The (Other) End of the Internet

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Daughter Number One has been talking about getting herself a laptop computer. Since buying a laptop is a major investment decision that should not be made lightly, I offered her these 5 tips in an attempt to help prepare her for making the best and most well informed decision when buying her laptop.

1) Check Your Budget

Anytime you’re planning on spending several hundred dollars on something, whether it’s a laptop computer or a car, you need to make sure you can afford the purchase. Face it: the whole housing crisis that we’re dealing with right now is people ignoring this simple rule on a much larger scale.

A good rule of thumb is to wait a day once you’ve found the laptop computer you want. Spend that day double-checking the machine’s features against your needs and then check it’s cost against your budget. If it still looks like a good deal after a day of double checking then go back to the store and get it. This also helps ease the pressure that some sales people can make you feel.

2) Size Really Does Matter

Look at the size and weight of the laptop. If it is something you’re going to be carrying all over a college campus then you’ll want something small and lightweight. When you’re carrying it around for an entire day, 5 lbs can make an incredible difference. On the other hand, if you’re going to just set it up on a desk and rarely move it then the computer’s weight shouldn’t be too much of an issue. It really depends on what you’re planning to do with your new laptop.

Along with the overall size of the laptop computer, you should pay attention to the size of its keyboard. A larger keyboard would be necessary for some people while others might not mind a really small keyboard. If at all possible you really should spend 15 to 20 minutes just typing on the laptop to see how your hands feel afterwards.

3) Choose Your Mouse

Typically a laptop will have a built-in touch pad to replace the mouse. Some people just cannot stand using those touch pads and will want to plug in a mouse instead. If that’s going to be an issue for you, then you’ll want to make sure the computer has the appropriate port (serial, PS-2, or USB) to connect your mouse.

4) Wireless Options

Most people automatically associate the words “notebook computer” with “wireless connection”. Notebook computers today almost always come with a wireless network card installed. In most cases all you need to do is sign up with an internet provider and the computer takes care of the rest.

Wi-fi cards are not necessarily guaranteed to be in all notebooks, so if your needs do not necessarily include internet access right away, you might be money ahead to find a cheaper model that doesn’t have an internal wi-fi card but make sure it has either a USB port or an expansion slot where one can be added at a later time.

5) Check for Ports

You will, no doubt, want to connect a printer, scanner, or digital camera to your new computer some time. Most of these devices are available with USB connections. You’ll definitely want to make sure that the computer you’re looking at has all the external connections you’re going to need. If you find, at some point down the road, that you need more USB ports you can get a 4-port USB hub. It plugs into one USB port and turns it into 4 more. There is not a similar trick for serial or parallel ports, so make sure your new computer has all of those you’re going to need.

Technorati Tags: laptop, notebook, mouse, wireless

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