Having recently been in the
market for a new laptop, I've come to the conclusion that they
are now no more than mere commodities. It used to be the case
that a laptop was much more expensive than a traditional
desktop PC complete with tower, mouse and monitor etc. What you
would miss in terms of performance and storage space, was
replaced with the convenience of being able to pick up your
laptop and deciding where you wanted to work.
In the last eighteen months, I
have purchased three different laptop computers. Granted,
I am what you would
call a power user, yet none have had the last ability of a
desktop PC. I’m nottalking from a durability perspective, I
don’t often move my laptop from my desk, they just seem to have
more pieces that tend to go wrong.
For example, my first laptop was
a Samsung. A fine looking piece of kit, one with a definite
impact on the wallet. It was not cheap, yet it was not long
before things started to go wrong with it. First to go was the
USB sockets, they started showing signs of wear quite quickly
as I had a number of things I would use the USB ports for. The
next to go was the main plug socket, it actually seemed to be
pushed into the machine so far, that it would not connect and
therefore power on or charge back up again.
My second laptop was a top of the
range HP laptop, I confess I posed as an employee of HP in
order to get great service from my local electrical chain
store. I was very impressed with the laptop, it had a
widescreen, great sounds, good memory and certainly met all of
my expectations. For all of six months that was.
Perhaps it was because I had a
number of memory intensive applications running at the same
time, or perhaps it is just a flaw with this particular model.
Whatever the case maybe, it became apparent that this laptop
had a nasty habit of overheating pretty quickly. The fan would
sound like the engine of a 747 plane as it battled to keep the
machine cool, eventually and without warning, it would just
give up the ghost and die on me. Closing the machine off
completely and at the same time I would lose all of the work I
was doing at the time.
So I was in a bit of a conundrum,
I like the idea of having a laptop, yet I am not a big fan of
their reliability. I work from home running an Internet
business, so some would argue that I should invest in the very
best computer products. Yet my response would be that I already
did that. So I decided that I would change my mindset towards a
laptop, I would view it as a throwaway commodity, one which I
expect to have a lifespan of no more than twelve months. So
with that view, I decided to buy one of the lesser known brands
of laptop and invest in a sturdy desktop with the money I
saved.
I’m pleased to say, that both
laptop and desktop are working fine. I can share my time
between them both and use the desktop for the more labour
intensive applications. The laptop is used for writing
documents, record keeping and for my nieces to play games on,
which is actually another story.
Based upon my own unique experiences, choosing a laptop is not as straightforward as you'd first think. It's probably a good idea to write down what is important to you personally before deciding upon a brand or model. That way you can set the criteria for selection, rather than a pushy store salesman.
If you're wondering how to buy a cheap laptop, surprisingly the answer is that it is very possible and actually quite easy. Many of the less well known brand names have introduced budget laptops that have all of the necessary features and functions, perfect for a student or a fledgling office.
In all honesty, there is probably no such thing as the perfect laptop. This is because most of us use laptops for different reasons, what one may consider an important feature maybe rarely used by someone else. So instead of looking for the perfect laptop, we recommend that you focus on the perfect laptop for you!
We've listed below the top 5 tips for buying a laptop. If you have any other laptop buying suggestions or tricks that you've recently used, we'd love to hear from you.
Often, one of the attractions to a laptop instead of a PC is that it provides you with the option of a wireless internet connection. Many ISP's are now offering wireless broadband connections as part of special offer recruitment campaigns, however as the article below explains, there are security issues to consider when using a wireless network.
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