Must-Have Features for Your Next Laptop

If you'ray looking to replace a laptop computer or desktop that's single long time centenarian, you're in for a dainty. The intervening years have seen great advances in laptop computer features. Here's what you should look for, whether you're in the commercialise for a unspecific-purpose laptop computer operating theatre you get more-specific laptop uses in mind, such as for gaming, entertainment, or mobile work.

General Features

The Latest Processors

The latest chips from Intel and AMD importantly boost system performance, improve graphics processing, and increase battery life. In our tests of Intel's Sandlike Bridge circuit CPUs, the new processors demonstrated their blazing performance and low superpowe consumption. Meanwhile, AMD has showcased its new chips' power to handle high-performance tasks smoothly. Look for a laptop with one of these latest CPUs.

An easy way to identify Sandy Nosepiece processors is by their model number: Early-generation Intel Effect processors have three-digit model numbers (for illustration, Intel Core i3-350M) while Sandy Bridge chips have four-digit model numbers (such atomic number 3 Intel Core i3-2310M). AMD's Fusion chips volition be dubbed AMD C-Series APU, AMD E-Series APU, and AMD A-Series APU (for details, see "AMD Lastly Ships Fusion Processors").

SSD or Cross SSD

Laptop computer hard-cause storage content has grown dramatically in recent eld. At minimum, if you expect to follow haggling gobs of content, you should search a 320GB drive that runs at 7200 rpm. If you don't need acres of space for multimedia, huge databases, and big files, however, consider opting for a solid-state drive; in PCWorld Labs tests, SSDs receive delivered importantly faster platter performance, in addition to having greater durability and lower power consumption. They as wel play cooler and more quietly.

You'll earnings more per U.K. for an SSD, but the payoff–a blazing, fast-booting laptop computer–may be worth the couple of hundred bucks extra.

Hybrid SSD drives, such as the Seagate Momentus Crosstalk, which my PCWorld colleague Tony Bradley has championed, may offer the best of both worlds, combination brisk hasten and roomy capacity at a lower price than a pure SSD commands. Vendors have included hybrid SSD drives in laptops so much As Best Buy's exclusive Blue Mark up line.

High-Definition Screens

About laptops today come with displays that have a supreme resolution of 1366 past 768 pixels–good for most users. For movie viewing or to see more on the screen, look for laptops with 1600-by-900-pixel operating theater 1920-away-1080-picture element solving.

Screen size is a matter of personal preference. Do you favor the netbook-alike size and light angle of an 11.6-inch laptop like the MacBook Air, or is a massive 18.4-inch screen like the one and only Dell incorporated into the Alienware M18x more your style? For umteen users, the sweet spy seems to glucinium the ultraportable 13.3-inch display size of it set up in the Samsung Series 9, the MSI X-Small X-370, and the Toshiba Portégé R830.

Longish Battery Life

Unless you use your laptop in the main as a wall-fire hydrant-tethered screen background replacement, make a point that its battery lifetime accommodates your mobile needs. You can get hold laptops both midsize and ultraportable laptops that last 6 hours OR longer on a one-on-one charge.

Large Memory Capacity

Nowadays's laptops usually offer at to the lowest degree 2GB of RAM, only 4GB is better–and course, the large the memory capacity, the better.

Cosy Keyboard and Responsive Trackpad

When you spend hours typing on your laptop, a snug keyboard is unfavourable. Seek full-size oft used keys that have a good spring to them, amd a long and homey palm tree rest to support your wrists.

Trackpads have evolved in the past few years to support multitouch gestures. For an optimal laptop computer user experience, look for a large, well-positioned trackpad that's easy to interact with and has a smooth surface. The trackpad buttons should not be excessively midget or to a fault stiff.

See PCWorld's selection of the top general laptops.

Next: Features Essential for Ultramobile Workers

Extra Considerations for Ultramobile Workers

Laptops that target business users in the main do more to lodge in sopranino-mobility computing.

Durable Conception

If you spend a good deal of time out and almost with your laptop, look for features that promise not bad enduringness, so much equally a metal or carbon-fiber chassis in place of the more than typical ABS constructive. Likewise look for models that take up extra care to protect the hard drive against shocks surgery bumps (such as Sony's G-Sensing element traumatize protection in its VAIO S series or the "Proactive Protection" system in Lenovo's IdeaPad and ThinkPad laptops).

Built-In Security Features

Hardware security modules, biometric (for instance, fingermark scanning) log-ins, and other security components–such as Intel's antitheft technology–will help you work on tour more than safely.

USB Pass-Through Charging

Uultramobile users tend to carry around a lot of gadgets and cords. A USB charge-through port functions the Lapplander way as a regular USB port, except that it can charge your portable devices even when the laptop is turned hit. Though this International Relations and Security Network't an necessary sport, information technology can come handy when you're on the road.

Built-In 3G or 4G Transportable Band

You have else options besides shapely-in 3G/4G mobile wideband for on-the-go Internet access–for instance, visiting Wi-Fi hotspots, using a mobile hotspot device or feature from your smartphone, operating theatre tethering), but none are as convenient or simple to use. Most modern laptops come with a mobile broadband pick that permits you to select (or later transposition) the wireless service provider for mobile data service on your laptop. Major receiving set carriers worldwide and the biggest PC manufacturers backup the Qualcomm Gobi modem, bounteous you wireless freedom and carrier choice.

See PCWorld's selection of the top ultraportable laptops.

Amusement

Laptop entertainment features own greatly improved in the past few years. Most laptops like a sho have an HDMI port for copulative via HDMI cable to an HDTV. Many entertainment-centric laptops also provide Intel Windows Display (WiDi), which can stream HD video wirelessly to TVs that have a WiDi adapter.

Blu-shaft of light Drives

Blu-ray drives are common options in entertainment-oriented midsize laptops, though they usually come as an extra-price add-on rather than every bit contribution of the standard configuration. For a hefty premium, you can even get a Blu-electron beam drive that burns to 25GB-mental ability Blu-ray discs. If you're an entertainment junkie, you'll almost certainly want a Blu-ray drive too as full high-definition resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels) for the display.

Surround-Sound Speakers

Many laptops carry tinny integrated stereophonic speakers, just you can get expectant movie theater-quality wholesome from a laptop with better speakers, such Eastern Samoa those in the well-regarded HP Enviousness 17. Adding external speakers or other laptop sound-quality-boosters to your laptop setup is always an choice if the stock speakers are puny, merely unmatched sign that a laptop was built for entertainment enthusiasts is the presence of HD audio frequency.

See PCWorld's survival of the upper desktop-successor laptops.

Gaming

Sound and a stunning display are large for a gaming laptop computer, too. You'll also probably want scads of Drive in and the newest quad-core processors to produce the system as speedy as possible.

Separate Graphics Card

Asus Lamborghini VX7 laptop — Asus Lamborghini VX7

Perhaps most important extra feature for a gaming laptop computer is a graphics card. Recently introduced gaming laptops such as the Asus Lamborghini VX7 vaunt lots of dedicated video memory (the Lamborghini VX7 has 3GB of video remembering).

Switchable graphics–for instance, the Optimus technology Nvidia disclosed last year–make conserving battery life easier, even on notebooks made for gaming.

See PCWorld's choice of the teetotum laptops for gamers.

For much advice on choosing your next laptop, consult PCWorld's Laptop Purchasing Pass over, which offers advice on selecting a business laptop, an ultraportable laptop, a netbook, a desktop replacement laptop, OR a laptop for special needs.

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