Laptops - Picking the Best Laptop Computer

Laptop computer sales now outpace desktop computer sales in the marketplace. The portability of laptop computers make them convenient for people of all professions. Plus, there is something to be said about the space a laptop leaves open at home. Laptop computers are not as bulky or large as a desktop.

So, are you ready to take the plunge? Are you ready to purchase a new (or used) laptop computer, but you are not sure which model would fit your particular needs? Confused by the terminology and seemingly ever shifting display sizes and screen resolutions? Let me help you with your research and eventual purchasing decision by doing the leg work for you. The result: a consolidated summary on laptop computers. I am confident this guide will prove instrumental in saving you time, effort, and perhaps money, in your quest for the right laptop computer to your particular needs.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN PURCHASING A LAPTOP COMPUTER

Let's start with the basics, namely what size and type (PC compatible or Macintosh) of laptop to choose to fit your fastidious needs and how they differ in performance. Deciding whether to buy a PC Compatible (Windows) or MacBook really comes down to personal choice, advertising, size & weight, word of mouth, and budget. Despite the horror stories about Windows Vista, Windows XP based computers still perform quite nicely thank you.

Both Windows based and MacBook's use Intel® Centrino® Dual Core or Intel CoreTM 2 Duo processors as well as the new Intel Atom small processor. And certain Windows based laptops also use AMD AthlonTM or TurionTM processors, but MacBook's tend to be more expensive. Windows-based laptops used to suffer from excessive weight, but miniaturization is in vogue in the computer industry and less is defiantly more. Performance and functionality has dramatically increased over the years even as weight has continued to drop.

Click below for laptop reviews of these major brands:

• Apple computers
  
• Dell computers
  
• Gateway computers
  
• Toshiba computers
  
• Hewlett Packard computers
  
• Sony computers
  
• Acer computers
  

These manufacturers market laptop computers in varying screen sizes from 8.9" (Dell Inspiron Mini) all the way up to 17" LCD displays. Let's take a look at the two of the most important features to consider when making a laptop purchase, namely processor and screen size/type.

Processors are of course the heart of any computer and for laptops there are only two manufacturers left, Intel and AMD. Both brands offer a dizzying array of processor types for laptops, almost as many as you'll find on comparable desktop units. But of course the size of the processor has to matter because these little silicon wafers produce a lot of heat while going about the business of computing. Apple does not offer AMD processors with the MacBook, which is shame because laptops with AMD processors tend to cost $100.00 less than comparable Intel equipped units.

No matter which processor you choose, make sure it has enough power to perform the tasks you'll demand from your new laptop. Both Intel and AMD offer Duo-Core processors (the operating system sees the processor as two separate units) at varying bus speeds. Duo-Core and Quad-core processors out-perform their single core brethren by a substantial margin. The technology undergirding these processors families is too complex with the context of this guide. For more information on processors, check out the Intel Microprocessor Quick Reference Guide, AMD Processor Guide, and Tom's Hardware 2008 CPU Chart, The good news is all new laptops, be they Windows-based or Macintosh, ship with Intel and or AMD Dual Core or Core 2 Duo processors.

The more the laptop cost, the higher the performance curve and internal processor bus speed. Most users will not need the power a $2000.00 laptop with perhaps a Core 2 Duo processor at 2.5GHz brings to bear. An entry-level laptop is fine for almost any everyday task.

For entry-level I recommend at least a 1.73GHz Intel Centrino Dual Core processor or AMD equivalent, which should be fine for everyday work; i.e. browsing the Internet, word processing, email, money management, etc. For these tasks you will not need the latest and greatest processor, but with a Centrino Dual Core, you get admirable performance and stellar battery life.

The LCD Display is the soul of the laptop and as I pointed out about they come in a variety of sizes, measure diagonally of course. But the most popular business size appears to be 14" while personal laptop are marketed with 15.4" (wide-screen) or 17" (wide screen) becoming increasingly popular as well. There was a time when one had to struggle between a choice of passive and active matrix screens, but no more, nearly all laptops now ship with sharp, crisp, DVD ready active matrix displays, however that does not mean all screens are created equal. Read on...

