Laptop lowdown: 25 things you need to know to buy the perfect notebook

As components keep improving, today's powerful laptops can go keyboard to keyboard with many full-size desktops. This may be good news for buyers, but it complicates the selection process.

Sure, you want bleeding-edge technology, but what about price? How big a screen can you get without giving up on portability? What types of ports do you need, and how many are enough? And what about RAM?

These are just some of the questions you'll need to answer before you start shopping. To help, we've assembled this buyer's guide of things you need to consider when choosing a mobile PC.

Choose your form factor The CPU and you A word about wide-screens The (not-so) great outdoors Mind your memory Finger fitting Touchy, touchy

Vying for video RAM A slot for all reasons Get connected Go wireless Power without the plug What's in a name? Click here for Part 2

Choose your form factor
Notebooks are broken down into four categories by weight, with some overlap: ultraportables (less than 2 kilograms), thin-and-lights (2 to 4 kilograms), mainstream models (3 to 5 kilograms), and desktop replacements (more than 5 kilograms).

Ultraportables excel for frequent fliers who need just the essentials while on the road. Screen sizes are small -- usually 10 or 12 inches -- and their keyboards petite. Also, to make these machines so small, features such as internal optical drives, large and fast hard drives, and extra ports are frequently absent.

Their batteries also need to be small and often yield as little as 2 hours of juice. New processor technologies, however, can extend battery life to beyond 4 hours. Finally, tiny tech comes at a higher cost compared with larger laptops.

A balance between size, battery life, and power, thin-and-light laptops tend to be the perfect fit for both students and business users. Their larger screens -- 14 to 15 inches -- and roomier keyboards make them more comfortable than ultraportables for longer computing sessions. Depending on usage, you can expect about 4 hours of battery life. The MacBook Air personifies this category, even if it is feature-light compared to its competitors.

Mainstream laptops are like budget desktops: They're good for general tasks but won't win any contests for their performance or features. Though they don't qualify as thin or light, they still offer some portability. With 14-inch or larger screens, a standard selection of ports, and big keyboards, they're suitable for everyday use.

If you want desktop power, you need a desktop replacement. With screen sizes of 15 to 17 inches, travel weights as heavy as six kilos, and average battery life of less than three hours, these behemoths are not for people on the go. They can accommodate a wide range of performance parts, however, and are just right for power users of all kinds.

The CPU and you
When it comes to processors, go with the fastest you can afford, regardless of the notebook's form factor. You have a lot of options, so here are the basics.

Intel's Centrino line offers speed while enabling great battery life. These processors, combined with Intel's wireless LAN electronics, make up Intel's Centrino mobile technology. A new standard, codenamed Montevina (and to be officially called Centrino 2), is due to be released in early June 2008 and incorporates support for newer processors, Intel's new GMAX4500 graphics chip, turbo memory, DisplayPort and in some configurations, WiMax support.

AMD's mobile processors are generally more affordable than Intel's, but they usually lag behind Intel's in performance. AMD's Turion 64 X2 processors have closed the gap somewhat, but their performance is still behind the Core 2 Duo chips.

You might also see Pentium dual core CPUs, Celerons, and VIA C7s in the market. These tend to be used in sub-AU$1000, low power laptops such as the ASUS EeePC, primarily to keep cost down as performance is generally not a major concern with these devices.

Some laptops contain a desktop processor from either Intel or AMD rather than a mobile one. Desktop CPUs come in a broad range of speeds and prices, but they aren't designed for mobility, so they run hotter and guzzle battery juice.

A word about wide-screens
The majority of notebooks sold these days are Wide-screen notebooks, which have an aspect ratio of 16:10, offering larger, sharper, and all-around better images than their 4:3 standard-screen cousins. They're great for watching DVDs, of course, but they also allow you to have two documents or Web pages open side-by-side. A spacious 17-inch wide-screen laptop is a nice luxury if you're not planning on traveling with it. A few 16:9 screens have started popping up as well.

The (not-so) great outdoors
Sunlight is not ideal for computing -- specifically, for seeing the screen. If you want to work outdoors, you have options, but most consumer models have what are known as transmissive screens. These screens are lit from behind, and despite what you've seen in the commercials, they're virtually invisible on a bright, sunny day. Reflective LCDs, which light the screen's pixels from the front and reflect polarised light from the environment, are much better for outdoor work, but their screens look dim indoors. What's more, they're mostly reserved for vertical-market notebook models and are pretty tough to come by. It doesn't help that most consumer laptops these days come with glossy screens, making reflections a pain! If you're going to be working outdoors, make sure there's a matte option for your screen.

Mind your memory
Having enough memory is vital to system performance, and lots of RAM lets you run more applications simultaneously. Sufficient RAM is also necessary for graphics work, image editing, and video editing, and crucial for 3D gaming. This is especially true in notebooks, because notebook graphics processors frequently have little or no memory of their own and share the main system RAM.

