Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00The funny thing is this top-spec MacBook Pro 16 is about seven and a half thousand pounds
00:06This Asus Vivobook Go 15 is 400 pounds
00:10So obviously when it comes to buying a laptop you can spend an awful lot of money or you can spend not much at all
00:15And you've got a lot of different options
00:17So in this video, I'm gonna walk you through my 12 top tips for helping you figure out
00:21What's the right laptop for you what to look for and also how to avoid wasting your money
00:25I'll also leave a link to some of my favorite laptops in the description below
00:29Also, let me know what laptop you're using right now
00:31And if you're thinking about upgrading and if you enjoy the video a cheeky like and subscribe would be fantastic
00:36All right tip number one pretty straightforward. What are you gonna be using your laptop for?
00:41I mean if it's just basic home office stuff or something to take to school or college with you just for watching Netflix browsing the
00:47Web doing a bit of work, you know a good all-rounder as they say something cheap and cheerful then
00:51Yeah, certainly consider something like this. It's the Asus Vivobook Go 15, you know, the keys don't feel particularly nice
00:57It's not the most powerful laptop in the world
00:59But it has an OLED screen and it does everything you'd want a laptop for and it costs about 400 quid and you really can't beat
01:06That value but then of course spending more money will get you better performance nicer screen smarter designs the latest connectivity
01:12But even cheap and cheerful laptops like this will do the basics
01:16Although I would say if your budget is under 250 pounds or $300 or you want something specifically perhaps for school
01:23Then consider a Chromebook although more on that in a second for you gamers out there though
01:28Even budget machines with kind of iffy performance can still play demanding games via GeForce now or Xbox cloud gaming
01:34These are of course subscription services, so you'll have to pay for them and you'll need a pretty fast and reliable internet
01:39But it does mean you can get away with some gaming even on a pretty basic laptop
01:45If you do have a little bit more money to spend then you can't argue that a MacBook Air is
01:51Arguably the best all-round laptop you can buy this m3 model starts at about 1,100 pounds you can get the m2 for 999
01:58They've discontinued the old m1 and yes, that is quite a lot of money
02:02And of course not everyone wants a Mac
02:04But I would argue there isn't really a better combination of design performance battery life webcam the ports the software
02:10There isn't a better all-in-one laptop option really than a MacBook Air
02:14There's a reason these are so popular
02:15And I would probably pay the extra hundred quid for the m3 version as it is a good deal faster
02:20And it means it should last you even longer before you feel the need to upgrade or if you prefer Windows 11
02:26Then there's plenty of premium thin and light options
02:28But like Mac's high-end versions can cost upwards of 1,500 quid 2,000 pounds and more it can all get very expensive
02:35So until recently you basically had three options you had your Chromebooks you had your Intel and AMD powered Windows laptops
02:42Anyway Mac books. Well now there's a new player in town. It's kind of shaking up the Windows PC market a little bit
02:48We have snapdragon powered laptops the same guys who put the chips in most of the Android phones are now making laptop chips
02:55We've got the X plus and the X elite. This is the Asus fever book s15
02:59I've also got the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 edge here
03:01Just a couple of like the dozen or so first wave of snapdragon powered laptops including the new service laptops from Microsoft
03:08and these are finally giving the m1 m2 m3 powered MacBooks and MacBook airs a
03:14Proper run for their money in terms of performance battery life and also is running more coolly and quietly. They're much nicer experiences
03:21However, these are brand new chips
03:22It is very early days and as they use a different kind of architecture to the traditional Intel and AMD chips
03:28Some apps and programs will have compatibility issues
03:31They either simply won't run or they may not run as well unless they've been optimized to run on this new hardware
03:36Which will take time so it could be worth just holding out a little bit on buying a snapdragon powered laptop until there's more drivers
03:42And updates and optimized apps just worth a thought
03:46Okay, that was a very long and waffly tip number one
03:49Let's move on to tip number two different form factors. Most of these are traditional clamshell laptops
03:55You know if they open like this some of them even have 180 degree hinges
03:58And if you do need a little bit more flexibility
04:01Literally in this case then maybe consider a two-in-one flip where you can literally flip the screen and transform it into a touchscreen
04:07tablet handy for your doodling and drawing or making notes with a stylus or just your finger or even propping it up to watch a
04:13Movie or review some documents or how about a twin touchscreen laptop like this?
