A Computer Guide | How to Pick Your Next Laptop

If you are someone who don't have a clue about computer hardware, but you want to feel fully equipped to make an educated purchase on your next laptop, this post is for you. We'll talk about the 5 top things to look for in a computer hardware that matches your computing needs in easy common language - without all the nerdy jargon.

I've recently gone through the roller coaster of pain & joy of finding a new laptop and based on my experience, here is my suggestion in narrowing down your choices:

1. Size & Weight:
   Are you going to be carrying your laptop around constantly, or are you going to have the laptop sit at home majority of the time? This matters.
   Generally laptops that are above 15-inchs in display size are going to be bulkier, heavier, and harder to stow in your backpack. The heavier the laptops are, the harsher they are on your shoulders when stringing them along your side, so really consider how your laptop will travel.
   A good rule is if you're going to travel a lot and frequently pull your laptop out for use:
   buy an ultra-portable laptop
   
   
   
2. CPU Processor - How powerful do you need it to be?Modern computers sold in stores today come with an Intel i7 7th generation computer chip inside with dual-core. It's the highest level for someone who generally uses their laptop for normal every day things like: office/school work, media viewing, blogging, and making small YouTube videos. Note, the Intel i5 6 & 7 generations can also keep up with these type of low power tasks.
   However, if you're really heavily into picture editing or video making, the i7 with dual-cores won't hold up - you'll need the i7's with QUAD-CORE processing power.
   The time it takes to encode a video between a dual-core versus a quad-core is strikingly different, and it's especially important when everything in media is heading towards 4K picture quality.
   These quad-cores can be easily identified by having a HQ at the end of the product number (ex. Intel i7-7200HQ)
   
   
   
   After figuring out the size you need and how powerful it needs to be, look for storage capacity.
3. Storage - Are you going to be working with a lot of photos/videos? Are you using many installed applications?
   
   Bottom line, photos and videos take up a ton of space, and so do software that you install on your computer.
   SSD (solid state drives) are the latest and greatest because they are not like the traditional mechanical hard drives (HDD) that makes whirring and clicking noises as they read/write information onto the disk. Instead they have no moving parts and can be thought of like a USB stick (aka. thumb drive) that you stick to the side of your laptop and transfer files onto, but it's built inside the laptop.
   There are huge benefits to it such as: Lower battery power consumption, faster transfer speeds (not all equal however), and absolutely no noise pollution. But there's a catch. You'll pay more for less storage space compared to the traditional HDD.
   
   Good rule:
   - If you're working with media - 500GB & up in storage
   - If you're working with documents - 128 GB & up
   
   

   

   HDD (mechanical) on left, SDD (solid state) on right

4. Video Card - For gamers & media intensive workIntegrated or dedicated graphics card - it really matters in this case. Anything that requires lots of media being played or edited, should have a dedicated media card.
   You can think of a dedicated media card like the tax department in your office. Where the department specialize in tax like nobody else does in the office (and they do it well).
   A dedicated graphics card is the same, where its only job is to spit out great graphics onto your screen. When you have a dedicated card versus an integrated one, which usually baked inside the processor, it's better computing power for everything.
5. Screen displayThe screen you look at every single time you fire up your laptop will have an influence in how you enjoy your laptop. If your budget allows, find something with a 4K Ultra-high definition display. But if you're sticking to a budget, at minimum get one with a 1080p HD Display - your eyes will thank you.
   What you should know is that with larger the screens, the less "crisp" the display will be, even if it is 1080p HD.
   Why? Because the 1080p stands for 1080 pixels of light built in the display going horizontally across your screen. So physically, the larger the screen, the less these 1080 pixels will be spatially together (in other words, less "dense").
   Try it: Compare a 14-inch 1080p display to a 17-incher, there's a big difference.