Picking out a new laptop to purchase used to be easy. There weren’t a lot of things to consider except for two very basic factors - operating system and budget. Sure, there were countless brands that offered laptops back in the day but the choices among them were similar in a way that all brands merely offered budget, mid-level, and premium laptops.
However, recent developments in the tech industry has made laptop buying a bit more complicated than before. Form-factor, for example, took a drastic change making the traditional clamshell a bit dated compared to the 2 in 1 devices that currently flood the market. Desktop replacement laptops fully equipped with discrete GPUs also began to make inroads in the productivity laptop market especially with the rise of the demand for content creation professionals. The rise of alternative products such as the tablets and even phones that had some PC functionality built-in also plays a factor in this new laptop-buying equation.
To make sure that you have you’re not parting with hard-earned money on expensive laptops that don’t perfectly match your needs, we’ve compiled this list of features that often go barely noticed when choosing a new laptop:
Processor
The user experience on a laptop is largely dependent on what it has under its hood. Internals, therefore, is a significant factor in choosing your next laptop. However, when it comes to internals, the videocard often takes the cake as the most thought-about feature while processing power is often neglected. But, as the main driver of the everyday tasks, the processor needs to be higher up in the list of considerations when choosing a new laptop.
With the advent of Intel’s Quadcore Coffee Lake processors, laptops made a significant leap in terms of processing power. This definitely helps in making people consider laptops as truly productivity-centered devices.
On the other hand, some users would be completely happy with a less powerful processor if that means that the money will be spent on other features. The new Surface Go, for example, uses a low-power Pentium processor but makes up for it in form-factor, screen quality, and portability.
Form-factor
Microsoft’s ambition is to make Windows devices truly seamless in people’s daily lives. They originally aimed to achieve this by uniting the PC and the mobile devices with Windows 8. The operating system’s successor, Windows 10, they seem to suggest is the maturation of this goal. To some degree, they’re right – the PC had truly become device that somehow integrated well into our daily lives.
They were able to produce a smartphone that transformed into a tablet but it wasn’t very successful. What they were successful at was at fusing the tablet and the laptop together making a highly adaptable device that was both great at productivity and leisure-related tasks.
For the laptop buyer who prioritizes productivity and power, traditional clamshell laptops should fit the bill. Even the budget clamshell models such as Dell’s G series of laptops have powerful CPUs and GPUs. This combination is plenty for both regular productivity tasks such as spreadsheet management and content creation tasks like video rendering. Their only downside is that they’re often too heavy to carry around for long periods of time.
2 in 1 devices, which was first introduced with Windows 8 machines, have form-factors that allow them to be used both as a tablet and as a traditional laptop. They’re often relatively lightweight devices compared to clamshell laptops with similar specs so users can easily change between the two modes depending on the situation.
Build Quality
An end-user who has to travel a lot for work, on the other hand, might want to go for ultraportables rather than any other laptop. They’re powerful enough for most tasks yet still light enough so as to not make it difficult to bring around in a carry-on bag.
They’re also often tough. They’re all built with premium materials such as aluminum, magnesium, or even carbon fiber so they can take a beating.
These are all important factors for people who demand portability and reliability and can afford the premium cost of both those things.
Futureproofing
We live in an age of planned obsolescence. It is therefore, important to consider if your laptop is going to be functional for you in the foreseeable future.
The new USB Type C port, for example, might not be the norm right now but when the technology reaches maturity, it has all the potential to phase out all other ports on a laptop. It takes up such a small footprint that it would allow laptops to be even slimmer and lighter. This future is fully on display by the newest MacBook that has a single USB Type C port.
USB Type C ports, especially if they’re Thunderbolt branded, allows for far greater transfer speeds that allow high powered peripherals to work with your device. This is especially important for connecting eGPUs that exponentially enhances that performance of your laptop’s graphics processing unit. The port, if used this way, essentially makes your device extremely upgradeable which is something that cannot be said about other laptops.
Battery Management
Portability is one of the main features of a laptop so, a short battery capacity greatly diminishes that feature because of the constant need to be tethered to a power outlet. This makes a laptop’s battery management an extremely important aspect that buyers should but don’t often treat with importance.
This also makes it paramount to know that laptop manufacturers have different ideas about how to make dealing with battery easier. Some put absolutely large batteries that takes a long time to charge inside their devices, others choose to make their laptops easy to top up with a regular smartphone charger or power bank, while plenty of others are experimenting with different other methods. All of these different methods makes it important to know what you’re going to have to do to keep your laptop juiced up.