04:17Asus ZenBook Duo OLED which gives you double the screen size
04:21We've got two 14-inch displays here or how about something like a surface Pro with a detachable keyboard?
04:26And I particularly like two-in-one Chromebooks as they're still incredible value and just gives you some extra flexibility
04:31And then of course there's the iPad
04:33It's not for everyone and it's not a full laptop replacement mainly due to iPad OS being a bit constrained
04:39You're not getting proper desktop apps really although if you're tempted then have a watch of my latest iPad buying guide video
04:45Which I'll leave a link to in the top right corner
04:47Tip number three which operating system which software do you want you've established?
04:52Hopefully what you're actually using a laptop for and then potentially the kind of form factor you want and to be fair most people just
04:59End up with a regular clamshell
05:00But then do you want Chrome OS on a Chromebook to your Mac OS on a MacBook or do you want Windows?
05:0611 on a well Windows laptop chances are you already know the one you want because you've been using it forever
05:12But it's worth considering if one of the others may be a better fit
05:16Windows 11 laptops have by far the most options with the most choice for different budget options for different form factors different sizes
05:23You've got gaming laptops workstations plus its Windows
05:25So chances are you've used it your parents have used it your kids and your dog are using it and it's compatible with literally
05:31Millions of apps and programs. Although as I say if you do go for a snapdragon powered Windows laptop
05:36Then you may run into some app compatibility issues right now as I'm filming this Premiere Pro can't be installed
05:41A lot of games simply don't work on arm yet
05:43So just be wary of that then you've got Mac OS on MacBooks, which does a similar job
05:48But kind of goes about it in a different way and it can feel a little bit jarring if you're coming from Windows
05:53But I would argue generally it's a simpler smoother more premium experience
05:57That's mostly bug free and almost everything will run on it. Well except for games
06:02It's getting a little bit better
06:03But mostly if you are gonna play a lot of games then Windows laptops are your best bet plus if you have an iPhone you
06:09Can take advantage of iMessage and airdrop and screen mirroring coming with a new software
06:13but given the cheapest MacBook Air starts at about a thousand pounds that might make your decision for you and
06:19Then there's Chrome OS which is Google's operating system for Chromebooks
06:23Which as I say are some of the best value laptops for as little as like two three hundred pounds
06:28Chromebooks aren't for everyone because basically everything is running in the cloud. Not a lot's happening locally
06:33But they found a huge audience with schools and colleges
06:36They've been massive for education mainly because they've been so affordable
06:39The downside of Chromebooks is that they need to be connected to the Internet
06:42They're sort of cloud books if you will and they won't be for everyone myself included
06:46I'll be sticking with either a Windows or a MacBook
06:49Tip number four. Let's talk about the hardware and this can all get a bit complicated
06:54Don't worry if a lot of it goes over your head, but basically there's a few
06:57Components you have to think about you've got the processor the CPU the graphics the GPU the RAM
07:03Aka the memory and the storage all I would say is if you want a cheap PC cheap Windows laptop get 8 gigs of RAM
07:10256 storage and an Intel Core Ultra 3 or 5 processor or maybe one from last generation
07:14And you're good to go for a mid spec PC basically double the RAM and storage
07:1916 gigs 512 happy days and then maybe a more recent or the latest
07:23Intel Core Ultra 7 or equivalent AMD Ryzen processor or even indeed the Snapdragon X elite laptops or a MacBook Air m3
07:31at that point we're looking at between sort of a thousand and fifteen hundred pounds, but if you want a performance laptop then consider a
07:37MacBook Pro and I think the
07:39MacBook Pro
07:4014 with the m3 pro and also 16 gigs of unified memory is the sweet spot for MacBook Pros if I was gonna buy one
07:46Again in terms of PCs then maybe a dedicated graphics card like an RTX 4050
07:5116 or 32 gigs of RAM terabyte storage
07:53But do be careful because particularly with Apple products when you start specking more RAM and storage it does start to get very expensive
08:00Also keep an eye out for AMD's new Ryzen AI processors codenamed Strix point
