What Should You Look For When Buying A New Laptop
There are certain things you can look out for when buying a new laptop in 2021 that can ensure you get the best laptop for your money.
Make sure you take a look at the specifications of a laptop before buying. This is a good way of quickly seeing how powerful a laptop is, and what it is capable of as long as you know what youre looking for.
First of all is the processor. This is essentially the brain of the laptop, and a laptop will usually have a processor made by either Intel or AMD. Intel is by far the most popular CPU maker for laptops, though were seeing an increasing number of AMD-powered laptops as well.
As a general rule of thumb, Intel processors offer better performance, but AMD processors are better value.
To make things more simple, both Intel and AMD have numbered their processors to give you a rough idea of what sort of tasks a laptop with that processor can perform.
If youre after a budget laptop for simple tasks like browsing the web or watching Netflix, then a laptop with an Intel Pentium, Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3, processor will do that job without making the laptop too expensive.
If youre after something with a bit more oomph perhaps to do more complex task like editing your home videos or playing games then go for a laptop with an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor as a minimum.
A newer processor performs better and is more power efficient so battery life will last longer. They are more expensive, though.
How Much Laptop Storage Do You Need
How much storage you need depends on what you want to use a laptop for. As a general rule of thumb get as much as possible without wasting money on the upgrade.
An SSD will help your laptop run faster, but offers less space for your files . You can also use cloud storage – but only when you have an internet connection.
Memory is where programs and files are stored only while you’re using them, and more is always better – up to a point. Consider 4GB a minimum, unless it’s a Chromebook, with 8- to 16GB the ideal.
These Google-powered laptops might struggle to make it into this chart, but we have rounded up the best Chromebooks if they are more suited to you. They’re great for basic tasks and online work, but not much more.
Overall Best Laptop Canada
The XPS13 comes in many different configurations, which can make the price vary considerably! Typical price is around $1350 for an XPS 13 with a slower processor and smaller hard drive, up to almost $4000.
This is the newest version of Dell XPS 13 Canada! .
It’s an upgrade in every way over the 2019 model, and even though it’s been out for a year, it’s still the most popular laptop in Canada right now.
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Which Laptops Last The Longest
Depending on what you buy and how you use it, a good laptop thats well cared for should last at least three to five years. A good ultrabook, a business laptop, or a MacBook will feel sturdier, last longer, and perform better than a cheap sub-$500 laptop with a mostly plastic frame and a basic processor. And a laptop that you primarily use around the house will last longer than one that you travel with frequently. Some business laptops or photo and video editing laptops are easier to upgrade with more memory and storage later to extend their useful life. A gaming laptop will feel outdated sooner than most other kinds of laptops, since new 3D games become more demanding at a faster rate than other apps.
The Best Multimedia Laptop
Most thin and light laptops share one significant weakness thin, tinny audio. Thats not the case with the Lenovo Yoga 9i. This 14-inch convertible has a rotating soundbar in its hinge, meaning that no matter how its positioned, the speakers face outwards. You can expect clear, booming sound whether youre using the 9i in tablet, tent, or clamshell mode.
Theres a lot more to like as well. You get an excellent 1080p touch display and a built-in stylus for easy artwork and note-taking. The 11th-Gen processors deliver satisfactory performance and all-day battery life. The audio quality, screen, and convertible form factor all add up to an unbeatable machine for multimedia entertainment.
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How To Choose A Laptop
Sometimes you just can’t beat a bigger screen, a keyboard and Windows for getting stuff done, and then your only choice is a laptop. There are many different kinds, including hybrids that can be either laptop or tablet, high-end gaming laptops, cheap and cheerful budget models, and even those running macOS rather than Windows 10.
The Best Laptops In India For 2020
Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition
MagicBook 15
Laptop buying can be a complicated affair. There are far too many products from each brand that it can become difficult to figure out which offer the best value for money. Add to that the ever-fluctuating prices of products on eCommerce and the plot continues to thicken.
If youre in the market for a high-end laptop with a rather flexible budget, weve compiled the best laptops from every major brand to make your job easier. These cover multiple price points, so you still have a few options to choose from. As with most products, the decision will be a lot easier if your usage pattern and preferences are defined. For instance, some laptops prioritize portability while some go for better performance. Knowing where you lie on that graph will make the shortlisting easier.
Xiaomi
Honor
For this buying guide, weve excluded gaming laptops. If youre in the market for one, check out our best gaming laptops in India compilation. If you identify as a heavy user, a professional or a creator, youre at the right place.
As always, visit the appended product links to know the current pricing and offers for each laptop as those often fluctuate. These are the best laptops from each brand in India.