PASSIVE VS. ACTIVE MATRIX

Passive-matrix LCD screens use a simple grid to supply the charge to a given pixel on the display. The methodology employed is simple, but it has significant drawbacks, most notably slow response time and imprecise voltage control. Response time refers to the LCD's ability to refresh the displayed image. Moving the mouse cursor quickly from one side of the screen to the other is the easiest way to observer slow response time on a passive-matrix LCD. You will note a series of "ghost images" seem to be following the pointer around the screen. Imprecise voltage control can hinder the passive-matrix LCD's ability to light-up or illuminate only one pixel at a time, the result of which are fuzzy or out of contrast images and text. Most passive-matrix LCD also lack an over abundance of brightness; this makes them largely unsuitable for anything other than office applications. The advantage is that laptops fitted with passive-matrix LCD's are less expensive than their active-matrix counterparts.

Active-matrix LCDs depend on thin film transistors (TFT) to work their magic. At a basic level, TFT LCDs are made up of thousands of tiny transistors and capacitors that switch on and off a rapid pace thereby illuminating the screen. TFT LCDs arrange these transistors and capacitors in a matrix and in order to address a particular pixel, its row is switched on, and then a charge is sent down the correct column. Since all of the other rows that the column intersects are turned off, only the capacitor at the designated pixel receives a charge. Because of the functionality of capacitors, they are able to hold their charge(s) until the next refresh cycle, thereby eliminating the ghosting and more tightly regulating voltage. The result is much more desirable display, one which offers the brighter, sharper images and text demanded by today's graphic rich computing environment.

WIDESCREEN VS. STANDARD ASPECT RATIO

Like regular aspect (tube, analog) television most LCDs have a screen aspect ratio of about 3:4. However, like their wide-screen HDTV cousins, wide-screen LCD displays have an aspect ratio closer to the 16:9, which becomes useful when working with more than one application on the screen at a time, or for working on large spreadsheets, or a graphics program that may employ floating toolbars and color templates. Of course it could also come in handy when watching wide-screen formatted DVDs. Laptops fitted with 15.4" and 17.0" screens are considered wide-screen. I like them because you can fit more on the screen than the conventional 14" screen, and the price-point is enticing. Even some entry-level models can be had with 15.4" screens, but business buyers beware, there are mostly geared towards entertainment seekers and are a bit short on high-end performance.

SCREEN RESOLUTIONS

Screen resolution refers to the amount of pixels on the screen, both horizontal and vertical. The larger the screen the higher the resolution, the more text and graphics one can place on the screen. If you want to see big text, you may want to consider staying with the standard screen, which is 1024x768 for a 15.4" screen. When it comes to laptop screen resolution and technologies, it is getting increasingly difficult to sort it all out. Let me try to help. Terminology 101:

• SVGA: Super Video Graphics Array
• XGA: eXtended Graphics Array
• WXGA: Wide-Screen eXtended Graphics Array
• SXGA: Super eXtended Graphics Array
• WSXGA: Wide-Screen Super eXtended Graphics Array
• UXGA: Ultra eXtended Graphics Array
• WUXGA: Wide-Screen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array

Listed below are the most popular screen resolutions, mated with screen size:

• 800x600 (SVGA - standard)/ 12" screen
• 1024×768 (XGA - standard)/ 12", 13.3", 14", 15" screen(s)
• 1280x800 (WXGA - wide) / 14.1", 15.4"
• 1440x900 (WXGA - wide) / 14.1", 15.4"
• 1280×1024 (SXGA - standard) /14", 15", 15.7"
• 1400×1050 (SXGA+ - standard) /12.1", 14", 15"
• 1680×1050 (WSXGA+ - wide)/ 15.4"
• 1600×1200 (UXGA - standard)/ 14", 15", 16"
• 1920×1200 (WUXGA - wide)/ 17", 15.4"

You would do well to go into your local computer/electronics store and test drive a screen for yourself. Specifications are one thing, but nothing can beat actually looking at the display to ascertain whether or not it fits your particular needs.

KEY FEATURES AND TECHNOLOGIES

Other than the processor type and LCD, here are few more items to concern yourself with:

What started out as a nice-to-have utility is now a must-have for any computer, desktop or laptop. Almost anything you can attach to a computer from printers to mice, to keyboards, to external hard drives, now has a USB connection, so the more a laptop has the better off you are. The average number seems to have peaked at 4 USB ports located at various spots around the computer body. But of course the beauty of USB is that you string up to 128 devices from a single USB port, but who wants to carry a USB hub with them no matter how small.

