A samsung laptop

Yudala Ltd., Nigeria’s fastest growing composite e-commerce outlet on Wednesday advised contemporary tech-smart population on six features to look for while buying a new laptop.

The Head of Corporate Communications, Yudala Ltd., Mr Gideon Ayogu, in a statement in Lagos said that the call was necessary to ensure the workability of their laptops.

According to him, for the contemporary tech-smart population, a laptop is often regarded as more than just a work tool as many rely on the laptop for multi-faceted purposes spanning social, entertainment, educational and business related need.

`This makes it imperative for the right decision to be made when shopping for a new device or a replacement unit for your old laptop,’’ he said.

Ayogu listed some major things to look out for when shopping for a new laptop as size, processor speed, screen quality/resolution, Random Access Memory (RAM), battery, and price.

He said that as regards size, a laptop weighing a tonne and taking up so much space was no longer necessary as ongoing advancements in the sphere of computer manufacturing had seen a lot of refinements in laptop sizes.

“For students and busy executives, portability is a core requirement. Therefore, a laptop with a screen size between 12.5 -14 inches and weighing between 1 – 1.5kg sets the bill.

“When shopping for such a portable device, it is often best to go for a notebook, a personal computer that foregoes some functionality to remain light-weight and small,’’ he said.

He said that most computer applications require that the computer system meet minimum requirements in order for the installation to run and one of such requirements was processor speed.

“Processor speed measures in (megahertz and gigahertz; MHz or GHz) the number of instructions the computer executes.

“Intel’s core based processors including corei3, corei5 and corei7 are usually the best bet for computing power as these processors deliver top performance,’’ he said.

Ayogu said that the harsh glare from grainy laptop screen which could result in redness, itching and blurring of the eyes or headache and migraines in extreme cases was best protected with good screen quality.

“If you fall into the cases of heavy users who work on their laptops for upwards of eight hours a day, it is more advisable to go for a High Definition (HD) screen with resolution of 1600×900 or higher.

The Random Access Memory (RAM), a form of computer data storage which stores frequently used programme instruction to increase the general speed of a system was important, ’’ he said.

He said that depending on the type of laptop, one needed to buy a RAM of between 2G to 4GB that would require the system work optimally.

“Memory speed refers to the amount of time the RAM to receive a request from a processor and read or write data.

“Generally the faster the RAM the faster the processing speeds of your laptop.

“In order words with a faster RAM, it is easier for you to use the laptop for your multimedia or multitasking activities,’’ he said.

He said that bearing in mind the peculiar power supply challenges in the country, one was better off investing in a laptop with a strong battery that could guarantee at least up to 10-hours of battery life on average use.

Ayogu said that for a notebook a battery capacity of 10,000mAH/3.7V or higher was adequately sufficient to begin with especially as both the total charging capacity and light of a laptop’s computer battery would diminish with usage.

He said that another factor to consider when shopping for a laptop was pricing which was often predicated on the features of the device.

“A laptop with a faster processor speed and RAM would likely cost more than a model with less speed.

“However, increasing competition in the market and more attention to research and development of new products makes it possible these days to find moderately-priced devices boasted features that will naturally be found in more expensive models,’’ he said. (NAN)