If you are thinking about buying a new laptop you should look into purchasing a durable, modern model which fits your needs. Every year the newest laptops are improving. Laptops are gaining popularity worldwide, with many people replacing their old desktops with laptops, which are easier to travel with and take with you everywhere.
The majority of notebooks are highly portable and cheap. Before you read any further you should make a self-assessment and determine the type of laptop user that you are. Are you going to use your laptop every day to play games or will you only use it to surf the internet and for Microsoft word and excel?
If you are going to use your laptop to play games, watch movies, surf the internet and pay your bills than you are considered a home user. Home users should look for a laptop that is highly versatile and has a good amount of RAM.
Another type of user is the student. Students typically use their laptops for surfing the web and typing up assignments. Most students will use their laptops kind of like a desktop and won’t need the lightest most portable ones.
People who are constantly on the go will need to purchase a super-duper portable laptop. These types of people may be students who like to bring their laptops to do work at a coffee shop and the park or businessmen, who are always away from home. Small, light and thin laptops are usually the most expensive types, but they are worth the money if it fits your lifestyle.
The actual process of researching and selecting the best model is actually quite easy once you read this guide; different categories of laptops are organized and outlined for your convenience.
Netbooks
These are the most portable types of laptops, they are intended for simple tasks such as going on the internet, and they are typically relatively inexpensive and very small.
Ultra Portable
Although they are not as popular as netbooks, these types of laptops contain a larger screen, they are a bit heavier than netbooks. They are more powerful and provide more all-purpose versatility capabilities than netbooks.
Thin and Light
A thin and light laptop is your typical 13 inch laptop. Laptops which are bigger than 13 inches are usually too heavy to carry around and will be used like a desktop, whereas these types of laptops can be still be comfortably carried around all day.
Desktop Replacements
Even though, these laptops are about 17 inches or larger they are still portable and are a perfect replacement for an old aging desktop. These kinds of laptops have a huge keyboard, good processor and often have a great graphics card, which is good for gamers and people who love watching movies in HD on their laptops.
Remember to purchase a laptop which meets your screen size and resolution requirements, you will not be able to upgrade this later! The most important consideration for most people when they purchase laptop is its weight, the less weight a laptop has, the easier it will be to transport from one place to another.
The hard drive size is another important thing you should consider. You can purchase a HDD or SSD hard drive just make sure that you will have sufficient space. Most people need at least 160 GB but you can go for more or less depending on the type of user you are.
Look out for laptops with Blu-ray player for HD films! Some laptops also have DVD rewriters. Make sure you get a laptop with a memory card reader and a good security system, if you have some secretive documents on your computer, you may consider buying a laptop with a fingerprint reader, which is a lot more dependable than a password which can easily be cracked.
Bluetooth - Bluetooth is a device that enables your laptop to have wireless communication with other electronic devices, such as cell phones.
CPU - The CPU is also called the processor; it is basically the brain of your laptop and is typically the most expensive part too.
Graphics Card - This card will help display the visual graphics on your laptop screen. If you are a big time gamer or movie watcher, then you should get one of the higher end graphic cards with your laptop.
Lithium ion Battery - This is the major type of battery used is more laptops today because they last long, some of them can last as long at 7 hours.
Operating System - An operating system will help compute and use applications on your laptop; you should have at least 256 RAM so you can run Windows XP or Mac OS X. The new windows Vista requires you to have 1 gig of RAM.
RAM - Random access memory or RAM is crucial for your laptop; it will help run your applications and help run your operating system, whether it’s the new windows or Mac OS X. If you want a laptop that runs fast and can play quality computer games, then you should purchase a laptop with more RAM.
Touchpad - This device can be used like a mouse; you will be able to move the cursor around the screen with it.