A detailed guide to buying a new Laptop

Well, "Which laptop should I buy?" is one of those questions one certainly has to find answers for at least once in one's life. Choosing the perfect laptop for oneself is a task which is daunting and often stirs the minds of even the most informed technology/gadget lovers. The more you dig into options available at any price point, the more confusion steps in.

So, today I’ll try my best to answer this question with an unbiased mindset so as to resolve your confusion.
We'll start with the Windows PC first. After discussing what you should look for and what you should avoid while buying a Windows laptop, we'll discuss whether you should buy a Mac instead, depending upon your requirements, wherein we'll talk about what Mac does better than Windows and what are the areas where Windows shines more.

WINDOWS

So, let’s start with the basics, without further a do.

Your need- This is the single most important factor that you need to cater to.

1. Do you need a laptop for video editing or for app development or for web designing like I do or for any other purposes?
2. Do you want a laptop that is portable and light in weight and easy to carry or you have a desk job and are in need of a larger screen real estate and are not much concerned about portability?

Having decided on the need front, let's take a look at what essential hardware you should aim for that gives you an unmatched performance.

The Hardware- This is the building block of your laptop and you surely would want a solid hardware that can interact with the software to give you a good performance.

For a powerful performance, I’d suggest you to invest in a laptop that offers you all of these hardware components listed below, if you want to future-proof your laptop for at least 5–6 years.

• CPU

The Processor of the laptop is its brain. Obviously, the better the CPU the more number of instructions it can handle at any given instant of time. Therefore, more potent the CPU, more performance one can derive out of it. However, this does not mean that everyone should buy an Intel i7 processor laptop. As a matter of fact, most people do not need a laptop with a CPU powerful than Intel i5. Intel i5 serves the sweet spot between powerful performance and decent battery life. The i7 processor is mostly suited to the needs of a 4K video editor or an intensive gamer. 

AMD Ryzen CPUs are another popular series of CPUs in the market and provide potent performance at a relatively lesser price, thereby offering great value for one’s money. They are particularly great in the sphere of gaming, video editing and multitasking. The AMD Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 CPUs are comparable to the i5 and i7 counterparts offered by Intel, respectively.

• RAM

When one wishes to accomplish not so performance-intensive tasks like attending online lectures, taking notes, drafting e-mails, browsing the web, preparing a PPT/Word document, etc., it would be wise to decide on a laptop that comes installed with 4GB RAM. 

When in addition to performing the above stated tasks, one requires a laptop to run several workplace/programming related software, one has to do moderate multitasking by having few tasks opened side-by-side, or one wishes to perform basic photo/video editing, one should opt for a laptop that has at least 8GB of RAM. 

For extensive usage such as playing graphic and performance intensive games, or for running virtual machines, and even for professional photo/video editing that requires one to edit 4K photos and videos where one has to apply several effects and transitions, it would be wise to decide on a laptop with at least 16GB RAM.

• Cache memory. This is one of the most overlooked hardware component when comparing the specifications of two laptops. Cache serves a very VERY important purpose in determining the performance of the laptop. Cache helps to keeps your browser tabs in memory, it keeps your programs running in the background, so that you don’t have to refresh them every time you visit them after a while. 

• A dedicated graphics card. Preferably NVIDIA GeForce 940MX or above if you are keen on performing graphics intensive tasks like photo and video editing.

• Type of Storage. When deciding on a laptop, it is imperative to note that the generation of the CPU or the amount of RAM are not the components that bring drastic changes in performance, it is the presence or absence of SSD that does. In case of SSD, when the user requests a file, the controller, also known as processor of an SSD has the exact addresses of the blocks where the specific data is written, and the data is almost instantly made available to the user. There’s no waiting for a read/write head to find the information it needs. SSD access times are thus measured in nanoseconds. This results in potent performance, which is evident from the fact that SSDs have a read-write speed of up to 3500 MBps. There’s no waiting for a read/write head to find the information it needs. On the other hand, HDDs manage to provide read-write speed only in the range of 50–170 MBps.

• At least a 4 cell battery. The more the number of cells, the better is the battery performance and also lesser will be the wattage consumption.

• Solidly built chassis. This is the most overlooked feature and hence also the area where most manufacturers cut costs. Choose laptops built by some of the popular manufacturers, i.e. Dell, Apple, HP, Asus. These brands are more focused on consumer satisfaction than on filling their own pockets.