08:05There are a bunch of new laptops coming out this summer
08:07Which should outperform the current Intel chips at least until their Lunar Lake refresh comes later this year
08:12And it will also give the Snapdragon chips a run for their money in the AI department
08:16Boasting 50 tops for the NPU beating the Snapdragon X Elite's 45
08:20Not that anyone really knows what that means but between Intel AMD and Qualcomm with their Snapdragon chips
08:26This is a really exciting year for laptops
08:28Tip number five and let's talk about graphics cards proper graphics cards
08:32We talked about integrated graphics on all these processors many higher-end laptops will come with a dedicated graphics card option
08:38Which will be a big step up in terms of your frame rating games and just the performance in a graphically demanding task as an
08:44Entry-level option you've got Nvidia's RTX 4050 or maybe AMD's Radeon RX 7600 S or M
08:50And that will be perfectly fine for 60 FPS 1080p gaming
08:54Although right now I would say the sweet spot for a gaming GPU as this laptop keeps turning a screen off
09:00would be the RTX 4060 or
09:034070 the downsides are it'll cost you more and also when you are using the graphics
09:07It's gonna drain your battery life much faster
09:09These kind of laptops will be best used plugged in although some of the more recent ones do have what they call advanced
09:14Optimus so they can just turn off the graphics card or use a hybrid mode
09:17So you're not always using it and so you'll get much better battery life
09:20But a 4060 or 4070 will be perfect for like 1440p 60 or 120 FPS gaming with high settings
09:28But for really high-end 1440p gaming or if you're going crazy and have a laptop with a 4k display
09:34Then something like an RTX 4080 is your best bet. We are expecting Nvidia's new 5000 series of cars
09:40But they won't come to laptops straight away. It'll be first for desktop PCs
09:44So you probably have to wait until mid 2025 before you'll get a next-gen car coming to a laptop
09:49So don't let that stop you if you are considering it
09:52But also bear in mind that almost all gaming laptops will have a higher refresh rate whether it's 144, 165, 240 or even
10:00360 Hertz, but then of course to take advantage of your super smooth high refresh
10:04You will need a high frame rate and that's why this balance between hardware specs and performance and the display comes in
10:10Which brings me very neatly to tip number six get a good screen
10:14This is the thing you're looking at all the time
10:16It makes such a difference in terms of sizing
10:19Well, the most common is 13 14 15 and 16 bigger sizes, of course give you more space
10:24Which is great for multitasking games and movies are more immersive and perhaps having a couple of apps side-by-side
10:29And I reckon a 14 or 15 inches the best size for most people. This is a 14
10:33These are both 14 the MacBook Air. This is the 13. We've also got a 14 here
10:39This Samsung's actually a 16. Let me open that up
10:43So this is one of the bigger screens and you may also notice if I bring in the Vivo book next to it
10:49Well, yes, they are also different sizes. This is very awkward to hold
10:52You can also see the Samsung has a taller screen. So this actually has a 16 by 10 aspect ratio. That's
11:0016 by 10 traditionally older and also generally cheaper laptops like this have a 16 by 9 aspect ratio
11:07But I really do like a 16 by 10
11:09It just gives you a little bit more height
11:10And while you will get more letterboxing if you're watching videos and movies
11:13It's just better for web browsing having two apps side-by-side and it's a lot more common these days
11:18And it's also the aspect ratio that you'll get on a MacBook
11:21What I would say though is that outside of higher-end maybe productivity color based workloads that people may have
11:28Avoid a 4k screen. The high resolution will kill your frame rate in games
11:32It'll drain your battery faster. And most the time you have to scale up to like two or three hundred percent
11:38Resolution anyway, because everything's so small the sweet spot really is somewhere between a 1080p full HD screen and a 4k
11:45So like quad HD or 3k these sort of halfway houses
11:48They're like the best balance of sharpness
11:50But without being too much of a drain on your system in terms of panel types
11:54Well, we could spend like 20 minutes talking about this
11:56And in fact, I did in my recent monta buying a video which you can watch up here
12:01But most laptops are still like an IPS LED LCD screen like we have with MacBook
