A laptop can be designed for different purposes. It may have a different design. Even the operating system on laptops is put completely different! How to understand all this diversity? It's very simple: check out our material.
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Best laptop makers
First of all, many people pay attention to the company that manufactured the laptop. Agree, some little-known Chinese manufacturer does not inspire much respect - it is likely that his creation will quickly fail.
First of all, we recommend considering the option of buying a laptop from the following companies:
- Apple - it produces expensive MacBooks that operate under Mac OS X.
- Lenovo is the largest and most respected Chinese manufacturer of laptops, sold mostly at low prices.
- Toshiba is a Japanese company trying to build its own production screens into its equipment.
- DELL is an American giant that has been producing laptops for decades.
- Acer - laptops of the most different price categories are created under this brand, including high-priced game models for sale.
- ASUS - most often this company produces laptops that are optimal in terms of price to performance.
And this is not the whole list! If you want to know more about the products of each company, we recommend reading the article “best laptops for work».
Principle of operation and device
Any portable computer consists of many different components. For example, this is a case that can be plastic or aluminum, a display, a keyboard (you won’t believe, but not every “keyboard” is comfortable), a battery, a processor, RAM, and much more. List all components meaningless - it will take too much time, and hardly you need to know the names of all components.
And yet let's at least try to figure out how the laptop works. After all, it will let you know which components are the most important. In short, information is processed by a computer using a processor. It also uses RAM - the larger it is, the more applications can be launched (and more tabs can be opened in the browser).
User files (music, documents, videos and everything else) are stored in permanent memory - in its quality can be used hard disk (HDD), solid-state drive (SSD) or even a bunch of both such devices. In games and during installation, a video card becomes an important component of a laptop. Although now it is increasingly used instead of a graphics accelerator built into the processor. The picture is displayed on the screen, although with the appropriate port, it can be displayed on a monitor or TV. Enter text and control programs offered using the keyboard and touchpad.
Offline laptop operation provides battery. But the time of this very work for the most part depends not on the battery capacity, but on the optimization of the operating system, the type of display installed and many other factors.
Types of laptops
In terms of viscera, almost all laptops are very similar to each other. However, experts still divide laptops into different categories. How do they do it. Everything is very simple.
Screen size
Most often, laptops differ on the diagonal of its screen, measured in inches. If the diagonal does not exceed 11 inches, then in front of you the so-called netbook.It is primarily intended for study, short work with documents and the opening of Internet pages. For more of its power, most likely, not enough.
The most common are laptops with a display, the diagonal of which varies from 13 to 15 inches. These are already quite good “working machines”, the transportation of which does not cause serious problems.
But professionals prefer to buy laptops with a 17-inch screen. They are cumbersome, but the information from such a display is perceived much easier. Yes, and to watch the movie will not need to connect a laptop to the TV - 17 inches is enough for its comfortable viewing.
Design
Also laptops differ in their design. For example, several years ago the word "ultrabook" came into use. So called laptop, whose weight does not exceed 1.5-1.7 kg. Also, such a laptop must be very thin, which is why inside it you will not find a hard disk - information is stored only on the SSD-drive.
Even now, laptops with a swivel display are very popular - their screen also has a touch layer, which greatly simplifies management.
The third category includes the so-called “Chromebooks”. These devices are popular in the USA and some other countries. They are equipped with a minimum set of components, and as the operating system they use Chrome OS. It turns out that the work takes place in the browser, and all files are stored in the "cloud". Of course, without access to the Internet such a laptop becomes almost useless.
A separate class of devices is gaming laptops. They are very expensive, very heavy, very thick - but this does not frighten gamers at all.
Selection options
When choosing a laptop, be sure to check out its full specifications. Pay attention to the processor - the number of cores, clock speed and manufacturer. The best chips are made by Intel, but the products of this company significantly increase the cost of the laptop - so sometimes it makes sense to look in the direction of AMD.
RAM
Another important parameter is RAM. 4 GB will suit you only in the event that you choose the netbook. In other cases, you should look for a model endowed with at least twice as much volume. And for modern video editing this may not be enough. By the way, you can first purchase a laptop with a minimum amount of RAM, and in the future, when there is free money, buy the same amount. But then you should clarify how many slots for RAM are built into the laptop, and how many slats of the RAM have already been inserted.
Hard Drive and / or SSD
You definitely need to ask how many gigabytes of data will be stored on a laptop. For example, if you are an avid gamer, you will need a laptop with a 1 TB hard drive. If you are not going to install the game, or are able to limit only one, then 500 GB will suffice.
Also now you can consider the option of buying a laptop computer with SSD-drive. Such a laptop will be expensive, but it will please almost instantly load the operating system and various programs.
