Knowledge Base

How do you think the majority of students use their smartphones? Are they on Instagram, or do they Tweet, Poke, Like, Snapchat or Circle their friends throughout the day? Is it only texting or is there more to it? On the face of it, students seem to be so into their smartphones that they are almost divorced from the world as it is on the outside.

True as this may be, it’s only half the story.

It might surprise one to learn that students are using their smartphones in many interesting ways. To cut to the chase – students use their smartphones for taking tests, studying smartly, and talking to each other. In fact, most students are using their phones to study and not chat with their friends as most would think. The infographic below shares the vision about the future of students’ use of smartphones.

We would love to know about your take on tech assisted studies. 

(infographic courtesy: itecenkara)

Whether you are a student or a working professional, it is possible that you carry a laptop, smartphone and your everyday baggage; often all three at the same time. Instead of carrying so many things separately, it is preferable to use a laptop bag that would have enough space to keep your smartphone and other necessities along with your laptop. It can be a daunting task to decide the perfect laptop bag that will let you store all your essentials and look good while doing so. Since choosing a laptop bag purely depends on your taste, it is necessary to check out different options available today and choose the right one. To make it simpler, we introduce you to some of the most popular laptop bags and styles available out there.

1. Case Logic 12 inch Netbook attaché

This messenger or briefcase can easily fit a 13 inch MacBook Pro. It has separate compartments that have enough room for you to put in your essentials.

2. Pabonis 14-15 inch Female business bag
It is essential to pack this bag in an organized way so that it can easily hold all your important stuff. You can easily store your laptop, makeup kit, notebooks and any other additional accessories in this bag.

3. Waterfield Muzetto
This stylish bag provides adequate space to fit up to a 15 inch laptop. It is designed to carry a tablet, iPad or laptop. It is perfect for travel and doesn’t look bulky even when it is stuffed.

4. Ogio Director
This is an ideal travel companion that lets you keep your carry-on items and a few extra stuff along with a laptop. It can be simply attached to the handle of your luggage bag. This bag also provides a checkpoint-friendly flip-open laptop compartment.

5. Silo Tote Ami
This stylish fun tote is fashionable and is ideal to carry at business events. It provides well-organized compartments and sturdy frames that let you store your important papers and laptop together.

6. Ogio Newt
The Ogio Newt is a laptop backpack that comes with an attractive structure and has a convenient stow-away side laptop slot. It offers plenty of organizational space that is ideal for your devices and makes it look like a comfortable companion.

7. Booq Boa Squeeze

This backpack is organized with multiple storage compartments. It is uniquely designed with a pod-like structure and adds diversity to the same old backpack design.

8. STM Convoy
This laptop backpack has a canvas fabric design that keeps its inside modern enough to protect your laptop and other high-tech devices.

9. Timbuk2 Candy Bar backpack
This backpack has a smaller form factor that is usually used in backpacks created for mobile devices. However, this backpack is designed for large laptops. It has limited compartment space and is lightweight because it is made from ballistic nylon material.

10. Mobile Edge EVO
This backpack has a pod-like shape and is perfect for carrying heavy loads without causing additional strain to your back. It is ideal for those who have to place their laptop over books and papers as it helps in balancing the load.

When you are looking out for a laptop bag, you need to ensure that it has enough compartments to keep your things organized. Some laptop bags may appear large, but they may not be ideal for your needs. So, it is preferable to scan the different factors of a laptop bag and choose one accordingly.

Make a list of all your requirements and then select the perfect bag. Laptops are expensive and a good bag is an investment more than an expense. Share your thoughts in the comment section below. Also, feel free to share this article with anyone who wants to buy a laptop bag.

Also read: Tech assisted studies to benefit students?

Most of the people spend a large part of their day away from home. A bag is a great tool to carry all your essentials on the move. Bags have not only become an important part of living but also a great fashion statement.

From all the different type of bags that exist, the back pack is one of the most favoured choices. Backpacks offer a number of benefits for all types of user especially travellers. They are a lucrative alternative to larger tote bags, duffel bags and suitcases.

