What To Look For When Buying A Laptop?

By Trust Haven Solution

12-May-2025

A laptop is more than a piece of tech—it’s a daily companion for work, study, creation, entertainment, and connection. But choosing the right one isn’t always easy. Whether you’re buying your first laptop or upgrading from an older model, you’ll face a flood of options, each claiming to be the best.

Which of these do you just have to own - HP Laptops, Lenovo Laptops, or Dell Laptops? What is the overall biggest pain in the butt to you? Do you just have to own a second GPU? Why do SSDs have to be such a pain in the butt?

This book places your hand on a rudder and guides you step by step through all that you just need to have in your head when you shop, you shop smart and safe.

1. Define Your Purpose

Begin with that one special question: What are you doing on the laptop?

Common Usage Case Profiles:

Students: Bargain, price-match, extended battery life.
Working Business Users: Hard use, high-quality components, security.
Professional Video and Design Users: Current CPU and graphics processing unit, high-definition display.
Gamer Users: Framerate to die, previous-generation graphics processing unit, and cooling.
Corporate Executives: Thin but not too thin, sturdy construction, good keyboard, and business-security options.

Your preference use case smoothed out; the others—CPU, memory, graphics, screen, and battery—are smoothed out nicely too.

2. RAM

RAM (Random Access Memory) is what you're working with when you're doing multitasking. The more RAM, the richer experience if you do have an open double of programs or windows on your browser.

4GB: Bare minimum usage needed.
8GB: Average business productivity and average multi-tasking.
16GB: Professional, content creation, and gaming.
32 GB+: Heavy use like 4K movie video editing or using virtual machines.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5, for example, comes with 16GB of RAM, perfect for more multitasking. HP and Dell also provide upgradeable RAM on the majority of their laptops.

3. Storage: SSD Vs. HDD

Storage equates to speed and storage capacity.

Types of storage:

HDD (Hard Disk Drive): Low speed, low cost, high capacity. Most suitable for media storage.
SSD (Solid State Drive): Silent, fast, long-lasting. Most suitable for performance.
NVMe SSD: Faster than regular SSD, most suitable for heavy use.
Hybrid (HDD + SSD): Storage with speed.

Choose a minimum of 256GB SSD. Designers/handlers recommend 512GB or 1TB SSD.

Dell Laptops have the best NVMe SSD in the Inspiron and XPS series laptops.

HP Laptops such as the Envy series, have two storage drives (SSD + HDD).

Lenovo Laptops, the Legion and Yoga series, have PCIe SSD support and quicker boot times and access to files.

4. Display Quality

Your display determines exactly what you get to see about anything—video, design, typing, gaming, and reading email.

Features:

Size: 13" (ultraportable), 15.6" (normal), 17" (workstations/gaming)
Solution: Full HD (1920x1080) is standard; content creators work with 2K or 4K.
Lightning: Indoor: 250 nits+; outdoor: 300+.
Panel type: Physical IPS panels provide more view angle and colour creation than TN panels.
Touchscreen: Easy to design and use.

HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS line is providing light, high-res wraparound touchscreens.

Lenovo Yoga and ThinkBook series have touch and high-res ones to use to watch a film on and play with.

5. Charging and Battery Life

Battery life if you work or travel daily, or if you don't have to charge daily.

8 - 12 hours: IT dudes or daily rail commutes.
5 - 7 hours: Working and studying professionals.
Quick Charging: Half an hour charges 50% in some of the laptops.

HP Laptops such as the HP Pavilion Aero provide day-long battery life.

Lenovo Laptops, i.e., ThinkPads, provide great battery life with RapidCharge.

Dell Laptops such as the XPS and Latitude lines, are power and performance in balance.

6. Build Quality, Portability & Design

Your laptop's build quality will keep your laptop in good hands today as well as tomorrow.

Plastic case: Inexpensive, lightweight, but it will wear off.
Magnesium alloy/aluminium: Glossy, yet strong, business-like.
Weight: < 1.5 kg: Extremely light, 1.5–2 kg: Normal, 2 kg+: Workstation/gaming laptops.

Lenovo ThinkPads are renowned for their build and keyboards.

HP Laptops of the Envy or Spectre series are slim, light, and costly.

7. Graphics: Integrated Vs. Dedicated GPU

Not every software requires a dedicated graphics card, but games, video editing, or 3D work do.

Types:

Integrated GPU: On-chip in the CPU, which is okay for normal use.
Dedicated GPU (NVIDIA/AMD): For gaming, video editing, AutoCAD, etc.

HP Omen, Dell G15, and Lenovo Legion 5 are some of the better gaming laptops which have nice GPUs.

8. Ports and Connectivity

Thin laptops or not, there's still room for nice ports to plug everything into.

Types:

USB-C / Thunderbolt 4
USB-A (Standard USB)
HDMI (for external monitor)
3.5mm headphone jack
SD card reader (photographers')
Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0+

Dell Laptops XPS and Latitude are designed with Thunderbolt ports.

Lenovo Laptops, ThinkPad and IdeaPad, design future-proof connectivity especially.

HP Laptops use USB-C charging, the same as the budget laptop.

9. Keyboard, Touchpad & Webcam

Easy to type if you do office night shift work.

Backlit keyboards: Typing at late, late night or in darkness.
Travelling key and feedback: Improved travelling key enhancement in typing.
Touchpad with precision: For accurate navigation through movement and gesture.
Webcam: Integrated 720p, 1080p or IR webcam for high-end video conferencing or face detection.

Lenovo ThinkPads are deployed everywhere throughout the globe to be used for delivering the optimal typing experience.

Conclusion

A laptop is a worthwhile investment. HP Laptops, Lenovo Laptops, and Dell Laptops are the backup option if you have gone beyond your budget or used up all your pockets. First option, choose one in which you might have used but not emptied all your pockets.