However, recent developments in the tech industry has made laptop buying a bit more complicated than before. Form-factor, for example, took a drastic change making the traditional clamshell a bit dated compared to the 2 in 1 devices that currently flood the market. Desktop replacement laptops fully equipped with discrete GPUs also began to make inroads in the productivity laptop market especially with the rise of the demand for content creation professionals. The rise of alternative products such as the tablets and even phones that had some PC functionality built-in also plays a factor in this new laptop-buying equation.
To make sure that you have you’re not parting with hard-earned money on expensive laptops that don’t perfectly match your needs, we’ve compiled this list of features that often go barely noticed when choosing a new laptop:
Processor
The user experience on a laptop is largely dependent on what it has under its hood. Internals, therefore, is a significant factor in choosing your next laptop. However, when it comes to internals, the videocard often takes the cake as the most thought-about feature while processing power is often neglected. But, as the main driver of the everyday tasks, the processor needs to be higher up in the list of considerations when choosing a new laptop.
With the advent of Intel’s Quadcore Coffee Lake processors, laptops made a significant leap in terms of processing power. This definitely helps in making people consider laptops as truly productivity-centered devices.
On the other hand, some users would be completely happy with a less powerful processor if that means that the money will be spent on other features. The new Surface Go, for example, uses a low-power Pentium processor but makes up for it in form-factor, screen quality, and portability.
Form-factor
Microsoft’s ambition is to make Windows devices truly seamless in people’s daily lives. They originally aimed to achieve this by uniting the PC and the mobile devices with Windows 8. The operating system’s successor, Windows 10, they seem to suggest is the maturation of this goal. To some degree, they’re right – the PC had truly become device that somehow integrated well into our daily lives.
They were able to produce a smartphone that transformed into a tablet but it wasn’t very successful. What they were successful at was at fusing the tablet and the laptop together making a highly adaptable device that was both great at productivity and leisure-related tasks.
For the laptop buyer who prioritizes productivity and power, traditional clamshell laptops should fit the bill. Even the budget clamshell models such as Dell’s G series of laptops have powerful CPUs and GPUs. This combination is plenty for both regular productivity tasks such as spreadsheet management and content creation tasks like video rendering. Their only downside is that they’re often too heavy to carry around for long periods of time.
2 in 1 devices, which was first introduced with Windows 8 machines, have form-factors that allow them to be used both as a tablet and as a traditional laptop. They’re often relatively lightweight devices compared to clamshell laptops with similar specs so users can easily change between the two modes depending on the situation.
Build Quality
An end-user who has to travel a lot for work, on the other hand, might want to go for ultraportables rather than any other laptop. They’re powerful enough for most tasks yet still light enough so as to not make it difficult to bring around in a carry-on bag.
They’re also often tough. They’re all built with premium materials such as aluminum, magnesium, or even carbon fiber so they can take a beating.
These are all important factors for people who demand portability and reliability and can afford the premium cost of both those things.
Futureproofing
We live in an age of planned obsolescence. It is therefore, important to consider if your laptop is going to be functional for you in the foreseeable future.
The new USB Type C port, for example, might not be the norm right now but when the technology reaches maturity, it has all the potential to phase out all other ports on a laptop. It takes up such a small footprint that it would allow laptops to be even slimmer and lighter. This future is fully on display by the newest MacBook that has a single USB Type C port.
USB Type C ports, especially if they’re Thunderbolt branded, allows for far greater transfer speeds that allow high powered peripherals to work with your device. This is especially important for connecting eGPUs that exponentially enhances that performance of your laptop’s graphics processing unit. The port, if used this way, essentially makes your device extremely upgradeable which is something that cannot be said about other laptops.
Battery Management
Portability is one of the main features of a laptop so, a short battery capacity greatly diminishes that feature because of the constant need to be tethered to a power outlet. This makes a laptop’s battery management an extremely important aspect that buyers should but don’t often treat with importance.
This also makes it paramount to know that laptop manufacturers have different ideas about how to make dealing with battery easier. Some put absolutely large batteries that takes a long time to charge inside their devices, others choose to make their laptops easy to top up with a regular smartphone charger or power bank, while plenty of others are experimenting with different other methods. All of these different methods makes it important to know what you’re going to have to do to keep your laptop juiced up.