You don’t know which laptop to buy and you don’t have a computer friend to ask? We leave you a simple guide for you to learn how to choose your laptop.
Whether it is your first laptop, or if you need a new one, choosing the most suitable for your needs is not easy. Choosing wrong can be very expensive. If you don’t have the foggiest idea where to start (it’s okay, you’re not alone) we give you a good list of tips for buying a laptop. If you have already had to choose before, or more or less you know what you want, below you have several recommendations on which laptop to buy according to its use.
Tips for buying a laptop:
- Dimensions and weight
- screen
- Battery
- Processor
- RAM
- Graphic card
- HDD
- Connections
Which laptop to buy for:
- Domestic use
- college
- Edit videos and photos
- To play (gaming)
- Informatics Engineering
- Architecture
Tips for buying a laptop
Getting a computer is not easy, in fact we can find laptops that can be used both to play and to design buildings (we will clarify this later). That is why it is very important to know what to take into account when buying a Best laptop for adobe illustrator, since we may find models that will make it up to us both in our work and in our free time.
Dimensions and weight
One of the most important tips we can give you to buy a laptop in 2020 is that you take a good look at its weight and size (lest it be that in addition to a computer, you have to buy a new backpack). At this point we can find from MacBooks and NoteBooks of different brands with weights around or less than 1 kilo.
If we want more power and a better value for money, both the price and the dimensions usually rise to 2 kilos in most laptops, reaching even more in gaming laptops, where performance is sought at all costs (even that of our backs).
Screen type
Another thing you have to look at when buying a laptop is its screen, of course not? Well, if you are one of those who uses the laptop to play games, watch series and in general, for more domestic use we recommend the “bright screens”. These screens offer more intense colors and contrast, but the light from bulbs or the sun can hit them, causing us to have annoying reflections (they are ideal screens for use indoors or with little direct light). However, if you are going to use your laptop at work, university or outdoors, we recommend the “matte screens”, in which at the cost of losing a bit of quality in the colors, we will gain a totally sharp image even with direct lighting (perfect for working in bright environments).
Screen size
In addition to the type of screen, it is important to look at both its size and its resolution, as it will influence (and a lot) our user experience. Smaller, more compact laptops have screens smaller than 12 ”- great for literally anywhere, but uncomfortable to use for hours at a time. In the strip between the 12 ”and 14” screens, we find most of the laptops, both for home use and for study, since they combine a suitable screen size and easily fit in any backpack. If we go up to screens between 14 “and 16” we find ideal laptops for working daily, since they will allow us to have several tabs, programs or documents open at the same time without forcing our eyes. Finally, screens larger than 16 ”are found in high-end laptops, mostly intended for gaming, which ensure a feeling of total immersion for what is being shown to us.
Battery
The battery is one of the most important things that a good laptop has to have, it will be the difference between constantly looking for a plug, or not. Although the battery life of a laptop will depend on what use we are giving it, we recommend that you look for laptops that offer a duration of more than 12-15 hours. If you are looking for a gaming laptop, you may not care so much, but if you are one of those who works anywhere or goes to university, it is something that you should definitely take into account when buying a laptop.
Processor
The processor will be what determines the power of our computer and one of the best tips we can give you is not to get obsessed with it. If you want to use your computer to play games, to edit videos and photos, to study architecture or engineering, you need a good processor (we recommend the different ranges of Intel’s i-7, they are incorporated by most high-performance laptops).
However, if you are looking for a more domestic laptop, for office automation or administrative work, do not look for large processors since you will not need them (you can limit yourself to an i-5 or even an i-3).
RAM
RAM is a very important thing to look at when buying a laptop, as it has a lot of impact on the way we use the computer. As with the processor, if you are looking for a laptop that has a high performance, we recommend that you look for models that have 12 GB to 16 GB of RAM. If you are going to use it more closely related to work or study, and you are one of those who open many tabs in the browser, or several programs at the same time, you should look for laptops between 8GB and 12GB of RAM. If finally, you are going to leave the laptop for a more domestic or leisure use, with 4GB of RAM you are fine.
Graphic card
Whether you want to play games or render and design content, the graphics card is one of the most important things to take into account when buying a laptop. If you are going to use the computer to work, to watch series and little else, this doesn’t interest you so much.
The graphics card is in charge of giving fluidity to the pixels, something essential if we want to play with good image quality and as many frames per second as possible (currently we recommend the Nvidia from the GTX 1060-70-80 range to the 2060-70-80). If you are going to dedicate yourself to architecture, graphic design or video editing, you may not need such a powerful one, but yes, a moderately current range.
HDD
The hard drive is in charge of storing information on your computer, from video games to documents and movies. Currently this is not usually a problem, since all laptops usually have a lot of memory, from 500 GB to 1TB. There are different types of hard drives, solid hard drives are normal, they have a lot of capacity and cheap.
On the other hand, we can find SSD drives, which are much smaller but make our computer much faster (especially when turning on and off) SSD hard drives are ideal for laptops intended for work or study, but not for the most domestic ones where they are filled with movies and heavy files.
Connections
The different connectors that our future computer may have is something very important to look at when buying a laptop, since if it does not have the connections that you use the most, you will end up spending money on adapters. Laptops can have HDMI, VGA, USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections, LAN cable, SD cards and CD reader (although it is becoming less common) among others. It is important that you take a look before deciding which laptop to buy, although most bring everything.
Which laptop to buy for:
The time has come to talk about which laptop to buy, taking into account the best that has come out in 2019. We are going to propose different models depending on the use that you are going to give yourself.
For domestic use
If you don’t know which laptop to buy for home use, we recommend two things, keep it simple and have a good value for money.
For home use, we recommend three models that more than meet the most basic needs and being a good laptop to buy if we don’t want to spend too much, these are the Acer ES1-132-C9NX, the MEDION E425 and the Lenovo Ideapad 330-15IKB. Three of the best laptops of 2019 with the best value for money, ideal for watching movies and series at home, ordering bills, making arrangements and buying online.
