How to choose the right business laptop for you
Whether you have a choice of laptop upon joining a new company, or you are going along with the recently popular Bring Your Own Device way of working, there are a couple of things that you should consider before going to PC World and picking up a machine that may not actually be perfect for what you want.
1) Screen size – from most dealers, you can get 13″, 15″ and 17″ laptops, so it’s important to think of how you will use that screen real estate. If you like to focus on one thing at a time, it may be with getting the smaller 13″ screen. However, if you like to multitask and have a lot of windows open at once, try the larger option!
2) Battery life – have a look at some online reviews to see if the advertised battery life actually does what it says on the tin, as some laptops’ battery life can drop down to under an hour within mere months. If you’re going to be travelling a lot and using your laptop remotely, consider going that extra mile to find one with a decent charge on it.
3) Compatibility – the Mac vs. PC war has been raging for years, but generally speaking for business, your best bet would be to get a Windows PC, as Microsoft Office and Windows Remote Servers work much better on them than on an Apple Mac. For intense machine requirements such as video editing and graphic design, Mac computers would generally be the better choice.
4) Keyboard – you’re going to be spending a lot of time typing on your laptop (hopefully), so it’d be a waste to get stuck with a laptop with an unresponsive/unreliable keyboard! Test some out to check if the size if right for you, and maybe even write a paragraph to get a feel for it to form an opinion.
5) Trackpad – there are some wacky trackpads out there (bumpy, slimy smooth, corrugated), so make sure you get a laptop with a texture that you like.
6) Portability – check the weight and overall dimensions of the laptop to ensure that it’s fit for travel. It doesn’t need to be MacBook-Air-weighing-3-pounds light, but try to avoid heavy, bulky laptops if you’re going to be lugging it around with you a lot. Unless you want to improve your gains, of course.
7) Storage – Generally speaking for business purposes, you’d have a hard time filling up 500 GB of data on your hard drive, so you would be in the clear with anything higher than that! If you love speed and want documents to open in an instant, consider getting a laptop that uses a Solid State Drive (SSD) rather than a ‘regular’ hard drive, as SSD is around 3x quicker at opening documents and retrieving data.
8) Speed – If you will just be doing standard office tasks, such as logging onto a remote server, using Microsoft Office, and browsing the web, then you’d be safe going for a laptop with a minimum 1.6 GhZ dual-core processor, and make sure you get at least 4GM of RAM.
All in all, it’s about what you want. Go and have a browse & try out a few different types of laptops before you go out and make a purchase – you’ll be spending a of a lot of time with it!
360 Resourcing Solutions deliver bright, fresh, and engaging recruitment services, specialising in the Retail, Hospitality, Leisure, Commercial, IT and Ecommerce sectors. We are one of the fastest growing recruitment service providers in the UK and pride ourselves on our levels of customer service, adaptability, passion and expertise in our sectors.
