If you are in a market to purchase your first laptop than you will get immensely confused on looking at the number of companies available in the market today. Not only companies, if you go one more level deep there is also a large variety of different hardware and software to choose from. So these many options will definitely make your laptop shopping a confusing one. But here i am going to give you some tips on how to purchase laptops.
First ask yourself when and where you will be using your laptop or notebook.
This is a very important question. First decide which type of person you are from the three categories given below.
- If you travel or go to different places than go for a laptop as it will be useful thing.
- If you are the one who want to use computer only at home than never ever go for laptop instead go for a desktop PC which has a lower maintenance, longer life, low price and more power than the laptop of the same price range.
- If you are an employee and want a computer for business needs than owning a laptop is more beneficial than a desktop.
Than came the question what will be the purpose of your new laptop:
Purpose can be anything. It may include the following:
- Surfing the web: if you want to use your laptop just to surf internet than your laptop does not require any powerful hardware to help you with it. For this category even a cheap laptop will do the job.
- General Entertainment: If you want to use your laptop for on the go movie watching than a GPU is required for smooth playing of a movie. I am not saying a high end discrete GPU. Even a simple on board or integrated GPU will also do the game.
- HD or Blu Ray entertainment: HD content requires a more power from hardware and because of this if you want to watch HD content on your laptop without lag than you will need a laptop with a low end discrete GPU. It will slightly increase the cost of your hardware.
- Gaming: Gaming on laptop is never a advisable thing. Gaming requires a lot raw power from your hardware to process complex graphics and physics. This comes not only at extra money but also at extra heat generation. Gaming on laptop results in the production of heat. But today dedicated gaming laptops are available with advanced features. If you want a gaming laptop the than you will be going to need a powerful or mid level GPU and 4 GB+ RAM for smoothly playing latest titles.
What is your budget?
Budget is also a very important factor. Your budget depends on the purpose of your laptop. Recommended budget list is given below:
- If you just want to surf the web and do little editing or creation of documents than you can either go for a Netbook or a cheap laptop. Netbooks are laptops only with smaller screen (usually 10 inch). But today prices of laptops have fallen so drastically that i will never recommend any one to go for a Netbook. For a laptop in this category you will need a budget of around Rs. 20,000.
- If you want a entertainment laptop than i will suggest you to go AMD APU based laptops. APU stands for Accelerated Processing Unit. APU contain both the processor and GPU. GPU part of an APU is powerful enough to run movies without any lag. Your budget needs to be around Rs 25,000
- If you want a laptop for HD entertainment than you will need a laptop with discrete GPU. You budget for this category needs to be around Rs. 32,000
- If you want to do gaming than i will suggest you to go for a laptop with a decent discrete GPU. You budget needs to be around Rs. 50,000 for this category. There are some laptops available below Rs. 50k also but they are not capable enough to run modern games.
Choosing a laptop company:
Choosing a laptop manufacturer is also important as some new laptop makers like Asus provide much better hardware at a given price as compared to other companies but they have a very weak support network. here i am listing the laptop manufacturers available in Indian along with their main points:
- DELL : Dell is the one of the biggest laptop maker in the world. With its strong support network across Indian, Del in undoubtedly the best and the most trusted laptop maker in India.
- HP: HP is also one the worlds biggest PC maker. HP also have a strong support network in India but HP laptops are more prone to over heating and other hardware problems.
- HCL: HCL is an Indian brand which is into multiple business. HCL laptops are cheap but not that reliable. So avoid HCL if you are getting DELL or an HP laptop.
- Asus : Asus is definitely the world leader in the manufacturing of computer components. It definitely produce one of the best laptops at less price but they don’t have good support netwok in India.
- Sony Vaio: Sony is know for its extended warranty benefits. Its laptops also pack some serious power but at high price tag.