Laptops have become a necessary commodity these days, be it for normal daily usage, office work, keeping track of your things, gaming and even entertainment. But what is necessary these days is to know which laptop is the best for you according to your use case.
Some come with a good CPU-GPU combo and some come with a good screen while others go heavy on connectivity. Here we are going to look at 7 laptop features that you need to look out for when you are going to buy one out there, and which is the best for your needs.
CPU
This here is a no-brainer, a good CPU is always something that you should look out for but I understand that there could be a budget restraint so lets look at this in more detail.
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This is essentially the computer's brain, and for something that can handle office work effortlessly, you can opt for a laptop that has Intel Core Ultra 5 processor by Intel or AMD's Ryzen 3 or 5 would also be a good pick. Here, the only thing you need to take care of is that the CPU belongs to the latest generation, or at least the latest generation you can get your hands on.
For reference in AMD the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 series is the strongest and latest, and comes in the premier mobile CPU architecture when considering cheaper options. This has 4 cores, with 1 core having Zen 5 performance core, and has 8 threads, this might not look as many as Intel's cores, but these are made on next-gen architecture. There are higher variants with 6 cores and 12 threads as well, which is Ryzen AI 5 340.
Other AMD CPUs with a 6-core, 12-thread architecture are AMD Ryzen 5 (7530U / 7535U / 7535HS) and AMD Ryzen 5 (8640U / 8640HS). Here HS is high performance, and U is low-power.
There is also Ryzen 5 40/150 mobile CPU these are entry-level chips. For a cheaper buy, you can also switch to a Ryzen 3 Mobile CPU.
When it comes to Intel you can get your hands on the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U; this one has 12 cores with 2 P cores, 8E cores and 2 low-power E cores/ 14 threads, then comes the 125H and is a mainstream CPU, but has 18 threads. Then come the Ultra Core 5 322/335 CPUs, which are the strongest in the line.
There is also an option for the Intel Core 3 100U, which has 6 cores. U here means low power, and H means high performance.
The above-mentioned CPUs are good for daily office loads, even watching movies, but if you want to go for gaming, you might want to amp up your CPU to Intel Ultra 7 or 9 and AMD Ryzen 7 or 9, which needs to be paired with A GPU or have an integrated GPU-CPU architecture.
RAM
This is also an important component; it dictates how many browser tabs can be kept open on a system at once without the system lagging. In today's market 16 GB RAM is something that people are usually aiming for, but as chip prices are on the rise, let's explore this in detail. For a normal workload, 4- 8 GB RAM would suffice, and it is good even for entertainment like watching movies.
But if you want to do video editing and gaming, 16 GB of RAM becomes important and going beyond might help you even further.
SSD (Storage)
This will decide how many things you will be able to store on your laptop, including important things like the OS and apps, as well. You could aim for an NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD). 512-1TB is now becoming a standard, good enough for movies and games both. 256GB could work if you have cloud storage.
Screen/ Display
This is something you should specifically watch out for if you want it for gaming and movies. The normal display that you should aim for is a 1920x1080 display with at least a 60 Hz refresh rate. But if you go above that, gaming laptops like the ASUS TUF series and Acer Predator series could come with 2K to 4K displays with up to a 240 Hz refresh rate, which is good for gaming, even competitive gaming.
Battery Life And Charging
Battery life is one of the most important features in a laptop, especially when you are travelling. Usually, if you go for a cost-friendly option with lighter batteries, you can get up to 3-6 hours of battery life, and it will come with 40-50 Wh 3- to 4-cell batteries.
One must note that on flight 99.9Wh is the maximum legal battery limit and 4 to 6 cell 80-99.9Wh battery could give you up to 4-8 hours of life. But one must not that more cells do not automatically mean more battery life. For longest-endurance devices that use mobile ARM microchips like Apple M-series and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite take the crown and can last up to 18-24 hours with a 3-4 cell 70-80Wh battery only, thus, more cells do not mean more life it depends on how the architecture utilises the battery.
Connectivity
Check the laptop’s available ports and wireless connectivity before making a decision. It should have USB Type-C and Type-A ports, an HDMI connection for hooking up an external display, and a headphone jack. For wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi 6 or newer and Bluetooth 5.3 or above are worth looking for, particularly if you regularly connect wireless accessories.
GPU
Lastly, let's discuss the graphics card, as most laptops can handle most tasks, but a graphics card is required for some niche utilities like video editing and gaming; that's why I am taking this last. For normal base-level gaming you can opt for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30, 40, or 50 series GPUs, but their versions matter more, like the RTX 3050 to 3060 and similarly for the 40 and 50 series (4050,4060,5050,5060) are good for base-level gaming.
But if you want something more out of it and to handle heavier game loads and video editing, like the RTX 3070 and 3080, the case is similar with 40 and 50 series GPUs.
Similarly, with AMD, you can opt for AMD Radeon RX 7600S and RX 7600M XT, here the XT version is more powerful, but this is where the base starts with 8GB VRAM. Also you must note this is the latest series of GPUs from AMD; the previous series was the RX 6600M, 6700M and 6800M and you can still find systems with these GPUs in the market.
In the latest version, the AMD Radeon RX 7900M with 16 GB VRAM is the strongest GPU and can be found in laptops like Alienware or high-end ASUS TUF and other laptops.
One thing to note here is that AMD goes all in on VRAM, and you will find more in AMD GPUs, but when it comes to Nvidia Ray tracing performance is better, but again, both can deliver nicely.
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So here is a brief of the 7 things one must look out for when buying a laptop these days, its not necessary to get the latest and the strongest but the one that optimally suits your needs.
FAQs
1. Can you only get standard dedicated GPUs in a laptop?
Yes, there is an option to get integrated GPUs as well (iGPUs), which means you do not have to get a separate GPU-CPU setup, and both are available in one chip. This might also be the future of gaming laptops as technology moves forward and integration to save power and space takes place.
2. Should You Go For Touchscreen Or Not?
You can choose this option if you are an artist as this will give you much more fluidity in work. Good for drawing, taking notes etc. You can opt for a matt display for long hours of typing as glossy screen could get a bit messy.
3. Is a metal body worth the extra money?
Yes, if you travel quite often, this could come in handy and save you from damage.