Buyers Guide
| Article Index |
|---|
| Buyers Guide |
| Introduction |
| The Market |
| Components |
| Components - continued |
| All Pages |
The market is generally separated into groups. These groups contain a wealth of models that vary greatly in specifications without straying outside their respective groups.
The mainstream laptop is the kind of laptop made for average Joe. Products in this group often come with a 15” or 15.4” screen, weighing 3 to 4 kg. It targets the consumer who wants a cheap laptop that can do the standard things like work with Office, surf on the internet, and so on. The products are often cheap, but not necessarily of low quality.
The multimedia laptop is the next step. This laptop targets people who wish to use it as a multimedia center, and is often improved greatly in terms of sound and comes with specialty software for playing multimedia files like music, movies, games, etc. This type of laptop is hardly lightweight and can put a serious strain on your budget. You also find models in this group that are well suited for gaming. Display size, like in the mainstream group, is between 15” and 15.4”, though most are closer to 15.4”.
The desktop replacement is probably a widely known concept, and this is the group where you find the big guys in terms of specifications and certainly weight. Laptops weighing more than 4-5 kg are common in this group, and these are designed exclusively to replace the stationary computer. This type of product is loaded with the newest and most powerful components, and if you’re looking for a solid gaming laptop, you’ve come to the right place. There are, of course, laptops in this group that pursue the golden paved middle way, but people looking for a gaming laptop are often willing to stretch their budget significantly to obtain 100% pleasure from games. Screen sizes in this group range from 17” and up.


The business/office laptop is mostly made for the more mobile user. It is not restricted to the busy businessman, but also suited for the student who travels back and forth between home and classes. Because of this, laptops in this category are optimal for many as they are lightweight and small, and thus easy to carry around. This group puts a lot of focus on security through fingerprint readers and other measures to protect personal data. The price of such laptops can be quite high, but they often come with a little extra. Screen sizes in this group range from 13.3” to 14”. There are also Tablets – laptops with a rotatable screen – in this group, which will be discussed in detail later.
Tablets are quite unique products, and often very expensive. The special feature of Tablets is that they have a screen that can rotate 180 degrees, and possibly the ability to be placed flatly on the keyboard so that the user can use a specially designed pen to write on the display. In addition to this, these products often come with built-in components that use very little power, so that their typical low weight is combined with a long battery life.


UltraPortables are the featherweights in the world of laptops. In this group, products weigh close to 1 kg and sometimes – though rarely – less. This category is often extremely hard on the budget, as the models are made on ultra light cabinets of magnesium to keep weight low. This group targets the mobile warrior – such as the business executive – who wants the best of the best. It is possible to find laptops with screens as small as 8”.



The Office Group
You primarily use your laptop for work. You write a lot and use programs like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The internet is used in part for communication (writing mails and utilizing chat clients such as Messenger), but also for collecting information and standard surfing. You don’t use your laptop to store music or movies, edit movies and pictures, or play games.
- Display adaptor - (Shared)
- Processor - (Intel Celeron M or AMD Sempron)
- Memory - (1 GB RAM or more)
- Hard drive - (5400 RPM or more)
- Screen size - (12,1” or more)
- Resolution - (1280 x 800 pixels or more)
- Mode of operation - Acceptable keyboard - Acceptable touchpad
- Software - Windows Vista or Windows XP
The Multimedia Group
You use your laptop for work and multimedia. You write and edit pictures and/or video. You use programs such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Adobe Photoshop and Pinnacle Studio. All aspects of the internet are used; communication through e-mail and chat clients, but also the download of music and movies. You play minor games like The Sims or Counterstrike. You do not use the game for more demanding games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Crysis.
Hardware:
- Display adapter - (Dedicated chip with dedicated RAM)
- Processor - (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion X2)
- Memory - (2 GB RAM or more)
- Hard drive - (120 GB or more)
- Cabinet - HDMI-outlet (for connection to flat screen)
- Screen size - (14,1” or larger)
- Resolution - (1280 x 800 pixels or more)
- Mode of operation - Acceptable keyboard - Acceptable touchpad
- Software - Windows Vista (Home Premium or better) or Windows XP
The Business Group
Hardware:
- Processor - (Intel Core Solo/ Core 2 Duo)
- Memory - (1 GB RAM or more)
- Hard drive - (5400 RPM or more)
- Cabinet – Docking outlet§ high quality (no flex)
- Low noise level
- Screen size - (14,1” or smaller)
- Resolution - (1280 x 800 / 1024 x 768 pixels or more)
- Mode of operation – High-quality keyboard - Good touchpad and/or trackpoint
- Software - Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional
The Gaming Group
Hardware:
- Display adapter - (Geforce 8600GT / Radeon HD2600XT or better)
- Processor - (Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or more)
- Memory - (2 GB RAM or more)
- Hard drive - (7200 RPM or more)
- Cabinet - Good ventilation (big CPU and GPU create a lot of heat, which means that the fan has to run quite often = a lot of noise)
- Screen size - (15,4” or bigger)
- Resolution - (1440 x 900 pixels or more)
- Mode of operation – Comfortable keyboard (”Gamer placement” of Ctrl and Fn keys = Ctrl at the end)
- Software - Windows Vista (Home Premium or better)
Add your comments
in Hardware & Accessories by nyk001, 08-05-10 12:46