When To Buy A New Laptop

New Software Wont Load

Even if your laptop is running, it might still be useless: If you try to upload a new program and your laptop doesnt meet the minimum system requirements. You should likely be considering an upgrade or replacement.

New games and software programs have ever increasing demands on the system. Your aged laptop might be able to cope and maybe not. This can be a real problem if you need a heavy software program for school or work.

Buying A Laptop For Today

Its an old bit of advice, but it still holds. Unless you are obsessed with getting the latest tech, a new laptop should last a few years, and likely more if you want to save money on another purchase. Instead of buying a laptop exclusively for your needs right now, you should buy one for where you think youll be in a couple of years.

You might be tempted to opt for a base model for its low price tag, with something like 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive. Thats going to limit its long-term appeal, though, because it will quickly run out of storage space and may not handle multiple applications well. Going for a step-up model with a bigger drive and more RAM is probably a good idea.

Making Your Computer Shopping Easier

We want you to spend more time using your new computer rather than shopping for it. To help speed up the time it takes for you to order a machine and get it, check out our buy online and pickup in warehouse options. Consider our extended warranty for your new purchase to give you peace of mind. Now go forth and find the software, hardware, and accessories you need to conquer the world!

Don’t Miss: How Can I Watch Movies On My Laptop Without Wifi

Power And Sleep Settings

This is a useful setting and controls the way laptop consumes the power. You can control the following settings.

• Power button. You can define what happens when you press the power-button. The settings you can choose includes shut-down, hibernate, sleep, turn-off display or do nothing.
• Close Lid. Similarly, you can select hibernate, sleep, turn-off display or do nothing when you close the lid of the laptop.
• Turn-off display. Power settings let you choose after how much time of inactivity the display turns off.
• Sleep-Mode. This option is used to select the time period after which the computer goes into sleep mode. You can configure the settings separately for on-battery or plugged-in mode.

Apart from these customized settings, you have an option to choose from pre-set settings of balanced or power-saver mode.

Not Trying Before Buying

If you can, always give the laptop youre considering a proper test drive before buying. Many everyday laptops are available for testing at big brick-and-mortar stores such as Apple, Best Buy, and the Microsoft Store, allowing you to fiddle with the touchpad, keyboard, software interface, and other components that substantially differ from model to model.

Its easy to overlook the importance of features absent from the spec sheet, such as the touchpads responsiveness or the visibility of a glossy screen in daylight, and theres just no substitution for getting a real hands-on feel of what its like to use.

If thats not possible, buy from an online store with a strong return policy.

Read Also: How To Hardwire A Laptop

Your Laptop Is Just Really Old

Maybe your laptop is well and truly outdated. Its great to get value out of a machine by owning it for a long time, making good use of it over years and years, but you eventually have to draw the line somewhere.

Usually when everything starts to slow down for no apparent reason the real reason being the age of the hardware, in terms of spec, and also wear and tear and there are also tell-tale signs like when the operating system on your notebook is no longer supported, for example. .

In short, if your laptop is getting towards a decade old, its certainly worth thinking about getting a new one just on that basis. Although that said, if you arent having any particular issues with it, and the machine still does everything you want it to, more or less, theres obviously no need to rush to the next purchase.

How Much Should I Spend On A Laptop

• Less than £200 Intel Celeron or Atom processors, 2GB of Ram and 32GB of storage. Wont be particularly fast, but fine for very light note taking and browsing the internet.
• Less than £300 Newer Intel Celeron processors, 4GB of Ram and up to 64GB of storage. Again, won’t be hugely fast but offers a better level of performance for lightweight tasks.
• Less than £450 Intel Pentium, Core i3, AMD Ryzen 3 and 4GB Ram. Fast enough for web browsing and research work. Aim for a Full HD screen and an SSD if you can.
• Less than £600 Intel Core i5, i7, AMD Ryzen 5, 7 and 8GB of Ram. Should be ideal for photo editing and some light video work. Look for a thin and light design, a Full HD screen and an SSD.
• Less than £800 As above, but in increasingly high-end designs. Look for great battery life on premium ultrabooks
• More than £800 Some stunning designs, great screens and good speakers. High-end laptops will suit more intensive tasks, such as video editing or playing games. You can buy Apple MacBooks from £999 and above.

On a budget? Skip straight to our round up of the best cheap laptops.

You May Like: How To Clean Hp Laptop

Information From User Reviews:

User reviews are very helpful, especially when you are trying to find the best deals on laptops. However, there are many fake reviews that are meant to boost the ratings of a retailer’s site. If you are shopping for a laptop on Amazon, you can use Fakespot, a site that is helpful in determining the fake reviews from the real ones. Always look for genuine laptop reviews.Another important reminder is to test out a laptop before buying it. Many major retailers such as Apple, Microsoft Store, and Best Buy allow you to test out various features of different laptop models before you make a purchase. However, if making a stop at your local retailer is not possible, consider buying a laptop from an online store that has a strong return policy.