12:06Although more commonly we are now seeing OLED and AMOLED screens, which for my money, that's what I prefer
12:11I love the inky contrasty look of a good OLED or AMOLED panel in terms of brightness
12:16You're looking at probably four or five hundred nits of brightness. Most recent screens also offer some kind of HDR
12:21Although that is very much tied to the brightness of the screen if it's 400 nits in SDR
12:26But also 400 nits in HDR
12:28You're not really gonna get much
12:29Impact from those bright highlights and things like that
12:32If you can get an OLED screen preferably with a high refresh rate like 120 Hertz
12:36Then you're good to go and that is my biggest issue right now with the MacBooks 60 Hertz LED screen
12:42These are definitely lacking especially at this price
12:45Compared to the Windows rivals as you have to go up to a MacBook Pro to get their 120 Hertz Pro motion display
12:50And once you do it's kind of hard to go back to regular 60 Hertz
12:54It feels kind of slow
12:56The battery life is one of the most important things to consider and it can vary wildly anything from I don't know 5 to
13:0225 hours, but it all comes down to how you use it
13:05If you're just watching YouTube all day
13:07That's obviously gonna last a lot longer than if you're gaming or rendering in blender or something like that
13:12Generally MacBooks are considered the best for battery life at the moment
13:17The new Snapdragon power Windows laptops are giving it some proper competition and actually I just ran an overnight test
13:24Watching YouTube and this guy lasted just shy of 14 hours
13:28Which was actually a couple hours longer than the Vivo book
13:30So I would say MacBooks probably the best for battery closely followed by Snapdragon Windows laptops and then for regular Windows laptops
13:37Well, your best bet is just read some reviews to see how they perform
13:41general rule of thumb though aside from maybe Apple is that you can about half what the
13:46Manufacturer says if they say you're gonna get 22 hours, then that's probably like almost screen off local video playback
13:53Realistically, you'll probably get like 10 or 11 hours of everyday use. So roughly half what the manufacturer says
14:00Ergonomics and this is a really quick one, but it is actually quite convenient
14:03I've got the galaxy book here because look at the size of that touchpad. It is ginormous
14:09It has no business being that size and actually I kind of hate the ergonomics of it because I actually have to rest my palms
14:14Here to use the keyboard which means it digs in here
14:18If I'm wearing a watch it scratches the surface. I kind of hate how big this tripod is
14:23It's better on the smaller 14-inch version of this
14:25Ideally you want to go into a shop and try it for yourself
14:27And what I would suggest is here in the UK because we have something called the distance selling regulations
14:32If you buy something online
14:34You can try it out for a week or two and then return it if you buy it in store
14:38Once you unbox it, you can't return it. Although on the whole they're mostly very good and actually only this really cheap
14:44£400 one did I not particularly like the keys and you can see how awkward this hinges as well
14:50These feel really cheap compared to the some of these higher-end laptops
14:53So bear that in mind and that brings us neatly on to tip number eight. I owe all the inputs and outputs connectivity
14:59I think rather than worrying too much about what ports you're getting because you can always buy adapters
15:04You can plug into a type C and add type A's and add SD card readers and HDMI ports and things like that
15:09Don't worry too much go for the laptop that you think is best for you and all the other ways all the other regards
15:14And it'll probably have the ports you need
15:17Although certainly I do appreciate with my MacBook Pro that we have a full-size SD card reader
15:22So I can take my SD card out this camera pop it right in and transfer it. No
15:26adapters required also an HDMI 2.1 port which is the latest spec for HDMI means I can output to a
15:32High-end monitor like that and I've got a couple of USB type C Thunderbolt ports here as well
15:36And also, of course their separate MagSafe charging
15:39So for me the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 has like the ultimate combination of ports
15:44But as long as you can get at least one
15:46USB-C port ideally that's Thunderbolt 3 or 4 or USB 4 one of those configurations
15:51That's all you need. You can use that for pretty much everything and expand from there
15:55We're almost there. I promise tip number nine. When should you buy a new laptop?
