Tag Archives: Laptop
Read This Before You Buy A Laptop.
Read This Before You Buy A Laptop.
Looking to buy a laptop? Congratulations! So, do you want a thin-and-light notebook, a mainstream notebook, an ultra portable notebook, or a business notebook? And do you want that in a Dell, a Gateway, an IBM, a Sony, or a Toshiba, to name just a few of your options?
Confused yet? It really can be overwhelming. But buying a laptop doesn’t have to mean learning a whole new language. It just means that you have to know what your needs are and what kinds of equipment is best suited to meeting those needs. Ask yourself the following two questions:
1. How am I going to use this machine?
The demands you anticipate placing on a machine will dictate how much memory you need, processor speed, display size, and the size of your hard drive. It also matters how much wear and tear you think you’re going to put on your laptop. For example, are you going to be schlepping it from college room to coffee shop, or are you mostly going to be using it at home, as a replacement for a desktop machine? Are you going to be storing lots of digital music files or photos or other multimedia that will eat up huge amounts of hard drive space? Do you need wireless capability and lots of peripherals, like CD-RW drives or DVD drives? Are you going to be doing graphics work or watching a lot of video on your laptop, such that a powerful, rapid processor and a large and high-resolution screen are important to you?
2. How do I find the laptop that will do what I want?
Thinner is not always better; but then, less is sometimes more. In the laptop jungle, searching out the perfect machine can be a challenge. It might help to look at the different models of laptop and see what features each one has to offer.
* Ultraportables
These machines are thin, small, and light—typically not more than four pounds. What they don’t have going for them is a lot of processing power or the bells and whistles of bigger systems: they don’t have internal CD or DVD drives, they have smallish hard drives, and they have displays of 12 inches or smaller. A good choice for someone on the go a lot who doesn’t demand a lot of their system, but performance lags behind other laptop models.
* Thin-and-lights
Perfect for business travelers, these laptops have powerful internal processors, 14-inch displays, and wireless networking capability, plus a combo CD-RW/DVD drive. They have lots of memory and roomy hard drives. Trade-off: they weigh a bit more (four to six pounds) and they cost quite a bit more.
* Mainstream notebooks
Basically, these laptops are desktop computers that can do a little travel. At six to eight pounds, they come with a 14-inch or larger display and more than enough basic power, in terms of processing speed, memory, and hard drive space.
* Desktop replacements
The name says it all: these laptops think they’re desktops. They have 15-inch to 17-inch monitors, more than big enough for gaming or creating home movies. They have the fastest processors, the largest hard drives, and the most memory of any other laptop available. And they weigh at least seven pounds.
Knowing at least some of the terminology should help you carry on intelligent conversations with laptop salespeople. And remember: because technology changes so fast, you’ll never have to be stuck with a dud laptop for more than two years!
How to find cheap laptop computers.
How to find cheap laptop computers.
Ah yes, I want a laptop but I am not going to spend a couple of thousand dollars for one. Well guess what you don’t have to. Laptop prices have come down dramatically over the past year alone and they will continue to do so as technology advances. But the trick here is to find good quality laptops that fit your needs at the cheapest prices available today.
I would say that there probably is a store near you right now that has cheap laptop computers. In fact, many stores already have them. The reason being, like any other new product, laptops were once considered the cream of the crop in the computer world which made them very expensive. However, all that has changed now. Laptops are a dime a dozen! The hand held digital assistants, Bluetooth cell phones and tablet pads are the new rage making laptop computers cheap.
Now, don’t get me wrong, this does not mean that they are cheaply made. Thanks to the wonders of the technological cycle, laptop computers are decreasing in price as their capabilities rise. Of course, there are the latest and greatest monsters out there that are made for gaming or high powered multimedia applications and these babies still cost a pretty penny.
But for the average user, you can find cheap laptop computers that provide all the power you need and then some. Every major manufacturer out there, like Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, and IBM have their lower end and intermediate models that come with more than enough speed and usability.
Now here is the key to finding the right cheap computer laptop for you, and that is to figure out exactly what you need it for.
Are you going to use it mainly for surfing the web or word processing? Do you need it to work from home or mainly to save your MP3s and digital pictures?
Ok, so now you have an idea of what you want to use your laptop for. Now lets go out shopping and compare. You can visit any of the top manufacturers websites or visit your local store and find their low end or intermediate models that may suit your needs. The three top components of a computer you want to look for is the hard drive size, memory, and processor speeds and take notes of each model you find on each component and model.
The hard drive, you can consider this the brain of your computer, this is where all your files, applications and folders are stored. If you plan on using your computer for MP3s and digital pictures your hard drive should be large since these files are usually very large. I personally would look at 80gb as minimum.
Next would be the memory, memory can be considered the thought processes of your computer. As a minimum I would look at 512mb but if you plan on using your laptop for gaming of course this should be much larger, in the area of 1 to 2gb. Now memory is used whenever a program or application is running. So the more memory you have the faster your computer can process the program.
And finally your processor, now your processor is just that it processes all the inner workings of how each program runs. The faster the processor is, the faster the program instructions are processed. Again if your looking for a laptop for gaming uses you want your processor with high speeds 2ghz or more. For other uses you can go less.
Other parts of the computer to also consider are the ports involved that can connect your computer to your digital camera or your mp3 player for example. You also want to check that your laptop has wireless and broadband connectivity. Many cheap computer laptops today already come with this but you want to make sure or you will have to pay additional, for example, a wireless card to install in your laptop to have this capability.
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Why You Should Get A Laptop
Why You Should Get A Laptop
So now that you are now are in market for a new computer you are faced with a common dilemma. Should you get a desktop or a laptop? Desktops are fine if you an enthusiastic gamer but laptops are the definite choice for the average consumer. Hence, in this article we will examine the many benefits of owning a laptop.
Mobility
One of the key benefits of owning a laptop is that it is mobile. You longer have to reside behind a computer desk. With a laptop you can take your work outside, on the road, in a plane and practically any place that has a power outlet. Apart from this, the portability aspect of the laptop allows users to be more social than desktop users. Laptops users can mingle with their friends and peers while doing their work done at the local café.
Productivity
It is also now a proven fact that laptops helps to increase productivity, companies and educational institutions are catching on to this fact and are either requiring or issuing laptops to their employees and students. It is shown that only 1 out of 7 of laptop users felt that their laptop added to their stress while the majority believing that their laptop made them more productive.
More Compact
Compared to desktops, laptops are smaller in size and therefore occupy less space. This is an advantage in areas with little free room like a small office or a student’s dorm room. Given its small size, laptops are also easier to maintain, you don’t have to worry about air vents being blocked by dusk balls, and laptops are also more cost effective as they use less electricity than desktops.
Performance
Apart from gaming laptops are similar in performance, if not better, than desktops. Modern laptops can run now programs that previously had only been associated with bulky desktops. Also unlike desktop users, laptop users are more likely to use their laptop as tool rather than a entertain system and tend to install programs that they need. Laptops users are generally more security aware, and are less likely to be infected by spyware and malware.
In conclusion, if you like bulky, noise babbling, power sucking, and heat generating machines get a desktop else stick with a laptop.