Laptop technology has been advancing rapidly and hardware brands are releasing more powerful hardware support to a new laptop every year. Even the three years old laptop looks outdated when we review its specifications and there is no match compared to the latest laptop specifications.
People with basic knowledge often raise the question, what are good specifications for a laptop and how to make its list, so it is easy for us to decide which laptop to buy.
Therefore, we are going to present you the complete list of laptop specifications while explaining about its critical role in overall performance and other essential details. Once you become quite familiar with the specifications of a good laptop, you get the right information to choose a best laptop for yourself.
Laptop Specifications List
Every feature and specification has its own significance and role to perform in laptop; it is also defined by the user expectations and for what purpose wants to use a laptop.
Processor ( THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE )
Processor acts like a brain of the whole system and performs its functions at center point. A powerful processor is the most important hardware and specification required in high-performing laptop, otherwise everything is useless.
Every application requires certain processing power to smoothly run on laptop, applications like PhotoShop, Adobe Premiere Pro and 3D graphics demands high-end powerful processor and else user unable to run them.
A laptop user who to perform functions on similar high-end applications needs must buy a laptop comes with multiple core processors and hyper-threading capability.
Multiple cores allows user to run all complex software which logical processing is complicated and only multiple cores can perform this by sharing the work load. Hyper-Threading is the capability of processor allows running multiple software simultaneously.
A user can judge the processor power once gets to know how many cores and thread powering the Processor. A high-end user will definitely be very much concerned about this specification in laptop and they should make more research on this.
RAM
RAM provides the applications a place where they can store its information on short-term and access it on immediate basis to process. It stores the information which is being frequently used by the computer and RAM stores it for sharing the workload with processor.
It also means faster RAM improves the processor efficiency and enhances its power. Powerful processor would not show good performance without faster RAM.
RAM performs your everyday tasks such as loading the software / programs; edit the spreadsheets and multi-tasking. Faster RAM allows the user to open and run multiple software simultaneously without single lag, cannot expect the same with slow amount of RAM.
It is recommended to go for a laptop offering at least 8 GB of RAM, no need to compromise with less amount of RAM. No doubt, faster RAM improves the overall efficiency and offers better user experience on laptop. RAM is the second most critical specification on a laptop.
Hard Drive / Storage
Before discussing about hard drives in terms of its storage capacity, needs to explain its two types. The first type is HDD and second SSD.
Let’s start from its HDD type and also discuss how it differs from SSD, HDD stands for “Hard Disk Drive” and it is designed with old technique using mechanical platters which is less efficient to access data. In simple words, when a user send the request to access the data stored on HDD, it takes more time in overall processing.
The second type is SSD which stands for Solid-State-Drive and introduced as latest technology in storage devices. It stores the data on memory chips which immediately provide the response on user request and data stored is instantly accessible to the user.
It is recommended to go for a laptop offering SSD and not HDD. Secondly, you should not be more concerned about large sized storage capacity as these days users do not store much data on internal drives and rather access it online. 256GB storage capacity must be enough for any kind of user.
In the modern time, mostly users do not show much concern for this specification before buying a laptop as they have lots of other external options to store data into.
Screen Resolution
Screen resolution is defined as how many pixels are arranged vertically and horizontally to display the image, more pixels lead to sharper images. A user can enjoy better quality on higher resolutions.
For Instance, 4K screens have four times more pixels as compared to 1080p resolution and watching the movie on 4K is quite entertaining experience because it offers more detailed images with more pixels.
You are recommended to go for a laptop offering 1080p screen resolution, it still offers high quality screen and its overall maintenance is easier.
4K laptops are quite expensive and consume more internet data. To produce the high quality images at 4K, they automatically consume more data comparing to its lower screen resolution.
To stream the Netflix at 1080p, it consumes 3GB per hour and streaming Netflix at 4K consumes 7GB per hour. There is always a cost to watch the content on higher resolution and this is why recommending you 1080p resolution laptops instead of 4K laptops.
Screen resolution is also one of the critical specifications in laptop and buyers often decide on its basis.
Graphic Card
Before discussing about graphic card and its role in overall laptop performance, let’s discuss its types. The first type is integrated and second dedicated. The integrated graphics card is also known as built-in card and its capability of supporting graphics is low comparatively to dedicated one.
Integrated graphic card is only good for streaming YouTube videos at high quality and watching the movies on laptop.
Dedicated graphic cards are more powerful and advanced in supporting high-end graphics job. These are crucial to perform photo and video editing which requires high-end graphics processing. Only dedicated cards can run software like “PhotoShop” and “Adobe Premiere Pro”.
Graphics card enjoys big weighatage in laptop specifications and those users’ wants to perform photo and video-editing functions must check whether this laptop comes with dedicated graphic card or integrated one. This is the critical laptop specification for the freelancers who performs photo and video-editing jobs.
Screen Size
Mostly laptops with smaller screens are light-weight and easily portable. An ideal screen size can be better defined with the nature of its usage, small screens good for internet surfing and bad for stuff like blogging, writing and editing. Large screen size is good for streaming YouTube videos and when it contributes into extra weight is its bad.
USB Type-C Port
Every user demands multiple USB ports on laptop, the nature of demand for USB Type-C is different from other ports. Type-C port is very powerful and enables the user to charge the laptop battery through. It also transfers the data from one device to other at highest transferring rate.
It is the latest technology in USB port and enjoying its user temptation. You cannot expect type-c port on every laptop, it is very tempting feature. This specification is also very tempting and user is willing to pay for this.
Battery Life (Die Early or Long-Lasting)
These days latest laptops offering powerful batteries which can last up to eight hours on a single charge. If user travels a lot and also work during travelling, must go for long-lasting batteries to avoid unwanted situation, otherwise has to manage and carry the Power Bank to supply the power.
If you are a desk worker, no need to be much worried about as can re-charge the battery anytime once it goes down. If you are a traveller and require laptop alot during travelling, long lasting battery timings are critical for you and this laptop specification is like make or break.
Final Words
A laptop for performing heavy duties like photo and video editing, recommended to go for 16GB RAM and Core i5 processor. Otherwise, 8GB RAM is recommended in a laptop will be used for performing normal duties. In any case, should not go for 4GB RAM in the present time.
Large screens are good for photo and video editing jobs, this job requires detailed analysis of the graphics and colors of the image and you can miss the details on smaller screens. Small screens are good for internet surfing and playing decent sized games.
A powerful graphic card is strongly recommended for gamers only; else a powerful processor is enough for running software like PhotoShop and Adobe Premiere Pro.
A laptop with good specifications is also defined by the purpose of user to buy a laptop. Every user has different expectations and accordingly defines the good specification list for their own laptop. We just explained to you how these specifications should be looked at by all different kinds of users.
