Best Laptop Buying Guide for 2024

Currently, the market is filled with decent windows laptops, both in budget and in expensive range, catering to everything you need. But it doesn’t mean you can go select anything and expect it to work according to your needs. Before we start, keep in mind that:

• A powerful laptop will be expensive and heavy in weight.
• A powerful, lightweight laptop will be More expensive and might face some heating issues.
• A thin and light-weight budget laptop won’t be powerful enough to game on it.
• you cannot game on an office laptop.
• You cannot carry your gaming laptop to the office (it is heavy in weight).
• A gaming laptop which you can carry to office will be expensive.

Overall meaning, More the weight more powerful the device and in budget, less weight less powerful less the cost is, less the weight more powerful expensive the laptop gets. 

THINGS THAT ARE MUST IN A LAPTOP

• SSD gen3.
• RAM with atleast least 3200 MHz.
• Extra slot for RAM.
• Type C thunderbolt port.
• 11th or 12th gen processor.
• Avoid Intel Celeron processors.

Basic usage & Budget 

A daily-use laptop suitable for students and office documentaries, for entertainment purposes, will not need heavy processors, but you’ll need decent specs as it should at least work for the next 5 years and keep up with advancing technology before going obsolete. It should be light weight and have a long-lasting battery, but still be in budget under $50,000.

minimum specs a device should have

1. CPU: i5 or Ryzen 5, atleast 12th generation, and 5000 series, respectively. Both the U & P series (e.g., Ryzen 5 5500U and Intel Core i5-1235U) will work (P will be slightly more powerful than U).
2. RAM: 8 GB with at least 3200 MHz will do fine; if it has an extra slot for future upgrades, even better.
3. SSD: 512gb NVMe/PCLe or Optane drive; SATA: slower but cheaper.
4. Graphics card: integrated graphics will do more than fine.
5. Battery: 60–70 Whr, giving a long battery backup.
6. PORTS: Must include at least one thunderbolt type C port. and gen3.2 type A.

Gaming 

If you are planning to play games along with some of the editing work, then it will require a better-performing CPU and the most compatible GPU, as it plays the most important role in gaming and processing the graphics. Keep in mind that even a laptop under 65k offers you RTX 40 series and another costing 90k also offers RTX 40 series doesn’t mean that they are the same; they differ in TGP, which determines the power of the GPU, so select a GPU with as high TGP as possible.

1. CPU: i5 or Ryzen 5 with at least the H series; if budget allows, then HS could also be bought for a better experience, or you can get a better GPU instead.
2. GPU-RTX 2050: the higher the TGP, the better it is; choose TGP over the series of graphics cards.
3. RAM: Get a laptop with 8 GB (3200 MHz or more) of RAM and an extra slot; buying an extra and upgrading yourself will save you some money. 
4. SSD: 512GB gen3 NVMe/PCLe but never SATA.
5. Cooling: Most important part is that many laptops might offer great specs in cheap prices but have poor quality cooling systems, like MSI, which has a cooling issue. Check internet for cooling problems for the selected laptop. 
6. PORTS: Thunderbolt ports and 3.2 USB type A.

NOTE: you can compromise on any other specs but never on cooling.

Depending on your budget, you can get better at each of the mentioned specs, like the latest generation 4. SSD or a GPU with higher TGP and the latest series, but these are the bare-minimum specs for a decent gaming setup.

Professional uses

For work purposes like video editing, animation in 2D/3D, and the use of heavy software like Adobe Suite, Blender, AutoCAD, etc., real-time processing is more important than rendering, so a little can be compromised in terms of GPU because that’s what is responsible for rendering.

Minimum specs required.

1. CPU: i5-12/13450HX, i7-13650HX, Ryzen7 6800H, and Ryzen 7 7840H.
2. GPU: RTX-3050 or anything above it with a high TGP. choose TGP over Series.
3. RAM: The 8Gb variant might not be available with this CPU; get one with an extra slot for future upgrade. 4800 MHz or 5200 MHz will be better.
4. DISPLAY: A 100% sRGB display will provide accurate colours, which is important for a professional workspace. If an OLED display is available, then get it without any hesitation; it is better than anything on the market right now.
5. Cooling: Get reviews first.
6. PORTS: More thunderbolt ports than type A
7. SSD-inbuilt SSD will not be an important factor as you will be needing an external SSD anyway, but if you are spending above $70,000, then make sure it has a Gen4 SSD. NO SATA.

CONFUSED

If someone doesn’t know what they will be doing with a laptop but also doesn’t want to be limited because of a hardware problem, then there are various options available at decent prices, but the weight might be an issue.

1. CPU: i5 12th generation or Ryzen 5 Series 5000 will be enough, and there is no need to exceed this as it will get expensive.
2. GPU-RTX 2050 is the least. If GTX 1650 is available under 45k, then you can go with that option; otherwise, 50-52k have better options. The market is filled with heavy laptops equipped with powerful GPUs, but they also have compatibility issues as the powerful GPU might not work efficiently with the CPU.
3. RAM: 8GB, 3200 MHz, with an extra slot.
4. SSD-512 Gen3 will do great.
5. Cooling: Read reviews.

Note: Do not buy a Chromebook as a laptop because it is not a laptop but a giant phone, will function like a phone, and doesn’t run Windows.

After selecting the laptop, make sure to read reviews from various communities online and see what problems users have faced with that particular model. If possible, do a store visit and feel the device yourself to see if it suits your needs or not; if not, then the search begins again.

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