10 Things to avoid when purchasing a new laptop.

Back-to-School season is coming up and retailers are preparing to sell boatloads of new laptops to students. The price for mobile systems has fallen to the sub 1000$ and even sub 600$ range which has made them a realistic options for even the most budget-conscious of computer user. Some manufacturers have unfortunately made some compromises to their systems to lessen costs, and some could learn a thing or two about system design. Pay attention to these 10 issues when shopping for your new system!

1. Too Big

Have you ever seen the kid who lugs around a 17 inch laptop to all their classes at school? Did you notice how it does not completely fit on the desk, and forces the owner to type in an awkward yoga-like position? 17 inch laptops are called desktop replacements for a reason, they aren’t meant to be lugged around casually. These systems are often compounded by problems 4 and 5 as well.

2. Bad keyboard

Remember, you are going to be typing on this, perhaps a lot. Try out the keyboard before you buy a certain model and see if it works for you. Also, do some research and find out how resistant the keyboard is to liquid contamination. Recently a friend spilled tea on her Macbook which damaged it to the point where it was necessary to replace the motherboard because the liquid seeped inside the system. Systems with easily replaceable keyboards are a plus.

3. Bad Sound Jack Placement

Most people don’t think about this one. If the headphone and microphone ports are in the front of the computer, then watch out. If you happen to actually use your system on your lap, there is a good chance the headphone jack will get bent in an awkward position which will eventually break the port. A Toshiba owner had this happen 3 times on the same system, with each incident requiring several days repair time to replace the components. Headphone port placement is not standard, and varies across models from the same manufacturer (my Toshiba has the headphone port on the right hand side).

4. Too Heavy

Take the weight of your computer and add the charger, which likely approaches a pound itself, and add the weight of several textbooks if you are a student. Imagine lugging this around every day of the week, and you will realize why you probably don’t want a computer that weighs more than 6 pounds on its own. If you are going to be doing a lot of traveling, you should aim for a system that is 5 pounds or less.

5. Underpowered Battery

Unless you are looking to buy a glorified Imac, the battery life of your system is pretty important. Many budget laptops ship with weak batteries, but you might be able to replace it with a high capacity one. Anything less than 3 hours of runtime with a new battery is best avoided. Remember that you will have to replace the battery every 2-3 years with regular usage. Online reviews are a good source for information on the battery life.

6. Low-end Video Card

Integrated video cards are fine for most users provided you have enough ram (since they use some system ram). Due to the use of some of the main memory, a system with 1 gig of memory that uses an integrated video card will perform worse than a system with 1 gig of memory and a discrete video card even in non video related tasks. Also, integrated video cards are essentially useless for modern games, so even casual gamers might want to avoid the lowest end laptops that ship with integrated video cards. Remember that in almost all cases you cannot upgrade the video subsystem in a laptop, so you will be stuck with what you get.

7. Lack of Available Ports

When your laptop is at home there is a good chance you will have a mouse and a printer attached and you might also have a web cam, external USB hard drive or key, and possibly some esoteric devices such as a midi keyboard, cell phone with USB connectivity, PSP, etc… In other words, the more ports the better. Placement is also important; ideally you want your ports to be further to the back of the system to keep them away from where the mouse is normally placed. You should consider getting a USB hub as well, although some devices might have to be plugged in directly to the computer. A firewire port is also a plus if you want to attach a digital video camera, high performance hard disk, or firewire sound interface to your system.

8. Treated Screens

I’m not a big fan of treated (aka glossy) screens. They often have names such as brightview, trulife, and xbrite. The main reason for my dislike is that treated screens do not perform well in sunlight, as they are more prone to distracting reflections. This might not be a problem for some people though. If you are buying your system primarily to play games and watch movies, then these screens can actually be a plus, as they tend to have richer, more exaggerated colour.

9. Bad Trackpad

This goes hand in hand with bad keyboards. A poorly performing or awkwardly positioned trackpad can limit your mobile usage. While trackpads are usually ubiquitous (most manufactures use Synaptics trackpads), some manufacturers place them oddly relative to the keyboard, or use a smaller, less responsive model.

10. Slow Hard Disk

Avoid 4200rpm hard disks like the plague. They are dismally slow. A faster hard drive is better than a bigger hard drive for a laptop. 5200rpm is better, and 7200 rpm is the best (these drives are uncommon in the low-end, though). Invest in an external hard disk as well to back-up your data, since laptops are more prone to accidental damage or theft.

Whatever your choice, make sure you try out whatever system you are using before you buy it. Check out demo systems at retailers and pay attention to the screen quality, keyboard quality, and overall design of the system. Consult online reviews to get a good idea of the battery life. Ask your friends and relatives about their experiences with various systems. If you follow these steps you might get many years of good usage from a quality laptop.