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00:00Hey guys I'm Tomatechchap and when it comes to buying a new laptop there's a
00:03lot to think about and it all gets very complicated very quickly. So hopefully
00:07these tips will make things a little bit easier when it comes to buying your next
00:11laptop but I have also put links to some of my recommended models which I'll keep
00:14updating over time in the description below. And also a big thank you to
00:18Surfsharp VPN for sponsoring this video. Okay so let's get into it and the first
00:23thing to think about is do you want a laptop that runs Windows, Mac OS or
00:27Chrome OS? You probably already know the answer to this and most of the time it's
00:32whatever you're used to using. If you've always used Macs and maybe have an
00:35iPhone or iPad then yeah a MacBook Air or Pro with iMessage and AirDrop will be
00:39best. They're beautiful laptops and easy to use but they can be very expensive
00:43and you don't have that many options. Windows 10 laptops are great as you have
00:47a much bigger range to choose from for all budgets from thin and light
00:51ultrabooks to workstations to gaming laptops. Then there's Chromebooks which
00:55run on Google's cloud-based Chrome OS. These are really popular with students
01:00as they're usually much cheaper and they act more as a terminal for accessing
01:03apps in the cloud like Google Docs, Dropbox and of course the web browser.
01:06Despite what you read in the comments there really is no right or wrong answer
01:10here it depends on you but if you're a student on a tight budget or just want a
01:14basic laptop to access the web then consider a Chromebook. If you want a
01:18premium laptop and you have at least a thousand dollars to spend then maybe
01:22consider a MacBook Air but I think for most people the safest bet is a Windows
01:2610 laptop just because of the sheer range of devices on the market. Now
01:30despite what you may have heard it is actually all about size and shape. This
01:35doesn't sound right. Size and form factor. Laptops like the
01:41Microsoft Surface Pro 7 and Lenovo Yoga C940 offer better tablet experiences
01:46with detachable keyboards or 360 degree hinges that can be flipped round. These
01:50are usually more expensive and more suited for mobile rather than power
01:53users though. Most laptops though still use a traditional clamshell design with
01:58sizes ranging anything from 11 to 17 inches. It's pretty straightforward that
02:02generally the smaller the screen the lighter and more portable the laptop is
02:06while bigger 15 inch laptops are more likely to have the option of higher
02:09power processors and dedicated graphics cards. There are some outliers though
02:14like the LG Gram 17 with a huge screen and super lightweight body. It is
02:19expensive though and it uses lower power processors that you'd usually find
02:22in a 13 inch laptop. Some laptops also have touchscreens and I think hybrid 2
02:27in 1s are best for this as they'll usually support a stylus or a pen which
02:31is great for artists and designers. I think for me a touchscreen is a nice
02:34extra but not really essential and usually I'm trying to avoid getting my
02:37dirty fingerprints all over the screen anyway. Now just quickly I'm sure you're
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03:27below and give Surfshark a try. Speaking of the screen we also need to
03:32consider resolution and in the case of gaming laptops refresh rate. Refresh rate
03:37or refresh rate? Refresh rate. Refresh rate. I don't know. It's lost all
03:42meaning. It's a small nitpick. Why'd I have to put this stupid 1080p sticker on it? No one
03:47cares. I don't want to look at the stupid sticker on my laptop. It's on the demo! It's for all the videos!
03:52If that's your biggest criticism I think we'll be alright. The vast majority of laptops are
03:561080p aka full HD and to be honest for 95% of those that's perfect but more and
04:02more higher-end laptops now offer a 4k option which means the screen is a lot
04:06sharper there's more pixels per inch and because of the higher quality panels
04:10usually they're more color accurate as well so ideal for a video and photo
04:14editing. Most good reviewers though will include a screen's sRGB, Adobe RGB or
04:18P3 color ratings in their review. The higher the better but if you are doing
04:22color accurate work then make sure you check before you buy a laptop. Back to
04:264k though and the biggest downside other than being a bit more expensive usually
04:30is it has a massive impact on your battery life. Usually you'll only get
04:34about half or maybe two-thirds of the battery that you would otherwise with a
04:381080p screen. It is a big difference. Also it significantly lowers your frame rate in
04:43games as the laptop has to push millions more pixels. So for gaming laptops I
04:47think the best combo right now is a 15 inch screen with a 1080p resolution and
04:51if possible a higher 120 or 144 Hertz refresh rate. This will help everything
04:56look and feel a lot smoother. Okay let's talk about specs and this is where
05:00things get a bit more technical but stay with me and hopefully I won't bore you
05:05to death although I'm not making any promises. A basic guide would be to look
05:09for either an Intel i5 or i7 processor, 8 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of SSD storage and
05:15if you're doing more intense graphical work or gaming a dedicated graphics card.
05:19That spec would be about right for most people although the more RAM and storage
05:23the better if you can afford it. So that's pretty high level but I want to
05:26dive just a little bit deeper into processors or CPUs. When it comes to
05:31laptops Intel pretty much dominate the market right now although there are some
05:35good budget options with AMD chips but for simplicity I'll stick with Intel here.