You can also consider a device with a combination of HDD and SSD. In such models, the operating system is installed on a solid-state drive, and regular files and, often, all programs are stored on the hard disk.
Display
You should be interested in the display resolution. By modern standards, the minimum that suits you is HD (720p or 1280 × 720 pixels). Fans to play and watch movies should focus on laptops with a Full HD screen resolution (1080p or 1920 × 1080 pixels). Well, if you keep up with technological progress, you might consider buying a laptop with 4K display.
Gamers should focus not only on resolution, but also on the frequency of updates.The higher it is, the smoother the picture will appear. Well, pay attention to the technology of creating a screen. IPS-panels can boast very wide viewing angles and good color reproduction. In TFT screens, these figures are slightly worse, but they have a minimal response time, which attracts many gamers.
Video card
The presence of a video card should be considered if you like to play or regularly edit video editing. Video adapters are manufactured by AMD and NVIDIA. In this case, the video card is most often mobile - it is actually melted on the motherboard, and at the end of its name is the letter "M". New and very expensive laptops can have a full-fledged discrete graphics card - its power, of course, is much higher. If you are not going to play on your laptop, or mount videos, then you are completely satisfied with the model with integrated graphics.
Other components
The remaining components should also interest you, but to a lesser extent. For example, it is impossible to know in advance about the convenience of the keyboard - you can only estimate the size and position of certain keys (as a rule, it is Enter and Shift). Only after a week of active typing you can understand whether the keyboard is comfortable. Webcam resolution is also a minor option, unless you are chatting on Skype for days on end.
Much more important is the set of connectors located on the ends of the laptop. You will definitely need HDMI, and the number of USB ports must be at least four. And it is desirable that as many as possible belong to the high-speed USB 3.0 standard. But Ethernet (RJ-45) is practically not needed now - it’s unlikely you will use wired internet when you have Wi-Fi. Abandon the optical drive - almost no one uses disks today.
operating system
Finally, you should pay some attention to the software. Or, more precisely, on the installed operating system. Remember that installing a particular version of Windows costs the laptop manufacturer a certain amount. That is why the cheapest laptops do not have an operating system at all - they are equipped with free Linux or, more often, DOS. This means that after buying a laptop, you will have to get Windows somewhere and install it.
If we talk about "MacBooks", they come with their own operating system. In theory, it can be demolished by installing Windows. But we do not advise you to do this, because Mac OS X is a stable and nice system. You just need to get used to it, after which you no longer want to return to the Microsoft product. Yes, and it works under its laptop noticeably longer than when Windows is installed.
Which laptop to choose
When choosing a laptop computer, you need to think about what tasks you will solve with it:
1. Do you only need a laptop from time to time to work with documents and solve other simple tasks? Consider buying a netbook that costs very little money.
2. Want to use a laptop instead of a desktop computer? Then you have to fork out by buying a device with a 15-or even 17-inch screen, capacious hard drive and a powerful processor.
3. Need a laptop for work? Then look for a model that definitely will not slow down and waste your nerve cells. You need a powerful laptop with a 17-inch display. It can be either a Windows based device or a MacBook. It is desirable to purchase a model with low weight.
4. Buy a laptop for your child up to 10 years old? Look for a lighter and cheaper model. Although now these children are not recommended to buy a laptop, it is better to look in the direction of the tablet.
5. Looking for a laptop for a child aged 10 to 16? Then you need a laptop with a powerful processor and video card, because such a child will definitely want to use a laptop for games.
6. Are you a successful gamer making a lot of money? Buy yourself a gaming laptop.He will pull absolutely all modern games, and if necessary, other tasks can be solved on it - for example, video editing.
How much are laptops
The price of modern laptops can be completely different. For example, netbooks can cost less than 15 thousand rubles. But you need to understand that for this money you will get the simplest device, which from time to time will irritate you with its slowdowns. Yes, such a netbook screen will have a very low resolution.
Good "cars" for use at home cost from 30 thousand rubles. Such a laptop will have a roomy hard drive, a powerful enough processor and an 8-gigabyte RAM. Theoretically, on such a device, you can even mount the video, but the solution of such tasks to the laptop will be given with noticeable difficulty. If you are ready to pay 5-10 thousand rubles, then instead of or in addition to HDD you will receive a certain amount of solid-state memory, and the screen resolution will be increased to full 1080p.
A laptop with very good components will cost you 50-60 thousand rubles. It will already have a powerful graphics card and a very powerful processor. This laptop will be used by you without any complaints for many years.
And if you want to get a full-fledged workstation or gaming laptop, you will have to fork out 80-140 thousand rubles. With such a computer, you can forget about the brakes. There are laptops with an even higher price tag, but their purchase should be considered only by successful professionals.
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