If you are a business traveller or just a hobbyist, a travel backpack is an ideal choice for you. Travel bags have extra compartments, fit in tight spaces and are extremely portable, leading to a comfortable travel experience. Following is a list of reasons why travelling bags make an excellent addition to your inventory of travel gear.

• Easy to pack and store: The ergonomic design of a travel backpacks makes it easy to fit it in overhead bins of buses, trains and airplanes. Backpacks are not so rigid as compared to other bags this lets it easily adjust according to the storage space. Some travel backpacks have straps that let you compress the packs contents to increase space efficiency.

• Comfort: Travel backpacks usually have two straps to let you hang your bag on both your shoulders, this ensures equal weight distribution. Travel backpack decreases the strain on your body than other kinds of luggage. This is ideal for situations where you have to lug your back for longer hours. Most travel backpacks have padded shoulder pads along with woven elastic material to increase overall comfort. This feature is also seen in laptop bags.

• Better Organizing: Travel backpacks are designed to have several compartments to store smaller items, such as water bottles, cell phones, MP3 players, tablets, and other such essentials. This makes it easier to be organized while travelling, granting you easy access to all your basic items and accessories. This is extremely useful when the travel conditions are bad. Many travellers are known to have basic first aid kits handy in case the need arises

• Freedom of Movement: One of the biggest benefits of travel backpacks is the freedom of movement it provides. No matter the terrain, you can easily find your way through it. Travel backpacks are easier tomanoeuvre through a crowd of people compared to most other types of luggage. Besides the chances of you forgetting your backpack or it being stolen is also lesser as you have your bag with you at all times.

• Protection against External Elements: Most travel backpacks are made with water-resistant and waterproof materials. This protects your valuables and contents of the bag no matter what the eternal weather conditions are. Some bags are constructed with external covers for better protection again rains and water leakage. This is very crucial for people carrying electronics and especially, users of laptops backpacks. Some backpacks are made with new-age material such as polywick fabric, ballistic nylon and similar weather-proofing fabrics especially for outdoorsy travellers.

Share this blog with your friends, particularly anyone who needs help on selecting the perfect backpack.

 Also Read: Which laptop bag is perfect for you?

The 15 inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was released by Apple in last June and it was priced very high at that time. In October, the 13 inch MacBook Pro was launched which was priced a bit lower than the 15-inch model. Now, this year Apple has dropped the prices on its entire range of retina MacBook Pros especially in India. This comes as great news for all MacBook lovers who found their prices too high. The newer 13-inch MacBook Pro with retina display looks like an amazing model that gives screen resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 and yet is quite affordable to buy. So, read on to find out whether it is really worth it.

Design
The overall build of the Apple 13.3” MacBook Pro is quite classy and sleek which should obviously be expected from Apple. Apart from having a smart design, this MacBook model has a unibody chassis having absolutely no panel lines on it. Its interface is very simple with ports aligned at proper intervals without causing any kind of clutter. Apple has switched to an internal battery in this model. The strong and rigid unibody chassis body of this 13-inch MacBook Pro is made out of aluminum that doesn’t flex.

Display
This is a thinner model of Apple MacBook Pro that comes without an optical drive. It’s amazing Retina display offers fewer pixels-per-inch when compared with the 3rd and 4th generation iPads but does give every pixel of the 4,096,00 pixels the display provides. This gives awesome sharp display and shows high-resolution pictures in great detail. It not only lets the users see razor sharp text but also shows perfect colours. The only issue with the display is that the softwares which are not optimized for the retina display can give pixilated images.

Performance
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is powered on a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 processor along with an 8GB RAM. It runs on an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 card and gives a turbo boost of up to 3.1GHz. This notebook lets users to do processor intensive tasks at a very fast speed. People who need high performance notebooks will like this device. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is also available in an updated version that is powered on a 2.6GHz Intel Core i5 which is quite faster than the older model.

