Laptops For Dummies. Gookin Dan

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СКАЧАТЬ you may buy a laptop, thinking that you’re getting a deal – but get stuck with a brick instead.

      High price: It’s easy to be duped into believing that the most expensive laptop is the best. Buying too much is not a wise buying decision.

Things to heed when buying a laptop

      Throughout laptop history, five key items have been vital to the laptop-choosing decision:

      Weight: Nearly all laptops weigh between 2 and 7 pounds. The heavier laptops, the notebooks, have more features, such as a larger display or a numeric keypad next to the keyboard. The lighter models, the tablet PCs and subnotebooks, don’t necessarily have fewer features; they might actually have more lightweight or advanced features, which makes them more expensive.

      Size: Most laptops are thinner than an inch. Tablet PCs are the thinnest. Subnotebooks are the smallest.

      Display: Recently, manufacturers have discovered that people love the larger screen on a laptop – even though the larger display adds to the laptop’s size and weight (and consumes more battery power). For a laptop being used at one location and only rarely going on the road, a huge display is wonderful. If you want portability, though, and a longer battery life, consider a smaller display.

      Touchscreen display: If the laptop advertises itself as a tablet PC, or a convertible notebook, it’s going to have a touchscreen display. You can use your finger to manipulate the touchscreen, but also ensure that the laptop comes with a stylus or digital pen, which aids in input.

      Battery life: Despite their manufacturers’ claims, most laptops run anywhere from three to five hours unplugged. Subnotebooks and tablet PCs hold the record, with many of them lasting as long as ten hours. Regardless, it’s possible and necessary to manage the laptop’s power; see Chapters 10 and 23.

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Stuff that’s important to the overall weight of the laptop – the power brick and cord, keyboard cover, extra batteries, portable storage, and other gizmos – aren’t included in the basic tonnage calculation. Keep these items in mind when weight is important to you.

      ✔ Convertible laptops are thicker than standard laptops because of the extra circuitry required for their touchscreen displays. See Chapter 7.

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If you desire both a large display and portability, consider getting an external monitor for your laptop. That way, you can enjoy the big, roomy screen when the laptop is at your workstation and still have the portability you need when taking the laptop on the road.

      Software for Your Laptop

      A computer system is composed of two parts: hardware and software. When you buy a new laptop, you probably pay more attention to the hardware. That’s understandable, but it isn’t the reason you bought the device: Laptops, like all computers, exist to run software. If you want a laptop that does everything you need, I recommend looking for software first and then finding hardware to match that software.

The operating system

      The main program that controls your laptop is the operating system. It’s the computer’s brain, giving the laptop its personality and giving you, the human, a way to control the computer.

      For nearly all PC laptops, the operating system is Microsoft Windows. This book is specific to Windows 10, although older laptops may come with Windows 7 or Windows 8. If so, I recommend upgrading to Windows 10. I recently purchased a huge amount of Microsoft stock in anticipation of the upgrade, so your efforts are greatly appreciated.

      ✔ There’s no special laptop version of Windows. The operating system offers features specific to laptops with touchscreens, but otherwise it’s the same Windows you would use and dislike on a desktop computer system.

      ✔ See Chapter 8 for more information on Windows.

Other software

      Laptop computers run the same software as desktop computers. Most major computer applications, such as Microsoft Office, are commonly used on laptops and might even come preinstalled. Just about everything you can run on a desktop PC runs on a laptop.

      ✔ Laptops are okay for playing computer games, but you need to ensure that your laptop has the graphics horsepower to run high-end computer games, such as Call of Duty or Mass Effect. Such hardware often makes the laptop larger, which is good because those games benefit from a larger display.

      ✔ If you plan to run graphics editing programs, get a laptop with a high-end video card, larger display, and lots of memory.

      ✔ If you plan to edit video on your laptop, you need the maximum amount of internal storage. I recommend an SSD, if you can afford one. It’s also advisable to get an external hard drive or other storage, which many video editing programs require.

      ✔ See Chapter 9 for information on installing new programs, as well as on removing some of those “free” programs that are included on a new laptop.

      Laptop Hardware Buying Decisions

      In the balance between computer hardware and software, it’s the software that determines what type of hardware, and how much of it, you need. After you know what the software needs, choosing the matching hardware is a snap.

Important laptop hardware guts

      Beyond weight, size, and battery issues are four core parts of a computer that play a special role in choosing a laptop:

      Processor: Spend the extra money to invest in a fast processor. Doing so extends the useful life of your laptop by ensuring that you can run tomorrow’s software before tomorrow comes, but not before yesterday. You’ll be thankful later.

      Memory: Memory is where the action happens in a computer, where the work gets done. Not having enough memory in your laptop limits its performance. Having enough (or way too much) memory makes Mr. Laptop very happy indeed.

      Mass storage: The mass storage device is the electronic closet where the laptop stores your stuff. The mass storage device is either the traditional hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). It must have room for the computer’s operating system, all the software you get and later install, all the data files and junk you collect, plus room (lotsa room) to grow.

      ✔ The processor is the main chip inside a computer. It’s not the computer’s “brain.” Software is the computer’s brain. No, the processor is more like the computer’s muscle.

      ✔ Laptop processors are more expensive than their desktop counterparts. That’s because laptop processors are designed to use less power and generate less heat. These improvements take time, so their development cycle is longer; hence the added cost.

      ✔ How do you know how much memory or storage is enough? Easy: Look at the software you want to use. For example, if the software states that it wants 2GB of memory, get a laptop with at least that much memory. If the software requires at least 100GB of storage space, factor that amount into your laptop’s mass storage capacity requirements.

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