Reasons to avoid
Reasons to avoid
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A Cheap Laptop With Standout Build
The Yoga C740 is as straightforward as a laptop can get. It has a sturdy aluminum build and perfectly fine 10th Gen Intel processors. We were pleasantly surprised by the devices audio the upward-firing speakers on the sides of the keyboard deliver a nice surround-sound experience. The keyboard and touchpad are both quite comfortable to use. Theres not much to complain about and not much to enthusiastically praise if youre looking for a sub-$800 Windows laptop with a well-made aluminum chassis and a sturdy frame, youre looking for the Yoga.
The C740 is a year old now, but that means you can get it at very affordable prices. Were looking forward to reviewing its successor, the Yoga 7i, shortly in the future.
Which Is Better Macos Or Windows
For the money, though, you’re getting great hardware top to bottom, inside and out. Apple recently moved to using its own processors, which resulted in across-the-board performance improvements compared to older Intel-based models. But, the company’s most powerful laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, still hasn’t been updated to Apple silicon.
But, again, that great hardware comes at a price. Also, you’re limited to just Apple laptops. With Windows and Chromebooks , you get an amazing variety of devices at a wide range of prices.
Software between the two is plentiful, so unless you need to run something that’s only available on one platform or the other, you should be fine to go with either. Gaming is definitely an advantage for a Windows laptop, though.
MacOS is also considered to be easier and safer to use than Windows, especially for people who want their computers to get out of the way so they can get things done. Over the years, though, Microsoft has done its best to follow suit and, with Windows 11 here, it’s trying to remove any barriers. Also, while Macs might have a reputation for being safer, with the popularity of the iPhone and iPad helping to drive Mac sales, they’ve become bigger targets for malware.
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A Unique Look And Lightweight Design
CPU: Intel Core i7-1195G7 | Graphics: Onboard Intel Iris Xe | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 64GB eMMC| Display: 13.5-inch1080p| Battery: up to 17 hours | Weight: 3.06 pounds
HP Spectre x360 laptops have been some of the best laptops you can buy for years now, and the latest version is equally impressive. Combining an Intel 11th-generation Tiger Lake CPU with up to 16GB of RAM and half a terabytes of Optane-enhanced SSD storage, this is a seriously nippy machine.
This new 14-inch version enhances the performance of the already-excellent 13-inch counterpart, and expands the screen with a 3,000 x 2,000 option that is a joy to use. It has the same fantastic build quality and responsive keyboard that’s to be expected from the Spectre x360 line, and its Gem cut corners still standout among a sea of rounded MacBook clones. Battery life is great, and the design is both trim and light enough to work just as well as a tablet as it does a laptop.
How Much Storage And Memory Do I Need
Most laptops above entry-level come with solid-state drives , which use memory cells instead of a spinning platter to store data. Since information stored in cells is much faster to access, SSDs are the best and most common drive configuration. Theyre also immune to jolts and bumps that might crash a spinning platters heads.
Some laptops especially larger-chassis ones designed for gaming, come with both kinds of drive: a small SSD to hold the operating system, essential apps, and a few games, and a larger spinning one to store the bulk of your game files or other space-consuming media. Thats a perfectly fine option if youre looking to save some money or simply need the maximum possible local storage amount, but you should stick with an SSD-only setup whenever possible.
Note that not all laptop SSDs are created equal. SSDs that use the more modern, generally faster PCI Express NVMe standard, as opposed to the older, slightly slower SATA interface, are preferable. Either of these, however, are far better than a third type, which is a not-quite-SSD: the much slower eMMC, a kind of flash storage drive found in budget machines. All of them are better than a traditional spinning hard drive unless you simply need sheer capacity for the least money.
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Where Are The Laptops With Amd Graphics Cards
Your guess is as good as ours. A few gaming laptop SKUs offered the RX 5000-series cards, but they were thin on the ground. But AMD has promised RX 6000, Big Navi mobile GPUs will be on their way to gaming laptops in the first half of this year, but so far we haven’t seen them in the labs.
Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 . He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he’s back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.
Keep An Eye Out For Battery Life
The whole point of a laptop is that its meant to be portable, so having a battery that keeps you ticking along for several hours without needing a recharge is pretty much a must. And theres more to it than that, too: In terms of the larger-picture battery life, youll want to look for a battery thats meant to last for charge after charge and one that you can replace once it does give out.
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How Much Should You Spend On A Laptop
Sometimes the best does come at a steep price, but equally you can get a lot of laptop for under £500 or even £300 provided you need only complete basic tasks such as web browsing, writing emails and creating the odd document.