Battery Life
The 58Wh battery of the Apple MacBook Pro gives impressive battery life. The battery lasts for around 7 hours and 59 minutes but in bootcamp it lasts for only 5 hours. The brightness of the Macbook cannot be adjusted unless it detects less than optimal lighting conditions so that is one glitch with this notebook. Other than that, it gives a longer overall battery life for the macbook which is known to be one the best Macbooks available today.

Verdict
The overall price of the MacBook has dropped significantly and is now available at very affordable rates for the consumers. The excellent battery life with the OS X it runs on makes the 13-inch MacBook Pro worth buying. Apart from that, it also has excellent build quality, integrated graphics and amazing screen resolution an added advantage for this notebook.

The Acer Aspire 5560G offers quite a few impressive features as compared to its price. It is a mid-range machine that offers dedicated graphics enabling it to play modern 3D games.
Even though it’s not a gaming machine, this laptop has plenty to offer. It easily delivers highly demanding desktop tasks; the credit for the same goes to its 1.5GHz processor and 8GB of RAM. Though it is bit slower than an Intel Core i5 Chip but is fast enough to handle everyday applications. The Acer Aspire 5560G’s processor scores 35 in the video-encoding benchmarking. The 750GB hard disk provides ample storage facility to store all your files. The battery life scores fair marks, considering the fact that it offers dedicated graphics card and quad-core processor inside.

The Acer 5560G is a relatively generic mid-range laptop, once you look beyond its powerful components. The grey coloured plastic body ends it a sturdy look. The keyboard is spacious and is ergonomically designed. There is a separate numeric keypad and the full-size chiclet style keys offer good bounce, helping for easy typing. The touchpad might not be up to the mark, as there is significant dead space at the centre. It means that you have to click on the edges to register your presses effectively. But there is large space to help you navigate the desktop with much ease and comfort. The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures and its smooth finish lets your fingers glide across its surface.

Design:
It flaunts a design that is typical to Acer laptops. Its interiors and the plastic lid have a dark grey finish that surely adds to its aesthetic appeal. Acer Aspire 5560G isn’t exactly a gorgeous laptop but that does not mean you will have to carry it hidden in a bag.
The build design is strong though the design looks like that of plastic. The typical Acer’s isolation keypad is in place, helping the user to type with much ease. The keypad stretches across the entire width of the laptop chassis. This feature helps you offer spacious keys for extra comfort while typing.
The keys of this laptop are firmly mounted, facilitating solid typing action. There is something for the number-crunchers too and that is a separate numeric keypad. One thing that could be a bit of turn-off is that the arrow keys are tiny and almost crunched into a single row.

Display:
The display is really impressive! You will enjoy watching latest movies in the high definition 15.6-inch display. It has sharp contrast with deep blacks. The bright screen displays clear and colourful photos.
If you love music, then you will have to arrange for dedicated speakers as the in-built speakers are not that powerful.
Best part of Acer Aspire 5560G is that you can store all your media files at one place thanks to its 750GB hard drive. You won’t have to look for external storage solutions.

Performance:
On the performance front, you might be a bit disappointed if you happen to appreciate the Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors that are usually offered in Acer laptops. The Acer Aspire 5560G features an AMD processor instead of the Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors.
This laptop runs all the latest office applications with perfection and browsing the web without a wire is pretty smooth and impressive with the 802.11n Wi-Fi support.
The high capacity 8GB memory helps you to multi-task and there is an AMD A8-3500M graphics card. This versatile Dual Graphics AMD card is a perfect combination of dedicated and integrated GPUs that work in tandem to render superior quality images unlike nVidia’s Optimus technology. This particular arrangement is unique, but it helps playing recent games with low to medium detail with much ease. The photo and video editing software also run smoothly.

Battery Life:
If you wish to possess a laptop that will help you keep connected even while on the go, then this might not be an ideal choice for you. The battery lasts for five hours, but it may not be enough to suffice a full working day. So, you need to carry the charger if you plan to work for long hours. Though the 2.6kg chassis is not too heavy to be carried around but its battery life might not be ideal to keep you connected while on the move.

