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00:00I'm not sure if I've got enough laptops for this laptop buying guide video but
00:06the truth is buying a new laptop isn't easy there's so many things to consider
00:10it can get a bit confusing. You could just jump on Amazon and type in laptop
00:14and then filter by price size and customer rating but if you're spending
00:18hundreds or even thousands of pounds on a new laptop you want to make sure
00:22you're getting the right one for you and it's good value for money so I'm gonna
00:26walk you through ten things that you need to know in order to choose the
00:29perfect laptop for you and I've put links to some of my recommended laptops
00:33in the description below this video. So first things first do you prefer using
00:37Windows Mac OS or Chrome OS? There's no right or wrong answer and it's usually
00:42best to stick with what you know. Windows is by far the most common platform so
00:46you've got the greatest range of laptops to choose from. Mac OS is obviously
00:50exclusive to Apple MacBooks and MacBook Pros which are beautiful machines and
00:54really easy to use but they're also relatively expensive there isn't much
00:57variety and the latest models have a limited range of ports. Chromebooks
01:01running Chrome OS are very popular with students so if you're on a budget and
01:05just doing really basic things like Google Docs, streaming Netflix and
01:08sending emails a Chromebook could be ideal. Personally though I tend to prefer
01:13going for a Windows 10 laptop because there's just so much choice and it means
01:17I can pay what I want and get the specs and the features I need. And if you're
01:21into gaming Windows machines are pretty much your only option right now although
01:25click at the top right to see my video on how game streaming on PC and Mac
01:29could be the future. Okay next question do you want a traditional clamshell
01:34laptop like this that's the most common kind of laptop doesn't open any further
01:39than that sometimes can be a touch screen or would you prefer something a
01:42little more fancy like a convertible two-in-one with a 360 degree hinge so
01:49you can turn the screen right round and use it as a tablet or you can put it in
01:53tent mode I'm not sure who really does that or stand mode which is handy if
01:57you're watching movies or something maybe on a plane you basically get a
02:01touchscreen tablet experience but all in one laptop thanks to that 360 hinge so
02:07these are convertible two-in-ones or the third choice is a hybrid two-in-one with
02:11a fully detachable keyboard so you've got slightly more budget options like
02:15this Acer Switch 3 so you can just pull it off like that you've got the
02:20keyboard and tablet separately that's very similar to the Surface Pro or on
02:24the higher end of the scale I've got the Surface Book 2 here it's the 13 inch one
02:28and I can press a button hopefully yep and the tablet is released from the
02:33keyboard and that way you can use it either as a normal laptop or you can
02:37take it off and use it as a full Windows 10 tablet there are downsides to these
02:41though generally two-in-one devices are more expensive than a similarly specced
02:45normal laptop and quite often they won't be as powerful due to size and design
02:49restrictions that's not always the case though going back to the Surface Book 2
02:53it's one of the most powerful non gaming laptops you can buy right now but the
02:57compromise is the price it starts at 1,500 quid for this 13 inch model the
03:02one actually I've got here is 2,500 for the 15 inch model well it's even more
03:07expensive so when it comes to power versus portability versus price low
03:11price generally you can only get two out of three now let's talk about size
03:16because most laptops have 13 14 or 15 inch screen sizes you do get a few 11
03:21inch budget laptops and some huge 17 or 18 inch gaming beasts but we'll talk
03:26more about that in a bit generally as you'd expect the smaller the screen size
03:30the lighter and more compact it is so 13 and 14 inch ultrabooks which is just a
03:35fancy name for thin and light laptops that use Intel chips make great travel
03:39companions anything bigger and you'll struggle to get any work done on trains
03:42or planes but bigger 15 inch laptops like this can be more powerful often
03:47there's room for a dedicated graphics card and they can use more power hungry
03:51processors but the good news is that brands are putting bigger screens into
03:55more compact and travel friendly bodies by trimming the size of the bezel around
03:59the screen so if you're gonna leave your laptop at home or in the office you may
04:02as well go for something a bit bigger and therefore hopefully a bit more
04:05powerful but if you want something that's good on the road and you'll
04:08barely feel in your backpack then maybe consider a 13 inch ultrabook like
04:12one of these but if you can afford it a high-end MacBook Pro 15 XPS 15 or
04:17Surface Book 2 15 are relatively compact for their size and offer really high-end
04:22performance the whole time you're using a laptop you're looking at the screen so
04:26you want to make sure it looks good firstly make sure it's got an IPS
04:30screen you can check the tech specs or reviews to see if IPS is mentioned as
04:34they offer much better color accuracy and viewing angles the alternative is a
04:38TN screen which is still used on some cheaper models and is okay but it can
04:42look grainy and viewing angles are pretty terrible you should also consider
04:46the screens resolution but don't worry about this too much ideally go for a
04:50laptop with a full HD so that's a 1920 by 1080 resolution even though everyone's
04:55talking about 4k unless it's a 15 inch or bigger laptop and you really want
04:59those extra pixels for watching 4k movies or if you're editing 4k video I'd
05:03avoid it as it has a big impact on your battery life and your frame rate in
05:06games and it's unlikely you'll really notice the difference if you thought
05:10this video couldn't get any more exciting you were wrong because now
05:14we're going to talk about tech specs which actually as dull and complicated
05:18as it can be is super super important for knowing what kind of performance
05:22you're going to get from a laptop so there's three main things to consider
05:25the processor the RAM and the storage and maybe also graphics cards if you're
05:30into gaming or you run more intensive workstation applications the most
05:35important thing is the processor you'll see most mid-range or high-end laptops
