Buying a Business Laptop

A laptop is almost essential when it comes to business these days. Whether you’re going on a business trip or getting some work done from home, a laptop is a very important thing to have. Now business laptops may not be the sleekest laptops out there right now but looks aren’t really the important thing when it comes to purchasing a business laptop.

So what exactly makes up a business laptop you might ask? Well, here’s what you should be looking for…

Power
In most business laptops you will find a dual-core processor and in some a quad-core processor. In a laptop that you will be utilizing for business purposes, you will want to have at least 4GB of RAM. Anything less than 4GB isn’t really worth the few dollars that you will save and anything over 4GB just really isn’t necessary. Having the right amount of memory allows you to not only multi-task easily, but also allows you to utilize multimedia programs faster.

Storage
You will most likely be using your business laptop for videos, photos, and PowerPoint slides during business meetings, therefore it is important to have a good-sized hard drive. You really need anywhere between 320GB and 500GB of hard drive space.

For consumer PCs optical drives are becoming less and less necessary, but most IT managers still feel that they are necessary for business purposes. You may need to occasionally burn a CD or DVD for a customer or supplier, which means you should make sure that your laptop includes a CD/DVD burner.

Graphics
High-powered graphics are not necessary on your business laptop. Integrated graphics are what most business oriented laptops will include and that’s really all that you need because you most likely won’t be doing any gaming on your system.

Connectivity
Obviously, having a wireless connection is essential, but really, a built-in Wi-Fi connection is standard on laptops these days. The only issue with depending on this is that when you’re out and about and need to get on the Internet, you are forced to find a hot spot or unprotected network.

Due to this issue, a lot of business laptops are now shipping out with a mobile broadband or a 3G wireless modem built into them. These then work in conjunction with service providers like Verizon and AT&T who can bring broadband speeds to your laptop wherever there is a cell phone signal. Unfortunately, data plans from service providers aren’t exactly cheap. They can cost anywhere from $60-$80 per month. The good news is that there is a new wireless standard that could save businesses a lot of money. WiMax, or 4G wireless, is beginning to emerge. It is a Wi-Fi connection that spans across an entire city. Service providers Sprint and Clearwire have started putting up WiMax towers and have already established them in 54 cities. These plans cost anywhere from $20-$40 per month. This is definitely a great solution if you happen to be in a city with a tower.

Battery
Battery life is very important on a business laptop because you want your battery to last during extended periods such as a long flight. If the laptop that you are considering offers different size batteries, like six-cell or nine-cell, always choose the more cells because the more cells there are the better the battery life will be. Of course the more cells in the battery, the heavier it will be, but battery life is very important so it’s worth the extra weight.

Final Thoughts
Obviously there is a lot to consider when buying a business laptop. You should definitely do your research before selecting just any old laptop. Hopefully these tips give you an idea of what you should be looking for. Laptops are becoming a staple in the business world, but finding the right laptop doesn’t have difficult. If you follow these few guidelines, you should easily be able to find the business laptop that fits you and all of your business needs.

Do you have a classroom computer training session coming up soon? Reserve all the computer equipment you need at a guaranteed great rate. Get a Classroom Training Rental Equipment quote here.

Read More

Choose a Laptop with Microsoft's Windows PC Scout

Microsoft has launched a new website - Microsoft.com/Windows/PC-Scout. The website features a flash audio guided tour, which is meant to help you find a new laptop. It takes you through three segments, including Laptop 101, Recommendation, and Selection. Respectively, in each segment, you'll learn everything you need to know about laptops in general, answer questions about what you need in a new laptop and get a few recommendations, and then you have the opportunity to make a final choice and purchase your laptop. The tour is not mandatory and you can skip any part or pause it if you need to come back to it later. Looking for a desktop? Check back later. Or says the male voice behind the website. Either way, you're out of luck right now.

If you already know what kind of laptop you're looking for, you can skip the first two sections and get straight to the selection part to choose your laptop based on a number of different categories. They are: price ($400 - $2600), screen size (8 - 19"), processor (1 GHz - 3GHz), RAM (1GB - 5GB), storage (50GB - 550GB), and weight (2lbs - 10lbs). You can also select whether or not you need an all around, mobile studio, movies on the go, power gaming, or work from anywhere laptop.

Microsoft claims the selection of laptops comes from a compiled list from Windows experts and the final selection has nothing to do with any sort of paid advertising. Right now, the website contains 46 various laptops, but more are likely to follow in the weeks ahead, especially with the release of Windows 7. The website isn't too detailed - your average computer user should feel comfortable with it, and the most tech-savvy folks probably won't see the need for it.

Read More

Bargain Laptop Buying Guide

In today’s laptop market a good mainstream laptop does not need to cost $1000 anymore. You can find a great laptop for a much more reasonable price of around $500. Now it might not be the best laptop out there, but I will guarantee you that if you choose your laptop wisely, you will not be disappointed in the performance of these budget laptops.

Picking a budget laptop is not the easiest thing. The problem there is a long list of manufacturers to choose from including: Dell, HP, Apple, Lenovo, Gateway, etc. and if this is not enough almost all these companies have a wide variety of notebooks to choose from.

So to help you out here is a couple guidelines that you should look for when buying a $500 laptop.

Size & Layout: A bargain laptop usually will be heavier than a more expensive notebook, try and get a laptop that weighs around 6 pounds or less. Also the size of a $500 laptop will usually be in the 14 to 15 inch range.

Resolution: The minimum resolution you should be shooting for is 1280x800 and the higher resolution the better.

Hard Drive: For $500 you can expect to get a 5400RPM hard drive with at least 100GB of space. If you can try to shoot for 160GB of space, this number really varies between users, but usually you will never need anymore than 160GB. If you do need more space then you are better off storing the information on an external hard drive. When it comes to hard drive speed look into getting a 7200RPM hard drive if possible the performance gain is a great benefit, but it will be more expensive.

RAM: RAM is very vital on a laptop. If you do not have enough RAM you will see your laptop start to run very slow as you have more and more processes start to pop up on your laptop over time. It is almost essential to have at least 2GB of RAM especially if you are running Vista. Also remember that RAM is very replaceable so if this is the only reason not to buy a certain laptop, you can always just upgrade the amount of RAM on your own.

Processor: A duel core processor is a must for today’s laptops. Almost any mainstream laptop offers duel core processor’s and makes sure its 2.0GHz or better. Avoid at all costs Intel Celeron & Atom Processors. Remember it is almost impossible to put in a new processor into your laptop so more the one you get you are pretty much stuck with.

Everything Else:

• Look for an optical drive that can burn DVD’s.
• Make sure to buy from a reputable brand and always read reviews on the laptop you are choosing.
• Look for an HDMI cable slot. This will allow your laptop to play videos onto your nice big screen you have.
• Of course make sure it has Wi-Fi capabilities and if you use are into Bluetooth you can usually find a laptop in this price range that is Bluetooth compatible.

Good Tips:

• A refurbished laptop is an easy way to save money. Expect atleast 10% off the normal price and the have good warranties to protect you from getting a bad one. In my experience you hardly ever see people have problems with refurbished laptops
• If you are into gaming what so ever look into getting a dedicated video card. This almost always will bump up the price $100 though.
• If you are looking for unbiased information about your laptop make sure to check out notebookreview.com and laptopmag.com or just look at some of the laptops we have reviewed on our blog.
• To save even more on a laptop make sure to search the net for coupons. They are very easy to use and are a great way to save an extra $50 to $100.
• If you are looking for any battery life make sure to get a 6 cell battery instead of the 3 cell battery.
  

Read More