Features:
The features offered by Acer Aspire 5560G is standard and is appropriate for a mid-priced laptop. You may use the HDMI and VGA connections to hook your laptop to a television and watch a movie with family. You may even play games on large screens, using this plug-in feature.
The USB ports maybe used for attaching essential peripherals. You may use the 5-in-1 memory card reader for exchanging files.

Verdict:
Overall it is an ideal laptop for those who are fond of unique features like the dedicated graphics feature. On the other hand, it hosts an AMD processor instead of the Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors. The battery life could be a concern as well. Overall it is a good buy for those who appreciate niche features like unique graphics card, bright HD display, etc.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is a 13-inch ultrabook that has various unique features. It looks similar to a traditional laptop but provides touch screen which can directly control the Windows 8 tile interface. This amazing laptop allows users to push the screen back which makes it to function like a tablet or even a presentation tool. The screen position of the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 can be shifted in four ways. The first is the notebook mode having the keyboard on the front while the second is stand mode for watching movies or video chatting. The third screen position is the tent mode which is great for touch-based tasks while the last is the tablet mode.

Build and Design
The Lenovo Yoga 13 ultrabook is a great combination of fast performance, good battery life as well as thin and light design. This 13-inch notebook is just 0.67 inches thin and weighs 3.3lbs which makes it similar to the size and weight of the 12-inch notebook. It has the 10-point multi-touch display without any touch-sensitive layers that are mostly used by thicker convertible notebooks. The screen lid of this laptop is strong and comes with the ability to change positions. Its pressure-activated power button is located on the front edge of the notebook. This laptop uses a single standard RAM slot so its maximum storage capacity is 8GB.

Ultrabook Features
This laptop has a modest array of ports as the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is designed to be like a thin and lightweight tablet. It provides a 4-in-1 media card reader, headset jack, HDMI and two USB ports.

Display Screen
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 has an IPS display panel that gives consistent colours and screen brightness. As opposed to most 13-inch laptops, this laptop gives resolution of 1600×900 pixels. It gives good speaker quality with can give maximum volume output that can fill a large meeting room with clear sound. It gives great audio performance for a basic video. It gives amazing multimedia experience due to its Dolby Home Theatre v4 audio.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 features a standard Chiclet-style keyboard that has good spacing between keys. This AccuType keyboard has a clean layout with rounded keys. It has placed the Home, PgUp, PgDn and End keys in a single row on the right side of the keyboard and has comfortable leather texture for the palm rests.

It also has a Synaptics touchpad with a smart sensor that implements palm rejection. It also features Windows 8 specific navigation actions as well as to scroll, zoom and rotate. It also provides freeze/unfreeze screen feature for the Windows desktop which makes it one of the best laptops.

Performance
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 offers three processor options which are 1.8GHz Intel Core i3 processor, 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 1.90GHz Intel Core i7 processor. It also provides an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 which is perfect for handling any streaming HD videos or even games. It gives fast performance due to the 128GB SSD which is faster than the hard disk drive.

Battery Life
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 has an enclosed 4-cell battery that can run for up to 3 hours and 35 minutes. Based on the usage of the laptop, the battery life varies significantly.

Conclusion
The Lenovo Yoga 13 is one of the best touch screen laptops featuring Windows 8 OS. This laptop has a great display with a nice fit and finish. It is a powerful and feature-packed Ultrabook designed to be used like a tablet. This is an amazing laptop can be bought online by those who like its various screen positions as well as the fabulous Windows 8 OS.

Samsung has always faced a challenge when it comes to the Windows 8 and Android operating systems so it has found a solution by putting them both together along with the same Haswell chip in a single device. The design of the Samsung Ativ Q is based on this idea due to which it feels more like a laptop than a tablet. It features an impressive 13.3-inch display with high resolution of 3200×1800 and 275ppi. This is a well-designed tablet/laptop that has the dual booting modes for Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2.

