Before
you think about buying a laptop, you should first ask yourself: Do you really
need to buy a new laptop? Laptops don't change dramatically until several years
have passed. For example, if you own a $500 laptop from last year or the year
before, don't expect this year's $500 laptop to make a tangible difference from
the laptop you have now. And in order to feel a big difference, you have to
sacrifice and look towards a higher category such as the $ 750 category or wait
for 3 to 4 years to buy a new laptop at the same cost ($ 500) and it will give
you more bid in specifications, features, and performance.
Regardless
of when you make the purchase decision, whether this year or waiting for the
next year, you must consider some techniques that can help increase your
productivity during your work or bring you the element of comfort and
flexibility or fun and luxury. You may find some specifications that you can
overlook, but there are some pieces and features that you should consider
carefully and take care of their presence on the laptop. Here are some of the
most important specifications that you should keep in mind and consider if you
need them in your next laptop.
USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3
Since
2017, all laptops have one or more USB Type-C ports, to the extent that there
are some laptops destined for the upper class no longer have the cylindrical
port for charging the laptop battery with power, instead relying on the USB
port- C in order to charge the battery. In fact, you may find it a problem if
you want to connect an external hard drive or charge the phone while charging
the laptop. So it is better that the laptop has more than one USB Type-C port,
or has one USB-C port along with the cylinder power port.
Unfortunately,
USB Type-A ports have become slow to keep pace with modern devices, and there
is no objection to their presence, but the presence of USB-C ports in the
laptop has become a necessity and a standard thing, as the USB-C port allows
higher speeds in data transfer with external storage solutions, It also
provides the opportunity to synchronize the display of the content of the
laptop screen on the larger displays, in addition to the feature of faster
charging of smartphones.
So
depending on your needs, you may discover that having one or two USB-C ports is
essential for your business and usage requirements, then you may have to
sacrifice in order to own a laptop that contains some of them. If you're on a
budget, you might want to consider a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port that delivers
data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps or 100W for charging. The presence of a
thunderbolt 3 port is necessary in order to synchronize the operation of a 4K
display by connecting it to the laptop via the USB-C port. Always look for the
lightning bolt symbol next to USB-C ports. If you see this symbol, this means
that the port supports the Thunderbolt 3 protocol.
1080p display resolution
Unfortunately,
some laptops are still released with a resolution of 1366x768, which is not so
bad, especially since the screens of laptops are small, but the idea is that we
are dealing with FHD 1080p content. You don't have to burden yourself with a
larger display resolution, but at least don't compromise on 1080p especially if
you're planning to buy a 14", 15", or larger laptop.
There
is a big difference between 768p and 1080p when we talk about detail resolution
and enjoying high-quality content. You can deal with the content of websites
better, you can deal with editing programs and engineering designs optimally.
So whatever it takes, don't compromise on FHD. As for seasoned content creators
and professional designers, it is best to plan on purchasing a laptop with a
higher resolution.
Tiger Lake 12th Gen / Ryzen 5000
Previous
generation Intel and AMD processors have higher power efficiency, longer
operating life times, lower temperatures, and higher performance levels. As for
the integrated graphics processors, they are great graphic solutions that suit
the various needs of the current era, from displaying high-quality media and
better handling of editing programs.
SSDs and PCIe SSDs
You will find many models of laptops that contain only HDDs. HDDs have large capacities but are slow when dealing with professional tasks and business programs. Perhaps there is no significant difference in terms of gaming performance levels between them and SSDs, but SSDs solutions are capable of booting the Windows stage tasks in quick periods of time, loading the user interface with business programs faster, saving developments and changes that are made in content creation programs in periods of time. Fast, loading levels and stages within games are faster.
In the end, if your use is heavy and dealing with content creation or even if you are just looking for a speed factor and quick response to commands and tasks, do not compromise on an SSD. A PCIe SSD, it's three times the speed of a standard SSD. Of course, the difference is terrible, but the performance difference is not tangible on the ground between it and the SSD, but it should be noted the need to make sure that there is an M.2 PCIe port on the laptop first and check the supported storage chips for this port from the official laptop support page.
separate graphic processor
If
I were you, I'd think a bit about discrete GPUs. There are many advantages to
having a laptop, and it has many disadvantages as well. If you plan to use the
laptop for content creation, editing, montage, and engineering designs, you
will definitely need a separate graphics card because it has a separate video
memory. The only downside to it is its excessive energy consumption and high
temperatures. Some of the leading computers, such as those released with Max-Q
technology, have an elegant shape, slim thickness, lower power consumption,
lower temperatures, and work in a quiet sound.
When
buying a business laptop, never think of gaming computers, because they are
mostly intended for indoor use, and they consume large amounts of battery
power, and you will discover that you have to charge them every 4 hours to 5
hours maximum. If I were you, I'd think a lot and wait a little longer for the
11th generation Intel computers, yes, they are expensive, but they are
energy-efficient. For gamers, you will also need a separate graphics card to
enjoy a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience.
Hybrid computers
In
fact, you can do everything with a traditional Clamshell laptop, but if you're
on a plane, on a long trip, or have a lot of engineering designs, you might
consider a hybrid 2-in-1 specifically thanks to its screen. Supportive touch
feature. There are some traditional computers that also offer touch support,
but they are not as practical or comfortable to use as hybrid computers.
At least 8GB DDR4 RAM
The
requirements of modern operating systems, programs and games have become larger
capacities of random access memory due to the terrible amount of the number of
processes being processed, you may temporarily be satisfied with a capacity of
4GB, but you will feel that weak point when dealing on the Internet with many tabs
of browser pages or running some games or productivity programs and
engineering. Without a doubt, you need a minimum of 8 GB in 2022. While less
than that will clearly affect the entire laptop system, to the point that you
may lose the advantage of having an SSD and not feel its speed due to the delay
and the obvious deficit in RAM capacity.