How to buy the right laptop or PC

There are many things you need to consider before buying a PC laptop. You can’t just but the one you think looks the best. It needs to be suited to your particular needs. The first question that students must ask themselves is will I get a PC or a laptop? I would definitely say a laptop. One of the main reasons for this is size. First of all many students would be moving away from home to go to college and they can’t be bringing down a big huge computer especially when they are most likely going to e sharing accommodation which itself probably won’t be very spacious. For this course I also think that it is important that the students have a laptop because again I think size is an important deciding factor. Many students bring their laptops to and from college and it needs to be fairly compact in that situation then.

An obvious factor of course when choosing a laptop is price. Being a student you don’t have much money so the top of line laptop is out of the question. As mention previously the size is important because you will be bringing you laptop everywhere with you so there is the possibility of it getting quite battered along the way.  However getting the cheapest one too is also not a great idea. For this course you are constantly researching or working on assignments and so can’t afford for your laptop to be always breaking down on you. So I would suggest a good quality one that is not likely to breakdown but not so good that you’re taking out a loan to get one.

The next question is though what kind of laptop? There are so many out there today how does one even begin choosing the one that will suit them. First of all you must consider what exactly you need the laptop for. For example with this course it is essential that the laptop has Microsoft Word or if not that it is able to have Microsoft Word. With this course you will be doing many presentations and powerpoints so you will need to take into consideration the RAM as you may need multiple programmes open at once.

For this course one of the modules deals with design and graphics and although it is not essential that you have it I would recommend a laptop that can download the Adobe programmes such as photoshop. You want to be able to work on your work where ever you are not just in college. But being able to work in college with your laptop is important too. But you must take into consideration the batter size. It is likely that you won’t always be able to charge your laptop in college as there may not be enough plugs so it is important then that your laptop has a long battery life.

I feel it is an obvious factor but an essential one none the less. The internet. I’m sure most laptops now come with the ability to connect to the internet but it is something you must check before buying. For this course it is essential that you can connect to the internet. Many lecturers put their notes up online or will ask you to submit work or assignments online. It is also important for research purposes. Some of your modules especially that of design and ICT make require you to do your work online and sometimes it is just not convenient to be working from college. Another obvious it that it be easy to use. You are going to be spending most of your time on it and doing most if not all of your college work and assignments on it. You can’t afford to be spending all your time figuring out how to open a programme or get something started.  For this reason I also recommend a PC laptop not a Mac unless you are actually used to dealing with them. Personally I find them very hard to use and not easy to figure out either.