How to buy a new laptop

Higher specs, higher price

 

I despair when I see a customer returning a $400 laptop to the store, complaining that it doesn't work well. Or when an organization struggles with its slow-moving laptop that it just purchased. There was a time I was buying a laptop a year for my kids in high school. 

The low-priced ones just aren't worth it.

For a laptop to run well, and to last for years, you need to spend $$$, typically over $1,000. That's a lot of money in an area of life where we had been conditioned to expect ever lower prices with ever higher specs. That that trend made its U-turn years ago. 

My son-in-law wants exactly that: a laptop that runs well and lasts years. The good news is that a well-made laptop runs well for years because computer hardware specs stalled out nearly a decade ago. Other than Apple's untested ARM-based CPUs, nothing Intel or AMD can do will give our computers a 3x speed boost.

The drawback to 3x speedboosts, of course, is that software developers will suck up all that power for themselves. As Bill Gates apparently told his programmers in some earlier decade, assume infinite hardware. That didn't turn out so well.

So, here is how to narrow down the choices among laptops you may want to buy. Begin by expecting to pay $1,000 - $1,500 for it. (My current laptop turns five years old this month. See figure at the end of this article. It is an HP Spectre X360 that cost me $1,400.)

1. First step is to decide on the screen size. This determines all other factors. I prefer small laptops with 13" or 14" screens. The most common size is 15" and there are some with 17" screens, but they are monsters and tend to be rare.
   
   
2.  Pick a CPU type. I recommend at least an Intel i5 for the extra processing oomph (or the equivalent in an AMD CPU). Look for the highest CPU speed in your budget, assuming it's an option.
   
   I tend to go with integrated graphics. The drawback with discrete graphics, like a nVidia board, is that they consume more power and don't give any speed boast to the kinds of software I use -- office productivity, CAD, and Web stuff.
   
   
3. Next, pick the memory. I recommend at least 8GB. 
   
   
4. Choose the hard drive type and size. I recommend you pick one that is all SSD -- solid state drive. There are some hybrid ones, which pair a small SSD with a large HDD, but I want the all-SDD model for speed and for fall resistance.
   
   I suggest a capacity of at least 512GB, because Windows consumes so much disk space for itself, so that smaller drives will just frustrate you. When I got my HP Spectre X360, I picked the smallest drive (256GB), and then waited for SSD prices to fall, then replaced it with a 1TB one. (Not all laptops allow you to replace the hard drive; in any case, swapping out drives is not a trivial exercise.) I like the high-end Samsung SSD drives (EVO or PRO), because they come with caching software that speeds up the drive even further.
   
   
5. Now you can get into the miscellaneous parts:

• Screen resolution: HD (1920 x 1080) is good enough; higher resolutions just make the text too tiny
• I prefer 4:3 aspect ration over 16:9 to get more height, as most software has all their UI elements at the top and bottom
• Touch screen is a must
• Backlit keyboard is a must
• If you can, try out the keyboards in a store. Some laptops have keyboards that are truly awful; most are mediocre
• Touchpens are useless, I find
• You want at least an HDMI out (for a second monitor); some laptops also have a DisplayPort port for a third monitor
• At least three USB ports
• SD card slot
• While USB-C ports give you access to every kind of peripheral, it is annoying to lug along the external port replicator.
• Battery life is voodoo. You can't rely on the vendors' claims, as they are completely hypothetical. As a rough guide, divide their battery duration number by 2. Or 3.
• Spin or Flip or 360. I like laptops whose lids flip all the way around. 

As for brand names, I like Acer and ASUS, because they make laptops for other companies, along with their own brands, and they are located in Taiwan, not China.

TIP: The #1 consumer of battery power is screen brightness. If you need longevity away from a power outlet, turn down the brightness as far as bearable.

My only peeve with the HP Spectre that I use is that the keys on the keyboard are silver, instead of black. This makes it hard to read the letters on the keys, whether backlighting is on or off. So make sure the keys are dark colored. Silver keys look pretty but aren't practical.Silver keys look pretty but aren't practical.

 

 

Comments

[Dave Johnson]

Hey Ralph, Thanks for your writings. One thing in this post struck me. Those that have forever been into CAD/CAM believed that what you called an add-on discrete graphics card is preferred or required. Years ago when we went to integrated graphics we tended to experience lots of problems, horrid video performance, errors, CAD/CAM applications graphically not working, and so on. I understand the level of user ( light user versus medium user versus power-user) is important. For this discussion lets assume a light to medium user. Has the video development environment in recent CAD/CAM programs or has integrated video improved such that the need to go with an add-on discreet card has changed. We don't much anymore but it used to be all we heard about related to graphics was OpenGL. ???

[Ralph Grabowski]

I have not tested nVidia boards recently. A number of years ago, I ran extensive benchmarks comparing an nVidia board with the build-in Intel graphics in my desktop computer.

The results were shocking: the nVidia board was slower at nearly all CAD visual operations, such as wireframe and rendered display. The only area in which the nVidia was faster than the Intel was in hidden-line removal.

After this, I tried talking to nVidia folks about the results but they weren't particularly interested. But I did notice that their marketing used the catach phrase, "up to x faster."

I think nVidia boards are important for high-demand games and when CAD-linked software makes use of the GPUs on the board, such as for rendering and finite element analysis. But otherwise, it's marketing at work.

[Tom Foster]

Hi Ralph
Currently buying for my wife, for whom pics, music and Zoom are paramount, as well as Office aps. Ultra light slim LG Gram 17" @ £1300 incl VAT was a revelation, going a long way to not needing an external monitor - really beautiful machine. But we tried two examples, sent them back, because broadband via ethernet cable was only possible via an ethernet to USB-C adaptor.
This cut our weak rural broadband from just-OK 1.85Mbps, to 0.6 (also by wifi from same 1.85 to 1.0, but wifi isn't favoured here). Such slow broadband isn't unusual, esp across USA I believe, but I expect LG-land S Korea has no idea about that.
Hoped it was just a lo-quality LG-branded adaptor, but consultation with a hi-quality manufacturer said it would make no difference at the slow end of the scale. LG also confirmed there was no hope but would look into it for next version.
So looking now in the diminishing range of laptops still with an ethernet port - which means flashy gaming or stolid business machines. Still hoping for 17" but 15.6" more likely.

[Ralph Grabowski]

In the end, my son-in-law went for a high-end Dell for e850 that came with an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM 512GB SSD, and 2GB nVidia board.

[Somebody]

I disagree with CAD work and dedicated graphics claim. It's mostly useless in day to day stuff, but when I need to work on CAD and 3D software, it's a must. As I don't have a desktop and it's the only machine available it needs to do everything.

And yes, the silver keys are absolutely horrible. If the backlight is on during the day, the letters disappear. Who tf thought this?

[Sheraz]

Thank you for providing us information about how to buy Laptop. Thank you for this.

[Omar Abdallah Ed]

Wow, thanks for the insightful breakdown! Looks like investing a bit more upfront saves a ton in the long run. Gotta prioritize that SSD for sure! 💻🚀