As we start the year, among some people’s resolutions for the year is buying a new laptop. It’s really not an easy task to choose just one laptop among the many available outside there on the market especially if you can’t easily tell what’s good enough for your needs.
Well, good news for you. This article is about to tell you what factors to consider as you buy yourself a brand new laptop? You don’t want to buy a very expensive laptop that has way more capabilities than you will ever need in its lifetime, neither do you want to buy a laptop whose capabilities don’t satisfy the tasks you perform.
I will be guiding all groups of people, so it doesn’t really matter whether you’re a very technical person who performs heavy tasks, a student who does work, a business person who mostly manages documents, or a home user.
The capabilities aside, you definitely want a laptop that is durable, I mean who wants to buy a laptop every after a month. As we dive deeper into the guide, hope you will stay with me to the end if you don’t want to regret making a wrong choice.
The guide is quite long but I assure you it’s worth it. By the end, you will have pictured exactly what laptop best suits your tasks, and budget. And don’t forget to take this guide with you as you go to buy that new laptop.
Contents
Factors to consider while buying a new laptop in Uganda
Brand choice
I start with brand choice when buying a laptop. This is basically because, even after identifying a laptop with all the right features, it all ends with what you’re heart is comfortable with.
After all, all brands can have any kind of features therefore don’t mind the features at this point. You might have a love for a certain brand or might just want to try out something new. So the brand choice is entirely up to you.
You can however choose to look at some of the laptop brand reviews online, but I won’t take a side on this one. I personally mainly focus on the features when buying a new laptop.
I recommend you need to choose a brand that has spent quite some time in the market. This is so essential because, in the future, you might need to make replacements to some of your hardware components, stuff like the keyboard, screen, and other components.
Model support
You might wonder why I have this on the list. But trust me you need to check for this.
You haven’t bought a laptop that’s no longer supported by the manufacturer. The positive consequence of this is that you may get the laptop at a really cheap price.
The negative consequence is that the laptop you bought is no longer in stock at the manufacturer’s store. So what? if it’s out of stock! Well, there won’t be any more support like manufacturing of hardware components of that specific model, so in the future, if you need to replace any of the components, you may find it very hard to find what you actually need because there won’t be any manufacturers for what you need.
So in order to avoid this, before buying any laptop, check the manufacturer’s website and confirm whether that particular model you intend to buy is still supported.
Laptop and screen Size
The next thing you want to look at is the laptop size. In the past, a single computer could fill a full room, but now generations have passed and the advancement in technology has come with really small-sized computers which can be held with just one hand.
This though does not make us completely abandon the somewhat big-sized computers. I remember when I used to be a game lover, I really liked a bigger screen. Gamers get what am talking about, it gives you that virtual reality. If you’re that kind, I recommend a laptop with at least 15 inches in screen size. The Razor Blade 15 gaming laptop is a nice one.
But for some tasks, there’s completely no need for a very large screen especially if you’re going to be moving around here and there with your laptop.
So for students who will always carry a laptop to class, businessmen who will always carry the laptop regularly to work, make sure to get a portable laptop in other words a small-sized computer. For portability get a laptop with at most 14 inches of screen size. The screen size will reflect the general size of the laptop.
This will save you the energy to be used while carrying that laptop bag. But as you plan to buy a portable laptop, it shouldn’t be too small, long hours on the computer of a small will often cause eye strain, therefore, you should mind keeping your eyes healthy too. Check out the portable
ASUS VivoBook S15 i5
Graphics and display
Gamers should so much consider this. I’ll start with the video card memory mostly referred to as the GPU. Gaming requires a lot of video memory if you’re to enjoy it. Opt for at least 4 GB of video memory, if you’re to enjoy smooth loading and playing. The screen resolution should at least be 1920 x 1080 for the clearest experience.
If you’re not into gaming at all, then a minimum of 1GB of video memory should work for you. There won’t be much load on the graphics card. The screen resolution should as well be at least 1920 x 1080. You also need clear text and images on the screen.
Processor (CPU)
So we are now diving into the performance bit of it. Don’t worry, I won’t go very deep technically, I know you might not be so technical like me.
So the processor or the Central Processing Unit is actually the computer, the brain of that desktop or laptop. It does exactly the same as the human brain. It does all the logical and arithmetic operations.
Processors are classified according to how powerful they are. The more powerful the processor, the more tasks that the computer can process at a single time. The processor consists of the clock speed which particularly tells how much many tasks can be run at a time.
There has been advancement in the processors over time all the way from the Pentium processors to the most current i9. As you can tell, i9 is the most powerful processor, but again not everyone needs an i9.
