How to choose the perfect laptop for your student
Devices Technologies / / December 30, 2020
The school year has come. We do not know in what format it will be held. But we are sure that a good laptop will definitely come in handy: for online classes, and for lectures, and for homework. Together with HP we will tell you what to look for when choosing.
Is design important at all?
A beautiful thin laptop is great: it looks good in photos and promises to be a great companion. But design is not only about the appearance of a gadget. Here ergonomics and construction, materials and convenience are more important.
- The laptop should be lightweight. Nobody wants to carry a 5 kg "brick" with them in a bag or backpack.
- It's cool if the laptop folds out as wide as possible: 180 or even 360 degrees. Such a device can be put on the table like a book - it will become more convenient to show presentations, read notes or watch videos.
- A good laptop should be easy to open. Preferably with one hand - both with a long manicure and with very short nails.
- The metal case outperforms the plastic one: it is stronger and thinner, and also looks cosmic.
- Quality speakers are important. It's sad when at maximum volume a lecture or TV series is barely audible.
- Many models boast bright screens. But when you stay up late or spend many hours at the laptop, the screen starts to dazzle. So a soft dimming down to the minimum values is necessary.
- And with a backlit keyboard, it's just the perfect laptop for an evening study. And not only for study.
Laptop size is also a design factor. Modern models are usually divided by the length of the diagonal of the screen in inches.
- 11 inch - a compact laptop that is convenient to take with you everywhere. It is quite enough for taking notes, surfing social networks and showing presentations.
- 13 inch - such models are not much larger and heavier, but it will be more convenient to work behind them. At least, if you do not need to edit two documents in parallel or switch between the window with the code and the work results.
- 15 inch - "gold standard". If you work with graphics and are used to keeping several open windows on the screen, it is better to choose a model of this size.
- 17 inch - as a rule, such laptops are used by professional designers, layout designers or artists. A large screen is great, but the device will be heavier than the 15-inch model, and it is also more difficult to find a backpack or case for it.
Buy a convertible laptop
Of course, you want a productive model. What to look for?
First of all, the processor. In laptops, the processor upgrade most often does not work - it is non-removable. Therefore, you should immediately choose a powerful chip, the capabilities of which will last for several years.
Intel takes more than 80% of the world processor market. The most powerful solutions are the Intel® Core ™ i9 families. With each generation (i7, i5, i3), the power is reduced. Each of these families is regularly updated with new generations. The generation number is the first one or two digits in the processor model. For example, the Intel® Core ™ i7 10510U is the latest 10th generation i7 family chip to date. Chips of the newer generation in performance can bypass the models of the older family, but of the previous generation.
A powerful processor needs a lot of RAM in order for the system to have time to prepare data for processing. But you usually don't need to think about it: configurations are created in such a way as to maintain balance. The current generation of RAM is DDR4. Performance laptops usually have at least 8GB of RAM.
The integrated graphics card uses a portion of the RAM. If you need a laptop for graphics and complex computing, choose the model with a discrete graphics card: this way you have two full-fledged powerful processors (main and graphic), as well as, for example, separately 8 GB of RAM and an additional 2 GB of fast graphics memory.
Good. Which hard drive is better - SSD or HDD?
A solid state drive (SSD) has no moving mechanical parts, so it runs quietly. It's kind of like a big and fast flash drive.
For students, SSDs are a great option: they are safer than traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) and will last much longer. When you have to quickly put your laptop into a backpack in order to catch the next pair or keep up with friends, you can not wait for the complete shutdown of the equipment. In the HDD in such a situation, the heads do not have time to park - to take a safe position. As a result, the hard drive may fail, and you will lose important documents, photos and other data. In SSDs, this cannot happen by definition. The stability of its work is practically independent of its position in space.
Finally, SSDs have significantly faster read and write speeds than HDDs. As a result, the operating system and programs from the SSD load in seconds - just what you need if you often open and close your laptop.
Of course, on average, an SSD will be more expensive than an HDD of the same size. But do you really need a big drive? Modern users do not store a lot of data on a computer - everything is sent to cloud services or is already available online.
A powerful laptop needs a lot of power. Do you have to carry spare batteries or sit strictly near the outlet?
Technologies are moving forward, in processors not only performance is growing, but also energy consumption indicators are improving. The technique uses the battery charge more reasonably: for solving a specific task, only those processor cores that are needed here and now are turned on.
