How To Buy A Cheap Laptop In Town.

Canada (SANEPR.com) July 2, 2009 -- Key Features

Processor: Intel's Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors have helped notebooks gain ground in the power department. Some notebooks use AMD's Athlon Turion 64 X2 dual-core processor, which also supports for improved performance. The Turion 64 X2 and the Core 2 Duo both provide 64-bit support, which will become increasingly useful as more 64-bit applications reach the market.

Low-end notebooks offer Intel's Celeron M processor, which is generally not as speedy as the Core Duo processors.
System memory: Unless you're buying on the cheap, a new notebook generally includes 512MB of system memory. Many notebooks today are available with 1GB of RAM. Equipping your laptop with 1GB of RAM at the time you buy it will help extend its useful lifetime.

Graphics memory: You'll want 128MB of dedicated video RAM. Make sure that the memory is dedicated for graphics use, rather than being pulled from main memory (the latter arrangement is usually referred to as shared memory or as dynamic video memory technology). Gamers should look for advanced 3D graphics chips, such as nVidia's GeForce Go 7900 GTX, along with 256MB to 512MB of dedicated graphics memory.
Screen: Notebook screens continue to get bigger and most have gone wide, enabling you to view spreadsheets or movies with ease. Even budget shoppers can afford the luxury of high-resolution color. Most notebook manufacturers offer laptops with 17-inch wide screens, too. Frequent business fliers can choose from among the many laptops with screen sizes of 12.1 or 13.3 inches, some of which are wide-screen models, as well.
Notebooks with standard-aspect 14.1 or 15-inch screens remain available, but they're not as plentiful as wide-screen models.

Battery: Notebook battery life has continued to improve. Some notebooks can run for up to 7 hours. Many vendors offer supplemental batteries to boost battery life. Keyboard and pointing device: Though you can get accustomed to almost any notebook keyboard, it's best to try before you buy. Thin-and-light notebooks usually have smaller-than-average keys spaced more closely than the keys on a desktop replacement model, and their layouts may differ from a standard keyboard's. You probably won't be invited to choose between eraserhead and trackpad pointing devices; if you have a preference, look for manufacturers that use the pointing device you prefer on most of their products. Optical and other drives: Most manufacturers offer notebooks with rewritable DVD drives. It's still possible to get a notebook with a combination DVD-ROM and CD-RW drive, but few machines feature just a DVD-ROM or a CD-RW drive.

Hard drive: You may not need the space, but notebook hard drives will continue to grow. Cheaper notebooks with 40GB hard drives are getting scarce, but you can still save money by opting for a 60GB model. You can easily remove most laptop hard drives if you decide to upgrade or just want to keep your data safe.
Weight and bay design: Notebooks range from 17-pound desktop replacements, to 8- or 10-pound all-in-one models with the optical drive built in, to 3-pound ultraportables that rely on external drives. One-bay notebooks have become more prevalent because of their appealing balance of features and weight.
Many laptops offer the optical drive as a modular device, so you can swap it out for a second hard drive or a second battery.

When making a purchase, you should consider the weight not only of the notebook, but of the AC adapter, any external modules, and their cables. Ultraportable notebooks have lightweight adapters but they can weigh almost as much as a full-size notebook if you have to carry an external optical drive, too.
Communications: Few notebooks come with a full set of legacy ports anymore. Serial ports are rare, as are PS/2 ports (for a mouse or keyboard) and infrared ports. Most notebooks still have a parallel port and one PC Card slot, though many now offer an ExpressCard slot as well. Quite a few full-size models now come with a DVI port for connecting to an external digital display.

Most notebooks have at least two USB 2.0 ports; many offer four, and some up to six. A majority of notebooks include a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port for connecting an external drive, an MP3 player, or a digital-video camcorder.
Some notebooks come with built-in wireless broadband wide-area networking, enabling them to access Verizon Wireless's EV-DO BroadbandAccess service.
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Important consideration: Installed memory. The more installed memory your notebook has, the more applications you can run at once, and the better your notebook will perform. Ease of access aside, upgrading memory in a notebook is a bit trickier than with a desktop, so buy as much memory preinstalled as you can afford. Notebooks with 512MB or 1GB of RAM are optimal.
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Important consideration: Processor. The CPU determines how quickly a notebook runs applications and performs on-screen tasks. Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors are good choices for speedy processing. (Check latest prices for recommended notebooks.) Important consideration: Screen size. The specified size of a notebook's LCD screen represents a diagonal measurement. The larger the screen, the higher the maximum resolution and the more information you can view at once. At this point, most notebooks are wide-screen models; if you want a notebook with a standard-aspect screen you'll have to search a bit, but they are still available.
Somewhat important: Hard-drive size. The larger the hard drive, the more data you can keep on your notebook. Most people don't need more than 80GB. If you plan to work with databases, spreadsheets, or digital photo or video files, opt for a large drive.
Somewhat important: Expansion bays. The more expansion bays, the more options you have for switching in new optical drives or other storage drives; but switching drives takes time. Though high-end ultraportables typically have no extra bays, you can purchase external drives for them.
Somewhat important: Optical drives. Most manufacturers offer laptops with rewritable DVD drives, which give you the most flexibility. Alternatively, you can purchase a notebook with a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, to save money.

Notebook Shopping Tips

A 1.73-GHz Core Duo processor: For everyday work word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail--you don't need the latest, greatest (read: "most expensive") processor, but thankfully, with the Core Duo, you get strong performance and great battery life.
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512MB or more of memory. Anything less will slow your work.
Supplemental battery. If you want more time away from an outlet, buy a higher-capacity supplementary battery when you purchase the notebook, or buy a notebook that has a modular bay capable of holding a supplementary power pack.
A 14.1-inch wide screen. A screen larger than 12.1 inches eases eyestrain. Unless you're really pinching pennies, bigger is better.
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A 80GB hard drive. Unless you generate multimegabyte music or database files, or install more than one office suite, 80GB is plenty big. Touchpad pointing device: Pointing devices are a matter of taste. Most people, however, find a touchpad easier to use than a pointing stick. For people who can't decide between a touchpad and an eraserhead pointing device, some notebooks include both. If you buy one of these, make sure that it provides two sets of mouse buttons one for the touchpad and the other for the eraserhead, so you don't have to stretch to reach.
Multiple USB ports. Many notebooks now come with two or more USB 2.0 ports, useful for connecting more of the latest peripherals.
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