If you’re the kind of person who plays a lot of games, does a lot of video editing, or a programmer who will always be running powerful IDEs like Android Studio, then advise you to have at least a 5th generation i5 processor. It’s exactly what you need to render those graphics, games, or powerful IDEs. With this kind of processor, you can run a number of tasks at the same time.
However, if you’re the kind of person who does not do a lot of heavy tasks. In other words, you don’t play games, you don’t do programming, you don’t video editing, then you are well off with at least a duo core processor. A duo core can be very fine for surfing the web, editing documents, playing mini clip games, and a variety of other light tasks.
Memory size
In most cases, memory will be called RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM is a memory that temporarily stores data as it is being processed by the processor. RAM is measured in terms of Gigabytes(GB).
RAM determines how fast the computer accomplishes its tasks. As you can tell, the more memory, the faster the computer’s processing.
A person who performs a lot of heavy tasks like gaming, programming, video editing needs a lot of this. I recommend at least 8GB. but if you can get more, the better. With RAM, you can upgrade even after buying your laptop as most of the computers these days contain more than one space for RAM chips. So you can upgrade to more RAM by utilizing the extra ports.
However, if you’re a regular user who does surfing, document editing then 4GB of memory is just enough for you.
Storage type and capacity
The other essential thing you should consider while buying a laptop is storage. As you can guess, the more storage you have, the more files you can store on your computer.
However, unlike in the past where there were only HDD storage devices, there’s is a new kind of storage called the SSD. So there’s to be a choice between the two.
SSD is the newest and obviously, it has more advantages over HDD including faster rates of reading data. But the advantages come with a cost, SDD is somewhat more expensive than HDD.
If you don’t mind the amount then SSD is the best but if you mind the amount then HDD should be just fine. The capacity I recommend is at least 500 GB for all groups of people. You can decide to change to a bigger size in the future as your requirements expand.
Battery life time
This is another crucial factor to consider while buying a laptop. A strong battery should be key while buying a new laptop. You will occasionally be away from power sources especially if you’re to be moving with the laptop.
This applies to students, business people who carry laptops every day from home to work. A battery that can last for at least 4 hours is great as you can finish work without worrying about the power supply.
Wireless capabilities
Having a wireless card is very important because you’ll occasionally need to connect wirelessly to other devices. Wireless connections include support for Bluetooth connections and internet connections.
Consider buying a laptop that has a wireless card that can connect to wireless networks including Bluetooth devices.
Not to mention that companies are now manufacturing headsets and headphones that connect via Bluetooth so you don’t want to struggle after buying your Bluetooth-supported headsets.
CD ROM support
Even though the use of CDs and DVDs is reducing. Some people still use them for supplying software, windows installation, and for many other uses.
So if you think you will need to use a CD at some point, consider buying a laptop that has a CD ROM for reading data from your CD in the future. There happens to be a provision for an external CD ROM that you can buy later, so this after all is not a death or life decision.
Ports
The other thing to consider is the ports. This includes the USB ports, the network ports, audio in and audio out ports.
You should consider buying a laptop that has at least three 2.0 USB ports and at least one 3.0 USB port.
The 2.0 USB ports will help in the regular tasks of charging, transferring files between a phone and the laptop. You need the 3.0 ports because some devices are not recognized by the 2.0 ports, for example, you might want to share files between an external hard drive and the laptop.
Consider buying a laptop that has an Ethernet port, this will help in some places where you will need to connect to a network directly. I also recommend making sure the laptop has a provision for an SD card reader. The card reader can help transfer photos from a digital camera to the laptop.
Then lastly, the laptop should have both the audio in and audio out ports.
Warranty
A warranty is a written document from the manufacturer or seller to a buyer to guarantee laptop repair or replacement for a specified period of time.
Most of the genuine sellers provide this service and I recommend buying a laptop which has at least a 6 months warranty. In this case, you won’t be stressed in case of any hardware failure.
You should however be very careful while handling a laptop that has a warranty, a very small mistake like opening the laptop cover can void the warranty and make it useless therefore make sure you read and understand the terms and conditions for the warranty.
Operating system and Price
So having looked at everything you need on your laptop, it’s time to look at the operating system that you can work with. The most distinct operating systems that you’re going to choose from are Windows OS and MAC OS.
Don’t mind about Linux at this as you can choose to install it at any time and on any kind of laptop. MAC OS is manufactured by Apple and only runs on Apple machines, so if you’re that person with Apple everything, MAC is for you. The rest of the computers can run all operating systems apart from the MAC Operating System. Something to note is the price, Apple laptops are a bit more expensive than the rest.
Conclusion
This was a long one, but I believe it was worth your time. If you skipped any one factor, kindly go back and read it to avoid regrets after buying. You can now walk into that computer shop knowing that you’re getting exactly what matches your desires.