Laptops Arena

Compared to the other articles that we have written today, this one is a bit more general and may be of use to those that don’t have much knowledge in the IT field. We are going to tell you how to make the right decision when you want to buy a laptop.

The first question that you have to ask yourself is what do I need a laptop for? You may even discover that you don’t need a laptop and a desktop computer is way better for you. For the sake of this article, let’s assume you need a laptop. The more basic you computing needs are, the less money you will have to spend for a laptop. For about $500 you can buy a good laptop that will help you complete all your internet surfing and e-mail sending tasks. These laptops are also good for editing documents and word processing so they will cover most basic tasks. Their processors are not very powerful so don’t expect any super speed.


Let me explain the basics of laptops specs. The memory installed is very important. Lots of memory helps run many applications. The nasty part is that if you want to upgrade, laptop components are more expensive that computer ones.  To run applications in our days (demanding ones, I mean), you need to have about 2 GB of RAM.  The processor helps improve the speed of the laptop. The best choices for processor are the Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs. The explanation is simple, dual processors means twice the speed. Another important part is the size of the screen.  At one extreme we have netbooks. Netbooks are actually smaller notebooks which are ultraportable and the size of the screen varies from 8.9 inches to about 12 inches. Since they are smaller, they have weaker components like Intel Atom processors and integrated graphic cards. The bigger the screen of the laptop is, the easier it will be to read big documents and scroll through large web pages. It will also be nice if you watched a good movie on a larger screen because small screens don’t have the same effect.



The size of the hard drive is important in case the laptop you are going to buy will be used as a main computer.  Hard drives with lots of space are meant for people that need to store a lot of files or for gaming computers. It is well known that today’s top of the line games occupy at least 4 GB of hard disk space. In case you buy a laptop with a small disk capacity, you can always use the integrated DVD drive (if any) to make copies of all your files if you want to free some disk space. The most delicate part is the graphics memory. This is what makes the difference between a gaming laptop and other laptops.  There are 2 different types of video cards. There is the dedicated graphics card which is a separate component and integrated cards that are part of the motherboard. The best dedicated video chips are made by nVidia but the ATI graphics cards are also ok. Integrated graphics are usually made by Intel (the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator). For those that need a laptop to play games, you need advanced graphics chips that have at least 512 MB of video memory.



If you want a laptop that you can constantly carry around with you to school, to work or when you are travelling, then battery life is a very important aspect that requires special attention. As a general consideration, we can say that the more cells a battery has the longer life it can provide for your laptop.  But that is not always the case. You have to remember that big batteries also make the laptop heavier.  Operating systems like Windows Vista have different power management profiles that can help you save the battery life. By reducing the brightness of the screen and keeping the wireless switched off, you can increase the life of your battery. The stronger the components inside a laptop are, the less battery life you will get. This is why netbooks provide the best performance in terms of battery life. It’s really important to read online reviews about laptop when you find interest in a certain models. Good reviews will provide details about the battery life which are really accurate.

We recommend you try out the keyboard of the laptop before you buy it. Since the keyboard is very important for a laptop because you probably won’t carry an external one around with you all the time, make sure the keys offer positive response when you type and that there is no flex. Touchpads are ok but you still have to see if the texture does not bother your fingertips after a while of usage. We do recommend an external mouse especially since manufacturers like A-Tech make small mice which are easy to carry around.if you don’t want any cables to bother you, these always are wireless mice which are not expensive and they have this small stick that is attached into a USB port and wirelessly communicates with the mouse.



No matter how low your budget for a laptop is, laptops are becoming cheaper by the minute because new models are constantly appearing on the market. Yesterday’s super cool laptop is tomorrow’s old and worn out one. If you want to buy a laptop but you don’t have enough money to pay for a brand new one, you can find the same model refurbished which is hundreds of dollars cheaper. Refurbished laptops are brand new computer that were sold to a customer which returned them for various reasons. Some of them may not have even been turned on. These laptops are returned to the manufacturer which performs some tests to see if the unit is damaged in any way. After every problem is solved, these laptops are resolved for a cheaper price. They still have warranty certificates which are regularly half the period of the original model. These laptops are a very good choice for people that are on a really low budget.