If you are into the market to buy a new laptop, this one is for you! Consider these aspects before buying one.

  1. Processor : This is the first in the checklist. Know your need in selecting the processor for your machine. If you are into editing or into running heavy rendering tasks then you may have to choose Intel Core i5 or i7 (8th Gen or above [6 cores]) or Ryzen 5/7 (2600 and not the 2400 since it has 6 cores). On the other hand, if you just looking for a laptop for media consumption, casual browsing go for the Intel i3 or Ryzen 3 (Ryzen 3 has a better GPU than what the Intel offers) . Don’t go for the 7th gen i3 as it has only 2 Cores and 4 virtual cores, opt for the 8th Gen one, it has 4 Physical cores. (Benchmark results show i3 8th is almost as good as the i5 7th gen because of the additional cores it offers).

2. Screen Size: Many of the people think that big screens are a pain and tend to choose smaller screened laptops. You maybe right, but a 15.6 inch laptop offers a dedicated number pad which comes in handy if you are into finance sector where you have to tinker around with a lot of numbers. Smaller 12 inch or even many 14 inch laptops doesn’t offer the same.

3. Cooling : Manufacturers now a days tend to cram in higher powered processors into a slim chassis. The result? Beautiful looking and extremely ergonomic machine with THERMAL THROTTLING (It is a condition where the processor doesn’t run in it’s full capacity because of excessive heating). The latest MacBook Pro faced such a problem. If that is the case then it is an utter waste of computing horses. (Processing power will be only on paper and not actually felt). If you are a heavy user, you have to compromise on the weight and carry around a heavy laptop (Heavy size = Good Cooling = No Throttling) . But if you are a casual user then looking for a thinner laptop is okay.

4. GPU: “Not everyone needs a GPU” is a common statement. But is it true? . Many mistake that GPU is only for gaming, but GPU is a Graphics Processing Unit and NOT gaming processing unit 😛 Running a heavy software like CADD, requires both a good CPU and a good GPU. So, if you are into gaming or use heavy rendering applications i would suggest you to invest in a good GPU (GTX 1050Ti atleast)

5. RAM: How many gigs of RAM do I need? This is one of the common questions I get. As of now 8GB of RAM is the sweet spot. 4GB of RAM works just fine, but a laptop is not as modular as a PC and you’ll be using it for a considerable period. So, why not stretch a bit. (It is important to check if your laptop has another RAM slot.( Just in case you need it in future).

6. Storage (HDD vs SSD) : Before I start , HDD and SSD(Solid State Drive) are two different storage technologies. HDD has moving parts inside them while SSD is more like a flash drive. SSDs are drives so they need a medium to connect to the motherboard right? That’s where SATA and NVMe SSDs differ. SATA is a technology used by traditional hard drives to connect to the motherboard (they are slow compared to NVMe SSDs). Where as NVMe cards directly connect to the PCIe eliminating the speed barriers caused by SATA connectors. In a nutshell look for M.2 [a form factor of SSD] slot in the laptop for a future upgrade. (M.2 NVMe drives are the best in terms of speed)

SSD are useful for faster boot timings and faster (pretty fast– The reason why MacBooks feel snappy) read and write speeds. To put this into perspective ;

SATA hard disc (Commonly used) ~ 100 MBPS
SATA SSD ~ 500-700 MBPS
NVMe SSD ~ 3500 MBPS

P.S.: I’ve not specified any laptop and I leave it to your choice. I’ve sorted out the common areas of confusion and I hope to have cleared them. 🙂