Buying a laptop is a big investmentand at the same time it can happen a difficult decision because we will have to take into account many things and it can overwhelm us in the end, especially if we are not very familiar with it and our budget is somewhat limited.

Strength or mobility and why not both? Dedicated or integrated graphics card and what screen format and resolution do I need? Is it worth investing more in a premium model? These are just some of the questions which may occur to us in the moments before buying our laptop and I know that it is not easy to answer them, because in the end everything will depend on the specific needs of each user.

A few months ago, we shared with you a guide dedicated to checking the six mistakes that we should not make when buying a gaming laptop. This guide has been well received, but I know some of our readers you prefer traditional laptops, and so today we leave you with a guide that follows the same approach but focuses on non-gaming laptops.

The five mistakes we’ll uncover in this guide will help you clear up the foundation you need to be successful with your new laptop purchaseand will allow you to do so as well advise and help others who also have doubts while buying their new laptop. As always, I will try to give you a simple, approachable and fun approach so that everyone can use this guide, and I encourage you to leave your questions in the comments.

1.-Choose a laptop that you are only looking for short term

It is one of the most common mistakes and one of the most serious. I know the normal thing when we go to buy a laptop is to think about what we need at that moment, but this can lead us to make a bad purchase. I know many cases of people who bought a laptop without a dedicated graphics card and with only 4 GB of RAM because they intended to use it only for web browsing and multimedia, and only a year after buying the computer, their needs changed and it became too small for them.

I’m the first to understand that we can’t see the future, but we have to think when choosing a laptop what we need today and what we will need in a few yearsbecause after all, we won’t be changing laptops every year unless you have the extra cash and are willing to waste it like that.

Maybe you don’t want to play today because you’re focused on studies or work, but could that change in the short or medium term? Will you have to face an important project that requires more performance in a year or two? These two questions will help you in order to make a better decision, do not hesitate to ask yourself before buying a new laptop and take the time to answer them in a precise and well-reasoned way.

Buying a laptop that is lower than what we will actually need is a big deal, but likewise the purchase of equipment that is far beyond our needssince we’ll be paying for something we’ll never actually earn in the end, so keep both options in mind when making your decision.

2.-Buy an unbalanced laptop

Marketing works at a level that many people still don’t even imagine. One of the best examples can be found in those laptops that have a component that sticks out a lot for the price of the device, but which completely out of tune in the rest of its specs. Think, for example, of a laptop that comes with an Intel Core i7 or Ryzen 7 processor, which are very powerful solutions, but only has 8 GB of RAM, or that comes with an SSD of only 128 GB or 256 GB.

Another of the most common imbalances, which is more difficult to identify, affects screen quality. It’s more common than it seems to find laptops with a good spec level, at a reasonable price, and also with an IPS panel. A priori it sounds good, but then we can be completely disappointed when we see that the color reproduction of said panel is very poor or that the brightness it offers is very low.

These types of strategies “fill the eyes” of the consumer by displaying attractive specifications that make us think it’s an excellent purchase, but which are really only there because the laptop has been seen. noticeably trimmed in other functions great importance.

Although in the end you will always prefer certain components because they will best suit your needs, consider that in the end a laptop with little storage, with a poor keyboard, with little RAM or with a very small SSD Ultimately, this will negatively impact your user experience.and therefore you should always seek the minimum balance.

3.-Limit yourself to prioritizing only performance or weight

Choosing a laptop with the absolute priority of one of these three keys will almost always be a serious mistake. It may be that in some very specific cases it makes sense to choose a device focused exclusively on performance, for example if we will only transfer it from one place to another, or on mobility if we will carry it with us. we and we will move with him daily for hours but even in these cases it makes more sense to make certain concessions.

Very strong and heavy equipment it will be very uncomfortable to move, and at the same time it can be dangerous to expose it to long or complicated journeys, because due to its size and weight, it could be damaged more easily. On the other hand, her autonomy will be very low and we will always have to be her tied to a socket.

With very light equipment, we will be able to move effortlessly. If it weighs 900 grams or less, we will practically not realize that we are carrying it with us, and if it uses low consumption components, we will have high autonomy and be able to use it for hours without worry. about finding a plug. However, if we have made important sacrifices in terms of power, it is likely that its performance will ultimately be insufficient, and that doesn’t allow us to work at the pace we really need to, which will ultimately hamper our productivity.

