Shopping for a laptop can get conducing at
times. There are many technologies on offer, and it isn’t always apparent what
the best solution is for your needs. But getting a basic understanding of the
different hardware specifications can go a long, long way to ensuring that you
end up with the right product for what you want to do. Over the following pages
John Gillooly takes a look at some of the buzzwords, and some of the
technologies that you should think long and hard about when buying a laptop.
This will not only help you cut through the jargon, but it will also help you
choose the right laptop for your needs.
Memory
Once upon a time memory was the one thing
you could expect to be easily upgradeable in a laptop, but that is no longer
the case. Not only do laptops increasingly ship with a single RAM slot, but
some manufacturers are shifting towards no RAM slots at all. Apple’s latest
Macbook Pro with Retina Display, for example, has memory chips soldered onto
the motherboard at the time of manufacture, which effectively means that you
will be stuck with the capacity you ordered.
Once
upon a time memory was the one thing you could expect to be easily upgradeable
in a laptop, but that is no longer the case.
It isn’t just this that will effect memory
upgradeability - some laptops will ship with only a single RAM slot, or with
the second slot inaccessible. This means that if you want to upgrade memory in
the future you’ll need to replace the existing RAM, rather than add to it.
There is no hard and fast rule as to the number of slots in a laptop, so your
best course of action is to search the net for your specific model to see just
what can be done.
These restrictions aren’t necessarily a
downside as long as you have a decent chunk of RAM. In Apple’s case the base
model has 8GB, which is going to be ample for most users. You’ll find most
Windows laptops will ship with at least 4GB of memory, which seems small but is
going to be fine for some time to come - very few Windows programs take
advantage of 64-bit memory space, and can only address 3GB of RAM. There are
exceptions of course - those doing serious image or video editing for example
will want more. But for normal day to day use 4GB will be fine (just make sure
you have the 64-bit version of Windows though, as the 32-bit variant can only
address 3GB of memory).
Storage
Laptop storage may seem a straight choice
between speedy but low capacity SSDs and slower but bigger hard drives. But
thanks to new technology in modem laptops, the choice between SSD and Hard
Drive isn’t as clear cut as it once was.
The technology in question goes under
several monikers, the most common being Intel’s Smart Response Technology
(Intel SRT). This is a caching technology, which can use a small SSD or
embedded flash memory to cache the most frequently accessed data on your PC.
This happens transparently and it ultimately means that your system is almost
as fast as one with an SSD in it. The major advantage of this technique Is that
you get the best of both worlds - large storage capacity and fast speeds. An
SSD will still be faster (and consume less power) but for those wanting to use
a laptop as their primary PC it can be a godsend.
Laptop
storage may seem a straight choice between speedy but low capacity SSDs and
slower but bigger hard drives.
Not only does caching improve system
performance but it also helps keep costs down. Even though SSDs have been
falling in price lately there is still a massive gulf between them and hard
drives when it comes to the cost per gigabyte. You’ll often find that cheaper
models of laptop will have much greater storage capacities than expensive models
due to this.
SRT is part of Intel’s Ultrabook spec,
which makes it a key consideration when shopping for a laptop. But there are
still plenty of solutions out there that use either an SSD or an HDD, so there
are a few key things to consider in that regard as well.
There is a standard for mobile SSDs called
mSATA that is used by some (but not all) manufacturers. The advantage of an
mSATA SSD is that it is user upgradeable with products from several different
manufacturers. Other manufacturers go with customised drive connectors, which
will limit your ability to upgrade the drive in the future. This is especially
common with SSDs ¡n Apple products; however there are usually a handful of
third party manufacturers that sell replacement drives with these connectors.
Most hard drives use standard connectors,
but it is important to keep in mind that there is an increasing number of
sealed laptops on the market. This restricts the ability to upgrade your hard
drive in the future, and is worth keeping in mind. That said, with most laptops
now packing USB 3, using an external hard drive for expanded storage ¡s more
viable than ever.
Power
No matter how powerful or feature—packed a
laptop is the ultimate determining factor in its usefulness is still battery
life. We have seen massive advances in this field in recent years, with
everything from full sized laptops to Ultrabooks delivering battery lives
unheard of last decade.
Not only has the life delivered from a
single charge increased, but batteries have better overall lifespans than they
used to have. This is a good thing, because user upgradeable batteries have at
the same time become rarer and rarer. Nowadays batteries are usually packed
into the chassis, inaccessible to mere mortals, This allows manufacturers to maximise
the amount of charge they can squeeze into their designs. Some manufacturers
will still offer expanded capacity batteries, and others (mainly those focused
on business products) do still make laptops with user replaceable batteries.
Some
manufacturers will still offer expanded capacity batteries, and others (mainly
those focused on business products) do still make laptops with user replaceable
batteries.
Thankfully part of the Ultrabook
specification requires S hours of battery life for a laptop to qualify, which
ensures that all such products will have a decent lifespan. One thing to keep
in mind with battery life testing is that every method is different, and
produces different results. So it isn’t possible to directly compare between
different battery life benchmarks (especially between figures quoted by
different mani ifacti irersi.
