12 Tips for Buying a Laptop RIGHT NOW! [2023/24]

how the heck do you figure out what laptop you should buy whether you're spending a couple of hundred a couple of thousand well hopefully by the end of this video where I share with you my top 12 Tech chap tips for buying a new laptop you'll have a better idea and if you do enjoy the video a cheeky like And subscribe will be fantastic and also I'll leave a link to some of my favorite recommended laptops right now in the description below and with that out of the way let's move on to tip number one

and it's pretty straightforward really figure out what you're going to be using it for is it just basic home office stuff browsing studying shopping watching TV movies because honestly then you don't need to spend more than maybe 350 pounds 400 that's a good starting point for a basic Windows 11 laptop of course spending more will get you better performance nicer screens and smarter designs but even cheap and cheerful laptops like this will do the basics although I would say if your budget is under 250 pounds I would definitely look at a Chromebook although I'll talk

more about these in a second in either case though even basic machines can play demanding games although only via cloud gaming services like GF now or Xbox cloud gaming and of course these are subscription services so you have to pay for them and you will need pretty fast and reliable internet but it does allow you to play games on pretty rubbish laptops however if you've got a bit more money to spend I still maintain the best all-round laptop right now is the MacBook Air not because I'm a Tim Cook Fanboy but simply because there's no

better combination of performance battery life screen quality and arguably price so I like a Mac but it's not for everyone and you have tons of Windows Alternatives and in that sort of Premium thin and light space you've got your Dell xpses this is the XPS 13 plus which still looks incredibly Space Age and I really really like this guy you've got a zenbox you've got the Microsoft Surface laptop you've got Samsung Galaxy books and even the LG gram range this is the LG gram style I've got the 16 inch model here which is a beautiful

laptop but also pretty expensive really you are paying a premium here for that sort of thin and light form factor and so one thing I really do love about Windows laptops is the sheer variety you can pick and choose whatever you want it can be a bit overwhelming to start with but once you sort of narrow down what you want there's lots of options at lots of different price points which is great you don't really have as many options on the Mac side it and obviously if you're a big gamer yes you have the Apple

arcade and you can also do cloud game streaming with the Mac but really for proper gaming you're going to want a Windows laptop because it gives you access to all the game stores and the performance in these guys particularly if you have a dedicated graphics card and we'll come on to this in a second that and also the screen quality like the refresh rate is also very important for gamers a lot of gaming laptops can also double as workstations if you are doing fancy rendering or editing or designing then definitely look into a high-end either

gaming laptop or workstation style laptop so to sum up tip number one if you're on a super tight budget as I say you can get away with spending like 350 pounds 400 on a basic Windows laptop which is fine or a Chromebook definitely recommend a Chromebook if you can spend a little bit more around the sort of thousand pound Mark or so than a MacBook Air even the basic M1 from a few years ago is still a fantastic laptop or a sort of Windows alternative to that gaming laptops genuinely you can get decent ones that

start at around the ground as well with something like a RTX 3060 or an RTX 4050 that's pretty good for a basic gaming laptop but really for top end gaming laptops with the best screens best performance and all that stuff you can be looking at over 3 000 it can be a lot of money so the first thing is to figure out what you're going to be using it for before you end up spending more money than you need the second thing to consider is the different form factors the different designs of laptops if you

need a little bit more flexibility literally in this case then how about a two in one flip where you can literally flip the screen and transform it into a touchscreen tablet which is great for doodling and drawing or making notes with a stylus or just your finger or even just propping it open to watch a movie or reviewing some documents or even how about a tablet with a detachable keyboard gives you the option of having a lightweight dedicated tablet with the option of becoming a laptop when you need it a couple of my favorite are

the Microsoft Surface Pro Series and of course the iPad which you can pair with the keyboard not for everyone I wouldn't say it's a proper laptop replacement but it's worth considering tip number three pick your OS your operating system do you want to use Windows Mac or Chrome OS chances are you already know which one you like it's the one you've been using forever but it's worth considering if one of the others might be a better fit Windows 11 laptops have by far the most options so you have a lot of choice plus it's windows

so chances are you've used it your parents have used it your kids are using it and it's compatible with literally millions of apps and programs Mac OS on MacBooks does a similar job but goes about it in a slightly different way and it can feel a little bit jarring if you're coming from Windows but I would argue it's a simpler but smoother and more premium experience and still with great app compatibility except for well games plus if you have an iPhone you can take advantage of iMessage and airdrop although considering the cheapest MacBook Air starts

at just under a grand that might make your decision for you then there's Chrome OS which is Google's operating system for Chromebooks which are some of the best value laptops around this one cost me just 200 pounds and it gets a full 360 hinge with a touchscreen and in my opinion it is far better than a similarly priced Windows machine in so Chromebooks are designed for students and everyday work tasks and battery life is usually enough to get you through a full day the downside is Chromebooks are generally meant to be used with the internet