The ideal is to prioritize the value that suits us best, but without completely disregarding the rest. For example, if we need an ultraportable and the most important thing for us is mobility, we should opt for a device that weighs 1.5 kilograms or lessbut depending on the use we are going to provide, we will have to equalize the performance level.

Continuing with this example, if we only want it for browsing the web and multimedia, a basic configuration and 8 GB of RAM would be enough, but if we will use more demanding applications, it is necessary to install at least 16 GB of RAM and a powerful processor. Today, there are very powerful, low-power processors that also have very capable integrated graphics, such as the Ryzen 7 6850U, which has A TDP of just 15 watts and it has a Zen 3+ processor with 8 cores and 16 threadsand with a Radeon 680M iGPU that is capable of outperforming dedicated graphics cards such as the NVIDIA MX450.

4.-Not giving the screen the importance it deserves

The screen is one of the most important parts of any laptop. Our interaction with the team will depend on it, and much of our user experience. If we make a mistake in the size of the screen, the resolution and/or its quality, we have made a terrible purchase and will have a laptop in our hands that will give us a lot of problems.

I know of people who got carried away when they saw a small laptop and thought “that was very cute” and that moving it around and working with it would be a very comfortable experience. I’m talking about models 10 and 11 inchestwo formats that fit the concept of an ultralight notebook that prioritizes mobility and that have value in the hands of very specific user profiles, but are not recommended for most people.

It’s very easy to understand, imagine how terrible it would be work every day with a 10-inch dwarf screenand also note that this it will affect the size of the keyboard and touchpad. On the other hand, the screen resolution also determines the visible and working space that the computer offers, so combining a small screen size with a high resolution is not a good idea (nor is the reverse, i.e. a large screen and a low resolution).

Work with a laptop smaller than 13 inches will be very uncomfortable, and buying a laptop with a resolution lower than 1080p is not recommended. At the opposite extreme are 17.3-inch screens, which can be a good choice for parallel work with two windows, as well as for multimedia content and games. In these cases, it is ideal to choose a resolution of 1440p.

Screen quality is a topic we’ve touched on before, and it can make a huge difference. Laptops with TN panels are a bad choicebecause they start to look bad if we don’t look at them from the front (their viewing angles are very bad) and because the color reproduction they offer is worse than VA and IPS panels.

5.-Don’t think about the quality of the construction

The laptop will be under considerable stress, not only because of the use it gets but also because of the constant movements that you will have to face. With this in mind, it is easy to understand why we must emphasize the quality of the construction and the durability certifications that the device received before it was put on sale.

It is true that the build quality is usually determined by the selling price of the device, but this is not always the case. I’ve tried equipment costing almost three thousand euros, which was worse processed than others priced just over a thousand euros, so be very careful and don’t get carried away by the sale price, as it is no longer valid. to be synonymous with a premium finish.

The aluminium It has become one of the most used materials in the notebook sector and understandably so, as it is light, offers good durability, is pleasant to the touch and does not increase the selling price too much. There is a significant jump in premium trim and it is normal to find alloys aluminum and magnesiumor even with carbon fiber in some cases.

The quality of the materials used in the notebook will affect the feelings it will convey to us when using it, its structural strength and also on its weight, so we have to take that into account. On the other hand, military-grade durability certifications are also a value to consider because they indicate that the equipment we buy It has been tested against drops, shocks, shocks and heavy cycles of use (for example, opening and closing the lid).

I understand that when we are on a tight budget we have to prioritize hardware and screen quality, but whenever possible, we should also consider the build quality of the laptop that we are going to buy, and we don’t have to neglect it to buy a slightly more powerful device, if the extra power will be small or if it will not make a significant difference in our user experience in the middle or long term.

If you have doubts about the quality of the laptop you are about to buy, this is a good idea resort to stores that allow returns within two weeks, so you can test it and make sure that it really fits what you need and that the device meets your expectations. Don’t be blinded by the price, because as I said before, the fact that a laptop is expensive is no longer a guarantee of anything these days.