How to Choose the Best Laptop for You: A Mini-Workshop: Session 1

Choosing the best laptop for your needs and making sure you get the best price is one of the most common problems I hear about. I use a three step process that helps me figure out the best possible deal. Determine your needs, then your price range, and then do your shopping. Following these steps will help you be organized and efficient in your search for the best laptop for your needs.

First, I want to state that this is meant to be a general guide for those who have little or no experience with laptops and/or desktop computers. If you’re a power user or a tech guru, you’re not going to really need this guide, but you may know someone that does, so let’s get started.

The first step to choosing the right laptop for your needs is the one that most people stumble on. You’ve got to determine what you’re going to be using the laptop for, before you can decide on anything else. Will you be using it for playing PC games, for creating spreadsheets or power point presentations? Will it be used for school work or for editing video and audio? Will it be used mostly for internet access or just for checking email? All these questions have to come into play to determine the big picture of your overall requirements before moving on to step two. If, for example, you plan on using the laptop mostly for school work and occasionally for some PC gaming, your hardware doesn’t have to be the best cutting edge available, but there are still other considerations. This can be broken down into a simple list of needs, as follows:

• Basic laptop with small screen or a Netbook (not to be confused with Notebook): Best for internet usage and email, word processing and data management like spreadsheets.

• Low End laptop with integrated graphics: These are best for playing older games, as well as doing all that the Basic laptops can do.

• Mid Range laptops usually have a dedicated graphics card, and at least a dual-core processor. These laptops will do just about anything and are decent for multi-tasking as well. They won’t play the newest games but they do handle most games that were produced more than a year or two ago.

• High End Gaming laptops usually have all the latest tech installed and can handle anything you throw at them. Alienware is an example of the high end gaming laptop. They often have quad-core processors and always have powerful dedicated GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) that can handle sending video to your high definition television as well. They have huge amounts of hard drive space, tons of RAM, and lots of extra features like cosmetic cases (glowing keyboards and such)

Now, those are some really basic and general guidelines for the different types of laptops out there, but I don’t want anyone to think this is meant to be an exhaustive list. The fact is that there are many steps in between each different kind of laptop I have listed here. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by it, though. The basic types listed above will help you get on your way.