Watch this BEFORE buying a new Laptop... | The Tech Chap By The Tech Chap

Hey guys I'm tom of tech chap and there's a lot to think about when buying a new laptop. But if you give me a few minutes, uh I'll run you through everything you need to know, and I'll support. Some of my recommended favorite mo, as I say, monitors favorite laptops uh in the description below, and I'll keep updating it as well, because well, new laptops come out all the time and if you do enjoy this video and want to see more from me, then give me a thumbs up tap that subscribe button uh. But let's jump straight in with tip number one, which is well be smart with your money and as tempting as it may be. I would suggest probably not selling a kidney just to get the latest and greatest brand spanking new laptop, because there's really no such thing as a fully future-proof. Laptop new and better ones come out all the time, and sometimes you can get more bang for your buck.

If you go for last year's model, although on the flip side, buying newer versions will mean it'll last a little longer before you need to upgrade it's the classic, really annoying tip of buy the best one you can for your budget, but really what I would say is that most laptops are released in the first half of the year. So now, actually, while there's plenty of good reasons to upgrade, there's some new hardware, but it also means that last year's- I guess that's 2020- now isn't it, but last year's models will be discounted or, if you're willing to wait, then you can probably get some good discounts and deals on these new 2021 laptops around Black Friday and holiday season this year, although that still seems like a long way away. Okay, next question- and you probably already know the answer to this, but what kind of laptop do you want? Do you want a window, 10 machines? Do you want an app or MacBook running macOS, or do you want a Chromebook you're, probably just going to stick to what you're used to using? But there are some good reasons that you may want to switch. Most laptops run Microsoft, windows, 10, and it's a great option. If you want a laptop that does everything and runs a massive range of software and, of course, has the biggest library of games, there's literally hundreds, if not thousands, of windows laptops to choose from basic to thin and light Ultrabooks to proper gaming laptops.

But then we've got mac, OS and MacBook Air and pro laptops make perfect sense if your said an iPhone user as it all works seamlessly with Apple's ecosystem, including my messages and airdrop and FaceTime macOS also handles drivers and updates behind the scenes, making it just a little easier for non-techie people to use. It also helps that mac books are just lovely to use. I've got some notes on here right now, and actually this MacBook Pro 13 with the m1 chip, which I'll talk about in a second I would say, is my go-to laptop at the moment. But of course you will have to spend at least a thousand pounds or a thousand dollars for the MacBook Air to get that mac. Os experience, so, yes, they are expensive, although they do hold their value longer than most windows laptops.

So if you come to sell in a couple of years, you'll get a bit more money back for your Mac and then at the opposite end of the spectrum we have Chromebooks. These are great. If you just want a more basic laptop, something for browsing, watching movies and doing office or school work. Chromebooks are ideal for students, and they're, usually cheaper than regular windows laptops. The catch is that chrome, OS won't run windows or mac applications, but there are often versions of major apps in the chrome play store and also most recent Chromebooks can run android mobile, apps and games and most of the time with a Chromebook you'll, be working within the cloud.

So there are windows, there's mac, there's Chromebooks, which I have somewhere lying around here and then there's also the Linux operating system, but really that's for more advanced users who like to tinker. There's no right answer. Really it's whatever you're more comfortable with, and what kind of apps and programs you'll be using. Okay tip number three and, as you may have heard, size matters, as does the shape actually two-in-one hybrids, offer more tablet-like experiences and versatility with detachable, keyboards or 360-degree hinges, which means you can flip the screen round and then use it in a variety of different modes, including as a tablet and then because they're touch screens, you may want to use a stylus which makes them great for illustrators and designers. Although tone ones tend to cost more and can sometimes come at the expense of battery life and performance, then there's dual screen laptops.

These are still quite rare, but we've got the likes of the ASUS zen book duos, which have this big second screen underneath which helps with multitasking for say, having your premiere pro project files down there or for your gaming. You could have your discord or your twitch stream. These are generally a lot more expensive, but if you could see yourself using it, then it may come in handy. However, most laptops come in this more traditional clamshell design and sizes range, mainly from 13 to 17 inches. This is the Dell XPS 17, which is a pretty big laptop, although of course because of uh recent design upgrades the bezels are much thinner, so we're getting a 17-inch screen in what probably used to be a 16-inch kind of overall chassis size, but generally the most popular sizes are 13 14 and 15-inch laptops.