they're sort of cloud books if you will terminals to use the internet but it's not going to be for everyone and if you don't work out of the browser most of the time then you may want to stick with a macro Windows machine tip number four let's talk about the hardware the specs and while this can be a bit overwhelming bear with me so there's basically five key things you need to keep in mind the processor the graphics the ram the storage and then other stuff like the screen and the ports and things like that

but high level a good all-round spec you'd be looking at an Intel core I3 or an AMD ryzen 3 processor 8 gigabytes of RAM is still a sweet spot and then probably 256 gigs of storage that will do beyond that you can look at the graphics card and the screen quality and the ports and everything else but that's like a good starting point now for the processor in Intel's case we've got u-series chips which are the lowest wattage and meant for entry level or ultra thin and light machines then above that we have the P

series which are a little bit higher wattage and more powerful but again mostly still for thin and light machines and then we have H and then HX which are their most powerful chips and it's a similar story with AMD so for a mid-spec machine you'll be looking at an i5 perhaps a p u and H series are from Intel or ryzen 5 from AMD and and probably 16 gigagram 512 storage and one of these may also come with a dedicated graphics card like a RTX 3050 or a 4050 and to be honest you don't need

anything more powerful than that unless you are doing some proper high-end gaming or if you have any intensive 4K video editing or 3D rendering tasks what do I use well that guy a MacBook Pro 16 which costs quite a lot of money they start from about 1800 pounds or so you can get a small 14 inch as well I absolutely love that thing but it is an awful lot of money and also obviously not very good for gaming speaking of which tip number five let's talk about the graphics card which you do need for games

as I whack that for gaming or for high-end workstation tasks and while there are tons of options any GPU will make a huge difference to your frame rates and your performance versus your processor's integrated Graphics so for occasional or sort of lower to mid-range gaming something along the lines of an Nvidia RTX 4050 or an older 3060 or an AMD Radeon RX 6500m will be perfectly fine for gaming at 1080p although right now I'd say The Sweet Spot for mobile Graphics is either the RTX 4060 or 4070 these are much more capable and allow you

to play at higher frame rates and if you've got a high refresh display take full advantage of it without jumping ahead too much there are two things to consider about the screen when it comes to gaming the refresh rate and the resolution now most laptops are 1080p full HD but a lot of gaming laptops especially high-end models are 1440p and 4K now because you then have so many more pixels to push if you will you also need more powerful Hardware alongside it to get those High frame rates so if you are gaming at 1440 I

would suggest another gx4070 or equivalent but then we have the refresh rate and we'll talk more about this in a second but essentially there's no point getting 200 frames per second in your game if your screen is only 60 hertz now almost all gaming laptops have higher 144 165 240 even 360 Hertz refresh rates but then of course to take advantage of your high refresh rate you need a high frame rate which is where that sort of balance between the hardware specs and the performance and the display come in which brings me to tip number

six the display and it is so important to get a good screen because after all this is what you're going to be looking at all the time in terms of size while bigger screens mean you have more space which is great for multitasking and also your movies and your games are more immersive and I think a 15-inch display is a good balance for most people and I also reckon up to 15 inches a full HD 1080p resolution will be absolutely fine but on anything bigger or if you do want just a sharper display then look

for Quad HD or QHD plus resolutions but I do still maintain 4K is overkill unless you really need it perhaps for your photo or video editing there's also a new trend where screens these days for most laptops are 16 by 10 so they're a little bit taller than the more traditional 16x9 that you can still get on a lot of laptops but I do prefer the slightly taller aspect ratio because it just makes your screens particularly on smaller 13 and 14 inch laptops just feel a bit less claustrophobic so if you can make sure your

laptop has a 16 by 10 display but I wouldn't say it's a deal breaker in terms of the panel types well if you really want to go down this rabbit hole then I would suggest watching my monitor buying guide which I'll link at the top right now but ideally you're looking for an IPS screen with at least four or five hundred nits of brightness although at the high end there's really no beating the rich colors and deep blacks of an OLED panel and while you'll pay a premium for a good one like this Samsung Galaxy

book 3 Ultra or there's Asus Zenbook you can actually find semester's VivoBook oleds which are surprisingly affordable and I've seen some amazing deals on this 15.6 inch model with an Intel core I3 processor now I mentioned refresh rates when it came to gaming laptops which is I think really where it's the priority but a lot of mainstream laptops do also now offer 90 and 120 hertz refresh which makes everything on desktop and whatever you're doing just feel that bit smoother although I say every amazing laptop the MacBook airs are still stuck to 60 hertz you

have to go pro if you want there Pro motion many laptops also offer touch screens although outside of two in ones where they are essential they do usually cost extra and personally I've never really found myself using touchscreens that much but it all depends on your workflow tip number seven and let's talk about the ergonomics the keyboard the trackpad what it feels like to use and actually this XPS 13 plus is a really interesting example because it has an edgeless touch pad you don't actually know where it starts and stops until while it stops moving