Should I Upgrade My Pc Or Get A New One

For laptops, the main components to upgrade will be the RAM and the SSD, as you dont have much opportunity to swap out the CPU or motherboard.

In most cases, the cost to efficiency ratio is skewed towards simply buying a full replacement with a laptop.

Note that a laptops battery also wont typically last as long as the other components. By the end of two years, the battery probably wont hold the same amount of charge as it did when the machine was fresh out of the box.

Replacing the battery can give you the boost you need if your main problem is that you cant use the laptop away from a wall outlet anymore.

While there are a handful of ways to increase the life or your laptop from RAM upgrades to performing a clean install of Windows these are stop-gap measures. Eventually the time always comes where a replacement is required.

Also Check: Watch Shows Without Wifi

Windows 11’s System Requirements Are A Big Bump Up But Not Demanding

The minimum system requirements for Windows 11 are higher than Windows 10 but well within the capabilities of any Windows 10 laptop sold today.

However, a small number of Windows 10 laptops sold towards the beginning of its release cycle, which began in 2015, won’t meet the new requirements.

Here’s the key differences.

• Processor: Windows 11 requires a recent Intel or AMD processor . The official processor support list is here.
• RAM: The required memory has increased from 1GB to 4GB.
• Storage: You’ll need at least 64GB of storage, up from 20GB for a 64-bit installation of Windows 10.
• Graphics: Your laptop’s graphics solution must support DirectX 12, up from DirectX 9.
• Display: The minimum display resolution is now 1,280 x 720, up from 800 x 600.
• TPM: TPM 2.0 is required

Microsoft’s processor requirements for Windows 11 are aggressive, setting a cutoff at Intel’s 8th-gen Core processors and AMD’s Ryzen 2000 processors .

This is no problem for a new Windows 10 laptop, but it may exclude surprisingly recent systems. For example, base models of the Microsoft Surface Book 2 shipped with 7th-gen Intel Core processors as recently as fall of 2017.

Microsoft made TPM 2.0 mandatory in the summer of 2016, about a year after Windows 10 was released in summer of 2015. Intel and AMD were already gearing up support by this time, so many laptops sold with Windows 10 will support TPM 2.0 even if launched prior to 2016.

How Often Should You Buy A New Laptop

Go straight to:

Let us guess. Your laptop has been acting up more frequently lately and youre wondering if its time for an upgrade. If your laptop is running at snails pace or showing other signs that its no longer working the way it should. Then maybe its time for a new one. But not so fast Considering the hassle of buying a new laptop and transferring all your data to the new software. Should you just hang on to the one you have and fix it? You need answers. And the most pressing is, how often should you buy a new laptop? Keep reading to find out.

Also Check: How To Change Msi Laptop Keyboard Color

Windows 11 System Requirements

Read more:How to check if your laptop will run Windows 11

Refurbished Vs Brand New: What Kind Of Laptop Should You Buy

A staggering 261.2 million units thats the total number of personal computer shipments in 2019. These figures cover both desktop PCs and laptops.

Many of these new computers ended up in US households. After all, almost three-quarters of the US population own either a desktop or a laptop. Many, however, prefer the convenience and portability of laptops.

If youre one of these folks, then youve likely come across the term refurbished laptops. Now that you need to get a new computer, its best that you know what makes buying a refurbished laptop a good idea.

Ready to learn what sets refurbished vs new laptops apart? Then lets dive right into it!

You May Like: How To Watch Movies On Mac Without Wifi

What To Look For In A New Laptop

Weve actually got you covered already with an in-depth guide on how to buy a new laptop and quick tips on specific features to look for when shopping.

There is one major element to keep in mind when upgrading right now, however.

Most new laptops entirely skip the optical drive in order to fit other components into a slimmer profile. If you still use install discs, make sure to factor it in

While our buying guide covers the specs, price, and features to look out for, you are probably still wondering:

Do I Need Dedicated Graphics

A graphics processor thats built into the CPU is perfectly adequate for most everyday laptop use. Youll know youre looking at an IGP if you see a reference to Intels HD Graphics, UHD Graphics, or Iris as the graphics solution on an Intel-CPU laptop . An IGP shares the CPUs processor cores, memory, or both. The amount of memory available to the integrated graphics chip is usually fixed, so increasing the amount of system memory wont result in better graphics performance.

Most gamers will want to consider a discrete GPU with its own dedicated computing resources. Even a budget gaming GPU will offer an immense advantage over an integrated graphics processor when it comes to playing 3D games. At the high end, hardcore gamers should look for Nvidias latest GeForce RTX GPUs.

