Loading...Not everybody can afford to buy the latest, most powerful laptops with the best possible features available in the market. The majority has to resort to buying the older ones which are least expensive, while comparing between the several, slightly old machines, in order to save while still getting their hands on a notebook that will get the work done. These buyers look out towards the internet for advice, by going through the various “reviews and specs” websites to choose the best from the rest. That sounds like a reasonable strategy, except that more often than not, these reviews will leave you in a bigger predicament than before. Mainly because, these might be written by someone with totally different preferences and requirements, hence the final verdict might not be as valid for you as you’d like it to be.
What to do?
To start with, you should be having a very clear idea of your own requirements, the tasks that you are looking to carry out on your laptop. If you don’t know what you want, and you’re relying solely on others’ opinion, you’ll stay confused and end up buying a laptop or notebook that might be ideal for others but not so suitable for you. For example, if you are a blogger, you wouldn’t need beastly powerful processors, or awe-inspiringly good graphics, so paying hefty amounts for all these features is essentially a wastrel.
Buying a laptop for blogging:
If you’re a blogger or even a web content writer (working in any capacity) you don’t need to be talked into the importance of having a laptop. It can get quite monotonous if you have to spend hours and hours in front of your desktop PC in the same surroundings. Also, you cannot take your desktop PC with you while traveling. Having a laptop means, you can blog/write from any place with Internet connectivity (even without internet connectivity unless you have to research for the matter on internet) and staying on the ball all the time. However, all these benefits of the laptops will be lost, in fact turned into disadvantages, if your selection of the laptop is not spot-on. When buying a laptop for blogging, you must keep the following features in mind, or you will be regretting your purchase later on.
Screen:
When I say screen, I don’t mean getting your hands on the latest and most enthralling technology in the market. All you need to ensure is that your laptop doesn’t have a smaller screen size (which is especially the case when you’re buying a notebook). Having a smaller screen might not hurt in the beginning, but soon you will find your eyes getting strained while trying to focus on the screen for longer periods. Remember, as a blogger or writer, you will have to read a lot (to keep the ideas coming or to research and learn more about the topic in hand) and reading itself is quite an exerting activity for both your eyes and mind, and a small screen will only worsen the strain. So yes, big screen should definitely be a deciding factor.
Keypad:
Being a blogger, keypad is probably the second most excessively used thing (first being your mind). In the start, jotting down two to three thousand words in a day won’t sound like a lot of typing, but after some days of typing on a keypad with relatively smaller keys, your fingers will start to hurt. While talking of the keypad, let’s not forget the touchpad … it takes quite some time in getting familiar with the touchpad if you have been using mouse for all your life, and even when you get familiar, it might hurt your fingers and wrist badly if your keypad and touchpad are small and you are using your laptop for all the research and writing work. You can always attach a regular mouse and keyboard but it’s not always feasible to arrange these things on the go, and if you have to use the laptop on the table with mouse and keyboard attached, then what’s the purpose of having a laptop? Ideally, your laptop should be having a good keypad with proper key sizes and a wide touchpad to allow free movement of the hands.
Battery:
Problem with bigger screens and keypads, these laptops tend to have lesser battery timings as compared to a small notebook or mini laptop. Bloggers need to be online for long hours as compared to a casual user who logs in for checking emails or their social profiles. The problem of weak battery is quite likely if you’re purchasing a used laptop, having just one or two hours of backup (that too with last half an hour passing with dim light and numerous alerts) is not going to cut in. Mini laptops have impressive battery timings but then you have to deal with small screens and even smaller keypads, so you’ll have to do some research to find the perfect combination in this regard.
Weight:
Despite being known as laptops, very few machines in the beginning were light (and cold) enough to be used for longer periods while lying on your laps. Thankfully, new laptops are getting lighter, but again not everybody can afford to buy the newer ones because of the budget constraints. If the laptop is too heavy, you will always have to find a good surface to put it and use, which means you won’t be able to use it on the go. Therefore you must take the laptop weight into consideration before buying.