Generally speaking, the smaller the screen, the lighter and more portable a laptop will be, however, bigger 15 or 17 inches. Laptops are more likely to have the option for more powerful processors and importantly, dedicated graphics cards. Alternatively, if you're thinking, all these laptops feel a bit old-fashioned, and you want something really mobile, you could consider an iPad Air or an iPad Pro and pair it with one of apple's magic keyboards. This is the pro 13-inch, I'm actually using it as a remote viewfinder for my camera. So I can see what the camera is seeing.

So with this magic keyboard, you can just simply detach it and then use it as a tablet again or just magnetically. Put it back on like that, and you've got this great keyboard with a separate USB-C port and a trackpad. It does get quite expensive, it's sort of in the same ballpark as a MacBook Air, but depending on how you use your laptop, this could be a better option, although of course, you're not going to have any of those desktop applications. Either you get on a window or Mac laptop. This is much more mobile oriented, although while this is the pro, I think, if I were to buy this again myself, I would go for the iPad Air, the latest model and then the magic keyboard.

It's a little more affordable that way. Okay, tip number four, and when it comes to the screen, we have to think about the resolution and, if you're a gamer, the refresh rate as well. The vast majority of laptops use a 1080p aka, full HD resolution and for nearly everyone. This is all you need. However, higher end laptops sometimes have 4k screen options which are much sharper thanks to having four times as many pixels, and these are generally more color accurate as well, which is important if you're doing color-sensitive work, but it's all a balance, because, while higher resolutions are great, and they look sharper and generally have, as I say, better color accuracy, there is a trade-off when it comes to battery life and also performance.

The last thing you want, unless you have a super-duper powerful gaming laptop, is to have a 4k screen if you're going to be playing games, because it has such an impact on your frame rate and on the flip side, if you're thinking about getting maybe a productivity, laptop, and you're eyeing up a 4k screen, it'll, probably halve, give or take your battery life compared to the full HD version. So I think, if portability or getting the highest frame rate possible is most important to you, then stick with full HD 1080p, I think apple have a good balance because their resolutions, their retina screens, are kind of halfway housed between full HD and 4k, and on the flip side, if you look at gaming laptops, some brand-new models for 2021, including this ASUS kg g15, now comes with a quad HD resolution. That's not something! We've seen very often on laptops, it's kind of a good balance, 165 hertz, refresh and quad HD, so you gain that sharpness and performance without having to go up to 4k, which just destroys everything. Oh, and the last thing when it comes to screens that, if I put these two together, this is actually a 17 inch. This is a 15-inch laptop, but you may be able to notice uh.

This is taller because the most recent Dell XPS's and also Apple's MacBook lineup and more and more laptops these days are coming with a 16 by 10 aspect ratio compared to the more traditional by nine, but essentially with 16 by 10 you're. Getting just a little extra room on the top and bottom so, especially when it comes to smaller, like 13 14-inch laptops. I think it makes quite a big difference to just how claustrophobic it feels to use by 10 gives you noticeably more screen space. Okay, tip number five: let's talk about specs, although I will be keeping this quite high level, because I don't want to bore you to death, although no promises, let's keep things simple and a good spec to aim for as an all-rounder laptop, would be one that comes with an Intel Core i5 or an AMD Ryzen, 5, processor, 8, gigs of ram 256 or 512 gigs of storage, a 1080p screen and if you're doing more intensive graphical work or playing games, then maybe a dedicated graphics card. Let's dig a little deeper into CPUs or the processors and, what's funny, is that until the last couple of years, most of the time I would have recommended an intel chip in your laptop, but now with AMD's 4 000 series chips.

Last year and now their brand new 5 000 series of processors, things have changed and while intel's 10th and most recent 11th gen uh processors are fantastic and really, really good in terms of just share performance battery life. What we're seeing recently is a shift to AMD. They are kind of winning at the moment so very high level, but I think if you are going to buy a new laptop now or one from the last 12 months or so I'd probably look for one with an AMD processor, but anyway, generally the higher the number the better. So when intel i7 beats an i5 and horizon 7 beats a dozen 5. Thanks mostly to higher clock, speeds and maybe more core counts.

But then late last year, apple entered the game with their own silicon. We've got the m1 chip in here and it kind of blew everyone away. They released new MacBook Air and pros with the m1 chip, which is basically a supercharged version of their iPhone mobile chip, and it outperforms a lot of regular processors and improves battery life. At the same time, it really is a big deal. I think if you are looking to buy a new apple laptop, then I would definitely recommend the air or the pro with the m1 and if you're after a MacBook Pro 16, then I would hold out for the new ones coming soon now.

One question I get asked a lot is: should I go for the air or the pro? Well, I actually made a whole video about that which I'll link to at the end, but I think for ninety percent of people out there. I'd recommend going for the air and money that you save. I would then put in upgrading the ram or the storage. Okay tip number seven. Let's talk about graphics.