and I don't love the idea of that in practice it looks cool and also I must admit I don't love this keyboard sometimes form goes over function so unless you can try out a laptop for yourself in person at a store then your best option is just checking reviews see what the review is say about the keyboard and trackpad and how comfortable they are and don't forget if you buy your laptop online then in most countries you do have the ability to return it so you could just you know buy it see if you like

it and then ship it back if it's not your favorite tip number eight and let's talk about these guys ports AKA connectivity and essentially the more ports you have the more options you have so an HDMI or a display port is useful for outputting to a monitor or TV and if you're a gamer then a physical RJ45 wide ethernet port means you can get the fastest internet connection with minimal latency if you're regularly transferring photos and videos from your camera then you'll want probably a full-size SD card reader or a MicroSD slot which is more

common but not quite as useful and then we have the trusty USB port which comes in two flavors either USB a aka the sort of older full size all this newer smaller and reversible USBC which is arguably the most important port right now and some older or super cheap laptops unfortunately don't get this but just be aware that not all USB ports are created equal and the speeds can very massively so my suggestion would be if you're going to buy a new laptop make sure it has at least one USBC port and ideally if it's

a higher end model it'll also support either Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 spec which basically guarantees a certain level of speed and bandwidth of the port and allows you to Output to the highest resolution highest refresh monitors but that's not essential for most people just get at least one USB C port and then tip number nine battery life which is probably like the second most important thing for most people when they buy a laptop price battery life performance I would imagine which is why I've left it till tip number nine but anyway it can vary

wildly and these guys can last anywhere between 5 hours and 15 hours give or take but the biggest drains on your battery life will be if you're using a dedicated graphics card and if you have a big high resolution screen and also obviously it comes down to the size of the battery as well but generally what I would say is whatever the manufacturer says you'll get from a laptop whether it's 12 14 hours whatever reduce it by like 50 that's more likely what you're Everyday Use is going to be like but the battery life is

one of the reasons why I do love MacBooks so much because these will easily last you 10 15 20 hours depending on how you're using it again the models will vary but because Apple uses their own silicon with the M1 and M2 chips inside their own laptops and they make their own Mac OS software they have that sort of efficient vertical Integrations so unfortunately for now Windows laptops just can't really compete in terms of that performance and battery life and crucially performance on battery because gaming laptops workstations high-end Windows laptops if you want to use

the GPU in the high-end performance then really you need it to be plugged into the charger you simply don't with MacBooks which again is a real Plus for me now tip number 10 we're almost there I promise when should you buy a laptop well there's no perfect time generally around Black Friday Cyber Monday and then run up to the holiday season you'll see lots of discounts also when Apple released new MacBooks you also often see Windows competitors having a bit of a price cut to compete and also back to school deals which now we've just

kind of missed usually in late August but to be honest there's no one perfect time to buy a laptop I think Black Friday is probably the best but laptops generally are refreshed every year with the latest processors and maybe better screens or updated ports but remember you don't have to go for a new laptop why not go for last year's model or a couple of years ago or a refurbish one sometimes they can be a little hard to find because manufacturers stop selling them but if you can find a good deal on a use or

refurbished model generally any laptop from the last two or three years depending what you need it for is going to be absolutely fine although and that brings me to tip number 11 warranties support obviously with a use of refurbished model you may not have the same warranty and generally the reason you want to go for a bigger known brand is that you're more likely to have better support if you call them up or email them or you know two-year warranties or whatever and finally tip number 12 I would definitely say read and watch as many

movie as possible individual laptop reviews are the best way of gauging how good or how bad a laptop is and I would actually say in the last five years you can't really get a bad laptop anymore it's all variations of good and also of course value for money and also don't forget you could just upgrade your current one a lot of laptops particularly Windows laptops allow you to upgrade the storage and maybe even the RAM and if you do have a laptop with an old physical hard disk and HDD if you will then upgrading that

to an SSD which isn't particularly difficult or you can get someone at your local computer store to do it for you could transform your laptop and I mean you don't have to spend four or five hundred pounds on a new model so consider upgrading your old laptop first then perhaps look at some used models or refurbished options that you can get to save some money and if not and you are going to go for a new laptop a shiny new device then try and get it on some sort of deal most laptops at one retailer

or another at some point over the course of a couple months should go on sale the only ones that don't so much are MacBooks but then with these and a couple other companies you do also have the option of an education and teacher discount some offer meal or two discounts so so it's worth shopping around to save a few quid and breathe so hopefully that was useful if you've got any questions at all let me know in the comments below as I say I'll leave links to these guys in the description hit that subscribe button

if you enjoyed watching me sweat and struggle to get through this video while it's like 32 degrees outside and I'll see you next time right here on the tech Jam thanks for watching