First thing first to buy a vfm laptop, you have to be honest with yourself. Take your expectations too high and the cost will also rise. In the end you will be paying for stuff you will not use. Here brutal honesty will save you some bucks.
Q) What will you be doing with the laptop ?
A) If your answers are like
I want to buy laptop to browse internet, watch you-tube, etc
I will be listening to music (via headphone / external speakers)
I will be watching full-hd movies (here I go again, I will watch what I can find..)
I will be playing games on my laptop. (not latest ones and not on highest settings..)
I will be doing my office stuff (read word, excel, power-point)
or
I will be doing my college stuff word processing and programming.
Then you are a normal user and do not need an expensive laptop.
Now lets review some specs
CPU Specs - Anything from Intel Celeron dual core to i3 will suffice for your needs. depending on how many things from above list you want to do. for all of the above stuff, i3 is a good bet.
Try to buy latest generation or (latest -1) generation.
What is a generation ?
Generation is chip revision and motherboards are also of later platforms like sandy-bridge, ivy bridge, Haswell, Broadwell etc (these are Intel code names), As a rule latest Intel platform will cost you more ,but will perform better (general rule not always) ,
Thumb rule: Later gen processors will be on later platform will perform better even if slightly and will consume less power.
Celeron dual/quad core - if you are in lower frame of casual user buy Celeron, (surf,watch movies, do programming, office/college stuff) Pentium dual/quad core - Normal users (surf,watch movies, do programming, office/college stuff, light gaming ) i3 - power user (All stuff i listed)
Don't even think about i5 & i7
i) will be a waste of money
ii) i5 and i7 laptops heat a lot and drain battery faster so stay away they ain't worth the dough for normal users
iii) see reason i and ii
What is GHz and cache how does it effect my choice?
A later gen cpu with less GHz will out perform an older CPU with more GHz, its processor cycle and for normal user do not be worried about it, cache memory is of two types L1,L2 and L3 cache and more L1 cache and L2 Cache will spell a better performance in term of CPU. Its how the cpu processes the data, if data is available with faster L1 Cache its will process faster, If a little slower L2 cache it will process still faster not as fast as L1, If with RAM then slower again and slowest from HDD. this is technical stuff and as a normal user you should not concern yourself with it. Then these cache memory can be shared and dedicated.
Thumb Rule for normal usage: Buy the cheapest one, more cache with cpu will mean more bucks actually more few thousands of rupees. most cpu with laptop comes with turbo speeds means it will temporarily go up in GHz if need arises. So buy a faster processor with more cache will not justify cost performance ratio for daily normal use.
Q) If I ignore GHz, cache will not that makes my system run slow, Why even consider gen. then?
A) A system is as fast as your slowest component. What I mean is that stop worrying about CPU becoming a bottle neck, most probably it will be other things that will make your system slow and you may blame CPU all you like. Even if you have fastest processor then also if will not work in an eye blink, it will take whatever time it will take. for normal every day use. You won't notice it.
Refer to Image
2GB or more ? - install 32 bit OS and 2 GB is more than enough..
4GB install 64 bit OS is more than enough..
8GB why ? why will you even think you need 8GB ram, if you want install 64bit OS and play games whatever your reasons for 8GB RAM
Try to get fastest memory what your board can support. here latest generation laptops generally comes with faster memory.
Screen Size (inches) Consideration (10,11,12,13,14,15,17)
10 inch are generally chrome-books, net-books, tablet convertibles they are for specific users and you will know if you need 10 inch
11/12/13 - they cost more because of their size and easy to carrying, so if you are in lot of travelling with laptop get 12 or 13 inch ones
14 - This is a sweet size for laptop neither too small nor too big that you will feel irritated in lugging it around generally costs more than 15 inch laptops
15/17 - They are big screen laptops, though 15 inch is a little big to carry around it is manageable, you usually get num-pad with 15" laptop and its more spacious to type
Buy 15" if you type a lot and will not live without num-pad
I think 17" laptops should be used as a desktop replacement.
Conclusion Part-1
In this part I have discussed CPU, memory and screen size for further discussions on graphics , OS Brands and Accessory check out part 2 of this blog.
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