With gaming laptops, the level of GPU you need is very much tied to the frame rate you want to run at the laptops native screen resolution, and the kind of games you play. Thats where our reviews come in handy. We test with several demanding gaming and industry-standard benchmarks to give you a relative sense of a laptops graphics performance. Check out our roundup of favorite late-model gaming machines and best budget gaming laptops for much more.

Read Also: Msi Color Keyboard

What You Need To Know About Hardware

As with any computer, hardware determines what a laptop can do. Better components will naturally be more expensive, so it is important to consider the laptops primary role and choose hardware suitable for that purpose. A laptop purchased to browse the internet or write documents, for example, doesnt need a high-end processor or video card.

Check That Keyboard And Touchpad

The most impressive specs in the world don’t mean diddly if the laptop you’re shopping for doesn’t have good ergonomics. If you plan to do a lot of work on your computer, make sure the keyboard offers solid tactile feedback, plenty of key travel and enough space between the keys. If you’re buying a Windows laptop, be sure it has Precision touchpad drivers.

Look for an accurate touchpad that doesn’t give you a jumpy cursor and responds consistently to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. If you’re buying a business laptop, consider getting one with a pointing stick between the G and H keys so you can navigate around the desktop without lifting your fingers off the keyboard’s home row.

Also Check: Record Audio On Laptop

Your Computer’s Fans Are Getting Noisy

Often, the first issue to signal an aging computer’s impending demise is the fan running loudly even when it’s not doing intensive computing tasks. If you’re running the latest version of an application or operating system, these programs could be maxing out the hardware of your computer, causing it to run warmer than usual.

How Powerful Does My Laptop Need To Be

In short: If you need a laptop for light use and note taking, look for Intel Pentium or Intel Core i3 and at least 4GB of Ram for a great experience. Go for Intel Core i5 and i7 and AMD Ryzen 5 and 7 and at least 8GB of Ram if youre a heavy user. Look for dedicated graphics from Nvidia and AMD if you want to game.

This really matters if youre planning on using a laptop for photo or video editing, or are an otherwise very heavy user, opening lots of programs and browser tabs.

When looking at laptop processors, youll see two main specifications beyond the product name: clock speed and number of cores.

Think of clock speed as the speed limit on a road and the number of cores as the number of lanes. As on a road, depending on traffic conditions the tasks being done on your computer a road might see a greater benefit from more lanes or a higher speed limit.

In the simplest way possible, more of both is better, and each of our reviews will describe what sort of tasks a laptop is good for.

Think of Ram like a desk and your hard drive like a filing cabinet. You pull files out of the cabinet and it takes a while, but once theyre on your desk, you can reach for them instantly. The same is true of Ram once you have loaded a file from the hard drive, its now in the Ram and can be accessed almost instantaneously.

Recommended Reading: How To Shut Down Laptop With Keyboard

How Much Battery Life Is Enough

Many laptops can last an entire day away from the power outlet, even when youre using them for demanding but common activities like streaming internet video. There are exceptions a laptop with a 4K display and a powerful CPU probably will not last for more than 8 hours or so before its battery dies, and most gaming laptops die far sooner. When youre playing demanding games that tax the GPU, gaming laptops tend to run out of juice even more quickly off the plug than they normally do. Youll find more than a few exceptions, though, and even powerful laptops have become adept at sensing when their maximum power isnt required and reducing various components consumption.

This is where PC Labs battery testing comes in. We evaluate battery life by playing a locally stored video file nonstop with no wireless connections active and 50 percent screen brightness. An excellent result on our test suggests that the laptop is good at adapting its power use to the task at hand, and you can use the results to compare the potential of machines you are considering.

Measuring battery life is notoriously tricky, though, since its entirely dependent on how you use your laptop. Your usage profile probably doesnt match our testor anyone elsesto a T. So youll want to look at tested battery life in a relative, rather than absolute, sense.

How We Test Laptops

We know that buying a new laptop can be a huge investment, so every laptop in this list has been extensively tested by us. When we test laptops, we use them in our day-to-day lives to see who they perform. We look at their design, including how stylish they are, or if they are thin and light enough to carry around with, and how comfortable they are to work on.

When it comes to performance, we use a mix of real-world tests and synthetic benchmarks to see how powerful these laptops are. This means using Windows 10 and running various apps and seeing how fast they load, noting down any problems.

These days, the webcam and microphone in a laptop is also incredibly important, so we take time to test out these as well. When it comes to gaming laptops, well run more benchmark tests, as well as fire up games to play on them as well

Battery lives are also important, so well keep track on how long we can use the laptop without needing to charge. We also run our own battery life benchmark that plays a looped 1080p movie until the battery dies. We also run the PC Mark 10 battery life benchmark, which replicates real-world usage, such as web browsing and document creation. These tests give us an excellent idea of how long the batteries in these laptops last.

We then take everything weve learned about the laptop and compare it to its price, to see if it offers the best value to customers.

Also Check: How To Log Into Hp Laptop Without Password