Choosing the right laptop for you and your business
There are many brands, hundreds of models, so when it comes to selecting the right laptop for your business and employees it can be difficult to know what you need from the machine itself its operating system.
There are three main components to look at in any laptop
- Power
- Performance
- Portability
Laptops available on the high street may appear tempting with special offers or bundled options, however nearly all models in retail stores will be suited and designed for simple home use, i.e. browsing on the web, doing homework etc; or created for gamers, with expensive graphics cards and added RAM for speed and effective visual output when gaming.
The cheaper the laptop the more basic it will be with a lack of ability to join it to a domain, run business software or multi-task with various windows/tabs open at the same time. Cheaper laptop deals often also feature older generation CPUs (more about this later).
Laptop power & performance
When looking at any laptop consider the size and speed of the hard drive, the RAM, CPU and screen size.
These four components will make up the performance of the machine and generally the bigger the specification, the faster and smoother the computer will be to use.
Let’s break them down and explain the components.
The hard drive stores your information, documents, files etc. The larger the hard drive, the more you can store. The smaller the hard drive the less storage available and as it is used, the laptop may slow down and you may experience ‘freezing’ whilst accessing applications or files.
Anyone in a creative industry, working with larger files types such as videos or high-resolution graphics will require larger hard drives.
Measured in Gigabytes and Terabytes, the minimum specification for an office environment is 1TB however for maximum performance on any machine an SSD (Solid State Drive) may be worth investing in, although it can be costly, it can provide long-term effective performance.
The RAM manages the smooth running of tasks. A good average RAM for any office environment is 8GB – 16GB, however advanced graphics and web design will require a RAM of 32GB and above.
The Central Processing Unit or CPU has three elements to look at, the generation i.e. i5 (5th Gen), the number of cores (dual-core, quad-core), and the speed of each core. Dual-core should be the bare minimum used for an office laptop.
The generation is very important, a 1.9GHz CPU from three years ago will not perform as well as a 1.9GHz CPU built today. Newer chips are more efficient and less power-hungry, meaning the laptops are a lighter weight with a much longer battery life.
When looking at which screen size to opt for, consider the battery life and quality of screen required. Size does not equal quality, you will need to look at individual screen resolutions from the laptop specifications. The finish is also important for some users and comes in matt or gloss which tends to reflect more making the screen harsher on the eyes.
The more creative your business i.e. if you work with images or videos the better quality screen you will require therefore opt for a higher resolution screen.
An average laptop screen may be 1366 x 768p, through to a decent screen of1920 x 1080p, some offer Full HD.
The larger the two numbers on the spec, the clearer the laptop screen image will be.
Laptop portability
Portability will depend on the size, the weight and the battery life.
Laptops can range from 10.1” through to 17”, with ultra-thin laptops weighing from 1kg with larger bulkier models weighing sometimes four times as heavy at 4kg.
If you or your employees are going to travel with a laptop daily or frequently, a lighter laptop is the best option.
Laptops with the biggest screens are great when working however the larger the laptop the more battery power required for it to operate, therefore always check the average battery life before making a purchase and read reviews from other users of the machine to see if the manufacturers claims of battery life are true to their word. Charging points in public places i.e. on trains and at airports are more common these days, however the longer the battery life, the better.
Let us help you find the right laptop
At Myriad, we’ve assisted many businesses and charities finding the right laptop, from an initial chat, discussing what you require we can provide competitive quotes and offer commissioning, data trasnfer and joining to your domian so that it’s ready to go when you receive. If you are in the market for a newmodel then please dont hesitate to contact us and we’ll see what the best current deals are then select something that suits your criteria