When looking for a laptop, you’ll see a ton of numbers and letters that might make no sense to you. If you aren’t a computer expert or don’t want to do a lot of research, you might not know exactly what you need. Here are the basic things that just about every laptop needs to have.
The first thing is a solid processor. If you’re planning on playing games or using large software programs, you’ll want a faster processor (2 gigahertz or more). However, if you’re just looking for a laptop to use for editing documents and surfing the internet, you can get away with a slower one—anything around 1.5 gigahertz is probably good enough. Of course, the faster your processor, the faster your computer will be.
When it comes to RAM, or memory, you need at least one gigabyte. That’s the absolute minimum required to run Windows Vista, which is what most PC laptops are running these days. Again, gamers and those who use programs like PhotoShop or AutoCAD will want at least two GBs of RAM if not more. However, Windows can’t make use of more than 4 GBs of RAM, so don’t go too overboard.
While it’s not an absolute necessity, having a wireless card on your laptop makes life much easier. Being able to connect to the internet anywhere in your home (assuming you have a router to broadcast your wireless signal) gives you much more freedom. You can surf the internet in bed, at the kitchen table, or in the living room while watching TV, and you don’t have to worry about plugging in cables. Most laptops have a wireless card built in, so you don’t even have to deal with inserting the card into your laptop.
Finally, you want to have at least two USB slots on your laptop if not more. Nearly every device uses USB cables now, and you need to have several on your laptop if you plan on using a mouse instead of the touch pad, connecting to a printer, storing files on a thumb drive, or typing on a full-sized keyboard. If you don’t have a laptop with more than a few USB slots, you’ll need to invest in a USB hub. These hubs basically turn one USB slot into four or more, allowing you to connect more devices to your laptop.
There are many more things that you’ll need to decide on. Do you want a CD burner, a DVD burner, or a Blu-ray drive? Do you need a laptop specifically designed for multimedia? However, the four items listed above are things that will be useful to anyone who owns a laptop, and they are the four basic things you should look for when purchasing one.
