Whether you’re a Windows devotee, a Mac enthusiast, or open to trying something different, it’s essential to understand the key aspects to consider when choosing a laptop before you commit to an investment. There’s more to think about beyond just the operating system. Does it sport the display you desire? Are there ports that accommodate your devices? Can it handle gaming at 1080p – or even higher resolutions? These are just a few of the many factors you must carefully evaluate.
In this guide, we’ll outline the crucial aspects to look for in 2023, as well as what you should avoid. There are numerous choices available, whether you opt for Windows 11 or Chrome OS, while Apple provides a more limited range of configurations for its MacBooks. Keep reading to discover the laptop that suits you best, and make sure to review our list of top laptop brands before you begin your search.
10 Things to Consider Before Buying A Laptop in 2023
“What kind of laptop should I buy?” or “What should I look for before buying a laptop?” These are some of the questions that keep on striking whenever you enter the laptop store.
Let me tell you one thing, you will never get everything on one laptop. You have to sacrifice some of your wishes for your dream laptop, especially when you are buying with budget constraints. But you can get the best one in your budget. If you don’t have budget issues and have good spending capacity, things get much easier for you.
This is the ultimate guide that surely will help you buy the best Laptop for your budget. I tried my best to include everything you should consider before buying a laptop. Just go through this list before taking the final decision.
1. Requirement
The first thing you should consider is your requirement. Why do you need a laptop and then proceed further? Don’t get hypnotized by the marketing gimmicks.
If you are an App developer, accountant, music producer, digital artist, interior designer, video editor or anyone who required special software to work, just make sure your software supports the operating system.
Let’s suppose you wanted to edit videos on Final Cut Pro then Windows Laptop is not even an option for you simply because Final Cut Pro is available only for macOS. The same thing goes with software like Music production software like Logic Pro, and Garageband. Here are some of the best laptops for music production that fulfills all the requirements for popular DAWs.
There are some specific programs that don’t work on macOS, in that case, you don’t have an option for Apple’s Macbook. If you need an everyday laptop for casual stuff like surfing the internet, watching movies, Youtube videos, listening to music, and studying, here are the best laptop under 40000 with Intel i5 & 8GB RAM for everyday usage.
Moreover, if you are a YouTuber or in video/photo production, then you might be rendering videos. With a budget laptop, heavy processing like rendering 4K videos on Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, and Final Cut Pro can be an irritating and time-consuming task. So, buy a laptop with a good CPU, processor, RAM, and graphics card for smooth and faster video rendering. Gamers are pretty sorted with this. They know their GPU and chipset.
2. Build Quality
Just tell me one thing. Would you buy a Laptop having all specifications from your wildest dream but has a plastic body, flexing screen, and non-durable feel? Obviously not. Before buying, you must consider the build quality of the laptop.
It should be solid and durable. Do not choose a laptop that looks like a piece of plastic. If your budget allows you then go for a laptop having an aluminum body otherwise buy one having a plastic body but it should have a solid, clean finish, be heavy-duty, and looks sturdy. The screen of the laptop should not be swinging or wobble while picking it up.
The badly built laptop will end up in the trash while the hardware is still intact and that is the worst kind of pain. I have gone through that. Build quality includes plastic quality, trackpad, keyboard quality.
3. Display & GPU
The display or screen quality of the Laptop indeed plays a vital role in providing the best computing experience. The display is always in use no matter what program you are running.
A good display would enhance your web browsing experience, entertainment experience, and of course gaming experience. Do take a good look at the display of the laptop. One more thing, if you are planning to connect a monitor, you don’t need to stress much about the display. You can connect an OLED monitor with your laptop for a high-quality screen experience.
– Screen Resolution & Size
If you are into graphic designing, 3D animation or anything colors, or picture quality-oriented, you should give extra stress on display and the resolution. For that, go for at least a WQHD display that gives you more pixel density and better picture quality.
Apart from display resolution, screen size also matters a lot. If you are seeking extreme portability, go for 13-inch or 14-inch laptops which are a little hard to find. Most of the laptops come with standard 15.6 inches display sizes. But if you are into gaming, video editing, music production, or any other creative industry and want a big-size laptop, you can also check 17 inch laptops.
– GPU
Other than Display quality, if you are looking for a laptop for gaming or video editing, or rendering, make sure it comes with a dedicated GPU. Integrated graphics on the CPU is good enough for casual surfing, video streaming but for gaming, video editing or any other graphics-oriented tasks, you need a dedicated GPU.
Entry-level gaming laptops will offer you GTX 1650 or GTX 1650Ti which is good for those who don’t want heavy graphic work. You will be able to enjoy gaming at low to medium graphics settings. On the other hand, if you need a laptop for heavy rendering and gaming, RTX 3080, RTX 3090, RTX 3060 is what you need. All in all, do check out the GPU if graphics are your preference.
Here are a few tips to check the Display Quality of your Next Laptop:
- Open a white background wallpaper, and make sure, there should not any yellowish shade blending with the white background. Also, watch videos from different angles to make sure viewing angles are satisfactory.
- The screen should also not flicker while touching the back panel of the laptop.
- If you are from those who work in natural light or outside, make sure the brightness of the screen is good enough. Go outside with a laptop with 100% brightness and check if the display is visible or not. The best displays on a laptop can go up to 500 nits of brightness which is good enough to be visible even on a sunny day.
- For those who remain exposed to the screen for a longer duration, you can check if the laptop has Reading Mode or True Tone display to filter out the Blue light.
– Display Size
Another aspect of display quality is display size. If you are a traveler or a businessman who has to work while traveling, then you should go for a 13 or 14-inch laptop. They are small and compact as compared to 15’ display laptops. You can always connect a monitor if you want a desk setup with a large display for work, gaming etc.
