How to Choose a Travel Laptop – Part 1

Yes, ok, so there’s a recession on and it doesn’t feel like the best time to rush out and buy expensive computer hardware.

But with increasing reliance on computers for many professions, and with many spending more and more time away from the office, means that a much cheaper and faster desktop no longer seems as relevant anymore. More and more people need something that can, if needs be, be toted out of the office and onto a plane, train, or cafe. To choose a suitable laptop, it is important to understand that despite everyone giving you impossibly varying advice on which brands of laptop are good and which are bad, more emphasis should be placed on the reputation on the individual model than the brand of it – some manufacturers have been known for churning out machines of very differing quality.

But before we start, if you’re going to be traveling, it’s important to choose the laptop with the right kind of operating system. Serious computing enthusiasts might want to choose one with Linux. Trendy people and graphic designers may want to consider the more elite, expensive Macs. But for the thrifty or casual/office user, Windows will probably be sufficient.

Windows and Linux users will have to concern themselves with two additional options: There are two main processor manufacturers and these are Intel and AMD.

AMD processors are a little cheaper and may be better for certain types of PC users, but they tend to drain the laptop’s battery more than they should, so it may be best to choose Intel.

Also, as many readers will be aware, there are many different varieties of Intel processors, such as Celeron, Atom, Dual Core, Centrino, and so on.

It’s not massively important to know the difference between these processors, (although, as always, research doesn’t hurt!) but be warned from the start that the Celeron Processor is aimed at budget laptops and will sacrifice your battery life for performance – a balance, which, for travel, should be tilted the other way.

There are many stylish laptops out there that look absolutely amazing for their price, but look closer and you’ll discover that often all that glitz can often disguise how underpowered the laptop really is. It may sound rather extreme, but unless you only plan to buy a laptop or netbook (smaller laptops known for lower price and portability) to surf the internet, then it’s important to choose a laptop with a hard drive no smaller than 120 gigabytes. You’d be surprised at how fast all that space seems to go after you’ve got a few programs installed.

If it’s running Microsoft XP, make sure that the RAM is no smaller than 512 megabytes, and if Vista, 2 gigabytes. I trust the reader can detect a certain amount of regret from the tone of yours truly for not heeding his own advice!

Photo of laptop by Mark Wubben

Topic:  How to Tuesday | 2 Comments
Tags:  business, packing

About the author

Paul Crompton is an avid reader and has a passion for cars and technology, primarily. He loves traveling to whichever exotic travel location which is cheap. His dream is to become an advertising executive.