Laptop
Think of features that you really want, need, and depend on in a laptop.
First things that come to mind for me are:
keyboard backlight
a large enough touchpad
Primary interactivity components
Keyboard & backlight
key depression type
backlight colour
backlight brightness steps
backlight LED placement — are the LEDs directly visible? (distracting)
Touchpad
size
surface texture — low friction
surface material — not going to break down (like a thin film of plastic)
position — easy to reach with your dominant hand; hard to tap accidentally with hand whilst typing
shape — somewhat similar to laptop screen shape
Microphones
number — two or more is better, allowing software to operate real noise cancellation
position — away from the keyboard ideally, to prevent typing clacks
Camera
one is usually enough, but new software may allow 3D webcam capture in the near future
resolution — many webcams on new laptops are still shite, even in 2024
lens size — important for light capture, larger is better for dark video
framerate — modern video is 30-60 fps, higher is better.
Higher framerate is also required for single-lens HDR video, although the sensor chip, controller hardware & firmware probably also need to support such a feature.
check video performance in relative darkness — check for noise, graininess, low framerate, clarity
Ports
Headphone jack!!! 3.5mm port for regular audio cables. You have no idea how important this can be.
USB normal port — make sure that these are at least version 3.0! It should say SS on. You want 3+ of these.
USB-C — make sure they're also at least version 3.0! USB version 2.0 is shit! You want 2 or more of these. Double check if your laptop charger uses USB-C too — if so, try to get one with 3 or more USB-C ports.
HDMI — ideally you want a regular HDMI port. Mini HDMI also exists. More rarely, you will find DisplayPort — this is the actual standardized display connection type, but somehow the HDMI form won that war. DisplayPort is superior, but you will rarely find anything to connect it to.
Ethernet — this is the raw internet connectivity. WiFi can have issues sometimes. WiFi is also always limited by physics, so ethernet will guarantee you a solid, fast and stable connection. Some companies require that their employees have access to ethernet.
Computing components
CPU (processor)
CPU (processor)
4 cores, 8 threads or more
2.1 GHz base clock speed or higher
3.0 GHz boost clock speed or higher
GPU (graphics)
NPU (neural unit for "AI" etc)
RAM (processing memory)
SSD (storage, solid state)
HDD (storage, spinning disc)
USB
Display — HDMI etc.
Power Delivery
Card readers
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