# 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

<details>

<summary>Keyboard &#x26; backlight</summary>

* key depression type
* backlight colour
* backlight brightness steps
* backlight LED placement — are the LEDs directly visible? (distracting)

</details>

<details>

<summary>Touchpad</summary>

* 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

</details>

<details>

<summary>Speakers</summary>

* size
* number
* placement
* sound quality — bass is usually a good measure overall

</details>

<details>

<summary>Microphones</summary>

* number — two or more is better, allowing software to operate real noise cancellation
* position — away from the keyboard ideally, to prevent typing clacks

</details>

<details>

<summary>Camera</summary>

* 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[^1], higher is better.&#x20;
  * 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

</details>

<details>

<summary>Ports</summary>

* 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](#user-content-fn-2)[^2]! It should say _**SS**_ on. You want 3+ of these.
* USB-C[^3] — make sure they're also at least [version 3.0](#user-content-fn-2)[^2]! 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.

</details>

***

## Computing components

### CPU (processor)

<details>

<summary>CPU (processor)</summary>

* 4 cores, 8 threads _or more_
* 2.1 GHz base clock speed _or higher_
* 3.0 GHz boost clock speed _or higher_
*

</details>



### 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

### f

[^1]: **f**rames **p**er **s**econd

[^2]: [Read about USB 3.0 on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0) — [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB\_3.0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0)&#x20;

[^3]: [Read about USB-C on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C) — [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C)