05:39come with an Intel core i3 i5 or i7 processor generally higher the number
05:44the better the performance you get unless you're doing lots of photo or
05:47video editing or more intensive tasks a core i5 will be just fine but also look
05:52for what generation it is every year these chips get refreshed and improved
05:56with the latest 8th generation processors now offering four cores
05:59rather than two which is better for multitasking 7th generation chips are
06:03still fine I've still used this Dell XPS 15 but where possible try and get
06:08the latest one some cheaper laptops will come with a Pentium or a Celeron
06:11processor but unless you're using it for more basic tasks or you're on a super
06:15tight budget I'd try to avoid these as a rule of thumb and then we've got RAM
06:19which is much easier usually you'll get 4 8 or 16 gigabytes of RAM in a laptop
06:23again unless you're going for a basic machine I'd avoid 4 gigs the sweet spot
06:27is 8 gigabytes for video editing rendering or any sort of power user go
06:32for 16 gigs where possible and finally in terms of specs let's talk about
06:36storage and I can't emphasize this enough how important an SSD or solid
06:41state drive in your laptop is it makes a huge difference just to how fast
06:46everything feels from boot times opening programs generally using the desktop I
06:51really do highly recommend making sure your new laptop comes with an SSD some
06:56laptops have both like a 32 or 128 gigabyte SSD and then a second higher
07:02capacity hard drive that's fine too and is arguably the best of both worlds you
07:06get the SSD speed boost for Windows but you also get enough storage for all your
07:09files but let's keep things simple if you've got a budget of say 500 to a
07:14thousand look for a laptop that has an Intel core i3 or i5 8 gigs of RAM and at
07:21least a 256 gigabyte storage SSD over a thousand and then you can start looking
07:25at i5 and i7 processors up to 16 gigs of RAM and maybe a 512 gigabyte storage
07:31SSD but if you're on a tight budget under five or six hundred maybe consider
07:35something that has a core i3 or if you're really pushed maybe an Intel
07:40Celeron or Pentium processor this Asus switch 3 has a Pentium and it's fine
07:44because it's backed up by an SSD it's got 32 gigabytes of flash storage and
07:48that for basic Windows tasks makes the biggest difference in terms of
07:53performance and how fast everything feels now let's move on to gaming
07:56because while that lot will play some games maybe at lower to medium settings
08:01if you drop the resolution if you want to play games seriously and opt the
08:05res of the graphics have higher frame rates you're gonna want to look into a
08:08gaming laptop this is the HP Omen X I've got here and these generally come with
08:13an i7 processors 16 gigs of RAM and importantly a dedicated graphics card
08:18while this is gonna be ideal for gaming there is a halfway house between someone
08:23who wants a powerful but still portable laptop and someone who just wants the
08:27best gaming performance possible and you can still get dedicated graphics cards
08:31in laptops like these the Dell XPS 15 I've got here or the Surface Book 2 they
08:37both come with an Nvidia GTX 1050 so look for either Nvidia GTX or AMD RX or
08:43AMD Vega branding on a laptop that means it has a dedicated graphics card which
08:48will make your laptop a lot more powerful and capable of playing games
08:51with higher settings and at higher resolutions I will be making a separate
08:54video all about gaming laptops so make sure you click that subscribe button and
08:58also click that notification bell or tap it if you're on a phone so you don't
09:01miss that USB HDMI card readers ports are really important and to be honest
09:07all I would recommend is making sure the laptop you get comes with at least one
09:11USB 3.1 type-c port it is still relatively new but it can do pretty much
09:16everything and will definitely future-proof your laptop but even if the
09:20specs and the price and the size everything is right if the keyboard and
09:23the touchpad are rubbish then it's not gonna be very nice to use in my
09:27experience MacBooks and MacBook Pros have the best touchpads they're big
09:31responsive and there's great gesture support in Mac OS for Windows laptops
09:36try and get one with a Microsoft precision touchpad this basically
09:39guarantees the touchpad will be fast and precise if you're not sure if it's got
09:43one just google the laptops name along with precision touchpad and see if any
09:47reviews mention it don't worry too much if it doesn't have one although I would
09:51recommend then maybe trying it in the store before you buy it and the same
09:54with the keyboard it's very difficult to describe a keyboard other than saying
09:59it's responsive or clacky or spongy in a video like this so I would definitely
10:03recommend going to try it in person because keyboards are very tricky to
10:07talk about a lot of people use key travel how far the key goes in
10:11essentially as a differentiator between quality but that's not always the case
10:15and the latest keyboards say on the MacBook Pros have very very minimal key
10:19travel but are still very good so it's not a great indicator but what about
10:24battery life how long should your laptop last well anything quoted above six
10:28hours is decent but since most brands test them at low brightness if a
10:32retailer says six hours you can expect more like four in the real world the
10:36size of the battery 4k resolution screens graphics cards and older
10:40generation processors have the biggest impact on battery life most reviews you
10:44read will tell you how long a laptop lasts but if you can get one with at
10:47least six hours but preferably eight to ten hours then that'll do nicely if
10:51you're still here I'm very very impressed because that was a lot to take
10:54in and I appreciate you sticking with me hopefully that's made things a little
10:58bit clearer now you know what to look for when you go out and buy a new laptop
11:01I will put links to my recommended laptops in the description below for all
11:05sorts of different budgets and I will keep them updated as well with the
11:08latest models as they come out and if you've got any other questions or if
11:11you've got some laptop buying advice of your own that maybe I've missed put it
11:15in the comments below and then we can share it with everyone and if you want
11:17to see more of these types of videos tap that like and subscribe button below
11:21thank you very much for watching guys I'll see you next time right here on the
11:24tech chat