5 Tips for Buying a Laptop

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When you think about how far laptops have come in the past few years, it's no wonder that so many people want to buy a laptop these days. There are many things one should consider when buying a laptop, especially since the variety of choices is increasing rapidly. Buying a laptop is an expensive investment, so you want to make sure you make a wise purchase. That's why I put together this list of five tips for buying a laptop. If you are a coder and want the best coding laptop, these tips will help you make the right purchase when you buy your new laptop. 

#1 Size Definitely Matters

That's what she said. Just kidding. In all seriousness, one of the greatest variables to consider when buying a laptop is the size. This is because the size effects many other variables such as, the price, the convenience and how the laptop will meet your needs in terms of mobility. How often will you be traveling with your laptop? How much weight do you consider to be heavy? It's up to you to answer these questions for yourself before you buy a laptop.

The overall size of the computer will usually determine the size of the screen and the keyboard, as well. I for one, do not like typing on a small keyboard. So if I happen to be working on a laptop, I prefer that it is a large one with a good sized keyboard.


#2 The Right Touch Pad

Laptops all come with a built-in touch pad that serves as a mouse. Not all touch pads are created equally, however. Some touch pads offer features that others don't. You should test out the touch pad on the laptop you are considering to make sure it meets your standards. Some people just don't like using touch pads. I don't at all. Which raises another thing to be considered. What type of external mouses are available for the laptop? Although nowadays almost everything is USB, so that really shouldn't be too much of an issue.


#3 Optical Drive

Not very long ago, Apple released the Mac Book Air, a laptop that is super-slim because it does not have an optical CD/DVD drive. This is great because it makes the laptop extremely light and easy to carry in any type of bag or case. Of course, the obvious downside to this is that your laptop has no CD/DVD drive. So you can never watch a DVD on it, or pop in a blank CD to backup data or transfer files. To determine if you should buy a laptop without an optical drive, you need to really asses and evaluate what you will be using your computer for. Six months down the line you may run into a situation where you really regret not having that optical drive if you don;t really think this one through well enough.


#4 Count the Ports

From time to time, you are probably going to need to hookup external hardware to your laptop via USB or some other type of connection. This should also be given some serious consideration. Will two USB ports really be enough for you? Come on, be honest. If you have a printer, an iPod a digital camera, and a flash drive, that's already four separate devices that you may (for whatever reasons) want to have connected to your laptop simultaneously. If you don't have enough ports, you are out of luck. Not to mention, it's just annoying to have to constantly remove and connect different hardware all the time.


#5 Calculate a Realistic Budget

The reason I say calculate a "realistic" budget is because it's far too easy to go overboard when buying a computer. Especially with all the financing that is available from companies like, DELL and Apple. $2,000 doesn't look so bad when it's presented as only $30 a month. But when you're still paying that bill two years from now and you now want another new computer, it's going to be a huge bummer, and you will regret overspending. Having a realistic spending goal will also narrow down your decisions for you by eliminating those laptops which are simply out of your spending range.

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