Buying a work laptop can be quite a headache; it’s a universal struggle at this point, especially after the last 2 years when most of us have had to finish college and start a job at home and use our own laptop. We’re easily confused with so many brands and options, not to mention the technical jargon that half of us don’t even understand.
Laptops come in all shapes and sizes, with varying memory and processing capacities. Now more than ever, having a fast and functioning work laptop is a must as it allows us to work from home and remove the hassle from having to go to the office every day. Whether you’re replacing your old, slow-running work computer or buying your first one, follow this guide to choose the perfect work computer for you.
1. Your basic needs
In our experience, after setting a budget limit, it’s crucial to identify your basic needs when it comes to using a laptop. So yes, this is often easier said than done. The important thing is to focus on the tasks you want to do most often or that you think will “tax” the device the most.
Are you looking for a laptop to manage your email, surf the web, and watch Netflix? Do you want to install specialized software for your studies/work (Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, etc.) or even play games? Do you plan to use an office suite for your presentations or spreadsheets? These types of use do not necessarily require the same resources and have a de facto impact on the reference budget.
2. Use
You need to ask yourself what will be the purpose of your work laptop; for someone like me, who is an editor and writer, I use my keyboards a lot, and I need a laptop that allows me to work on the stop but that also a decent screen and keyboard. Your laptop should fit the requirement of your job; that is the basis of choosing and buying a work laptop.
If you need it to write reports, spreadsheets, and presentations, then any modern laptop will do the job, and the onus will be on you to choose the brand, and this is all according to personal choices. However, if you need your laptop to replace a more traditional PC system, then you might want to look into bigger models like the 15 or 17-inch displays as they provide you with a more comfortable and user-friendly experience.
If you spend a lot of time on airplanes and working outside the office, then you might want to look into more portable devices. However, we wouldn’t recommend this model if you are a regular flyer and need your laptop to be on the good. On top of the size, battery life and weight are also important factors that you ought to consider.
3. Build quality
No matter how cautious you are, you are bound to drop your laptop at least once in its lifetime, but if you are me, your laptop has fallen in the first year you bought it. To prevent this or at least the worst from happening. Some modern laptops are designed to withstand water and even dust.
Others are built primarily for cruel educational environments like the military, and they have grade protection certifications. While others can even weather liquid spills and can even be rinsed clean, but you need to check the manual before doing this. It is also something worth checking out how much testing a laptop has to undergo before they are given any sort of certification.
4. Specifications
When buying a laptop, the minimum you should look into is an 8GB ram, but you should prefer to look into a 16GB RAM, especially if you can afford it. For the CPU, you should look at anything under an Intel Core i5, but we mostly recommend looking into the Intel Core i7 will allow you to run more demanding apps.
If you are a video editor, designer, or use CAD, then you are advised to look into a laptop that has dedicated graphics. Choose a laptop that has a solid-state drive which is better known as an SSD. The biggest bottleneck in most modern computers is a standard hard drive, and many, if not most, manufacturers use these drives in their laptops.
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