Around £500 or above can get you a solid laptop, but it’s likely to have an entry-level set of specs. We’re talking a relatively basic processor, minimal SSD storage and a relatively low-quality screen. It might also be on the heavy side.
Pay £700 or more and you should get a blazing fast processor, plenty of RAM, loads of storage and a gorgeous display. You should also expect excellent build quality and premium materials. Many laptops these days are above £1,000, which is when you start getting the likes of 4K touchscreens and ultra-lightweight builds.
Students, this selection of laptops is just for you.
We’ve shown you our favourite laptops available right now and offered some advice on how much to spend, but if you’re still undecided we might be able to help break down your options further. Here we talk about screen size, storage, processors and more to help you make your decision.
Should I Get A 4k Screen In My Laptop
Nah. 4K gaming laptops are overkill they’re fine for video editing if you’re dealing with 4K content, but it’s not the optimal choice for games. The standard 1080p resolution means that the generally slower mobile GPUs are all but guaranteed high frame rates, while companies are slowly drip-feeding 1440p panels into their laptop ranges.
A 1440p screen offers the perfect compromise between high resolution and decent gaming performance. At the same time, a 4K notebook will overstress your GPU and tax your eyeballs as you squint at your 15-inch display.
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Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop
As a student, you would never want a laptop that is solely for work. If you’re seeking a great compromise between the two, the Acer Nitro 5 is the way to go. It has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card and a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-9750H Hexa-core processor, giving it more than enough power for any creative task. On top of that, it has a large 17.3-inch screen and a multitude of connection connections, allowing you to have an immersive experience. Overall, the Acer Nitro 5 is a capable all-around laptop that is ideal for students.
- Price – INR 69,990
The Best Student Laptop
Many of the best cheap laptops might be good choices for high school and college students, but the Acer Swift 3s exceptionally durable build makes it an excellent choice for backpack-battering and dining hall spills. Its 14-inch screen also gives you more room for homework multitasking than some of the 13-inch machines here.
But the highlight of the Swift 3 is its Ryzen 4000 processors. We tested a model with a Ryzen 7 4700U, which did an excellent job handling our daily multitasking workload, and delivered seven-hour battery life as well.
On the outside, the Swift 3 isnt the thinnest or most beautiful laptop you can buy, but its a solid performer in most areas. It has all kinds of ports, including USB-C, USB-A, and an HDMI. The backlit keyboard has a nice click to it and has a reliable integrated fingerprint reader as well.
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How To Buy A Gaming Laptop
Answer: Look for the following specifications:AlienwareMSI
Laptops – Frequently Asked Questions
1. Which is the best laptop to buy under Rs 50,000?
Answer: While buying a laptop online, you must consider what application you want to use it for. Do you want to buy a laptop for your business needs, everyday activities or gaming? Once you decide this, you can zero in on the specifications and features. Under Rs 50,000 there is a wide range of laptop from top brands that you can choose from. Some of the good models are HP Imprint Core i3 6th Gen laptop, Acer Aspire 3 Celeron Dual Core laptop, Dell Inspiron Core i3 6th Gen and many more options can be found under 50,000.
2. Which laptop is best for gaming?
Answer: These are some of the factors you should look into while buying a gaming laptop:
GPU – choose from AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce and the like, the CPU for assuring smooth performance- choose from Intel, AMD and the like, RAM the amount of RAM is important for smooth gaming. Go for laptops like Acer Predator Helios 300 Core i7 7th Gen, MSI CX Core i7 7th Gen, Lenovo Legion Core i7 7th Gen among others.
3. How can I increase my laptop’s speed? It is a Windows-based device.
Answer: To increase the speed of a laptop you can do the following activities:
i) Clean your laptop- remove all software that you are not using on a regular basis. Use a PC cleaner and optimization tool like CC Cleaner to clean up your PC.
ii) Keep your Windows OS updated.
Laptop with Processors:
Should I Buy A Laptop Or A Tablet
As we mentioned above, you can get a tablet that can morph into a laptop just by attaching a keyboard. And so if you really want the power of Windows in a form factor thats easier to carry around, then you can select a tablet 2-in-1. With the advent of Windows 11, its finally starting to become a better software platform for tablets. If you want the utmost in simplicity and an even smaller device, then a pure tablet like the iPad can be great for web browsing, triaging email, consuming media, and other tasks that dont require the full power of a real PC.
So, where doesnt a tablet work? If youre a hardcore gamer, need a laptop that can churn through video and huge photos, or do a lot of multitasking. Tablets are very thin and tend to use slower CPUs and integrated graphics that wont accelerate creative applications or power modern games. Meanwhile, the software on these devices isnt as full-featured as a desktop operating system like Windows 10 or MacOS.
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