Common Laptop Buying Mistakes

Laptops are the preferred option over their desktop counterparts due the level of convenience that they offer. Adding insult to injury, The COVID-19 crisis, will bolster laptop sales further. But how do you ensure that you make an informed decision on your next purchase?

When it comes to buying a laptop, there’s no “one size fits all”, because each model is tailored to suit certain requirements. Here are a few things to consider when purchasing a new laptop for your daily tasks/work.

#1 – Core Count Matters
Many unsuspecting buyers are being duped into thinking that all processors are created equal. This simply isn’t true. A new dual-core Celeron is no match for an older dual-core Core i5 one. There’s a lot more happening behind the scenes than many people realize, clock speed, hyper-threading/SMT and processor caches play a role in determining a chip’s prowess.

Avoid Celeron and Atom processors at all costs. They are only suited to the most basic of PC tasks that include light web-browsing and media consumption. The newer Core-i3 or Ryzen 3 chips, are better suited to office related work. It would be prudent to get one with hyper-threading/SMT enabled, which means it offers more threads per core.

#2 – 4GB RAM Is Not Enough
Windows 10 is quite efficient when it comes to resource management. However, a common misconception among frugal minded buyers is that 4GB of RAM is sufficient for daily tasks. This isn’t true. A computer’s RAM capacity directly correlates to its usefulness. The more RAM you have, the more you can get done at any given time.

These days, 4GB just isn’t enough for regular work. It may seem adequate at first, but over time and several multitasking sessions later, the sluggishness will become more apparent. The sweet spot is having 8GB RAM. It will leave a little breathing room for future ‘work expansion’.

# 3 – Good Battery Life Is Important
Budget laptops offer 3 – 4 hours of battery life. Poor battery life reduces a laptop’s usefulness when outdoors. Remember, like your smartphone, a laptop’s battery capacity diminishes with time. Depending on usage patterns, over the course of 2-3 years, a laptop’s battery will only be able to retain 75% of the original charge.

This means that, in a couple of years, the ‘4 hour battery life’ claim is reduces to 2.5 hours. As such, it would be best that you opt for one with at least 6 hours of battery life.

# 4 – Weight Does Matter
If you’re going to be lugging your laptop around on all day, get one that is relatively light. For convenience sake, anything below 1.75kg should be fine. But speaking from experience, the cutoff point should be 1.5kg. Anything heavier will take a toll on your shoulders and lower back, as well as your bag.

# 5 – More Ports Equal Better Convenience
The push to make USB Type-C the defacto PC port hasn’t gone well. Despite Apple championing it’s versatility, most manufacturers have yet to jump on the bandwagon. Most printers still come with USB-A connectors, and the same is true of portable hard drives and other peripherals.

It will take some time for the world embraces USB Type-C completely, till then, opt for a laptop that has at least one USB Type-A 3.0 port. But if you’re comfortable with connecting dongles to your laptop, then you can ignore this piece of advice.