15:59Well, there is simply no right answer to this in January
16:03We have CES where they announced a lot of new laptops and new hardware
16:06But then it comes out of sort of March April time and in between that will have discounts on the previous ones
16:11This year for example is gonna be a crazy year with the new AMD chips the new Intel chips
16:16We got a new Snapdragon, but it also means you could be waiting forever to get the next best thing
16:20So really unless you need the latest greatest cutting-edge stuff wait for a good deal around Black Friday around Cyber Monday
16:27Or as new laptops are announced then the old versions from last year will hopefully be discounted or people
16:32You know will be selling them secondhand and also when it comes to MacBooks
16:35Who knows this MacBook Air has the m3 chip and this will probably be the latest one for the next year or so
16:41I suspect we'll see an m4 pro and max chip coming to a MacBook Pro possibly October November time
16:48But in terms of max now's as good a time as they need to buy one
16:52But definitely look at refurbished models and also third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon and Curry's because they will often have good deals
16:59But tip number 10 make sure you still have some kind of warranty
17:02Asus have been getting in a bit of hot water recently for not being the best with customer service and warranties
17:07But they have basically been called out for that and they're changing things and making a lot better
17:10But certainly one advantage you're buying a new laptop is that you're gonna get the best manufacturer and retail warranty
17:16So it will last you longer and also if you can afford to go for a new model and potentially even a higher spec one
17:21With you know more RAM more storage a higher-end CPU
17:24Then that will last you longer before you have to upgrade again tip number 11
17:28We're flying through these now bear in mind particularly with thin and light laptops and especially with Apple laptops
17:33You can't upgrade them. So whatever the RAM or storage you go with you set more common on Windows laptops
17:39You can upgrade the RAM and the storage not always look at the review of the particular one you're looking at
17:44But certainly if you can, you know
17:46Whack a 2 terabyte SSD or double the RAM and it's not hard to do then that will certainly give you a lot more life
17:52But the point is particularly with thinner like laptops and very recent ones and from Apple since you can't upgrade down the road
17:58It may be worth just biting the bullet and getting a little bit higher spec up front
18:02So then you're not constantly running out of storage or having memory issues in two years time
18:07and finally tip number 12 read and watch as many reviews as you can ignore all the marketing fluff from companies and how
18:14AI is gonna change the world and things like that
18:16It probably will but just not quite yet and really AI is all about efficiency and battery life right now
18:20So maybe once you've narrowed it down to two or three options, just read a bunch of those reviews
18:27You may have realized I didn't talk about AI that much you're welcome for starters because right now it doesn't really mean that much
18:34There's this fight for the most powerful
18:36NPUs and we've got copilot plus PCs with features like live translation, which is actually admittedly quite cool
18:43Co-creator recall or they've recalled that right now to be brutally honest AI doesn't mean that much
18:48It's mostly about taking the strain off the processor and graphics running things for the NPU
18:52So it can be more efficient give you better battery life in terms of AI specific features locally on device. It's early days
18:58We're gonna see Apple intelligence come to Mac OS Sequoia later in the year over the next 6 to 12 months
19:04We will see a big shift. I think towards utilizing some of this AI performance, but right now I wouldn't worry about it too much
19:10Thank you so much for watching guys hit that like and subscribe button
19:13If you enjoyed this video and I'll see you next time right here on the tech chat
19:18You