If you're writing term papers in Google Docs, you don't need to use all your computer resources. And if you decide to rest and play a difficult game, the laptop will connect the "heavy artillery".
Accordingly, in pairs, while you take notes or work with educational materials, your laptop will consume little power and will not sit down. And when you want to relax and unwind, the outlet is already there.
The performance is also in order: the model is equipped with a 4-core Intel Core 10th generation processor. And the stock of RAM up to 16 GB will allow the device to work without slowdowns, even if you run many programs at the same time.
Buy a powerful laptop
Probably a productive laptop takes up a lot of space?
Components are becoming more compact every year, which is why laptops are becoming thinner and lighter. In addition, manufacturers abandoned the DVD ‑ ROM, which took up a lot of space.
In addition, even a powerful processor does not always need noisy cooling with fans. A thin radiator is enough - a metal plate that removes heat from the chip. Thus, modern laptops are quiet and thin. A powerful model up to 2 cm thick and weighing up to 2 kg is no longer a fantasy.
What about laptops with the Internet? In large audiences, communication often breaks
Dual-band Wi-Fi a / b / g / n / ac has already become the standard for communication in public spaces. Routers and access points of this format transmit data in two frequency ranges: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
Communication at 5 GHz is more stable: less interference, data is transferred faster. Almost all modern laptops are able to work with this frequency.
But work with the Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard is still rare: only the latest premium laptops support it. Here the bandwidth is higher, the spectrum of frequencies is used more efficiently - this potentially promises a 4-fold increase in the speed of Internet access: in tests succeeded achieve 11 Gbps.
In general, if you need a laptop for a stable Internet connection, choose a model with support for 802.11ac, and even better - with 802.11ax. And if you are worried about the quality of communication in classrooms and at events, you can additionally order a 4G LTE module of gigabit class 4 x 4 and not depend on Wi-Fi access points and the load on them. The module looks like a USB flash drive, consumes a minimum of energy and does not take up much space.
I not only need to print, but also draw or mark up. It turns out that you can also carry a tablet with you?
Not at all. You can order a laptop with a touch screen and support for an electronic pen. With the pen, you can make notes in e-books and notes, quickly create sketches or diagrams, draw pictures. The pen is much more comfortable than a mouse or touchpad, does not take up space, has a high sensitivity, conveys the subtlest nuances of pressure.
By the way, the touch screen in convertible laptops is an excellent solution in terms of comfort. You can fold the gadget with the screen outward, turn off the keyboard and use it like a tablet.
What about rest? It's not yet time to learn
Two points are important here: a high-quality screen and good sound. Let's start with the screen: the larger it is, the higher the resolution should be.
As the diagonal increases, the physical size of the points also grows, and if they are distinguishable, it is uncomfortable to look at the display. Full ‑ HD ‑ resolution is already the standard, even for 13 and 15 ‑ inch models. 11 ‑ inch notebooks may have lower resolution, 17 ‑ inch laptops are certainly no less than Full HD.
The coolest models come with 4K resolution screens - that's four times more than Full HD. Such displays proved to be excellent in games, and they are simply necessary for artists.
Colors are also important. For example, if your laptop screen supports HDR (High Color Range), the image will appear more vivid and realistic. This is not critical when working with documents, but it is very enriching for watching videos, working with photos, and playing games - new titles usually support HDR.
Finally, pay attention to the transmission of black. In inexpensive matrices, you will not see "real black". This is not the case with premium laptops, with rich dark tones that make you feel like you're in the theater or in the heart of virtual reality gaming.
Now about acoustics. In laptops, they often save on good sound and move the speakers to the bottom panel. As a result, the sound is quiet, flat, you have to connect external speakers or headphones.
In premium models, acoustics were placed above the keyboard - so the sound is clearer, louder, more natural. Powerful bass pumping, and you will want to connect external speakers only if you are planning a really big party.
And how are you doing with security?
Many users, for security reasons, tape the camera on a laptop. The microphone is also turned off so that no one overhears conversations, even if it is possible rather theoretically.
But even if you are not worried that someone is spying on you, a camera or microphone that turns on at the wrong time can cause a lot of inconvenience. For example, in an online lecture. It's good if you can turn them off with a physical button, without digging into the settings and wasting time.
A fingerprint scanner for unlocking the laptop and proprietary disk encryption systems are also responsible for security. They are found in many modern models.
The model is also equipped with a fingerprint reader - only you can access the information. By the way, the laptop weighs only 1.2 kg and can work without recharging up to 19 hours.
Buy a modern laptop