Buying Your First Laptop

A laptop is not a businessman’s tool anymore. Due to its portability and affordability, most people are keen to buy one. Many people looking for laptops are confused with the choices available and the technicalities involved. The article addresses various aspects to consider before you buy your first laptop.

Processor: The processor is the beast that provides your laptop all the computing power. The faster and more powerful the processor, the better performance you get. For basic computing purposes like word processing and browsing an Intel Core 2 Duo processor would suffice, where as for more advanced work like graphic design, multimedia & heavy gaming, a more powerful processor like an Intel Core i5 is recommended. Processor speeds are provided in Giga Hertz (GHz). The more the GHz, the faster the processing will be.

Memory: Random Access Memory (RAM) is another crucial consideration for performance. The memory is the immediate storage area for the laptop to do its computing using the processor. Normally laptop RAM comes in multiples of 1 gigabyte (GB). A basic laptop with Windows XP and MS Office needs 2GB RAM to work comfortably. For higher end work like programming or gaming its better to go with 3 or 4GB RAM. If you plan to upgrade your RAM later, ensure that the laptop you are going to buy has free slots for the additional RAM.

Hard Disk: Hard Disk Capacity is the amount of storage that is needed for storing your operating system files, movies, photographs, MP3 files and other documents. You will need to consider your future storage requirements while deciding on the hard disk capacity. A basic laptop intended for word processing , browsing may require only 80GB, where as a 500GB is recommended for a user who wants to store lots of music files, photographs etc. You can also augment your future storage needs later by buying an external hard disk later.

Size: The beauty of a laptop is in it’s portability so the size needs to factor in to your decision. Small laptops for sale offer an edge over larger ones because they’re lighter to carry, but a larger one means you can perform more functions with it.

Screen: Laptop screens come in different sizes and aspect ratios. The screen size specified by the manufactures is the diagonal measurement from one corner of the screen to the other in inches. The larger the screen, the more area you will get and less strain on your eyes. The downside of having bigger screens is the portability aspect goes down. A larger screen is recommended if the laptop is used for continuous work, whereas a smaller screen is optimal for the extremely mobile users.

Battery: A very important aspect is the back up time provided by the laptop battery when it’s not connected to the power socket. If the laptop is to be used extensively for travel, recommend going for a laptop that gives more backup time of 4-5 hours where as for the home user a back up time of 2 hrs is sufficient.

Optical Drive: As DVDs are common nowadays, it is advisable to go with a combo drive(DVD/CD -RW) that can read as well as write DVD’s and CD’s.

Pointing Devices: Laptop manufactures provide a touchpad (a rectangular box at the keyboard) or a joystick at the middle of the keyboard. Which one to use is completely a personal choice and based on your comfort. It is recommended to play around with both these options and arrive at the one of your comfort.

USB Ports: With USB devices getting popular, it’s a good idea to have a laptop that has at least 3 USB ports and that too high speed USB 2.0. The more number of USB ports, the more devices you can connect to the laptop at the same time

Warranty: Since laptops are very delicate devices with lots of components that too packed in a very small space chances of some of them conking off are a possibility. A laptop screen replacement itself might cost you a quarter of the price of the laptop. Go for laptops that has 2 years of more warranty and if not, its wise to invest in an extended warranty that gives you complete peace of mind.

While you are looking for good laptops for sale, do check with multiple vendors or retailers and compare their offerings based on your needs. Do not let a small useless freebie help you decide on the dream laptop. Try to bargain for free upgrades or extended warranty cover. It is also better to go for a laptop manufacturer who has a service center near you; otherwise you might have to bear the shipping expenses to the service center.

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Black Friday Laptops On Sale

I remember that a couple of years ago laptops were expensive and quite exquisite, as only a bunch of people could afford them. A lot has changed since then, but even today, people are still looking for deals and bargains on laptops for sale. You can still find cheap new laptops if you know where and when to look.

Such deals are usually available all year long, especially when a new line of devices is announced and retailers try to get rid of old stocks. However, the best sales offers can be found during late November and December, the period officially called “Winter sales season”.

Regular laptops now run from around 400 bucks to as high as 3 to 5 thousand bucks, for the highly performing gaming rigs (like Alienware). It’s a vast range and anyone can find something suitable in between. Expensive laptops might get price cuts from time to time (significant I might say), but they’ll still remain pricey.

Standard and cheap laptops however can drop from their regular $500-$600 bucks for instance, to as low as $350-$400. I am expecting the biggest drops on November 27th this year, during Black Friday 2009 day. You might be able to get some very good Black Friday laptop sales offers that day, especially as early birds (products only available early in the morning, as “baits” to lure people in stores) . These deals however run out incredibly fast, and you might have to get in lines early in the night and fight some angry shoppers to buy the most popular laptops for sale.

Online webstores offer good bargains on laptops too. I would suggest scooping Dell’s or HP’s homepages on Black Friday and the week just before Christmas if you want to profit from the price cuts. Keep an eye out for cheap Dell laptops as they’re usually a good bargain.

Also, if you want, there’s the alternative of the smaller cheaper notebooks called netbooks. You could get some of the best such netbook computers for around $300 bucks, and they are good enough for most standard applications, while being very light and offering incredible battery life (around 6-7 hours).

Last but not least, you can go for refurbished laptops. They are usually 20 to 40 % discounted, but might have minor scratches and faults and come with only up to 6 month warranty.

In the end, I’m pretty sure there will be some very very good deals on laptops in the following two months. It will be just up to you to be able to profit from them and get the desired product for the desired price.

*This is a guest post on Laptops On Sale. *

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