How to choose a laptop - expert tips

Laptop can be designed for different purposes. It can have a different design. Even the operating system on laptops is put completely different! How can one understand all this diversity? It's very simple: read our material.

notebooks The best notebook manufacturers

First of all, many people pay attention to the company that manufactured the laptop. Agree, some little-known Chinese manufacturer does not inspire special respect - there is a possibility that his creation will quickly fail.

First of all, we recommend to consider the purchase of a laptop from the following companies:

• Apple - it produces expensive MacBooks running Mac OS X.
• Lenovo is the largest and most respected Chinese manufacturer of notebooks that are sold most often at a low price.
• Toshiba is a Japanese company trying to build screens of its own production into its equipment.
• DELL is an American giant that has been manufacturing notebooks for decades.
• Acer - under this brand are created laptops of various price categories, including the sale of expensive gaming models.
• ASUS - most often this company produces laptops, which are optimal in terms of price-performance ratio.

And this is not the whole list! If you want to know more about each company's products, we recommend reading the article "The best laptops for work".

Principle of operation and device

Any portable computer consists of many different components. For example, this is a case that can be plastic or aluminum, a display, a keyboard( you will not believe, but not every "Klava" is convenient), battery, processor, RAM and much more. Enumerate all the components is meaningless - it will take too long, and it's unlikely you need to know the names of all components.

And yet, let's at least try to understand how the laptop works. After all, it will let you know which parts are the most important. In short, information is processed by a computer using a processor. Also, it uses RAM - the more it is available, the more applications can be launched( and more tabs can be opened in the browser).

User files( music, documents, videos and everything else) are stored in permanent memory - in its quality can be used hard disk( HDD), solid state drive( SSD) or even a bunch of both of these devices. In games and when installing an important component of the laptop becomes a video card. Although now more often than not it uses a built-in graphics processor accelerator. The picture is displayed on the screen, although with the appropriate port it can be displayed on a monitor or TV.Enter text and manage programs offered with the keyboard and touchpad.

Stand-alone work laptop provides a battery. But the time of this work itself mostly depends not on the capacity of the battery, but on the optimization of the operating system, such as the installed display and many other factors.

Kinds of notebooks

In terms of viscera, almost all laptops are very similar to each other. However, experts still divide portable computers into different categories. How do they do it. Everything is very simple.

Screen size

The most common notebooks differ diagonally on their screen, measured in inches. If the diagonal does not exceed 11 inches, then you have a so-called netbook. It is primarily intended for study, short work with documents and the opening of Internet pages. To its greater power, most likely, not enough.

The most common laptops with a display, the diagonal of which varies from 13 to 15 inches. This is already a good "working machines", the transportation of which does not cause serious problems.

Well, professionals prefer to buy laptops with a 17-inch screen. They are cumbersome, but information from such a display is perceived much easier. And to watch the movie you do not need to connect a laptop to the TV - 17 inches is enough for its comfortable viewing.

Construction

Also notebooks differ in their design. For example, a few years ago the word "ultrabook" came into use. This is the name of a laptop computer, whose weight does not exceed 1.5-1.7 kg. Also, such a laptop must be very thin, because of what inside it you will not find a hard disk - the information is stored only on the SSD-drive.

Still now very popular with laptops with a rotary display - their screen also has a touch layer, which greatly simplifies control.

The third category includes the so-called "Chromebooks".These devices are popular in the US and some other countries. They are equipped with a minimum set of components, and as an operating system they use Chrome OS.It turns out that the work is in the browser, and all files are stored in the "cloud".Of course, without access to the Internet, such a laptop becomes almost useless.

A separate class of devices are gaming laptops. They are very expensive, very heavy, very thick - but it does not deter gamers at all.

Selection parameters for

When choosing a laptop, be sure to read its full specifications. Pay attention to the processor - the number of its cores, the clock frequency and the manufacturer. The best chips are made by Intel, but the products of this company significantly increase the cost of the laptop - so sometimes it makes sense to look and in the direction of AMD.

RAM

Another important parameter is the RAM.4 GB you will be satisfied only if you choose a netbook. In other cases, you should look for a model that has at least twice the volume. And for modern video editing, this may not be enough. By the way, you can first purchase a laptop with a minimum amount of RAM, and in the future, when there will be free money, buy the same amount. But then it should be clarified how many slots for RAM are built into the laptop, and how many slots have already been inserted.

Hard disk and / or SSD

You need to ask how many gigabytes of data you can store on a laptop. For example, if you are an avid gamer, then you will need a laptop with a 1 TB hard drive. If you are not going to install games, or are limited to only one, then you will have enough 500 GB.

Also now you can consider buying a laptop with an SSD-drive. Such a laptop will be expensive, but it will please almost instant loading of the operating system and various programs.

