How to Choose a Laptop, It's Your Money Don't Waste It

Introduction to choosing a laptop

Choosing a laptop is not a simple decision, and probably will involve you delving

through tons of technical documents and jargon, just to be at the end of it

completely none the wiser.

First off, ignore all the jargon like cpu speed, and look at the way you would

use the machine, think about things like it's likely environment, what are it's

primary uses likely to be, how is it likely to be handled? For instance do you

require it to be just used at home permanently nestled in the corner, or are

you likely to use it as a gps navigation device whilst mountain climbing in

sub zero temperatures?

OK so the sub zero temprature part we'll leave alone for this article, but you

get my point? Link these two factors up with what your budget is, and you are

armed with a good deal of the knowledge you will need to make the correct choices.

Factors in choosing a laptop

1. The laptop's environment, this; in the life of a laptop can be anything from

- bouncing around in the boot of a car to sitting unmoved on a desktop apart

from the odd dusting. For most users of laptops it's usually a mixture of both,

plus a few train journeys, a little sunbathing over the park or in the garden,

a few slips from the lap onto the floor and the odd, "It's my turn now - Mum!"

scream from the kids.

Why should the environment affect my decision? I hear you ask. Well imagine

this scenario; Your in the shop, with your pockets full of money, and you spot

a shiny laptop you just have to have. You think, great I can do some work at

home, reply to emails whilst sitting in that long boring train journey home,

and best of all it looks great. What you should be thinking is - How is the

weight of the laptop going to affect my shoulder whilst I carry it from office

to train station to bus stop to home each working day and will the battery last

long enough.

2. The laptop's use, mostly this can be classed into two types, business and

home usage. For the typical business user, battery life may be a more important

factor than say a DVD re-writer, where as for the home user, who may well run

the laptop from the AC adapter most of the time, battery life would be way down

the list of decisive factors.

But this is really where you need to start making a wishlist of what you will

and would like to use the laptop for, just try and think of a list of ten things

and then priorities them.

3. Laptop budget. This is the part where, if your wishlist above overstretches

your budget, you will need to loose one or two of the lower prioritised items.

I guess for most people, this is the one factor they find the hardest to be

flexible on, but think about finance, most of the major manufacturers offer

finance direct from their websites.

I would advise everybody buying a laptop to take out an extended warranty plus

additional accidental damage cover, if it's not covered on your home contents

insurance. The warranty speaks for itself, laptops are designed to be mobile but not always made to be,

and things that move around go wrong more than stationary objects, they also tend to get a little more battered. So remember

to factor these extra costs into your budget.