IEEE 1394 port(s):

A must have for connecting a digital camera and or camcorder to your laptop. All digital cameras have a mini IEEE 1394 or a UBS connection that allows you to "dump" images and or video directly onto the computer for use. Most laptops, even some entry-level units, have at least one IEEE 1394 port.

Memory Card Readers:

Most laptops now ship with at least an 5-n-1 memory card reader slot that allows to read data directly from a large variety of removable memory media such as SD-Media cards used in most, if not all digital cameras. It is very convenient to be able to remove the SD-media memory card from your digital camera or even camcorder, slip into the laptops card reader and have instant access to images and or video. Of course the readers are also great for sharing files with other, because any card inserted into one of the slots is assigned a drive letter like any non-volatile memory device.

Network Cards (wired & wireless):

Make sure any new laptop you are considering has both a wireless (802.11a/b/g/n or some combination thereof) and wired Network Interface Card (NIC). The former is essential for taking advantage of wireless hot spots and the latter for attaching to a wired network at work, school, or at home. Most older (four years or older) laptops will not have wireless NIC's, so if you considering used, make sure you check. New laptop should have a wireless NIC that can connect to the newest wireless standard 802.11g/n, which transmits and receives at speeds of up to 154Mbps.

Random Access Memory:

It is my belief that a computer running with one of today's modern operating systems (OS) can never have too much memory. Windows Vista, even the Home Editions, as memory hogs and while 1GB is enough to satisfy the OS, 2GB is better and 4GB is optimal. It is more cost effective to purchase more RAM during the initial purchase-if you can afford it-than to purchase it after the fact. For the MacBook users in the crowd who might want to run Windows XP on a virtual machine, extra memory capacity becomes that much more important.

Battery Capacity:

Often THE measure of a laptop's worthiness, battery longevity is on the rise, but still averages only 2.5 -3.0 hours depending on what you are running. I plug my laptop(s) into the wall whenever possible thus ensuring a fully charge battery for when I really need it. The more cells your laptop's battery has the more staying power the battery will have; but of course 12-cell batteries cost more than 8-cell batteries. Apple claims its 15" MacBook Pro with a 60-watt lithium-polymer battery will last some five hours!

Multi-media features:

More and more laptop are becoming desktop replacement, especially at the high-end and as such we are starting to see multi-media features once reserved for desktop festoon the ever populated side of laptops. It's not uncommon to see High Definition tuners and HDMI ports on some high-end laptops. The MacBook Pro 17" offers DVI output and Blue-ray DVD is now a widely available option on laptops like the Dell XPS M1730 and the HP HDX 18t Premium series.

RECOMMENDATIONS (as of summer 2008)

When shopping for a new laptop for personal use I look for the unit that will give me the most features and performance for my dollar and such as I generally prefer a few laptop over all other: Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and Dell. For business use my first choice is Dell, Toshiba, or Lenovo. But of course the laptop you ultimately purchase depends on what features you need, and want, balanced against the cost.