MacBook Air and Microsoft’s Surface Pro are highly recommended to such kinds of users or you can also consider Dell XPS13.
4. Speakers
Most of the users don’t use laptop speakers much. But some do. Before buying a laptop, you should check the sound quality produced by the laptop speaker. Play some movies, YouTube videos, music, and check the sound output.
Set the volume at 100%. It should not produce a burst sound or sound with so much treble. Lenovo has a Dolby Digital Plus speaker which is quite good in sound quality. Obviously, you will never get the stereo quality sound with the deeper bass on your laptop speaker but at least there should be an appropriate ratio of bass and treble that gives you pleasure, not a headache.
The speakers are not the deal-breaker. You can sacrifice this because we have other better options for sound like Bluetooth speakers, multimedia speakers, surround sound headphones. Check out the best Bluetooth speakers.
5. Storage Type
The storage of your laptop is for storing the data in your laptop be it video, sound, program, document, or almost everything and that should be reliable, fast to read, and power-efficient. You might have noticed that a new laptop boots up in 15 seconds and gradually, it starts taking time as there is a new program installed. Although, you can boost the speed of Windows 10 PC by doing a few things SSD always remains faster than HDD.
You will find HDD in most of the budget laptops which is good but if you need high disk speed and best performance, consider SSD instead of HDD. MacBook has low storage simply because SSDs are expensive and they sell high storage variants at a high price.
SSD is fast as compared with HDD, compact in size, and power efficient but it is expensive as compared to HDD. If you are a gamer or into video production, you must require more disk space. But for all those who work with Google Docs, Google Sheets, or other cloud-based programs, you can opt for SSDs.
6. Keyboard & Trackpad
Whether you are a writer or a gamer or just an average user, you will use the keyboard. The keyboard of the laptop plays an important role in the computing experience. Give proper attention to the keyboard.
If the keyboard is based on a single base, press the “H,J,G,F” keys and make sure that the keyboard doesn’t trickle. Also, check if the keyboard has a backlight or not. You can always connect a 60 percent keyboard with your laptop which occupies very less space and are extremely portable. Most budget laptops don’t have a backlight keyboard but that is not a deal-breaker.
The trackpad is yet another important input device for your laptop. The trackpad is always used more than the keyboard. If you are spending 60-70K on a laptop, make sure the trackpad has multi-touch gestures and pressure-sensing capabilities.
If you are going to buy a budget laptop, make sure the build quality of the keyboard and trackpad is satisfactory and does not feel cheap and you have enough space to place the palm of your hand.
7. Connectivity & Web Camera
Most laptop manufacturers are moving towards USB Type-C ports now. For using a USB, you have to spend extra bucks on adapters. Just make sure you are getting the 3.5mm jack that almost every laptop has but for other ports like USB, HDMI, and SD Card, you might need an adapter. If you are into gaming and want a high refresh rate of gaming, make sure it comes with DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.1 port.
Talking about connectivity, we should also see if the laptop has an RJ-45 LAN port. Although a lot of laptop users prefer Wifi connection for the internet but if you are someone who needs consistent speed, and reliable connection, you should prefer an Ethernet connection instead of a Wifi connection. If your laptop doesn’t have an Ethernet port, you can still connect an Ethernet cable but for that, you have to get an additional USB to the ethernet adapter.
The webcam is not a priority for most people but if you are having an online meeting session over Skype or Zoom, the camera must be your priority. So, consider buying an additional webcam because inbuilt cameras will never satisfy you.
8. Battery Life
Most of the time, the battery life of any laptop depends on the user. Evert person uses the laptop in their own way. Volume level, screen brightness, keyboard backlit, access to GPU, type of games or software you are using, all these things affect the battery lif of a laptop. If you are an avid gamer, you should not be concerned about the battery life of your laptop. A decent laptop can give you a battery backup of 4-5 hours which is acceptable.
9. Portability
The weight of the laptop doesn’t matter to you if you are going to use it in the home, office, or home office. You just placed it on the table and started working. No bothering movements or placements. But if you are someone who travels with a laptop or a student who carries it in college or school then you need to consider the weight of the laptop. A normal laptop can weigh ranges from 2 kilos to 2.5 kilos. They are bulky.
If portability is your major concern, consider buying Apple’s MacBook Air. For Windows, there is Microsoft’s Surface Pro which is lighter than MacBook Air. These 2 are super light and portable laptops. Apart from these, there are a lot of Chromebooks you can consider if portability is the issue.
10. Customer Care Support
Customer care support is one of the important parts of effective marketing and Brands are spending millions of dollars for providing the best Customer Care/After sale support. Consider buying Tier 1 brands like Apple, Dell, Lenovo, HP. Each brand has its own policies regarding replacement and warranty claims.
So, get clear with the vendor regarding replacements, warranty, and all these before buying a laptop.
Laptop Buying Guide 2023: Conclusion
This laptop buying guide covers all the important aspects which you should consider before buying a laptop. Do not rely only on specifications. Companies distract the buyers by showing them specifications on paper. The first thing you should do is to look at the physical aspect of the laptop as mentioned above. After you get satisfied with the above points then ask for the i3, i5, or i7, or why not the i9 processor?
Neither you can replace the keyboard, or trackpad of the laptop nor can you change the display. Emphasize those things that cannot be upgradable/modified. One more thing, buying a laptop on a limited budget is more difficult and challenging. Anyone can buy a good laptop with enough money in their pocket. So consider this Laptop Buying Guide and research carefully then buy the best one. Don’t look for cheap deals; buy the best you can afford.
Also Read: Arising India: Becoming a Powerhouse in Mobile Phone Manufacturing
