Laptop buying guide: How to buy right laptop?

Buying a laptop can be a difficult thing to do. With so many brands, offers, and specifications it a challenge to choose one. Most of us simply settle for something someone at your local store recommends to you.

Ask for suggestions and recommendations from your friends, family, and relatives when buying some new gadgets. You can get mixed ideas that are very confusing.

These suggestions from friends, family, or relatives will not lead you anywhere but cause confusion and you have to start it all over again, especially when it comes to buying a laptop based on your own requirements or needs.

Laptop Buying Guide

To avoid all this confusion, the following are a few tips that will help you to know what to keep in mind while buying a new laptop:

Select the best laptop brand.

Whether you like to try new things or stick with the traditional ones, it is advised to stick with top-notch brands when buying a laptop. A well-established brand assures good quality hardware and software.

When it comes to customer service, make sure and read about what each specific company provides and how helpful they can be when you need some help. Customer service is something many people overlooked. Many times people will buy a laptop based on the price, but they never consider how powerful having strong customer service can be especially when you need your computer fixed quickly.

Know your budget and stick to it.

Exceeding your budget for the sake of a few more features is not always good. Know your requirements first so that you can choose a laptop accordingly that has sufficient features to fulfill them. This can be a difficult task because many salespeople will direct you to higher cost computers. Know what you need the laptop for and stick with features that fulfill your requirements.

Do you really need that graphic card to watch YouTube videos or to do your schoolwork with? Sometimes all your really need is a budget computer to accomplish your work and other times you something with more power or options to upgrade.

Choose the processors accordingly.

There are several processors available these days that provide very high to moderate speed. If you need to process more work, you should definitely go for high processor speed as moderate processor speeds may slow down your work.

However, it is advised to choose a CPU with a minimum speed of 1.6 GHz. Today processors have multiple cores that enable you to have multiple programs open. A dual-core is more than enough to do multiple things like watch videos, do homework, and use the internet.

Prefer more memory.

RAM (Random-Access Memory), memory, or system memory all are one and the same thing and usually confused with storage. RAM is what allows you to have 15 browsing windows, YouTube, Microsoft Office, and your webcam running all at the same time. Most of the modern and mid-range laptops come with 8 GB (which is best for daily use). Having more RAM is good, but not necessary for basic computer tasks.

Prefer more storage but a faster one.

Do not compromise with storage space. If you are planning to store your music, pictures, and school projects you will need plenty of storage. Now we have Solid State Drives (SSD) which can be used to install your software on. SSD’s are a lot faster than traditional hard drives (HDD).

HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is also good option but only for storing large files. SSDs are becoming affordable and cost is almost comparable.

Choose the laptop’s screen size wisely.

Choosing the right size screen can be difficult. Many of us want a larger screen, but larger screens will cost you more too. What type of work will you will be doing on your laptop? Graphics and office work demand for a wider and broader screen (like 15 Inch) while chat and email can be composed and read on the smaller screens (like 10-13 Inch). Businesses choose either 13 inch or 15 inch laptop for their employees.

Look at the laptop’s portability side too.

Portability is a major concern. Having a laptop should allow you to move with it. If you want to bring your laptop to work is when you travel, choose one that is lighter and thinner. This will make things much easier for you.

Choose the laptop with better battery life.

Laptop batteries do not last as long as they are meant to. For basic needs, a laptop must contain a lithium-ion battery with minimum two years of life. You will have to do this research yourself and understand how much battery life you can get out of your battery.

Prefer warranty.

Everyone loves warranty except when it runs out. Laptops all come with a manufacturer warranty, but many stores will try and make you buy their own warranty. Warranties are expensive and sometimes will cost almost as much as your laptop! If you do not purchase a warranty and just stick with your manufacturer it can be a bit risky. If you choose to do this make sure you have a good computer shop that can do this kind of work. If you are looking for PC repair shop I suggest you go online and read some of the reviews and take into consideration what others have to say about specific shops. Most important thing is that consider a extended warranty when you buy a used laptop.

Buying a laptop can be as easy or as hard as you would like to make it. Know what you need the computer for and staying within budget are the two most important things to keep in mind when looking for a new laptop. Another alternative is buying a used laptop.

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Responses

  1. Lungelo Avatar
    Lungelo

    Hi Mr, I have bought a Fujitsu Lifebook A Series Model: AH512 with Intel Pentium inside and intergrated graphics, my qustion is, is it ideal for gaming? If not, what can I do to upgrade and make it suitable for gaming? I’m all the way from South Africa. Thanks in advance.

    1. Atul Avatar

      Basically the Fujitsu LifeBook AH512 is an affordable office notebooks for home and business users. This model has enough power to complete all the daily tasks required; like Word Processing, Internet Browsing and Video Playback (Including HD Content). I found basic and even moderate Games are okay with this model (Just make sure keep laptop bloatware free if pre-installed from seller).