Display
Samsung is known for providing the different type of devices so one can compare the various models of laptops to buy the best suited laptop. The latest Samsung offering is the Ativ Q which it claims to be the brightest and clearest screen on a Windows 8 tablet. Samsung also claimed that when one compares other laptops with the Ativ Q, the Ativ Q will emerge victorious and can also be used in direct or bright sunlight. This tablet PC provides brilliant brightness and contrast levels along with great viewing angles that ensure that the users get crisp images on its display.

Software
The Samsung Ativ Q enables the users to get the facility to dual-boot the Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Google’s Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. This is the first time Samsung has provided such a device that automatically switches to the dual-OS tile housed in the Windows 8 touch UI. It gives users the facility to switch back to Windows 8 from the Android by simply pressing the Windows button on the front or slide-out keyboard on this tablet PC. The dual-boot feature enables users to create shortcuts for Android apps on Windows 8. Samsung has put in this feature to solve the app shortage issue faced in Windows 8. If one is planning to buy a laptop then the Ativ Q would serve as a great choice as it is the first laptop to have the dual-boot feature for Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2. The transition between the two operating systems can be done smoothly due to which both of them complement each other.

Performance
The Samsung Ativ Q is powered on Intel’s latest Intel Core i5 Haswell processors that feature the Intel HD Graphics 4400 graphics and come with a 4GB RAM. When one compares it with other laptops, the Ativ Q is fairly fast though it doesn’t enable users to run super-intensive Windows programs such as hardcore 3D modelling tools and games.

Battery and Storage
Apart from increased power, the Haswell chips running on the Ativ Q laptop are quite efficient and so provide better battery life. This is why Samsung has put in such a battery that provides a nine hour battery life. Samsung has also claimed that one who buys this laptop will be able to get the longest battery life experienced on any non-Atom Windows 8 system. Its competitor, the Microsoft Surface Pro also provides only five and a half hours battery life which is less when one compares with these Samsung laptops. This tablet PC also comes preloaded with a 128GB SSD. 

Even though the Samsung Ativ Q doesn’t offer out-of-the-box features, it does have the ability to dual-boot using Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2. This tablet PC has a large 13.3 inch display that gives high resolution display. If one is planning to buy a laptop then the Ativ Q is the ideal choice.

To sum it all up
Samsung has taken a step ahead with innovation by providing the first ever laptop that runs on both Windows 8 as well as Android 4.2.2. The Samsung Ativ Q is an amazing 13.3 inch laptop that provides many features that are far better when compared to other laptops. These laptops provide the multi-functional design that enables users to shift into four modes namely, tablet, typing, floating and stand for optimized comfort. Apart from that, it lets users to switch between the Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2 based on their preference.

Most touch laptops available these days are very expensive but instead Acer has launched the Acer Aspire V5 Touch at an affordable price. Earlier the Acer Aspire V5 was launched, which is also an inexpensive laptop. Let’s see if this laptop is really worth the price it offers.

Design
The Acer Aspire V5 Touch is made of silver metal that looks like plastic with both, the exterior and the interior coated with it. It has a better build quality with panel gaps and a firm grip. It offers a single USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port as well as a headphone/microphone jack. It also has a flash media slot and an optical drive.

Interface
The keyboard of the Acer Aspire V5 Touch is not of very high quality. Even though it has a lot of space, yet the keyboard is squeezed a bit too much causing inconvenience while using it. The touch gestures are not as responsive as they should be and the integrated left/right mouse buttons also don’t respond effectively.
Specifications
The Acer Aspire V5 Touch offers the latest Intel Core i3 processor made of a dual-core chip running at 1.4GHz. Even though it doesn’t offer the Turbo Boost feature for automatic overclocking, it does offer HyperThreading that enhances the speed of the processor. It also has the latest Intel HD 3000 unit GPU and the DDR3 memory of 4GB. It also offers a standard 500GB hard drive but is devoid of SSD. So, it is not possible to get that fast wake and boot times. It offers a resolution of 1366×768 on the large 15.6 inch multi-touch screen which will give make using the touch interface of Windows 8 worthwhile.

