One of the first options to go when you step down to a compact laptop is typically the optical drive. Although it used to be a staple of information sharing 10 years ago, many modern buyers find they can get all the content and software they need from the Internet, or from USB flash drives. We made the leap years ago to no optical drive and barely ever look back, but your results may vary. If you’re used to watching DVDs, burning CDs for friends and loading boxed software off discs, it may not make sense to omit an optical drive. Remember that you can always purchase an external drive to get the best of both worlds: full capability at home, and light weight on the go.
Blu-ray drives remain a luxury, and typically, an expensive upgrade. Before opting for one, ask yourself whether you can really take advantage of Blu-ray on your notebook. If the display will be anything less than 1080p (most notebooks are), we consider it a bit excessive, since you won’t even be able to appreciate full Blu-ray quality without hooking it up to a TV with an HDMI cable. Also make sure the rest of the hardware will be able to handle decoding Blu-ray (integrated graphics are a no go) and whether you’ll really want to watch full-length Blu-ray movies seated at a desktop computer. If you plan to burn Blu-ray discs, make sure you’ll actually be able to afford the media, which can still run up to $5 apiece in small quantities and don’t get much cheaper than $2 a disc in bulk.
Hard Drive
Hard drives boil down to two simple factors: size and speed.
How much space do you need? Consider your current computing habits. If you install every free program you run across on the Web, use your computer as a repository for home videos and pictures, and download lots of music and movies, we would recommend 500GB or more. On the other hand, if you’re mostly content with the software that comes on a computer and rarely tread outside streaming Internet content from the likes of YouTube and Hulu (which is the case for many people these days) you can probably get away with much less. We recently used a laptop with an 80GB drive for years without bumping into space issues, but you would be hard pressed to find much less than 160GB on a new computer these days.
Speed is another matter. Traditional hard drives typically spin at speeds between 5400 and 10,000 RPM, with the faster models obviously granting faster access to data. A quick hard drive can improve the time it takes to open a program or boot into Windows, but only marginally. Even most 5400RPM drives typically perform fine for most users, but we recommend 7200RPM if at all possible, and performance users should look into 10,000RPM drives, or solid-state drives, which, while expensive, can go even faster. On a laptop, solid-state drives are also lighter and more durable, since they have no moving parts. Check out our guide to solid state drives to find out whether you should consider the investment.
Wireless Options
These days, pretty much every notebook available comes with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but you should always make sure. Opting for the latest 802.1n Wi-Fi standard will boost your connection speeds if you use your notebook for transferring massive files or streaming HD video, but standard 802.11g will work just fine for most people.
Batteries
Although the number of cells in a battery and measurements in milliamp hours (mAh) can help you determine how much juice a battery can actually store, neither really gives an insight into what you really want to know, which is how long they’ll actually last in your laptop. Refer to manufacturers’ claimed battery life figures to get an idea what a given machine is capable of, but keep in mind these are best-case-scenario numbers you probably won’t achieve in real life. Cut them about in half off for an intense usage scenario (like gaming or watching videos), and shave about a third off for more typical use, like casual surfing.
Up until recently, almost all laptops used swappable lithium-ion battery packs, making it easy to change a stock battery out for a larger model with more capacity or to replace it at the end of its lifetime. More recently, a number of laptops, including Apple’s popular MacBooks, have begun using sealed lithium-polymer batteries. While lighter in weight, they also make it impossible to upgrade capacity or keep spare batteries on hand, and if one wears down, you’ll need to send it to a technician for replacement. Many users never touch their batteries anyway, and won’t miss the flexibility, but road warriors and those who plan to keep their machines running for years and years should take note.
Display
The size of your notebook will dictate the size of your screen, but that’s only one of many factors that can make or break a quality display.
Choosing whether you want a matte or reflective screen can dramatically impact how useful your notebook will be in the field. While reflective screens often seem to “pop” more brightness and color, they also act as mirrors to some degree, which can make them downright unusable in the sun or under bright lighting. Matte screens, meanwhile, don’t quite catch the eye as much as their reflective cousins, but perform better in a variety of ambient lighting conditions.
Brightness will also determine whether you’ll be surfing away on a park bench on the first sunny day in spring, or squinting into a dark abyss. Candelas per meter squared (cd/m2) are considered the standard measurement for brightness. Average laptops typically offer around 250 to 300 cd/m2, while those with premium screens can offer up to 400 cd/m2.
Contrast ratio – the difference between the brightest whites and darkest blacks a screen can produce – should also come into play, but companies have found ways to twist these stats significantly, so take numbers with a grain of salt and trust your eyes. Viewing angles – how far you can turn to the side before the screen colors distort or wash out – are often similarly misrepresented, but you should read reviewers’ impressions to see whether a particular laptop excels or lags behind in this department.
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