Now, most laptops don't use a dedicated graphics card instead, relying on the integrated graphics built into the CPU, and these are absolutely fine for watching videos. Some light photo editing and maybe even basic gaming, onboard graphics from both intel and AMD have gotten much better to the point where you can play a bit of rainbow six siege, overwatch or League of Legends pretty well, even without a proper graphics card. Although these much faster, integrated graphics are kind of limited to the most recent generations of processors, so ideally you want 11th gen, intel or AMD 5000, although 10th gen, intel and md4000 are still pretty good, but really newer the better when it comes to integrated graphics. But if you're really into your gaming, now is actually a great time to upgrade, because we've got NVIDIA's new RTX, 3060, 3070 and 3080 laptop graphics cards and offer a big boost in performance. We're looking at 40 to 50 increases even over the previous RTX 2000 series, and so with these brand-new laptops, we're getting that combination of new AMD processors and new NVIDIA graphics cards in a system.

That's also got improved battery life, better cooling, a little of a refined design. This top spec model, of course, will be very expensive, probably over two grand, but actually the new 3060 laptops start from about a thousand dollars or eleven hundred pounds so reasonably affordable, actually and a good deal more powerful than previous RTX 2060 laptops, but remember, don't expect quite the same performance from a laptop graphics card as a desktop because heat and power and chassis constraints all limited okay number eight, and just a quick mention ram and storage. It's pretty straightforward, the more ram you have, the more programs and browser tabs you can have open at once without it starting to chug or slow down.8 gigabytes is absolutely fine for casual or office use, while gamers will benefit from having 16 gigs, but power users such as designers and editors can benefit from 32 or even 64 gigs of ram, depending on how demanding your workload is. But generally I'd say, eight gigabytes of ram is absolutely fine, but if you can just to make it a little more future-proof, I would go with 16 if possible. As for storage.

Well, bigger drives mean more room for your files. Your photos and your games, 256 gigs, is fine and pretty standard, but I think 512 gigs means you won't have to worry so much about deleting things and uninstalling games to make room, but, importantly, depending on what laptop you have, and you will need to double-check this, the chances are that the ram and the storage will be the two components that you could potentially upgrade yourself down the line. But it is a bit different for every laptop, so double check. If you are thinking about doing that. Okay, number, nine and just a quick word on Io aka connectivity and there's really only one port that matters right now and going forward and that's USB, especially if it's USB-C that supports thunderbolt 3 or the latest thunderbolt 4, which are the fastest and most versatile types of type c port.

Although with the very latest laptops now supporting USB 4, which still uses this type c connection thunderbolts become a little less of a must-have, because you can basically do everything you need with usb4 and a lot of laptops these days, including mac books, as you guys know, just have USB-C. So if you do have an older, USB-C peripheral, maybe it's a mouse or a dongle or something then you'll probably need an adapter, or you actually choose a laptop which has more ports. So, for example, this g15 we have pretty much everything full size, USA, HDMI, Ethernet and also USB as well, so the bigger the laptop generally, the more ports you have, but on thin lights, these days, you're most likely restricted to just USB, and you may need to carry an adapter with you. Okay. Last but not least, let's talk about battery life because in the pursuit of the perfect laptop there's, always this balance between performance and also screen resolution and battery life, but really it all comes down to the specs of the laptop, the more powerful the less battery life you're, going to have and also the size of the battery.

You also have to take the claimed battery life figures with a good old pinch of salt. These are often carried out in idealized conditions that aren't really that reflective of real world use things are getting better, or at least more realistic, especially with laptops under intel's, new Eve branding, because they have to give battery life figures based on more real world scenarios like uh, watching online video rather than local video playback. But, generally speaking, if a laptop say, it'll have 12 hours of battery. I think you can probably expect maybe seven or eight, but we have seen some quite big leaps forward with the last couple of generations of hardware uh, so you can often now get 10 12-hour battery life from good laptops, but most impressive are the new mac books. I know I keep going back to this, but the m1 chip is not only a lot faster, but can, in some cases give you double the battery life that the equivalent intel model could give you.

So I think, intel and AMD have some catching up to do to apple's own silicon. So right now I'd say the MacBook Air and pro are probably the best laptops for battery life and breathe. We did it. We made it to the end of the video. I do hope that was useful.

As I say, if you've got any questions at all, let me know in the comments below and also be putting my favorite and recommended laptops which I'll keep updating in the description. Give me a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button. If you enjoyed it and want to see more from me, and I'll catch you next time right here on the tech chat.

Source : The Tech Chap