Laptop and Notebook Computers are portable if you need to be productive while on the road. These kinds of computers provide you with decent to high performance. In today’s world, you can do many things with your smartphone or a tablet computer, but the small display and low memory capacity don’t allow you to do all the tasks you might need to perform. The small display makes working uncomfortable, and the low memory capacity does not allow for much performance or productivity. A laptop provides you with a comfortable keyboard and a lot of memory (RAM and hard drive) and can run all the software you need for your job while running for hours before the battery runs out of energy. Please visit our post about All-in-One Computers if you need a big computer to work comfortably from home.
Benefits of laptop and notebook computers
A priority of these kinds of computers is that they are portable. However, for a great experience, good performance, and maximum productivity, you need to choose wisely. There are many portable computers on the market, so naturally, making the right decision is difficult. And especially when you want to keep the costs to a minimum, you need to know where you can save and where you should better go for more.
Memory
This is not the right place to be stingy. 8 GByte of RAM is the minimum from our point of view. Less memory means your laptop or notebook computer will start swapping data to the hard drive to free up RAM.
Harddrive/SSD
Nope, you should not be stingy here, either. You want enough memory for your applications, pictures, games, and data (think work). Especially if you like to play a good game, you should be aware that many of them take several GBytes. We recommend a 1 TB drive either as a full SSD or a hybrid SSD/regular hard drive.
Screen
We recommend a 15.6″ screen if you want to be comfortable and productive and stay in a decent price range. If you only read emails and do some light work, 14″ might be sufficient.
CPU
Here you can save some money. Nobody needs the latest processor. An Intel Core i5 provides enough performance. If you are a high-performance gamer, you might be better served with the newest generation processor.
Software
This is probably the place where you can save the most. We do understand that some software has to be bought because the company you are working for requires it. Or because there simply is no good free alternative available. But our website was specifically created to provide you with the best free software available. And some of the free alternatives are better than their costly competitors.
Note: We do not recommend buying an old/used computer. You don’t want to end up with an outdated machine with too little memory/performance and no warranty.
For more details on choosing a Laptop or Notebook computer, see this Laptop Buying Guide.
