Choosing a laptop can be a difficult task, especially for someone who isn’t as well versed in tech. There are several factors that come into the decision making, with a lot more choices that will lead you down the rabbit hole of research. To simplify the process, we’re giving you a quick guide on how to pick the right laptop based on different use cases with some recommendations.
Author’s note: This is just a rough guide to help ease your research. Our recommendations are in no particular order.
For multimedia consumption, web browsing, and other light compute tasks:
If all you do on the computer are video streaming, checking emails, word processing, and browsing the web, then all you need is a basic system. Anything with at least an Intel Pentium Gold, 4GB of RAM, and an SSD should do you fine, though I’d urge you to get at least 8GB as Chrome, and other background processes will eat through your RAM pretty quickly. Our recommendations would be the Acer Aspire line, Dell Inspiron, Lenovo Ideapad, and ASUS Vivobooks.
For gamers:
It’s no surprise that you’d want to get a gaming laptop if you’re going to play games. These laptops use the more powerful H-processors, have a dedicated GPU from the GTX, RTX or RX line, lots of RAM, and high refresh rate monitors on higher models. How powerful the system you should get depends mostly on what you’re looking to play. If you’re looking to play esports titles such as Dota 2, League of Legends, and CS: GO with friends, then lower models would do you fine. If, however, you’re looking to play the latest AAA games, or are competitive, then you’re going to need to get higher models. Always watch benchmarks to be sure you’re going to be happy with the performance you’ll be getting. There are plenty of gaming laptop lines to check out, notably the ASUS Zephyrus, Lenovo Legions, Acer Nitros, MSI Gaming Pros, and Dell’s G Series.
For students, on the go professionals:
The workload of students and some (if not most) professionals don’t require high-performance parts. While you could use a basic laptop to perform all your tasks, it’s difficult to lug a bulky and heavy machine between classes, or during your commute. This is where thin and light laptops, or ultrabooks, come into play. These laptops are all under 20mm thick and 2kg in weight, with enough battery life to last you a long time. These machines are equipped with Intel and AMD’s U processors, which are more efficient than the H processors found on gaming laptops. If you think this is the right laptop for you, then you could look into the Huawei Matebook 13, Dell XPS series, HP Spectre x360, Microsoft Surface laptop, and the ASUS ZenBook line.
Creative professionals:
If you’re editing photos or videos, then you’re going to need a color-accurate display on top of powerful hardware to run the software you need. Rendering time scales well with higher-end parts, so make sure you get a laptop least an Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5, 16GB of RAM, and a dedicated GPU to take advantage of hardware acceleration. Great laptops for this type of work would be the Apple Macbook Pro, MSI Creator and Prestige series, the Dell XPS series, ASUS Pro Art laptops, and the HP Spectre X360s.
And there’s our short guide on picking a laptop. Let us know what laptop you’re using! If you have other recommendations, also let us know in the comments below!
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