What to look for when buying a laptop?

rondeco

Can anyone advise me what to look for when buying a laptop? I am going to be using it generally for accounts etc and a little surfing and photos and the like but mainly for accounting. I'll be needing windows office 7 but might go for 2010 depending on what people think.

Also what should I look for in terms of memory and speed etc. I'm a bit of a numbnutz when it comes to this sort of stuff. Thanks for your help..

broin

rondeco wrote: »

Also what should I look for in terms of memory and speed etc. I'm a bit of a numbnutz when it comes to this sort of stuff. Thanks for your help..

What's your budget?

Decide a specific budget. Visit some online stores like laptopsdirect.co.uk, dabs, elara, komplett, and anywhere else you can find. Search for laptops under your budget. Google up as many reviews of that specific model as you can. Look at the qualities the reviewers mention and decide if those qualities matter to you - that could be arcane stuff like the laptop's speed and processor, or even the weight, keyboard comfort, or reliability.

I'd imagine you'd just need something like a 100 - 250 Gb hard drive, 2 Gb of memory. Mid range, between 400 and 500 euro. But if you have more money to spend, you can future-proof a bit.

none

My criteria:

• Screen size and resolution (more visible space is critical)
• Hard drive (more capacity is important as it can't normally be upgraded)
• Number of built-in interfaces/ports (to avoid getting any external parts/cables)
• Card-reader (to facilitate information exchange with camera/mobile/other gadgets)
• RAM (can usually be upgraded so not very critical)
• Brand/model (Reputation/feedback)

p.s.Not concerned with games or any other leisure activities high on CPU/GPU/Memory in the above list.

Alanstrainor

The hard drive usually is something that can be easily upgraded. I haven't come across a laptop in a good while where the HD was difficult to replace.