Once used only by travelling business people, laptops are now a great computing solution for everyone, from high-powered executives travelling First Class to families wanting a PC to use at home. Whether you want something portable just so that you can move it from room to room, or need a very lightweight workhorse because you're constantly on the road, there's a laptop out there that's right for you.

But while entry-level laptops have come down in price, they still cost money, so it's worth making sure you spend wisely. There's a wide variety of features to think about, so to make it easier, we answer the questions you should ask yourself before you buy:

• What's my budget?
• What's in a laptop?
• Where am I going to use my new laptop?
• What am I going to use my new laptop for?
• How flexible do I want my laptop to be?
• What else should I care about?

Click on any of these links to get some valuable advice, and tips on how you can use PriceRunner to find the perfect laptop computer.

Alternatively, go straight to any of these to read more:

• Processor
• Hard disk drive
• RAM (memory)
• Screen
• Battery
• Optical drives
• Input devices
• Ports
• Operating system
• Software

What's my budget?

When you are buying a new laptop computer, it's very easy to find the cost creeping upwards as you choose all the elements you think you want and finalise the specification. So, work out your real budget first. Then you need to identify the cost of any extras you are likely to need in order to find out how much you have left for the laptop itself. For example, you may already know you want certain brands and versions of software applications (such as Microsoft Office, a photo editing application, anti-virus software and a few games), so calculate a rough cost for these and put that aside. You should also allow for things such as:

• cables
• decent laptop bag
• wireless adaptor
• separate mouse and keyboard if you want to use these at home instead of the laptop's own ones
• extra battery
• cable lock
• docking station or port replicator

Some of these are hard to price up exactly before you've decided which laptop you are going to buy, but you can probably make a reasonable guess. And if you do get any of these extras bundled with the laptop for free or for less than you expected, then this leaves you with extra money to upgrade the laptop specification.

Back to the top

What's in a laptop?

A laptop is, more-or-less, a single unit, but the elements that go together to make up a laptop need to be considered in their own right. You need to understand what they do so that you can work out what's important for you and where you can save cash, in order to get the ideal solution. The key elements include:

• processor
• hard disk drive
• RAM (memory)
• screen
• battery
• optical drives
• input devices
• ports

All of these are combined cleverly into a case that can weigh as little as 2kg (or less) and be smaller than a pad of A4 paper. Tiny "ultraportable" laptops aren't for everyone, though, but laptops go right up to machines that are quite rightly called desktop replacements, as they can weigh well over 4kg and have screens larger than some desktop PCs.

Processor

The processor is the brains of any laptop. Its power is primarily indicated by its speed, which is measured in gigahertz (GHz). (Older, slower processors had speeds measured in megahertz (MHz).) However, you can only truly use speed to differentiate between processors of exactly the same type, as there are other differences between them, even if they are made by the same company. Use results from benchmark tests carried out by independent organisations if you want to compare the performances of processors from different manufacturers or different processor families.

The main processor manufacturers are Intel and AMD, although there are a few older Apple Macintosh laptops still around that sport G3 and G4 processors. Intel's laptop processors include the Core 2 Duo, Core Duo and Core Solo, along with a few Pentium and Celeron options. AMD's offerings include Turion and Sempron chips, but you'll still find laptops with AMD Athlon processors too.

Contrary to popular belief, Intel's widely advertised Centrino is not a processor in its own right. What it is is Intel's way of offering laptop manufacturers (and buyers) a solution that addresses issues such as battery life, wireless communications and security. For a laptop to carry the Centrino label, it must include one of the specified combinations of Intel processor, chipset and wireless network interface. But you don't need to buy a laptop with a Centrino sticker on it to get wireless communications: there are other solutions.

Not all processors that are used in laptops were actually designed for portable machines. Others do get used sometimes as they offer fantastic performance, but they do so at the expense of battery life and can get hot. Some of Intel and AMD's processor families have both mobile and non-mobile processors in them, so look for the "Mobile" or "M" tag, or check the Intel website (www.intel.com) and AMD website (www.amd.com) to find up-to-date lists of purpose-built laptop processors.

Back to the top

Hard disk drive

The hard disk drive holds all your software, files and folders, as well as the computer's operating system. The two features to consider here are the size of the hard drive and the speed at which it spins.

Larger hard drives store more information but also cost more, so you need to consider what you will store on the drive over the lifetime of the machine. Even the smallest disks should be fine for general use, but if you want to store lots of music files, photographs, video clips and so on, you should look at 60 to 80GB disks.

Hard drive speeds aren't often listed except in detailed specifications. All you need to know is that the faster drives (usually 5,400rpm) will serve up your data quicker, but use more battery power to do this.

Back to the top

RAM (memory)

RAM stands for random access memory. This is where data and applications are stored temporarily while you are using them. Operating systems and software applications will state a minimum amount of RAM that is needed to run them, but try to find the money to buy more than this. The fastest processors will be shackled by limited RAM, so unless you have a very large budget, spend your money on adding extra RAM instead of a faster processor to get better performance and lengthen the lifespan of your PC.

