Choosing Laptops on Features

Added: (Fri Sep 19 2008)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Many laptops these days have wide-screens with an aspect ratio of 16:10. This gives much better images - great for watching DVDs - and good clarity, but they are not for those who require portability. And if you think that you can take that wonderful little portable out onto the beach and do your work, think again. In spite of commercials that show a bikini-clad girl computing on the beach, most screens are almost impossible to see out in the sunlight. Reflective LCDs are better for the great outdoors, but then they look quite dim inside, and they are hard to come by, anyway. The best choice would be one with a matte surface so that it will at least cut back on reflections.

Another necessity for decent performance is having enough memory. You can add more RAM so long as the memory sockets in your notebook are accessible. 1GB is enough to run Vista, but 2GB is better for things such as 3D gaming, video editing and graphics work. You can only get away with 512MB if you only run something like a Linux variant. But you won't do much else with it.

Try before you buy is a good rule to remember when choosing a small laptop. You want to be able to use it without too much discomfort and the really little ones sacrifice ergonomics for size. This means that you could get cramps in the hands and fingers if you use it for too long.

Mel writes about laptops and nintendo ds to help you stay informed and updated at http://au.shopping.com/xDN-laptops