THE PERFECT PORTABLE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
There’s a daunting range of laptop questions and specs to weigh up. Here’s our guide to the key issues to help you make the right choice
1 THE CORE HARDWARE
Modern processors are designed to prioritise responsiveness, so Windows feels snappy even on cheap hardware – and if you’re just writing emails and documents then that might be all you need. However, once you start working with chunky spreadsheets or large image files, such systems can grind to a halt, and the benefit of a powerful processor becomes apparent.
Two computers with the same chip won’t necessarily perform identically, however. CPUs need to be kept cool to achieve their top performance, so a laptop with a spacious case and a powerful internal fan will tend to run faster than one that’s designed to be as thin and light as possible. Another variable is the speed of the SSD: the faster this is, the more efficiently the processor can open applications and access data files. Our real-world benchmarks find out how quickly a system handles a specific workload to show you how the system performs as a whole.
Alongside performance, it’s worth thinking about storage capacity. Most of the laptops in this month’s Labs come with 512GB SSDs, which should be perfectly ample for office duties. If you need to maintain a big archive of data files or videos, though, consider moving up to 1TB: the cost varies between laptops and you may not be able to do this after purchase.
One thing you probably don’t need to worry about is RAM. Even midrange laptops these days tend to come with 16GB of memory, which is vastly more than is required for regular desktop computing. Unless you work with complex databases or virtual machines (VMs), you’re very unlikely to need more.
2 GRAPHICS AND SCREEN
Almost all of Intel’s processors feature built-in graphics processors. There are a few different models, but all of them are powerful enough to run Windows across multiple 4K displays, and to display HDR video at the highest possible quality – and that’s good enough for most of the laptops in this month’s Labs.
These on-chip GPUs have limited 3D capabilities, however. Games may run only at low resolution, and with limited visual effects: turn the settings up and everything becomes horribly jerky. For a smoother gaming experience, choose a laptop with a discrete
GPU such as the Nvidia GeForce MX250, but don’t expect miracles: if you want to get close to the state of the art, you’re looking at spending thousands on a dedicated gaming system.
Don’t neglect the quality of the screen, either: a bright panel with strong contrast makes both work and play more pleasurable. A high native resolluttiion, mmeanwhile, makes text and images look crisp and sharp, while a screen with good colour perfoormance ensures that imaages and movies look likke the creators intended. SShape varies too: a wwidescreen 16:9 display is ideal for the cinematic experience, but you may find a taller 3:2 ratio wworks better for office aapplications. These are all thhings we consider and test for aas part of our review proceess ( see opposite).
3 TOUCH AND TABLET MODE
For most practical purposes you don’t need a touchscreen, but it’s a feature of most Windows 10 laptops and a nice convenience to have. If you plan to make regular use of touch, look for a system with a good stiff hinge, so that the screen doesn’t wobble when you push a finger against it. Stylus support can be helpful too, if you want to annotate web pages and documents, and some systems come with a stylus in the box.
Certain systems even have a convertible design that lets them effectively turn into tablets: this month, for example, the HP Elite Dragonfly has a keyboard that folds away at the rear of the screen, while the HP Elite x2 and Microsoft Surface Book 3 let you detach the keyboard entirely. This sort of 2-in-1 design can work very well for certain roles, but don’t imagine that it will turn your laptop into a perfect iPad alternative: Windows 10 doesn’t have a huge library of tablet-style apps, and the hardware is invariably bulkier and heavier than a dedicated tablet.
4 KEYBOARD
AND TOUCHPAD
You’re probably going to spend a lot of time typing on your new laptop, meaning a good keyboard is vital. Bad keyboards have a shallow, plasticky
“Don’t neglect the quality of the screen, either: a bright panel with strong contrast makes both work and play more pleasurable”
action that doesn’t give positive feedback when pressed; certain laptops also suffer from “shrunken key syndrome”, where the keys around the periphery are reduced in size, making it all too easy to miss them, or to hit two at once. Ideally, you’d try out the keyboard in person before buying, but if that’s not possible, check our reviews to make sure it’s not a dud.
Much the same applies to touchpads. Some have a nasty plastic texture and feel sluggish under your finger, while others are smooth and nimble. Size is an issue here too: a large touchpad ensures you can zip the pointer around freely, without the irritation of running off the edge of the sensor.
5 PORTABILITY
A laptop is expected to be portable, but what exactly does that mean? Some people might focus on how heavy a computer is, while others will be more interested in the size of its footprint. Perhaps your ideal laptop is a regularsized system that’s very thin, or one that will run all day on battery power. There’s no right answer, and you’ll see plenty of systems offering different balances of area, thickness and weight – so have a think about what you’re looking for.
It’s also important to realise that portability normally comes at the expense of something. If you want a laptop with a tiny chassis, that puts a limit on how big the screen and keyboard can be. If you want one that’s as thin as possible, that’s liable to affect performance for reasons we’ve noted above. If it’s lightweight, the casing may feel cheap and flimsy, and it probably won’t have a very large, long-lasting battery. It’s a game of trade-offs.
6 CONNECTIONS AND WI-FI
Some people use their laptop primarily as a travelling companion and never need to plug any peripherals into it. If your laptop is your main computer, though, a decent selection of USB ports can be useful, giving you the option to connect, say, external storage and other accessories.
Not all ports are created equal. USB 3.1 and 3.2 connectors are faster than plain old USB 3, and you’ll also see a mixture of old-school USB-A ports and newer USB-C sockets. You can use an adapter to plug a large cable into a small socket (and vice versa), or to attach multiple peripherals to a single port, but that’s a fiddly extra item to carry around. You might also need to invest in a dock if you plan to use HDMI or Ethernet – or look for a laptop with these connectors built in. Alternatively, consider buying a monitor with a USB-C connection and built-in ports such as USB-A and Ethernet (see next month’s Labs).
Don’t neglect wireless connections, either. Some laptops still rely on 802.11ac wireless networking, while others feature the newer 802.11ax standard (also known as Wi-Fi 6). The former is still faster than most internet connections, but Wi-Fi 6 is more future-proof, and ensures that you will get the best performance when connecting to computers and other devices on the same network.
7 WHICH OPERATING SYSTEM?
When you’ve chosen your laptop, you may be offered the choice of Windows 10 Home or Professional – or you may discover that it only comes with one or the other. If you’re buying for personal use, you might well decide to save some money and stick with the Home edition, but Windows 10 Pro does have some notable benefits ( see issue 311, p34). For instance, it includes BitLocker, which allows you to fully encrypt your device, meaning that no one can access your files if the system is lost or stolen, as well as the Hyper-V virtualisation engine. The Pro edition also has numerous features designed for corporate contexts, such as Active Directory support, mobile device management and centralised control over Windows Update: if you’re not sure whether or not you might need these, talk to your IT manager.
Of course, your perfect laptop might not run Windows at all. We haven’t dug into the Apple side of things in this month’s group test, but there are some fine systems in both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro families; or, if you’re happy to work in the cloud, you could go for a Chromebook, such as the Pixelbook Go, which we test on p90. As ever, it comes down to your personal needs and preferences.
“802.11ax (or Wi-Fi 6) ensures that you will get the best performance when connecting to computers on the same network”