How to buy cheap laptops
Every one is looking for laptop deals whether you want to buy laptops with the very best top-end specifications all the way down to the very cheapest used mini laptop - every one wants that best laptop deal. Quite simply the secret to getting the best laptop deal is to look for the best laptop at the top of your budget. Whether that’s thousands of dollars for the very best laptop or just a few hundred for a cheap mini laptop - always pay the most you can possibly afford.
Full size or mini laptop?
The first decision to make is do you want a full size cheap laptop or do you think you’d look at buying mini laptops? Mini laptops are fine but they don’t usually have the functionality of the full size best laptops. For instance they rarely have an internal optical drive, so no watching DVDs or listening to CDs. They invariably have small screens, anything from 8 to 10 inch, which can make viewing online videos awkward. Finally, others might only have ‘flash’ hard-drives or not allow you to install your favorite software. Having said that, if you want an easily portable machine that will do a fine job surfing the net for you - then buy a mini laptop by all means. Remember a cheap mini can still be a great deal if you shop around online for cheap laptops. How much will a mini laptop cost to run compared to a full-size one - well all modern laptops are energy star qualified. Which brings us to finding cheap laptops. Just about any cheap laptop will perform every bit as well as a desktop computer so, in that respect, a cheap laptop will in all likelihood be a real bargain too. What you need to consider here is just what might be meant by a cheap laptop as opposed to a great value one.
Value for money in your cheap laptop
Some things to look out for in particular if you want to buy the very best laptop possible are as follows. Trying to advise anyone about the processor they should have in a cheap laptop is pretty well impossible as they change so quickly. But, at the time of writing, you really should be looking for something that’s at least got a speed of 1.6GHz, even for a really cheap laptop. Having said that the best laptop processors are currently hitting 2.66 GHz. Similarly a minimum of a 160GB hard disk and 2GB of RAM are recommended. Cheap laptops often have a graphics card that’s integrated to the motherboard. This means it doesn’t have its own dedicated memory but shares some of the system memory. This can slow down the whole machine and make websites/images slow to load. If you’re a games freak - look for cheap laptops with dedicated graphics instead, if you’re after one of the best laptops, insist on it. Unless you really wanted to buy mini laptops, go for at least a 15 inch screen, the bigger the better, providing you don’t want to carry it around too much. If it’s a cheap laptop the screen will probably be a TFT one, upgrades to Super-TFT or LED will be nice.
Mini laptops, new versus old
With so many fantastic deals around to buy cheap mini laptops, you really should think twice about going for a used mini laptop. Not that you can’t buy mini laptops that are pre-owned with warranties and in great condition, but quite often for just a hundred bucks more you can get a brand new cheap mini. Buying a used mini laptop does make sense if you just want something to surf online in the coffee bars, a school use laptop or perhaps as a back-up to your best laptop, but with brand new cheap mini laptops at such ridiculously low prices - why?
Laptop extras
Things like firewire, esata or display ports for HDMI should all be standard on the best laptops and if you can get them on cheap mini or ordinary cheap laptops all the better. With wifi coverage being so good thee days you probably don’t need the old modem connector, but if that’s important to you - check it out on the specifications. Talking of wifi, if you’ve got an 802.11n enabled router - will the wifi card talk to it? Finally one for the cheap mini laptop market. You can spend a fortune if you want to buy laptop accessories, but I would definitely buy mini laptops an external optical drive that’ll connect through a USB port.