Most laptops today ship with at least 4GB of RAM. Windows 8 is more memory-efficient than earlier Windows versions, so in many instances 4GB is enough for normal office or productivity use. If you create massive spreadsheets or edit large digital photos, however, you may want more than 4GB. If so, make sure that the system you’re considering is available with (or can accommodate) larger amounts of memory. Most Ultrabooks are limited to a fixed 4GB of RAM, with no option for the user to buy more or to upgrade the system.
Display
You can’t change your laptop display, so choose the LCD panel carefully. Two factors are relevant: the underlying panel technology and the resolution.
LCD panel technologies have remained fairly stable for the past few years. Though capacitive touchscreens are becoming more common, the underlying LCD panels continue to use one of three basic technologies: twisted nematic (TN), in-plane switching (IPS, S-IPS, and related variants), or vertical alignment (MVA or PVA).
TN panels are still the most common, mainly because these panels are the least expensive. Most budget laptops ship with TN technology. These LCDs have fast response times and good power efficiency, but their color depth is lower (usually 6 bits per pixel), so color accuracy for photo editing and video editing is subpar. TN panels also have a relatively narrow range of acceptable viewing angles, with severe contrast and color shifts visible in off-axis viewing.
IPS panels tend to offer more color depth and better color accuracy if properly implemented. The range of acceptable viewing angles is wider, too. Until recently, IPS panel response times were slow, which sometimes resulted in visible “smearing” of video or game content; but newer IPS panel variants have improved on their predecessors’ response times. IPS panels are increasingly common in high-end laptop models.
MVA or PVA panels, though less common, are available on some laptops. They offer a good balance of color accuracy and response time, but don’t stand out in any one category.
The other key factor to consider when choosing a panel is resolution. With Windows-based laptops, a greater number of pixels isn’t always better. Very high pixel densitiesas, for example, in a 1920-by-1080 display on an 11-inch LCDoften results in tiny, hard-to-read text. Sure, you can increase text size, but then you have to enlarge your open windows, which means that you can’t fit as many windows on-screen, negating the benefits of the higher resolution.
On the other hand, a 17-inch LCD that offers a resolution of only 1366 by 768 creates a visible “screen door” effect in which you can easily see individual pixels. This can be particularly annoying when you’re watching video content.
Storage
Storage is one of the hottest topics related to mobile PCs today, as solid-state drives become more popular. SSDs substantially decrease boot time and improve system responsiveness because they load applications and data faster. If a manufacturer offers an SSD as an upgrade option, you may be better off skipping a processor speed increase and getting the SSD instead. Often, SSDs are tied to premium models, however.
If you decide that you want an SSD, note that the minimum useful size for most users is 128GB. If you can afford it, 256GB is better, since Windows itself consumes between 20 and 30GB of drive space.
Some laptop users need a lot of storage. If you’re a videographer or a photographer who shoots in RAW format, the data files you capture can quickly chew up a lot of drive space. In that case, you might prefer a traditional rotating-media hard drive. Modern Intel-based laptops often have an option for improving hard-drive performance by adding a small SSDtypically 16GB to 32GBto cache hard-drive data. This arrangement is well worth its modest extra cost, as the caching SSD improves boot times and application load times. It won’t help overall application performance much, however, on systems that must frequently read from or write to the hard drive. If an SSD appeals to you, consider getting a USB 3.0, bus-powered portable hard drive as an accessory for your system.
Connectivity and ports
USB ports allow you to connect a keyboard, external storage, a docking station, and even some LCD displays to your system. Unfortunately, laptops commonly ship with too few USB ports. Most Ultrabooks, for example, have only two USB ports. If you’re lugging around external storage, you’ll want at least one USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) port to improve throughput (assuming that the portable hard drive supports USB 3.0).