Display
The Acer Aspire V5 Touch offers a similar display like the Aspire M5. But like the M5, it doesn’t offer great picture quality. It provides very low contrast not to mention the average black levels and the lack of detailing makes the overall quality of the pictures very poor. Like most laptops, the Acer Aspire V5 Touch has a glossy display finish but that doesn’t enhance the picture quality in anyway.

Battery Life
The large 15.6 inch laptop provides a fairly small battery of 37Wh unit which is as long as four AA batteries kept together. As such the battery life of this laptop is not up to the mark. If the laptop is used for heavy work, the battery lasts for only about 1 hour 30 minutes while for light-load, it stays for 4 hours. If the laptop is used for web browsing then it lasts approximately for 3 hours.

Verdict
Even though the Acer Aspire V5 Touch has a larger display, its other features make it a not-so-great touch laptop. It offers a poor keyboard with low power, and low battery life. The only plus of this laptop is the Windows 8 which works great on this laptop.

Most touch laptops available these days are very expensive but instead Acer has launched the Acer Aspire V5 Touch at an affordable price. Earlier the Acer Aspire V5 was launched, which is also an inexpensive laptop. Let’s see if this laptop is really worth the price it offers.

Design
The Acer Aspire V5 Touch is made of silver metal that looks like plastic with both, the exterior and the interior coated with it. It has a better build quality with panel gaps and a firm grip. It offers a single USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port as well as a headphone/microphone jack. It also has a flash media slot and an optical drive.

Interface
The keyboard of the Acer Aspire V5 Touch is not of very high quality. Even though it has a lot of space, yet the keyboard is squeezed a bit too much causing inconvenience while using it. The touch gestures are not as responsive as they should be and the integrated left/right mouse buttons also don’t respond effectively.

Specifications
The Acer Aspire V5 Touch offers the latest Intel Core i3 processor made of a dual-core chip running at 1.4GHz. Even though it doesn’t offer the Turbo Boost feature for automatic overclocking, it does offer HyperThreading that enhances the speed of the processor. It also has the latest Intel HD 3000 unit GPU and the DDR3 memory of 4GB. It also offers a standard 500GB hard drive but is devoid of SSD. So, it is not possible to get that fast wake and boot times. It offers a resolution of 1366×768 on the large 15.6 inch multi-touch screen which will give make using the touch interface of Windows 8 worthwhile.

Display
The Acer Aspire V5 Touch offers a similar display like the Aspire M5. But like the M5, it doesn’t offer great picture quality. It provides very low contrast not to mention the average black levels and the lack of detailing makes the overall quality of the pictures very poor. Like most laptops, the Acer Aspire V5 Touch has a glossy display finish but that doesn’t enhance the picture quality in anyway.

Battery Life
The large 15.6 inch laptop provides a fairly small battery of 37Wh unit which is as long as four AA batteries kept together. As such the battery life of this laptop is not up to the mark. If the laptop is used for heavy work, the battery lasts for only about 1 hour 30 minutes while for light-load, it stays for 4 hours. If the laptop is used for web browsing then it lasts approximately for 3 hours.

Verdict
Even though the Acer Aspire V5 Touch has a larger display, its other features make it a not-so-great touch laptop. It offers a poor keyboard with low power, and low battery life. The only plus of this laptop is the Windows 8 which works great on this laptop.

Gaming laptops have fast become the most sought-after devices these days. They are known for their great graphics support, LAN connectivity, and an accessible key interface. They are also easy to carry around. A good gaming laptop is one with an adept processor, ample RAM, and a powerful GPU, all coming together to support high-end games. The best gaming laptops are the ones having a high resolution display and even 3D support, a gaming mouse, not to forget great sound quality. Apart from that, they have a comfortable backlit keyboard with the option to customize keys. There are different types of gaming laptops available in variant sizes and prices that one can buy online.

