Buying a Laptop Computer or Netbook

It is not an easy task to buying a laptop computer. Not just because of the price of the price of the laptops but comparing the features with the prices will easily makes you feel lost. Do not forget that cheap new notebook have new member. Netbooks are cheaper and portable. So how you decide which laptop, desktop or netbook to buy.


How much you can or willing to spend on your new computer, laptop or netbook comes first. Without proper budget you will easily get lost because you can buy one for $500 as well as for more than $5000. I will leave it with you.

Before you go any further spend couple of minutes to go through the hardware requirements and operating system you would prefer. At this stage you will get Windows Vista
or XP with your laptop and soon Windows 7 would be available. In terms of hardware it is Screen Size, RAM, Hard disk space, Processor and video and sound card would be main components you need to think of.

Then it would be better to decide you want to buy a desktop, laptop or netbook. You might need to answer couple of usability question before you make the decision.

* Do I want it to be portable?
* Do I want 5-6 hours of battery life?
* Do I want to use it mainly for internet browsing and access documents and Excels?
* Will I not constantly use it for couple of hours?
* Do I have another computer?
* 1GB - 2GB RAM is quite enough?

If you answer yes to most of the above questions then I would recommend you to go for a netbook which is cheaper, extremely portable and quite handy to take it when you travel. Not recommended for constantly using for longer hours.

* I want to it to be portable?
* I do not really worried about the battery life?
* I want to run couple of general applications and some photo editing applications?
* I will use it for hours and hours?
* I want more RAM and disk space to be used?

Then it is ideal to buy a laptop base on your hardware requirements. You can upgrade/downgrade RAM and hard drive base on your requirement and budget. With netbooks it is bit hard to work for longer hours as the screen is smaller.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

If you do not want portability at all and want to run really heavy and experiment with application, operating systems and what to run programing languages and databases you must choose a good desktop. Also if you have a limited budget desktop would be a good option as well.

Try to keep your requirements simple. Otherwise new models will add to the market and you will never end up buying a new computer but wasting your time going through specifications and requirements.

Do not forget to share your experience buying a new laptop, computer or netbook...