Beginner’s guide to choosing their first laptop

Laptops are some of the most essential devices in the digital age as they provide both the convenience of portability as well as the working power of a desktop PC. However, each unit is often impossible to customise unless you have a good understanding of computer engineering. If you are a beginner, then you need to focus on getting the laptop you need for your daily tasks. Here are the factors you need to consider when choosing:

Operating system

Laptops need to have an operating system (OS) to run various apps. However, each one is vastly different from each other in terms of what kind of software that they support. Your main three choices include Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. There are other OS but these are the best in the market.

Editech recommends Windows for most beginners as it is the most versatile of the three. Most devices and software are Windows-compatible, offering all users a wide range of options for various practices. If you are an aspiring programmer, then Linux is a safer choice. It’s an open-source OS with high security against malicious programmes and support for a wide range of scripting languages. Macintosh is best suited for content creators of either visual, literary, or cinematic mediums. It comes with a user-friendly interface which limits controls over its systems but the company behind it, Apple, is partnered with a lot of brands catering to creators. 

Processing power

What you plan to do with the device should be compatible with what it is capable of. Most cheap devices come with a dual core CPU processor and 4GB RAM but these are only capable of playing videos from the internet at best. If you want to edit videos or play some light video games, then you will need a quad core processor and at least 8GB RAM which has double the capacity. 

Gamers who aim to play triple A titles, programmers who need intensive scripting, and creators who need to process 3D elements will need a much heavier processing power than that. AMD Ryzen processors are the best option among laptops with high temperature control, battery life, and means to manage performance. Price range differs from cheap to luxurious and they get new hardware every year so be sure to check the latest options before shopping. 

Storage capacity 

The size of the storage capacity ranges between 256 GB to 3 TB but it’s not what you should focus on. Having between 500 GB to 1 TB is enough to run any program on a laptop meant to serve most jobs. If you need more space, then you can always carry external drives or use cloud storage services. What you should focus on is the type of storage device.HDD is the standard type of storage device and it’s priced per GB capacity. SSD is more expensive as it also comes with smooth booting and multitasking performance if you need to work with speed. However, it has a shorter lifespan as it tends to overwork doing any task. Editech recommends an SSHD as it has the durability of an HDD while having a better loading time but not equal to SSD so it has a longer service life.