You can usually upgrade the memory in a laptop, but it's not a job for the faint-hearted, so if you aren't very technical, get what you need now. Few portables are sold with the minimum 256MB any more, with most having at least 512MB, which is fine, and many offering 1024MB.

Back to the top

Screen

Laptop screens are, mainly, smaller than desktop screens because the bigger they are, the more the laptops weighs. The only way to know whether you'll be comfortable using any particular screen is to look at one that's the same size, and to either read reviews or see a matching unit yourself to check if the brightness and quality are OK.

Check the maximum resolution that the screen can handle – this is the number of dots used to make up the picture and is written as the number of dots horizontally times the number vertically (such as 1024x768). The higher the maximum resolution, the more you can fit on the screen, but text (of the same ‘point' size) will be smaller and at very high resolutions it may be hard to read. Resolution and screen size together determine the absolute size of what you see.

Laptop screens are made up of individual pixels, and it is possible that your new laptop will arrive with one or two faulty pixels. Every manufacturer and vendor has a tolerance level for the number of pixels that have to be dud before they will agree that the screen is faulty and replace the laptop. There's not a lot you can do about this, other than to be aware of it. If this really is a major issue for you, for example because of the job you do, discuss it with the vendor before you buy anything.

Back to the top

Battery

Other than your staying power, the battery is the limiting factor on how long you can use a laptop away from a power socket. Specifications will include a battery life figure, but how long a battery actually lasts depends on what you are doing with it. Playing games will use up battery life faster than writing something using a word processor, for example.

Reviews and independent benchmark test results are the best way of finding out what a realistic battery life is for any particular laptop, but you can compare the specs to an extent to find relative figures.

Back to the top

Optical drives

As well as a hard drive, virtually all laptops come with one or more other drives that take removeable media. Once this meant a floppy drive, but as these grow ever rarer, you're most likely to find some kind of CD and/or DVD drive. Straightforward CD-ROM drives, which only read CD-ROMs, are also getting rarer. Instead you need to choose from CD writers, some of which can read DVD-ROM discs, or a DVD writer. The main differences between the disk types are:

CD and DVD writers should be able to write to single session (R) and multiple session (RW) disks.

Disk drives spin the disks at specific speeds to read them and sometimes at lower speeds when writing. These speeds are expressed as a multiple of the speed of the first such devices that cam out (such as an 8x DVD drive). So a combined CD-RW/DVD-RW drive can have an almost mind-boggling set of numbers to go with it. Suffice it to say, the majority will work fast enough unless you have special requirements.

The smallest laptops may not have an optical drive built in but may offer one as an external module instead that's attached by a short cable. Others have a drive bay that can take any one of a number of different "hot swappable" drives, such as an optical drive, floppy drive or second hard drive. Not all of these will necessarily be included in the base price of the laptop, so check what you will get as standard.

Back to the top

Input devices

Instead of a mouse most laptops have either a touchpad (a touch-sensitive, square or rectangular flat area in front of the keyboard) and/or a pointing stick (like a pencil rubber that acts as a small joystick). These are solutions dictated by the laptop format, but a lot of people find them hard to use.

Read reviews to find out how they perform for any particular model, and consider buying a mouse to use whenever possible. You can get very small portable mice that are good if you travel a lot.

Ports

Laptops seem to come with a bewildering array of different ports. Here's a list of ones to look for:

You might also find slots for different memory cards, such as SmartMedia and CompactFlash, so that you can download files from your digital camera easily. You may also find PC Card or the newer, smaller ExpressCard slots, which let you use devices that add memory, wired and wireless communications, and even multimedia and security functions.

Back to the top

Where am I going to use my new laptop?

Careful consideration of where you are likely to use your new notebook will help you to narrow down your choice and decide what peripherals you need to go with it.

Travellers

Unless you want a laptop solely for home or will never carry it further than from your office to the car park, then avoid the heaviest laptops (those over 4kgs). Frequent travellers should think about reducing the weight limit to 3kg while frequent fliers should consider an ultra-portable PC which weighs less than 2kg and is very thin. You can use the filtering options on PriceRunner to help you with this.

If you plan to use your laptop on trains, planes or buses, then (unless you travel First Class) avoid the very largest models, as otherwise you may end up annoying your fellow passengers as you encroach on their personal space, or may even not be able to open the screen fully. You can find overall sizes among the laptops' specifications, and can sort the laptops on PriceRunner by screen size.

Think about any drives you may want to use as you travel. Some very small portables don't have CD/DVD drives built in but offer them as external drives instead. This isn't very practical to use on public transport unless you have a table and plenty of room.

Travellers should also consider the battery life of any laptop very carefully, and might want to invest in a spare, second battery. This will add to the overall weight of what you're carrying around, though. You should definitely consider a small portable mouse, as the touchpads and pointing sticks built in to laptops are rarely easy to use for very long.

Finally, try to assess how rugged the laptop is by reading the reviews. Lighter laptops are less likely to be very rugged, but the cases are getting better all the time. If you use a well-padded bag, you can get a reasonably light solution that's also OK to take out and about.

