What specs are important for a laptop used primarily for digital photography and entertainment?
All laptops come with built-in LCD monitors. Most are in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio which is good because the extra width lets you scale the window of your photo's aspect ratio and still have room left on the sides for editing tools. Screen size doesn't matter as much as resolution. Look for a 15-inch widescreen display size, which has a 1280 x 800 or better pixel resolution.
Get a 16-bit (or better) video card with at least 64 MB of video RAM.
Most serious photographers work in the uncompressed RAW format, which eats up to 15 MB of space for each file shot from a 10-megapixel digital SLR. You should plan for at least 30 GB of hard drive space.
Be sure to get at least 512 MB of RAM, the minimum requirement to run Adobe Photoshop CS3.
You'll want at least a DVD-RW drive so that you'll be able to use rewriteable blank discs to back up your original photos and, in your downtime, be able to watch movies. If you've opted for a large and/or high-resolution screen, you should consider either an HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc drive for watching high-definition Hollywood movies. The two competitive formats are incompatible with each other and few movies are available in both formats but both are backward compatible with standard DVDs.
What specs are important for a laptop used primarily for gaming?
Traditionally, laptops have lagged behind desktops in terms of power, but today's powerful gaming laptops provide an immersive entertainment experience wherever you want it. In order to get one to play state-of-the-art action, strategy, and role-playing games, you'll need to focus on the following features:
A widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio definitely has advantages over the traditional 4:3 screen shape. Many of today's games are designed for widescreens, and the extra space provides room for chat, inventory, and other windows.
Most PC games require a 3-D graphics card and work best with cards powered by either nVidia or ATI chipsets.
Action games, especially, need a fast processor. Intel's Centrino Duo uses two processor cores and a big cache to keep up the action without quickly draining your battery.
Because so much happens simultaneously in a game and time is often critical, you want to have enough RAM so that your rig doesn't get bogged down during battle. Most games today recommend 1 GB of RAM.
Even if you're not interested in playing with or against other players online, games frequently use Internet connections to download updates, patches, new levels, or maps.
What specs are important for a laptop used primarily for mobile traveling?
Depending on the frequency and distance of your travel, the size and weight of your computer are going to mean a lot. Not only are they easier to carry, they're easier to open and work with during a flight. Try to stay below a 12-inch screen size and a four-pound weight.
By taking your computer out of the home or office, it is more likely to get lost or stolen. Look for laptops with built-in fingerprint scanners as an extra measure of safety.
A side benefit of having a smaller screen size is often longer battery life. Seek a notebook battery rating of at least three hours and consider buying a spare battery.
Sure it's good to have a small computer, but if the keyboard is too small to be comfortable, what's the point? Still, concessions must be made for size. Many ultraportable laptops ditch the standalone 10-key number pad for a slightly skewed number pad orientation on the QWERTY keys. If you work with numbers all day, you might consider a USB 10-key numeric keypad accessory.
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