Adding RAM is an easy way to boost performance, but first make sure the notebook's memory sockets are accessible. (They're usually under a panel on the bottom of the system.) Here's an easy way to determine how much you need:

512MB: Generally fine if you're running a Linux variant on something small like an EeePC, but really, this is far too little for today's uses.

1GB: Adequate for running a number programs at once, photo editing, and basic 3D gaming. Also the minimum required to run Vista.

2GB or more: Recommended! Good for 3D gaming, graphics work, and video editing, and will definitely give Vista a kick along. 2GB is a nice safe bet in terms of giving your laptop the flexibility it needs. If you hit the 4GB point, you'll need to run a 64-bit Operating System to take advantage of all of the memory -- a 32-bit one won't be able to access it all.

Finger fitting
As notebooks shrink in size, so do their keyboards. If possible, try some simple typing exercises before you buy. The smaller the keyboard, the more creative the vendor may have gotten with key size and placement. Pay particular attention to the spacebar, Shift, Ctrl, and Backspace/Delete keys. Be sure all are in a good location for your hand size and typing style.

Touchy, touchy
Computing today relies a lot on mousing. With a notebook, all you get is a touch pad or pointing stick. Unless you plan on traveling with a mouse, test the notebook's input device for comfort and responsiveness. Some touch pads include extra features, such as a dedicated area for scrolling. We've never been big fans of those little pointing sticks tucked in the middle of the keyboard, because precision is tough and the little nubs wear off, requiring replacement.

Vying for video RAM
If you're not planning on doing much graphics work or playing 3D games, shared memory should be fine. But if you have a choice, aim for a graphics chipset that shares at least 256MB of system memory. You may not find it in an ultraportable, but other notebook types may offer more robust graphics chipsets. In fact, some high-end notebooks have discrete graphics subsystems with dedicated high-speed video memory. If gaming or intensive graphics work is on the agenda, look for 256MB or 512MB of dedicated memory.

A slot for all reasons
Like a PCI slot in a desktop, an ExpressCard slot provides expansion opportunities. Additional USB, FireWire, SATA and ethernet ports, sound cards, wireless cards and TV tuners are all available in ExpressCard format. It comes in two sizes -- 54 and 34, representing how many millimetres wide they are. Both sizes end in a 34mm connection, with the 54mm end of the bigger card used to store extra circuitry. As such, an ExpressCard 34 will fit in a 54 slot, but not vice versa.

Business laptops are still using the older PC Card (or PCMCIA) instead of ExpressCard, and there are still more peripherals available through PC Card than ExpressCard. PC Cards and slots come in three sizes: Type I, II, and III. Type I cards are normally used for memory, Type II for input/output devices, and Type III for mass storage and firewalls.

Get connected
Ports, especially USB and FireWire, are necessities, but on notebooks they're usually in short supply. At a minimum, look for two USB ports, and if you have any legacy devices, such as parallel printers, look for those ports, too. If you'd like to use a digital camcorder or iPod with your notebook, make sure the notebook has a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Connecting a monitor will require a VGA port at minimum (if you'll be giving presentations, a VGA port is also where you'll connect a projector), but for extra image quality look for a DVI, HDMI or Displayport connector in addition to this. If you want to output video to an older television, find a notebook with an S-Video out.

Go wireless
Integrated wireless networking (Wi-Fi) has become an indispensable feature. Most notebooks ship with a variant of 802.11n these days, although some still use 802.11g as the N standard has yet to be fully ratified. Public hotspots typically use 802.11g, which fortunately 802.11n is backwards compatible with as well as 802.11b.

Two more specs to look for in laptop batteries are capacity (measured in milliamp hours, or mAh), and the number of cells. Typical batteries have a mAh rating between 2,000mAh and 6,000mAh; higher is better. Cells are the actual compartments where power is produced and can range from four to 12; the more the better -- although take in mind this may cause the battery pack to stick out from your laptop in potentially awkward positions.

What's in a name?
Intel loves its code-names. In the mobile arena, the company's Centrino mobile technology tops the list. The current Centrino platform (codenamed Santa Rosa), which arrived in early 2007, combines Intel's Pentium Core 2 Duo CPU, Intel 965 chipset, and the Intel WiFi Link 4965AGN chip. A notebook must have all three parts to be a Centrino notebook. You'll see stickers claiming either the laptop is "Centrino Pro" or "Centrino Duo" -- the Pro version just has vPro added on top of the usual specs.

The Montevina platform, announced in June 2008, updates Centrino once more, mandating faster processors, turbo memory, better graphics, gigabit ethernet, and either built in Wi-Max or Wi-Fi. It'll be marketed as Centrino 2.

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