Work and home

People who use a laptop at home as well as at work need to think about how they travel when deciding what kind of laptop to buy (see above). The amount you have to carry your PC will determine how light and small you need it to be.

If you mainly carry your laptop between a couple of places (such as home and work), consider getting a mouse, keyboard and monitor for either or both locations and look for a laptop with the right ports. Whether you need these is a matter of personal preference, but the longer you use the laptop in one place, the easier you are likely to find it if you can use a proper mouse and a full-sized keyboard for typing, for example, and those with small screens will find it easier on the eyes to buy a separate monitor.

You could also consider a docking station or port replicator. These let you leave all your peripherals hooked up, so that connecting them to your laptop is quick and easy every time. These aren't available for every laptop, so you need to look for this as an option if you want one.

Home users

The low price of laptops means more people are buying them for home use, so that they can be moved from room to room and/or packed away when not in use. In this case, weight won't be an issue and you should look for the largest screen you can afford (the keyboard should also be proportionately larger).

Again, you should consider a separate mouse to make it easier to use. But once you start thinking of adding a monitor and keyboard, you might as well buy a desktop.

Back to the top

What am I going to use my new laptop for?

You can narrow down your choice of laptop by considering how much you need to carry it around and where you are going to use it. Other features can be determined by what you actually want to do with it.

Standard applications

If you simply want a laptop to run standard applications such as a word processor or spreadsheet, then almost every one on the market will do. You need to get a screen you can comfortably use (probably 14 inches or more) and any peripherals you may need. Other than that, get the best balance of processor speed and RAM that you can afford to make it ‘future-proof'.

Images and sounds

If you are going to be downloading a lot of images from your digital camera, or sound files to add to your MP3 player, you'll need to add a large hard drive to you specification. These files can take up a lot of room and few people ever get round to deleting the ones they don't really want.

If you want to actually play music then you can look for a decent sound card but laptop speakers are never going to be fantastic, so think about investing in some good headphones or separate speakers and make sure you have an audio and/or headphones socket.

Communications

If you want to use email and do some basic Internet surfing, make sure you get an appropriate communications solution to match your home or work setup. (For example, a wireless connection won't help much on a home PC if you don't have a compatible device, such as a wireless router, to communicate with.) In particular you need to make sure any wireless solution is the same specification as your router or modem, as there is more than one standard. The latest and fastest is 802.11g but this is backwards compatible with 802.11b – you just won't get the full benefits if you have a mixed setup.

Power user

If you are going to run more demanding applications and multitask frequently, you need to specify plenty of RAM memory and the best processor you can afford. Multimedia authors and gamers also need the largest screen they can get (or carry) and should look for an advanced graphics accelerator from the likes of ATI or nVidia with plenty of its own dedicated memory. They should also look for a fast hard drive (5,400rpm) which shouldn't add a lot to the total price.

Back to the top

How flexible do I want my laptop to be?

Most laptops are built with the same clamshell design, where the lid opens up to reveal that it contains the screen, while the keyboard is in the lower half of the device. The screens are often the traditional 4:3 ratio (much like a standard television). There are, though some alternatives to this.

If you often have two or more applications or browser windows open at once, consider looking for a laptop with a widescreen format screen. While not as good as a large widescreen monitor on a desktop, the format can make it easier to work in multiple applications.

Another thing to look for is how the screen opens up from the body of the laptop. Some have different hinges so that the screen can be positioned more flexibly. The most extreme version of this is the style where the screen can be rotated to sit on top of the keyboard, creating a tablet-style PC that you operate using a stylus, but you need a special version of the operating system to make this work. (There are also laptops that are simply tablet PCs with no keyboard, but these are usually for specialised fields.)

Back to the top

What else should I care about?

Operating system

Every laptop will come with an operating system, but the choice varies quite a lot. Apple Mac users should look for the latest version of the operating system, but PC users have to choose between a range of versions of Windows (plus the odd alternative, such as FreeDOS).

Microsoft tends to offer a variety of levels of any version of Windows it brings out. So the latest version of Windows - Vista - starts with the limited Home Basic and building right up to the Ultimate version that has everything in it. In between there is a more functional Home Premium version, which is probably what most home users should consider, plus Business and Enterprise versions.

There's always an overlap between versions of operating systems, and it's not always a bad thing to buy an older one if you have good reason to do so. However, interim releases (sometimes called point releases or service packs) are sometimes done to fix security problems and you need to make sure you don't miss out on these if a vendor is shifting old kit.

Software

Any software you get with your laptop will almost certainly either be a cut-down, time-limited or otherwise free package. Everything else you will have to pay for, but it can still be cheaper to buy it bundled and pre-installed with a new laptop than to buy it separately. You won't necessarily get any installation disks or even manuals to go with it, though.

Bluetooth

Some laptops have the Bluetooth short-range wireless communication option built in. This will let you communicate with any Bluetooth-enabled device, such as a mobile phone or handheld PDA.

Back to the top