1 - Making a choice
Netbooks – ultra mobility
Netbooks have been designed for ultra-mobility and are a complement to your other machine, laptop or desktop. Very light and with impressive autonomy (5 hours plus), they trade this for much lower performance and very relative ease of use in terms of keyboard size. You can’t expect to get too much out of a netbook. Keep in mind that they are designed for three main uses: office documents, surfing the net and video. Something to remember: they come without an optical disc player.
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£220 - £349
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£215 - £352
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£34 - £460
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Budget models (< £450) – essentially for office documents
A new laptop can cost under £450. Machines in this segment are generally relatively heavy and give medium to low performance. Designed mainly for office documents (word processor, internet), you can also use them to edit video and touch up your photos. As long as you’re patient! Screen size for this segment is usually between 15 and 17 inches. The larger the screen, the larger your keyboard and 17 inch screens often incorporate a numeric pad which can be useful. With very modest graphics chips, they can only be used for very light gaming.
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£419 - £560
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£310 - £504
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£333 - £466
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The best value for money lies between 800 and 1140 euros – multi-usage and desktop PC replacements
Alloting a slightly higher budget has several advantages: much better processing speed, a more modern connection interface (HDMI port for example) and better gaming performance. You’ll find machines of between 12 and 18 inches available in this price segment. If you want a portable machine, make sure it’s 13 inches and under. Anything above that will be too heavy and bulky. You can still carry a larger laptop around with you obviously but it’ll be much more of an effort.
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£899 - £899
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£519 - £949
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£588 - £819
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Gaming
Gaming quality on your laptop depends on two variables: screen resolution and the processing power of your graphics card. The higher the screen resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels rather than 1280 x 800 for example), the more powerful a graphics card you’ll need. The CPU is important but not so much so. A dual core is more than sufficient for this type of set-up. Details such as 5.1 speakers can also be factored in (if you don’t like headphones). For gaming you’ll definitely need a mouse too.
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£60 - £2,900
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£1,199 - £1,199
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£1,288 - £2,460
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Multimedia – editing video and audio
For multimedia use (advanced video editing, mixing music etc.) go for a 4 core model. A lot of pro or high level amateur software can share work into several flows. These can be processed at the same time on different processor cores. However, having 4 instead of 2 cores does not necessarily halve processing time. Nevertheless you will get through work more rapidly.
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£494 - £599
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£565 - £890
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£60 - £2,900
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2 - The Science
The really important aspects of the spec
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- Screen size :
two elements need to be taken into consideration here; size and resolution. Screen size can range from 7 to 22 inches and is what governs the size of your computer. Resolution rises from 1024 x 600 to 1920 x 1200 pixels and determines how much information the screen can display at one time.
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- Processor :
the processor is the computer’s brain. With 2 cores or more you’ll be able to use several applications at the same time and accelerate processing time (in as much as a given piece of software can use several cores in parallel).
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- Graphics chipset
the graphics chipset processes the image on your screen. Although not so crucial when it comes to office use, choice of chipset comes into its own in 3D display. If you want a high quality gaming experience, bypass entry-level machines and go straight for the mid to top end.
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- Hard drive :
this is your computer’s memory. The higher the capacity the more photos, videos and files of other type you’ll be able to store. Go for at least 160 GB. If this proves insufficient in the long run, don’t throw your machine away; just get yourself an external hard drive.
What you’ll need to go a bit further
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- Shiny or matte panel :
exactly the same principle as for prints on photographic paper: shiny or matte. The current trend on general consumer computers is to go for a shiny panel. Although more aesthetic, they do have one big default: they’re overly reflective. Matte panels are standard on the pro market and we recommend you go for one of these if you can.
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- Memory :
Random access memory or RAM is where data that is currently being processed by your computer is stored. Netbooks only have 1 GB of RAM, which is plenty. For a standard laptop, go for 2 GB and more for comfortable usage.
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- Connection interface :
USB (3 or more ideally) and mini jacks for the headset or speakers are now indispensable. Ethernet sockets (RJ45 network), e-SATA, FireWire or Express card will depend on the needs of the individual user.
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- Graphics interface :
the least you should expect to have is a VGA socket so as to be able to link up an additional screen. Other newer connections are also appearing: HDMI to plug in a TV and, much rarer, a DisplayPort for a monitor.
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- Optical disc players :
most computers have DVD rewriters. Blu-ray players, for HD films, are still very much in the minority. They are however gradually becoming more common on multimedia oriented high-end machines.
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- Battery :
from 1h20 on some 18 inch laptops to over 5 hours for netbooks, autonomy varies greatly from one model to another. If you’re hoping to watch Ben-Hur on the train, make sure you choose a model with a big battery, a modest spec and a small screen.
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- Memory card reader :
all or almost all laptops have one. The choice comes in terms of transfer speed and the formats accepted. The minimum is support for SD and SHDC (high capacity). Anything else is a bonus. If you’re a photographer, some computers do support CF. Look hard, they do exist.
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- Fingerprint reader :
an accessory for some, indispensable for others, the fingerprint reader is becoming more common as a replacement for passwords.
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- Weight :
The barrier between what is transportable and what is portable is probably around 2 Kg. 13 inch models get close to this and often go beyond it and represent the dividing line in terms of portability.
3 - Accessories
Speaker kits
If you enjoy your music, you won’t want to make do with your laptop speakers for long. Even the best with a 5.1 configuration (6 speakers of which 1 is a bass speaker) will not be enough for the demanding user. The solution is to plug in an external speaker kit via your mini jack.
Keyboards and mice
Laptops all have a keyboard and touch pad that serves as a mouse. For occasional use this is fine but if you have to work on your computer on a daily basis, we recommend you get a standard desktop keyboard and mouse. Using a USB connection on your laptop, they make for much more comfortable use and allow you to place yourself further from your computer screen.
High capacity batteries
Some models have the option of high capacity batteries. To choose properly you need to look at voltage and milliamps. Milliamps multiplied by seconds gives you watts/hour. The higher the watts/hour, the higher the autonomy. Remember although the number of cells does give an indication of autonomy (3 cells vs 6 cells for example), it does not give you the capacity of each cell and the real autonomy of the battery.
TV Tuners
These are rarely built-in on laptops and take the form of USB keys or PCI or Express Cards. You need them to watch TV on your computer, not counting channels that are broadcast over the internet of course. If you want to avoid having to get up every time you want to change channel, make sure you get one that comes with a remote.
4 - Going further
