Laptop buying guide: 8 essential tips to know before you buy
Laptops are compact enough to carry with you, yet powerful enough to run demanding applications. Notebooks are the best tool for doing serious work or play whether you’re at home, on the road, or in a college classroom.
Whether you are just browsing the web, need to type a research paper, work on video production, or play some of the best PC games, it’s all best done on a laptop. So how do you know what to look for in a laptop? Well, we’ve put together this laptop buying guide to help answer that question for you.
Laptops come in a wide variety of sizes, features, and prices, which makes choosing the best laptop a challenge. That’s why you need to figure out what your needs are.
Quick tips
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12.5 to 14-inch screens offer the best balance between usability and portability. Larger screens are fine if you don’t travel much and smaller models are great for kids.
If you’re spending over $700, shoot for these minimum specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5
Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB SSD
10+ hours of battery life in our test is ideal if you will regularly be working away from an outlet.
Consider a 2-in-1 laptop (either a convertible or detachable) if you want to use your laptop as a tablet. If not, a standard clamshell notebook is a better choice.
Chromebooks are excellent options for kids, students, or as secondary laptops, but their functionality keeps growing so if web browsing, content consumption, and light productivity are all you want, don’t rule them out. If you need access to more powerful software and hardware then Windows 11 laptops and MacBooks both offer plenty of functionality; which platform you prefer is a matter of personal taste.
1. Pick a platform: Windows vs. macOS vs. ChromeOS?
Depending on your needs this could be an easy choice, but if you don’t have any existing loyalties to a platform or specific software that you need this can be a challenging question to answer. If you are in that latter camp here’s a quick overview of each platform’s strengths and weaknesses to help you decide.
Most laptops come with one of three operating systems: Windows, ChromeOS, or macOS (for MacBooks only).
Windows 11 (or Windows 10)
The most flexible operating system, Windows 11, runs on more laptop models than Chrome OS or macOS. Windows notebooks range in price from under $150 to several thousand dollars and offer a wide array of features from touch screens to fingerprint readers to dual graphics chips. Windows 11, the latest version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system, provides a number of improvements over Windows 10, including the revised interface, the new Microsoft Store, handy features like Snap View.
Since its launch in October 2021, Windows 11 has also added a host of improvements, including Focus Sessions and a Do Not Disturb mode. The 22H2 update also came with notable performance and battery optimization enhancements. Windows 11 laptops are great for students, researchers, and business users, and they’re still the only gaming laptops anyone should consider.
Apple macOS
All MacBooks come with Apple’s latest desktop operating system, macOS Sonoma. Overall, the operating system offers similar functionality to Windows 11, but with a different take on the interface that substitutes an apps dock at the bottom of the screen for Microsoft’s Start menu and taskbar. Instead of the Cortana digital assistant, Mac users get Siri. They can also perform transactions with Apple Pay, take calls or texts from their phones, and unlock their laptops with an Apple Watch.
However, macOS isn’t made for touch, because no MacBook comes with a touch screen. While Apple did bring iPad apps to its laptops starting with macOS Big Sur (iPad and iPadOS apps can run natively on M1, M2, and M3 Macs), you have to rely on a touchpad or mouse to navigate them. macOS Ventura brought Apple’s Stage Manager for handling multitasking, which is an upgrade, but much more difficult to master than Windows solution.
ChromeOS
Google’s ChromeOS is simple and secure, but more limited than Windows or macOS. The user interface looks a lot like Windows with an application menu, a desktop, and the ability to drag windows around, but the primary focus is still the Chrome browser. All modern Chromebooks, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook can run Android apps, but they aren’t always optimized for use in a laptop form factor.
The growing functionality of ChromeOS and improved performance of even relatively cheap recent Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 have expanded the use cases for ChromeOS laptops in recent years. Unless you have specific software only available on Windows or macOS, a Chromebook is a solid choice for most users.
They are also extremely popular with schools, parents, and increasingly businesses because they are hard to infect with malware. For educational use, they offer something closer to a full laptop experience and are more functional than most tablets. If you need a Chromebook, look for one with at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage if this is a secondary laptop, if it’s a primary laptop we’d recommend 8GB of RAM and an SSD rather than eMMC flash memory. A screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution is preferred and you can now find 4K and OLED models if you plan to watch a lot of content on the Chromebook.
2.Decide if you want a 2-in-1
Many PC laptops fall into the category of 2-in-1 laptops, hybrid devices that can switch between traditional clamshell mode, tablet mode and other positions in between such as tent or stand modes. 2-in-1s generally come in two different styles: detachables with screens that come off the keyboard entirely and convertible laptops with hinges that bend back 360 degrees to change modes.
Most of these touchscreen laptops are much better at serving one purpose than the other, with convertibles being laptops first and detachables offering a superior tablet experience. However, if you don’t see the need to use your notebook as a slate, you’ll usually get more performance for your money with a traditional clamshell laptop.
3.Choose the right size
Before you look at specs or pricing, you need to figure out just how portable you need your laptop to be. Laptops are usually categorized by their display sizes:
11 to 12 inches: Maximum portability, but outside of cheap laptops and detachable we rarely see this size class as new materials and slimmer bezels made the next size class easily portable as well.
13 to 14 inches: This is the sweet spot for a lot of laptop users as it gives you enough screen real estate while typically 3 pounds or less and easily fitting in any laptop bag.
15 to 16 inches: The most common size remains 15-inch laptops, usually weighing between 3 and 5.5 pounds, while 16-inch laptops like the MacBook Pro 16 are increasingly popular. Consider these sizes if you want a larger screen and you’re not planning to carry your notebook around often.
17 to 18 inches: If your laptop is basically a desktop that you only occasionally pick up and go. A 17-inch laptop or the newly emerging 18-inch laptops could provide you with the power you need to play high-end games or do workstation-level tasks.
4.Check that keyboard and touchpad
The most impressive specs in the world don’t mean diddly if the laptop you’re shopping for doesn’t have good ergonomics. If you plan to do a lot of work on your computer, make sure the keyboard offers solid tactile feedback, plenty of key travel (the distance the key goes down when pressed, usually 1 to 2mm) and enough space between the keys. If you’re buying a Windows laptop, be sure it has Precision touchpad drivers.
Look for a large and accurate touchpad that doesn’t give you a jumpy cursor and responds consistently to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. Lenovo fans still love the pointing stick (aka nub), which looks like an eraser head between the G and H keys so you can navigate around the desktop without lifting your fingers off the keyboard’s home row.