05:39The thing is it's easy just to go and say go and get a laptop with an i5
05:43processor and while that's broadly a good recommendation there's a couple of
05:47things you need to think about because they're not all made equal. Firstly what
05:51generation is it and secondly what letter is in the suffix. Right now so at
05:56the end of 2019 we're on 10th generation U series processors and 9th generation H
06:01series processors. Those letters are really important though because when you
06:05look at a processor model name right at the end there will be a letter, a suffix
06:09and usually it's either U or H or HK and that tells you a lot about how powerful
06:15that processor is. U chips are found on smaller 13 and 14 inch laptops whereas H
06:20or HK processors offer much better performance and you'll find them in 15
06:24inch and bigger laptops. So if you are going to be running more intensive
06:27applications then go for a laptop with an H series chip. From processors to
06:31graphics and the vast majority of laptops actually just use an integrated
06:36graphics chip they don't have a dedicated card and that's fine for basic
06:40tasks like streaming video maybe doing some very light photo editing but
06:44anything beyond that they're pretty terrible although actually Intel's
06:48latest 10th generation Ice Lake processors that come with what's called
06:52Iris Plus graphics are actually a big step up and so we're seeing integrated
06:56graphics get a bit better but really if you want to do anything graphically
07:00intensive whether it's video editing or playing games then you're gonna want to
07:03get a dedicated graphics card. At the bottom end you have the likes of
07:07Nvidia's MX 150 or 250 chips typically in smaller 13 or 14 inch laptops. You'll
07:12be able to play basic games on low to medium settings and it's fine for full
07:16HD video editing. For anything more serious look for something like an
07:20Nvidia GTX 10 series or more powerful RTX 20 series cards and finally if you
07:25are looking to get a gaming laptop there's something called Max-Q which you
07:29should look out for. Sometimes you'll find a RTX 2080 Max-Q for example and
07:34that's a slightly less powerful version usually about 15% less and offers a
07:38better balance between performance and battery life so I would recommend a Max-Q
07:41card for all but the most hardcore of gamers. Just a quick mention of RAM and
07:46storage this is a little bit simpler because essentially the more the better
07:50really so ideally look for 8 or even 16 gigabytes this will let you have
07:55more Chrome tabs or programs open at once without it starting to chug and
07:59slow down. It's not quite as important for gamers but editors or graphic
08:02designers should aim for 16 or maybe even 32 gigs if you've got the budget. As
08:07for storage well obviously the bigger the better it means you have more room
08:10for your files and games and videos and other things but actually the
08:16most important thing one thing to take away from this video if nothing else is
08:20to make sure that your laptop has an SSD or solid-state drive. This makes such a
08:25difference to how fast it boots up how quickly apps load and the general
08:29responsiveness of your laptop. Usually you'll get 128, 256 or 512 gig options.
08:34Cheaper laptops may still have hard drives or HDDs try to avoid these unless
08:39you see Intel Optane mentioned or something called an SSHD. These are kind
08:44of hybrids and offer a decent balance between speed and storage space.
08:47Hopefully you guys haven't fallen asleep just yet we are nearly there I promise
08:52but just a quick mention of ports and to keep things simple honestly going forward
08:56if you're buying a new laptop there's just one you need to consider really and
09:00that's USB-C and ideally one that supports Thunderbolt 3 which is the
09:04fastest kind of USB. Usually you'll see a lightning logo next to it but have a
09:08look in the specs before you buy. So Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports are what you
09:12find on MacBook Air and MacBook Pros. In fact that's all we have which can be a
09:16bit frustrating so you have to buy adapters. So while older USB type A's,
09:20HDMIs, card readers they're all handy and most Windows laptops have a good range
09:24going forward USB-C will be ubiquitous. Mid to high-end laptops usually do have
09:29Thunderbolt 3 although some like the latest Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 has
09:33USB-C but not Thunderbolt 3 which I think is a bit short-sighted especially
09:37given the price. Now when it comes to battery life unfortunately you can't
09:41really take the manufacturer's claim as gospel because until very recently like
09:47almost pretty much this last few months laptop manufacturers have just been
09:51doing local video playback with brightness turned down, Wi-Fi off to test
09:56it so it's not really a real-world use. So if you see a laptop say it has 12
10:01hours of battery in the tech specs in reality you're looking at probably more
10:05like 7 or 8 although of course it comes down to how you use it. When buying a
10:08laptop it's always a trade-off between performance and battery life. Most
10:12laptops these days will give you at least 6 hours of real-world use so you
10:15can't go too wrong. And finally tip number 10 and if all those specs seem
10:20like a lot to think about which to be fair they are then actually you may want
10:24to look out for something called Project Athena. It's a new Intel program kind of
10:28like Ultrabook 2.0 where laptops have to meet a certain standard, a certain spec
10:32like having the latest 10th gen processors, fast SSD storage, Thunderbolt
10:363, Wi-Fi 6, fast charging, instant on, lots of great features in order to be
10:41part of the Athena program. We're just now seeing the first wave of Project
10:45Athena laptops come out and you may start to see this logo more often but
10:49it's a great way to know without having to dive into all the tech specs that
10:53you're getting a high-end and future-proof laptop. The thing is you
10:57can't really buy a bad laptop anymore they're all variations of good and of
11:01course value for money but if you're not sure watch our reviews, ask us questions
11:05in the comments and also go into the store and try it for yourself because
11:09while it may tick all the boxes in terms of specs and display and size you may
11:13actually end up hating the feel of the trackpad or the keyboard or it may have
11:16a really cheap feeling chassis and the screen flexes and doesn't feel very nice
11:20so all those sort of things are often difficult to quantify so it's definitely
11:24worth watching reviews and as I say going into the store and just having a
11:27bit of a play with it yourself. So I've put links in the description for my
11:30current recommended laptops if you want to check them out. Once again a big thank
11:34you to Surfshark VPN for sponsoring this video. Click the link below and you can
11:38get 83% off and three months free by using the code techchap when you check
11:43out. So if you want to surf the web securely and watch shows that you can't
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