Buying Guide »


Introduction

Who could live without their laptop computer? Today everyone from gamers to grannies has their own laptop, complete with personal preferences from screen size to colour. Many of us prefer our laptops to desktop computers, even if we don't take them out of the house.


The days of complaints about poor battery power and over-heating are far behind us as innovation ensures all the essentials process effectively. Whether you’re a Mac fan or a die-hard PC lover, your ideal laptop is out there waiting for you to find it!


However, many laptop specs can seem confusing if you’re not familiar with the numbers and terminology used by vendors – and let’s face it, most of us aren’t. Luckily only a handful of these facts and figures are really essential; many are only useful if you’re after something particular from your laptop, for example, if its primary use will be playing networked games, or if you’re a designer looking to run a particular software package.


So what are the terms you do need to look out for? Our handy guide below will equip you with all the necessary information to identify what you really need from your laptop.


The essentials
1. CPU

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is, in a nutshell, the ‘brain’ of your laptop. Working alongside the Operating System, the CPU processes the instructions you give the laptop and fetches data from the RAM to allow execution. Intel and AMD are the most well known brands of CPU.


2. RAM

Random Access Memory (RAM) provides space for your laptop to read and write data to be accessed by the Central Processing Unit (CPU). When people refer to a computer’s memory, they usually mean its RAM. The more RAM a computer has, the less often the CPU has to read data from the hard disk, allowing the computer to work significantly faster. If you’re planning to use the internet and several applications/software programs outside the core Microsoft Office suite, you should look for at least 2 Gigabytes of RAM. If you work with image, video or audio editing software you may want to increase this to as much as 4 Gigabytes to help improve running speed.


by RAM Installed Size



Next

"Do you like our Buying Guides? Tell us your opinion and write a review"

Reviews of Laptops »

Great Product

Advantages: Everything about it
Disadvantages: None!

I received this laptop through as a replacement for my old faulty laptop, and I couldn't be any happier. It's got such a large hard drive, which I have never even came close to using up, and the RAM is definetely enough for me to even play my games on. The design of it is very sleek, really good and simple. When you put in the charger, a little light connects to the light that let you know that is it on. are good value for the prices that you pay ...

mrstewieo 23.01.2010 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Acer Aspire 5738

Speed

Look & Feel

Comfort & Portability

Robustness & Durability

Value For Money

Great laptop for money

Advantages: High spec for low price tag
Disadvantages: some may be unsure of the acer name, could have had larger hard drive

...a little unsure about the acer brand but after some research it seemed to be a reputable name. The laptop came with the newest version on windows (Windows7) and it has 4gb memory and 320GB hard drive. Due to the size of memory this laptop is extremly quick and can multi task very easily. Shut down and start up are quick and seemless. It comes with a good range of features and windows 7 is a vast improvement to vista. Battery life is slightly better ...

euanw1989 04.01.2010 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Acer Aspire 5732Z

Speed

Look & Feel

Comfort & Portability

Robustness & Durability

Value For Money

Brillant laptop

Advantages: Good spec for the price
Disadvantages: battery life bit on the short side

Took me a while to finally settling on a laptop. Was looking at laptops that cost more than this laptop and they didn't have what this laptop has to offer. Came with windows 7 and find that the two work well together. Speed and memory are ample for a normal laptop and are capable of handling some of the more less powerful games in the market (works well with command and conquer generals on high spec). I will test it on more powerful games but I believe ...
...is the main use is for gaming. Really only thing to bring up is portability. This wasn't a real concern for me as I wasn't taking on long distances away from a power source. For me battery life is about an hour and a bit after a long charge. Also that the laptop itself is quite wide (due to the screen). Really for the money I am willing to keep it in reach of a power source during normal usage. I find for the money this laptop is worth it. Would ...

Grzz 20.01.2010 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Acer Aspire 5542

Speed

Look & Feel

Comfort & Portability

Robustness & Durability

Value For Money

Acer Timeline 5810T genuinely runs for up to 8 hours on battery!

Advantages: slim, light design, long battery life, separate numeric keypad,
Disadvantages: Crashed daily until drivers updated, wifi button difficult to use,

...an important consideration. The Acer 5810T seemed too good to be true and was originally ruled out when it didn't appear to have an optical drive - this is incorrect! The laptop DOES have a DVD/CD drive despite it's slim design and extended battery life. Overall I'm really pleased with this laptop. It's really slim at one inch when closed and light at 1.6 kg, which is important as I haul it around a lot. The performance is good, although better when ...
...the graphics card from the Acer website, and occasional slow performance when using battery power alone - I think this is understandable and a reasonable trade-off for the extended battery life. There is a handy touch button to turn the wireless card on and off, but it only seems to respond once in about 8 touches! In summary this is a great machine which performs well in everything I need it to do for my work. The design is neat and minimalist - ...

Cordyline 05.11.2009 · Read full review

Review of Acer Aspire Timeline 5810T-944G32MN

Speed

Look & Feel

Comfort & Portability

Robustness & Durability

Value For Money

Acer Aspire 5536-643G50MN

Advantages: Multi Midia
Disadvantages: Size

this is an excellent laptop for playing games on with its radeon hd 3200 Graphics card with a max of 2GB!!!. then add the 3GB ram and the AMD processor! an speed is no consequence. the resolution on this wide screen 15.6" display isn't so great however with only 1366 x768, a bit disappointing. not very high definition. the wireless module isn't the latest on the block with only b/g and n draft. through for the price this laptop is great :-). the ...
...to handle with the touch pad being so far to the left, so not great if you have to have your laptops on your knees all the time like me. the 500GB hard drive is great for storing videos, music, games and pictures with room to spare!. this laptop runs windows vista home premium, which is still a good OS even if now out dated by the latest windows 7, however from just the look over them specs this laptop could take on windows 7 easily ...

jjlyon 12.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Acer Aspire 5536

Speed

Look & Feel

Comfort & Portability

Robustness & Durability

Value For Money


More popular products »

Samsung Armani

Touch screen is a novelty (*)

Kyoto Futons Metro Futon

Futon - Available in: Silver Frame with Fabric - Available as: 3 Seater - Bed size when open: Double

Nixon Venture Watch

Stainless stell band,doesn't scratch at all. (*)

Casio FX 9750 G

Answers in surd form (*)

Johnsons Baby Lotion

Smells nice, leaves skin lovely and soft, extremely versatile (*)

Acclaim Household Flea Spray

It works, Fleas are dead (*)

LG 19LG3050

19 in - 16:9 - Resolution: 1440 - 900 - Contrast Ratio: 5000:1 - Response Time: 5 ms - Brightness: 500cd/m²

(*) Reviews by Ciao members