You can also consider a device with a combination of HDD and SSD.In such models, the operating system is installed on a solid-state drive, and ordinary files and, often, all programs are stored on the hard disk.

Display

The resolution of the display should also interest you. By modern standards, the minimum that suits you is HD( 720p or 1280 × 720 pixels).Fans who want to play and watch films should be guided by laptops with a Full HD screen resolution( 1080p or 1920 × 1080 pixels).Well, if you keep up with the technological progress, you can think about buying a laptop with a 4K-display.

Gamers should focus not only on the resolution, but also on the frequency of updating. The higher it is, the smoother the picture will appear. Well, pay attention to the technology of creating a screen. IPS-panels are capable of boasting very wide viewing angles and good color rendering. In TFT-screens, these indicators are slightly worse, but they have a minimal response time, which attracts many gamers.

Video card

You should think about the availability of a video card if you like to play or regularly mount video editing. Video adapters are manufactured by AMD and NVIDIA.In this case, the video card is usually mobile - it is actually melted on the motherboard, and at the end of its name is the letter "M".New and very expensive laptops can have a full-fledged discrete graphics card - its power, by itself, is much higher. If you are not going to play on your laptop, or mount video clips, then you will be satisfied with the model with integrated graphics.

Other accessories

Other components should also interest you, but to a lesser extent. For example, learn about the convenience of the keyboard is not possible in advance - you can only estimate the size and position of certain keys( usually Enter and Shift).Only after a week of active typing you can understand whether the keyboard is comfortable. Allowing a webcam is also a secondary option, unless you are in Skype all day long.

Much more important is the set of connectors located on the ends of the laptop. You will definitely need HDMI, and the number of USB ports should be at least four. And it is desirable that as many of them as possible belong to the high-speed standard USB 3.0.But Ethernet( RJ-45) is now almost unnecessary - you are unlikely to use wired Internet when there is Wi-Fi. Refuse and from the optical drive - nowadays almost no one uses disks.

Operating system

Finally, it is worth paying some attention to the software. Or, more precisely, the installed operating system. Remember that the installation of a version of Windows costs the laptop manufacturer in a certain amount. That is why the cheapest laptops do not have an operating system at all - they are free Linux or, more often, DOS.This means that after buying a laptop you will have to get Windows somewhere and install it.

If we talk about "MacBooks", then they come with their own operating system. In theory, it can be demolished by installing Windows. But we do not advise you to do this, since Mac OS X is a stable and cute system. You just need to get used to it, after which you no longer want to return to the product Microsoft. Yes, and running a laptop under its control is noticeably longer than with Windows installed.

Which laptop to choose

When choosing a laptop computer you need to think about what tasks you will solve with it:

1. Do you need a laptop only from time to time to work with documents and solve other simple problems? Think about buying a netbook that costs very little money.

2. Want to use a laptop instead of a desktop computer? Then you have to fork out, buying a device with a 15- or even 17-inch screen, a capacious hard drive and a powerful processor.

3. Laptop is needed for work? Then look for a model that definitely will not slow down and spend your nerve cells. You need a powerful laptop with a 17-inch display. This can be either a Windows-based device or a MacBook. It is desirable to purchase a model with a low weight.

4. Do you buy a laptop for your child up to 10 years old? Look for a model lighter and cheaper. Although now these children are not recommended to buy a laptop, it is better to look at the side of the tablet.

5. Looking for a laptop for a child between 10 and 16 years of age? Then you need a laptop with a powerful processor and video card, because such a child will necessarily want to use a laptop for games.

6. Are you a successful gamer who earns a lot of money? Buy yourself a gaming laptop. It will draw absolutely all modern games, and if necessary, it can solve other tasks - for example, to mount a video.

How much are the

notebooks? The price of modern laptops can be completely different. For example, netbooks can cost less than 15 thousand rubles. But you need to understand that for this money you will get the simplest device, which from time to time will make you nervous with your podtormazhivami. Yes, the screen of such a netbook will have a very low resolution.

Not bad "cars" for use at home cost from 30 thousand rubles. Such a laptop will have a capacious hard drive, a fairly powerful processor and 8 GB of RAM.Theoretically, on such a device you can even mount the video, but the solution of such tasks will be given to the laptop with considerable difficulty. If you are willing to pay 5-10 thousand rubles, then instead of or in addition to the HDD you will get a certain amount of solid-state memory, and the screen resolution will be increased to full 1080p.

Laptop with very good components will cost you 50-60 thousand rubles. It will already have a powerful graphics card and a very powerful processor. This laptop will be used by you without any complaints for many years.

And if you want to get a full-fledged workstation or gaming laptop, you'll have to shell out for 80-140 thousand rubles. With such a computer you can forget about the brakes. There are laptops and an even higher price tag, but their purchase should be considered only to successful professionals.