Gaming is known to be the most dedicated domain of the DIY PC desktop builders that constantly upgrade and tweak their machine for increasing their power and utility. That said, gamers would rather just plug and play on an already assembled machine, than put together a unit. Anyone who is planning to buy laptops online is bound to keep the budget on the forefront. Users who game very little and use laptops for other purposes often go for a general-purpose laptop that is powered by Intel’s latest Haswell processors. While those who want a dedicated gaming laptop want nothing but a machine built to handle the latest games. Listed here are the best gaming laptops that will enable users to get uninterrupted, quality game play.

Origin EON15-S

The Origin EON15-S is known to be one of the best laptops available for gaming out there. It comes with amazing features which make it one of the most sought-after machines that people prefer to buy online. It has an excellent display and is truly game-ready. The only down side with this laptop is that it can get quite noisy when under high load. It is also known to be on the expensive side.

Asus ROG G750JX

Asus is one of the top companies in the laptop market, known to offer the best in IT, general utility, and gaming. The Asus ROG G750JX features an elegant design which makes it one of the best designed gaming laptops out there. This Haswell-powered laptop offers excellent performances and is known to be quiet in operation. The flipside of this laptop is that it gives an average battery life, is known to not capitalise on some of the more demanding games.

Toshiba Qosmio X70

Like Asus, Toshiba is known to be one of the best laptop providers in over the world. Its Qosmio X70 is an innovative gaming laptop that gives the combined advantages of the Haswell treatment and an Nvidia GPU. It comes with a large screen and is built with a solid chassis which gives better build quality. This is considered to be one of the best laptops that provides gamers with fast and smooth performances. That said, it is slightly on the heavy side, and is known to fall short in the battery life department.

MSI GS70

The MSI GS70 gaming laptop comes with a 17 inch display and is powered by a Haswell processor. It is very lightweight machine that provides great gaming support. One major flaw in the MSI GS70 is that it runs an entry-level GPU and doesn’t feature an optical drive.

Gigabyte P35K

The Gigabyte P35K is a gaming machine that aims at the discreet gamer. Even though it is a gaming laptop, it looks a lot like a business utility laptop. This is one of the best laptops for gamers who like to carry their setup around. It is a perfect choice for those who want excellent battery life and solid performances with support for high end graphics. The disadvantage of this laptop is that it has an ordinary touch pad and leave a lot to be desired.

Gaming laptops have slowly come to be a necessity for new age gamers. With the influx of great PC games, laptop brands are continuously working to offer the finest in portable gaming machines. If you are going in for a purchase, it is necessary to check out the machine’s features carefully before buying.

Laptop shopping has always been a very tedious job. The sheer number of options available in the market coupled with the long list of laptop specifications makes it a tough job for a user to find the most suitable one. The advancing technology has led to newer innovations which has caused an uproar among users when they are trying to buy laptop online.

Check out the five common queries addressed here to solve the issues experienced by users when buying laptops:

What is better : dual-core or quad-core processor?

The dual core processor is the one that comes with two processing cores, while the quad-core has four processing cores. To be precise, the number of processing cores determine the number of programs that can be run on a particular computer. So, a computer having a processor with more number of cores will allow users to run more programs at the same time. This is mostly true for content creation softwares such as 3D modelling or even video editing tools which need additional processor cores. In such a case, the quad core processor would be a better option as it will run faster than the dual-core version.
Although it is preferable to buy laptops online that have processors with more cores, the dual-core chip is considered to be adequate for an average user. The processing cores are mostly required for running high-end games and content creation models. So, the quad core processors are usually opted by gamers and content creation industry. It is known that quad-core processors are expensive, but it is also possible that it can become warmer and reduce the battery life of the laptop.

How much RAM is needed?

RAM is nothing but computer memory which is used by CPU to store data and programs. The optional memory to RAM is hard disk (HDD) which stores data when RAM is not enough. Usually, RAM is depicted as a work table that is full of data that is currently needed by the CPU. In such a case, the HDD poses as a bookshelf as it is quite slower than RAM.

