinions. Stay away from Gateway, and definitely stay away from Compaq. I repair these two types of computers the most often. In my opinion two of the top laptop companies right now are Toshiba and Dell. I use to be a diehard Dell fan until about six months ago when they lost my order a few times (but that is another story.) However, Dell has the best balance of cost vs. features, as well as the best customer support for laptops. If you can afford to spend a tad bit more, I prefer Toshiba's Satellite series. I currently have a Toshiba Satellite P25 Series laptop, and I love it. With the 3.0 GHZ Processor, 17" wide screen and 512 megs of RAM, it can handle pretty much anything you can throw at it. I added additional memory to bump it up to 1.256 gigs, but that is because I run software that absorbs a lot of memory. Toshiba's are also a little more durable than Dell's, but their stylish metal casing makes them a little heavier.

Have more questions? Email me and I will do my best to answer them. Want me to walk you through purchasing a laptop? I can do so for a small consultation fee. Call me toll-free at 888-386-7706.