Now, having discussed the specifications one should look for in a laptop when considering to buy one, let us proceed to learn some of the ways by which some brands loot the money of their customers by selling them a laptop with unnecessary/gimmicky features and how one can save some money by deciding to not opt for those features in a laptop -

• A low clock speed CPU - Clock speed of the CPU influences the number of instructions it can retrieve and interpret at any given point of time. Thus, the higher the clock speed, the better would be the instruction handling prowess of the CPU.
• 4K display - On small screens such as that of laptops, 4K display does not alter viewing experience much. Additionally, 4K screens drain a lot of battery. 4K displays find their best use in TVs and large screen-size monitors.
• Pre-installed anti-virus software - Factory fitted Windows Defender does a decent job in removing most of the malware. If one still requires a third-party anti-virus software, one can obtain it at economical prices later on.
• Fingerprint/Face unlock - This functionality finds its best use in mobile phones that are to be locked and unlocked hundreds of times a day. Whereas, a laptop that is to be put in Sleep/Hibernate/Shut Down mode hardly once or twice a day, entering a password is a better alternative.

Now, the obvious question in your mind would be, how do I have such a deep insight about these things. Well, to answer your question, I’d say that I have always been a technology fanatic and also am currently working as a web developer which requires one to have a highly capable laptop and this is my work experience in the tech. industry and the extensive research that I have done over the past several months for purchasing a laptop for myself that I am writing here.

Having said that, I’d like to give you the best options you can have at various price points that are available in the market right now.

Budget Laptops
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 2, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10 and Best Choice 11

Programming and General purpose Laptops
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, Best Choice 2, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10 and Best Choice 11

Gaming Laptops
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 2, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10, Best Choice 11, Best Choice 12, Best Choice 13 and Best Choice 14

Power user and Business Laptops
For Indian residents:- Best Choice 1, My Preferred Choice, Best Choice 2, Best Choice 3, Best Choice 4, Best Choice 5, Best Choice 6, Best Choice 7, Best Choice 8, Best Choice 9, Best Choice 10, Best Choice 11, Best Choice 12 and Best Choice 13

Now, let's talk about the Apple Mac.

See, both the major operating systems i.e., Windows and Mac are world class and are the most stable OSs in the market currently but they both have their own virtues and vices.

So before I dig further, I’d like you to ponder upon these questions in your mind:

• Do you work in an environment where all the gadgets are of the brand Apple i.e. do you work or live in an environment where you make extensive use of iPhone, iPad, Apple TV?
• Are you a person who invests most of his time on computer in doing activities like video and photo editing, OR are you the one who spends most of his time on Word file or PDF file creation and occasional PPTs or any other task of similar CPU or GPU load?
• Are you the one who likes to tinker around with your computer and customize it as per your needs? OR Are you the one who want something that is well designed by the manufacturers themselves so that you don’t have to tweak with it much and focus on just getting the job done?

I hope you have answered the above questions in your mind. Now, I would like to have your attention

Do you work in an environment where all the gadgets are of the brand Apple i.e. do you work or live in an environment where you make extensive use of iPhone, iPad, Apple TV ?

If you answered YES to the above question, then my dear friend, go for a Mac without having a second thought in your mind. Really, Apple environment will make your productivity increase manifold times. I say this because Apple OS have a feature that allows you to pick up what you left on one Apple device in the same state in an another Apple device. This feature has to be turned ON on all devices and its name is Handoff.


(Image of the Handoff functionality offered in Apple devices)

Are you a person who invests most of his time on computer in doing activities like video and photo editing, or are you the one who spends most of his time on Word file or PDF file creation and occasional PPTs or any other task of similar CPU or GPU load?

If you answered YES to the first part of the above question then the MacBook Pro should be your buying choice hands down as MacBooks have one of the best hardware and software integration which is needed to run graphic as well as processor intensive programs like video and photo editors. BUT if you resonated more with the second part of the question then you’ll do just fine with an i5 processor Windows PC and thereby saving several hundred bucks which you can invest in buying a Porsche (if you don’t already have one). *Just Kidding* 

Are you the one who likes to tinker around with your computer and customize it as per your needs? OR Are you the one who want something that is well designed by the manufacturers themselves so that you don’t have to tweak with it much and focus on just getting the job done?

Now, answer to this question will probably most influence your buying decision. So if you replied in positive to the first half of the question, go get a Windows PC without wasting much time. I say this because Windows is known for its customizability and ease of use. AND if you are more towards the second side of the spectrum where your main motive is getting the task at hand done, pick up a Mac without a second thought. Believe me, it’s REALLY THAT GOOD !

Having spent 8 years in the tech. industry thus far and having designed webpapps for both Windows and Mac, I have formed pretty good view of which product in the market is worth your time and money and which is not.

Having stated that, I would like to zero down on just two MacBooks that offer the most bang for the buck, here they are:-

MacBook- 
For Indian residents:- Apple MacBook Air, Apple MacBook Pro

If you are in the market for rather an iMac, then this is the only product that is actually worth your money, according to my experience:- Apple iMac

I hope I could save you some money and have helped you in making an informed decision.