  2. AMT Warranty Avatar
    AMT Warranty

    Portability is a major concern. Having a laptop should allow you to move with it. If you want to bring your laptop to work is when you travel, choose one that is lighter and thinner. This will make things much easier for you and most important thing is that consider a extended warranty when you buy a used laptop.

    1. Atul Avatar

      I appreciate your point in laptop buying guide. Thanks for it, moving this suggestion to main article.

  3. Sivasankar Avatar
    Sivasankar

    What do you think of Asus A555LF Core i3 – (8 GB / 1 TB HDD / Windows 10 Home / 2 GB Graphics) 90NB08H1-M05490 XO371T Notebook (15.6 Inch, Dark Brown, 2.3 KG). I am mainly looking forward to gaming and multitasking.

    1. Atul Avatar

      Hello Sivasankar, the brand and model you have selected is featured with fantastic design, lightening speed with no lags for multitasking. But it is recommended only for low or mid profile games.

  4. varun Avatar
    varun

    Can u tell me which will be the best laptop under 45k for cad programming and a bit of gaming like nfs rivals without clutter. Brand should be HP, Lenovo only.

    1. AtulHost Avatar

      Hi Varun, Lenovo G50-80 would be a good choice in your case, make sure that this model comes with many series so buy whichever is latest in the market. It will come with i5 Processor with 8 Gigs of RAM and dedicated 2 GB for graphics which will make your task fly.

  5. Anaïs Avatar
    Anaïs

    Hi. Thank you for this article, but my knowledge in computer is rather limited so I’m still struggling to “convert” my needs in characteristics. I’m using my computer almost only for internet (could have 60 tabs open), microsoft office, skype, and watch movies in streaming. I don’t use the battery much but I would like it to be a minimum easy to carry around. I like the 13″-14″ format. I have around 130Go of pictures to store, but I’m still unsure if I should better keep them on an external drive (which I would have to buy too). I’m looking for something durable (resisting to wear and tear, and powerful enough to not become too slow with time) as I don’t really enjoy going through this laptop buying process. This last point tends to make me want to go for something as expensive as the ASUS ZenBook UX305 for example, but I’m not sure if I’m just crazy to spend that amount of money for my needs. What do you think? What would you advise? Thanks a lot :)

    1. AtulHost Avatar

      Hi, Anaïs, first of all, I would like to tell you that internet got a huge update today. As you said you could have 60 tabs open in a browser which would be CPU and memory intensive task. So what you concluded is absolutely correct and you have picked the right model, even we have suggested ZenBook UX305 in our best laptop brands list.

  6. Fiqa Avatar
    Fiqa

    Hi Atul – Nice Article – I have shortlisted the below models – could you let me know what will be the best one to select. I will be working on illustrator mostly will i3 and 4GB RAM do for my work.

    1. Acer E15 E5-573G
    2. Asus A555lf
    3. HP15-ac119tu
    4. HP 15-ay020TU
    5. Lenovo G50-80

    What would you advice and Thanks Much.

    1. AtulHost Avatar

      Hi Fiqa, go with your first option Acer E15 E5-573G because it has better processing power than others and have dedicated Nvidia GeForce Graphics memory which will help you to run illustrator like applications smoothly.

      Lenovo G50-80 is also a good model but there are many series some have dedicated graphics and some not, so you can pick which one have at least 1 – 2 GB Graphics memory.

      1. Fiqa Avatar
        Fiqa

        Hi Atul,

        Thanks much for your quick response and honest opinion- yes I do like the Acer however am also inclined towards the Asus. What are your opinions or suggestions on the Asus. Also would like to know about the after sales service for both Asus and Acer.

        Thanks
        Fiqa

        1. AtulHost Avatar

          Welcome back Fiqa,

          To be honest I would like to tell you that both the brands are good for after sales services. You need to keep 2 things in mind.

          1. Do some online research about the nearest service centers where you live or work. Make sure everything is available to you if anything goes wrong.

          2. Get the product registered as soon as you buy it (you will find how to register your product inside product itself or go to the official website of product and find the link to register product), this will help to get quick after sales service.

          I have seen many of users who never register their product online and when they actually need service they find it hard to answer when the product is bought, how much warranty is left.

  7. Derrick Ghanney Avatar
    Derrick Ghanney

    Hi Atul, I am Derrick from Ghana I want to buy a laptop with high speed which can run games like NBA and FIFA smoothly. I also want to run Auto Cad on it. Please help me out.

    1. AtulHost Avatar

      Check out Asus ROG GL552, it is the best budget gaming laptop which can be used for heavy games as well as professional software like Auto Cad.

  8. Mina Avatar
    Mina

    Best laptop for legal hacking, gaming and all round studious purposes?

    1. AtulHost Avatar

      Go with Alienware or top-notch Asus or MSI laptop. I recommend following models.

      – Alienware 13
      – Alienware 17
      – Asus ROG GL552
      – MSI GL62 6QF-628