It is evident that insufficient RAM can cause the CPU to stay idle for longer time till the data is being fetched from the hard disk. Instead, it is desirable to have ample RAM storage that can save on lots of processing time and deliver better.

The amount of RAM storage required by a particular computer is solely dependent on the operating system being used in it. It is evident that a 32-bit OS can access only 4 GB of memory which includes even the graphics card. Technically, a 64-bit OS can use almost 16 exabytes though Windows 8 is capped at 512 GB for Pro version and 128 GB for standard version.

Usually, a 4 GB RAM is adequate for a laptop that runs on a 32-bit OS while laptops using a 64-bit OS should have RAM of 4 GB or more. This is the reason for most laptops to come with a minimum of 4 GB RAM though there are some latest laptops that have 6 GB or even 8 GB of RAM.

People who need to run programs that use large amounts of data need to opt for higher RAM storage. The laptop size becomes a big constraint due to which they offer a maximum of 32 GB for highest-end models.

To look for all such laptop reviews you can check the laptop category on Croma Blog.

  
Is it necessary to upgrade to discrete graphics?

Most of the modern laptops have CPUs with integrated graphics which means the built-in processing elements they have render the display screen of the notebook. Even though integrated graphics have improved and allow the users to play 1080p videos, they are still not ideal for gaming.

There are some games that can be run by using integrated graphics though it is not recommended to do so. The best way to ensure that the users can play the latest games would be to get a discrete graphics chip from AMD or Nvidia.

Even though the discrete graphics chip enables users to play games, it drains the laptop battery faster and needs extra cooling. The extra cooling kit leads to a bulkier chassis on the laptop.

Is it preferable to get an SSD storage?

The solid-state drives, also known as SSDs work on the NAND Flash technology which is used in thumb drives. The SSD drives are known to be faster than the normal mechanical hard drives. They are also more durable and resistant to drops.

Even though the SSD prices have dropped significantly, it still remains more expensive than the hard disk drives (HDD). Yet, it is preferable to opt for an SSD which can boost the laptop’s performance as it works as the biggest upgrade for it. It boosts performance far more than that achieved by switching to quad core processor or upgrading RAM.

The only glitch with this is that SSD gives storage space of approximately 512 GB which is limited when compared to HDDs that can go up to terabytes. The best option would be to store most of the data on an external hard disk and use the SSD only for the regularly used apps and data.

 Does screen resolution play a major role?

The screen resolution of a laptop depicts the number of pixels that can be seen on the display. The pixels are nothing but small circular dots that fill up the screen of the laptop. When all the pixels are combined together, they form an image on the screen. Usually, the typical resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels depicts that the screen has 1,366 pixels for width and 768 pixels for height.

In order to get a better looking screen, it is preferable to increase the number of pixels on the fixed screen size. It is a bit difficult to fit more pixels into the same area as they will have to be smaller giving smoother and sharper images. So, the screen resolution is always coupled with the size of the screen.

The pixel density is determined by combining the screen resolution and screen size and is denoted as the number of pixels per inch (PPI). So, it is preferable to have a laptop with high pixel density as it gives a sharper screen that looks better. A great example would be Apple’s 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display which has 2,880 x 1,800 pixels screen resolution with 220.5 pixel density.

Although it always proves useful to know about pixel density and screen resolution, it is usually the user’s preference that matters. So, it maybe possible that some users prefer lower resolution screen while there are others who might find jagged edges unacceptable. Apart from pixel density, there are many more factors that contribute towards screen quality including viewing angles and accuracy of colour reproduction.

Hope this guide helped you break the bubble of choosing the perfect laptop. If you are a gaming maniac, this article The Top Five Gaming Laptops, is a must read for you!

The laptops need to be purchased with utmost care and factors ranging from specifications to the expected features need to be considered. This will help in buying a suitable laptop that perfectly matches one’s needs.