Nate Meyvis

Notes on buying a basic laptop

This post attempts to answer this question: "I want to buy a laptop to do basic things; which one should I buy?"

Usually these "basic things" are:

Often the asker wants to know if buying some mass-market Windows laptop is a good idea.

Here's what I tend to say:

  1. Effectively anything for sale at Costco or Best Buy will be powerful enough, spec-wise, to do these things. It can be hard to find a new laptop with less than 16GB of RAM, and that's plenty for basic computer usage.
  2. Given that the internals are probably sufficient for the computer's intended use, the main things determining the overall quality of one's experience with the computer will probably be (i) the screen, (ii) the keyboard, and (iii) the overall build of the machine. These are all largely subjective aspects of a computer: you won't be getting the best, but many people find many entry-level components perfectly acceptable.
  3. To evaluate these, either see one up close in person or look on YouTube for reviews. The overall grade the reviewer gives is less important than simply getting a sense of the computer's look and feel. (YouTube is an excellent resource here; if you're asking this question and curious about a specific computer, there are probably many reviews of it available.)
  4. If you are willing to spend $300 - $600 on a new lower-end Windows machine, you might consider buying a used Mac laptop. You will probably get a better build, better screen, and better keyboard, and the expected lifespan of many used Macs is at least comparable to that of a new lower-end Windows machine. There's also a lot of "bloatware" / advertising junk built into mass-market Windows machines that you won't get on a Mac. This has obvious tradeoffs: you need to source the used computer, perhaps acquaint yourself (or the person you're buying it for) with Apple software, and so on. But in some situations, these tradeoffs will be well in your favor.
  5. Specifically, if you are buying this computer for a student, note that video games are, generally, not as well supported on Macs. In some contexts, poor support for gaming can be a good thing!