• If you want to take advantage of cloud computing, then the new Dell Mini 9 (starting price $349.00) might be for you. Dell offers up the Mini 9 with the Intel Atom N270 processor at 1.6GHz/533MHz FSB/512K cache, 4GB - 16GB solid-state storage, wireless NIC, and 8.9" LED screen. The Mini 9 ships with your choice of operating systems; either Ubuntu Linux Ver. 8.0.4, or Windows XP Home edition, 512MB DDR2 RAM, and wireless 802.11g NIC.
• At the lower end of the buying spectrum I like the Dell Inspiron 1525 (starting price $499.00) with the Intel Pentium Celeron 550 processor at 2.0GHz, generous 120GB hard drive, and wireless NIC. The laptop is clearly aimed at buyers whose computing demands to do exceed the norm and as such is ideal for college students. I also like the Apple MacBook (starting price $999.00). Though limited to a 13.3 TFT display, and (2) USB ports, the little Mac ships with an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.1GHz standard, 1GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive Mini-DVI-out port and a Firewire 400Mbps port and weighs in at just 5 pounds.
• For mid-range pricing I recommend Hewlett Packard computers. I like the HP Pavilion dv7t series (starting at $899.99) with your choice of Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 17" TFT wide-screen display, up to 8GB DDR RAM, Wireless-N NIC, up to a 640GB hard drive, and your choice of HP's Lightscribe DVD, or Blue-ray DVD. This laptop is clearly aimed at the user who needs more than a box to browse the Internet; this is a powerful laptop with a plethora of user configurable options. The only drawbacks I see are the limited number of USB ports (only four) and the inability to have Windows XP factory installed. An additional version of this laptop the HP Pavilion dv7z series (starting price $749.99) is also available; it feature AMD Athlon Dual-Core and Turion Dual-Core Mobile Technology processors.
• On the high-end of the spectrum, where money is no object, I have a couple of laptops I like; well three to be precise. First up is the Dell Precision M6400 (starting at $3,859.00), which can be had in any number of OS configurations: Vista Business SP1, (32-bit). All versions of this high-end laptop sport Intel Core 2 Duo processors (T9600 or T9400 6M L2 cache), 17" UltraSharp WideScreen WUXGA displays, and up to 16GB of RAM. This unit is meant to be a true business class desktop replacement computer.
• I also like the HP HDX 18t Premium series entertainment notebook (staring at $1,399.99). Built around the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and chipset, this laptop boosts a 18.4" TFT high definition HP Ultra BrightView wide-screen display w/max resolution of 1920x1080p, 8GB of DDR RAM. The HDX 18t also includes an optional HDTV tuner, HDMI 1.3 out connection with 1080p, built-in Blu-ray drive, up to 640GB hard drive, Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card, 5-n-1 media card reader, and 4 UBS ports! The HP HDX 18t is a true desktop replacement machine with loads of multimedia savvy.
• Did you say Apple? Yes I like the MacBook Pro (staring at $1,999.00 for 15" model and $2,799.00 for the 17" model) because is just darn cleaver and functional and it is after all a Macintosh. Endowed as it were with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at speeds of up to 2.6GHz, and up to 4GB of RAM, the MacBook Pro is no performance laggard. Mated with either to 15" or 17" TFT LCD screen, up to 300GB hard drive, DVI output; two Firewire ports (one at 400Mbps and the other at 800Mbps), an 802.11a/b/g/n wireless NIC, and boosting of up to 5 hours of battery time, the MacBook Pro is certainly a viable alternative to any Windows-based laptop and a potent desktop replacement unit that can be used for business or pleasure. The only drawback I see it the lack of a large number of USB ports; there are only three.
• I would like to wrap up with a few words about that other Mac products, the MacBook Air (starting at $1799.99), which on the surface might seem like to ideal laptop. But, close examination reveals functionality issues that bear serious consideration before any buying decision is made. Built around the Intel Core 2 Duo, like all MacBook's with 2GB of RAM, the little Mac does not suffer from performance anxiety, but the screen is only 13" and the hard drive is a paltry 80GB ($1799.99 model) and 64GB sold state on the model costing a whopping $3,088.99. And while the Mini-Mac does have an 802.11a/b/g/n wireless NIC, it only has one USB port and no Firewire ports making external peripheral connection problematic. In other words the MacBook Air is a novelty unit, designed primarily for those who want a lightweight, but powerful laptop for trips.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

There are number of places to gleam information on laptop computers. Most of these reside on the Internet, but I used off-line sources as well such as PC Magazine, PC World, Wired, and Network World magazines(s). Always do your research before heading to the local Best Buy or Circuit City to purchase your router. Chances are the sales representative will know just as much of not less than you about the wireless routers and only you can know what your particular situation is.

ONLINE SOURCES

When shopping for a laptop, your best bets are to check independent reviews such as those in PC World's Reviews and Rankings section. Also, visit you local electronics store and let your eyes help do the deciding. But also check out these on-line resources:

Wikipedia.org: this a fine place to do general research on monitors, their functionality, as well as terms you might want to become familiar with before starting your search for the best.

CNET 10-Ten Laptops : a good place to find general knowledge on anything computer-related. And the site offers price comparisons as well as basic reviews.

PC Magazine Laptop Buying Guide: an excellent course for all things computer-related. The site, which is a reflection of the magazine, offers in-depth professional reviews on all manner of computer products and services as well as electronics.

PC World Best Laptops Under $1000: another excellent source for professional reviews and information on computer-related products and services.

Notebook Reviews.com: excellent source for not only notebook reviews, but PDA and Tablet PC reviews as well.