When deciding which laptop to buy the first thing to settle with is what it is going to be used for. You have to have a priority list about what the device has to know, and most probably you already have this list without realizing. Main points of interest would be battery life, screen size, processor speed or type of video card installed, memory size and capacity of the hard disk drive are also specs to look for. You need to know if you are willing do play games, work on the laptop or use it as a replacement of a desktop computer. Even if you are a busy publisher you should be aware of different kinds of laptops before choosing one, since life is much easier with the right notebook.

Differentiation based on size

There are notebooks with large 17” screen, but weighting 8-9 pounds. Obviously not the best pick to slam into a backpack and pop out to the park to write an article, but if you play recent games you’ll love the fat video card and brutal 4 core cpu installed.

15.6” notebooks are usually what people call desktop replacement. This is the kind you will run into most often, because they represent a great balance between usability and portability. They come with a battery that goes on for 2-4 hours, but there are powerful enough parts included making sure you won’t ever run out of juice while trying to finish a paper, or stretch some while firing up world of warcraft. Price tag is what you would call reasonable most of the time.

13” notebooks are called subnotebooks, and they usually don’t weight more than 4,5 pounds. Easy to grab and catch a plane, and best yet, it serves you for 4-6 hours without recharge, so chances are you won’t be cut off before wrapping up the last article. You probably don’t want to buy these for your kids if you hate to see frustrated kids. Most intensive game I would play on a sub is a flash shooter on kongregate.com.

12” and under is the realm of netbooks, or mini notebook computers. Great for traveling, you’ll forget it’s there and will have to check from time to time it’s so small and light. 10-12” screen size allows you to check a few webpages and write an email home that you will be 2 hours late. Never mind, this little devil will shrug at 2 more hours on the airport, choosing 6-9 cell batteries you are on the best way to score close to 8-10 hours of battery life. Do not load games on these computers unless your expectations are low, or know what you are doing. Some good ol’ Diablo II won’t cause problems though, happy hacking and slashing.

What’s up with the price?

Second you need to check your purse, and see how much you have for a new computer, as it can greatly affect which laptops you can chose between. Under $400 you will have to look around netbooks or refurbished laptops, even though I personally would advise not to buy used computers, renew should be okay if it comes from a respectable company.

If you raise your bar to 1000 bucks however, you’ll be able to swim in the sea of choices, as desktop replacement notebooks come between $500 and $700. At the time of writing this article HP G60-630US 15.6” for $529 looks like an awesome choice with 3gb memory 2.2ghz dual core intel cpu and 320 gb hdd installed, and a keyboard so big you get to have numeric pad to the right.

Conclusion for now

I wouldn’t pass personal judgement on the brand of the laptop on should choose, but looking around Lenovo, Toshiba and HP before paying cold cash is highly advised as they usually give some on the quality and you won’t get a pile of plastic and glass that breaks down on you after the first time you drive it around town. For kids in high school or college, I advise a 15” laptop, businessmen should go for a fully decked subnotebook for the extra productivity, geeks, don’t pass on a netbook, and no gamer should hire a truck to take their desktop computers to lan-party, a gamer notebook would be a better bet.

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Laptops for Students, Part 1