Simply Laptops

Chapter 1: Choosing Your Laptop PC

Portable computers, generally referred to as laptops or notebooks, began as a great tool for people who travelled and wanted to bring their computer along. Today, laptops with high-end displays and huge processing power are taking over the desktop, as well.

Although laptop models vary by weight, size, keyboard configuration and more, they share some common traits. For example, on a laptop, the keyboard, pointing device and monitor are built-in.

Like their desktop counterparts, laptop computers run an operating system, most commonly Microsoft Windows. Computers that run Windows are generally referred to as PCs, which stands for personal computers.

Explore a Laptop

Laptop computers are very similar to their desktop counterparts. Both contain a hard drive and other hardware. Both use an operating system, run software and save files. And both can be connected to peripheral devices, such as printers.

Key differences exist, however. For example, laptops, which are designed for portability, are much more compact. In addition, whereas desktops require an external keyboard and mouse, these features along with a monitor are built into laptops (although you can plug in a standard keyboard or mouse if desired). Finally, laptops can run on a battery, whereas desktops require an electrical outlet.

A Monitor

The monitor on a laptop is typically made of a soft-to-the-touch, and somewhat fragile, liquid crystal display.

B Keyboard

Keyboard configurations vary based on the size of the laptop, with larger laptops having a separate number pad and smaller ones embedding number-pad functionality within the regular keys.

C Touchpad Pointing Device

Laptops feature a built-in pointing device – usually a touchpad, as shown here. You move your finger over the pad to move the mouse pointer on your screen.

D Function Keys

Most laptops preassign functions to these aptly named function keys. Typical uses are for muting the speakers or accessing the Internet.

E DVD Drive

Most laptops include a DVD drive, although some still feature a CD drive. The location of these drives varies by model.

F Battery

A battery usually slots into the bottom of a laptop. The battery needs to be recharged on a regular basis.

G Power-Cord Connector

To recharge your battery, you plug your laptop into a power socket using this power-cord connector.

Explore Slots and Ports

You can use the various slots and ports built into your laptop to connect peripheral devices to it, such as a printer, a mouse, a keyboard, an extra monitor, headphones, a microphone, a digital camera and more. Most of these slots and ports are located on the sides or back of the chassis.

Note that, in addition to using the slots and ports built into your laptop to connect peripheral devices, you can also connect these devices to ports and slots in a docking station. You can then plug your laptop into the docking station to access the peripheral devices.

USB Port

You can use a universal serial bus (USB) port to connect a wide variety of devices, from a flash drive for data storage to a printer or digital camera. Devices that can be connected via USB are generally plug-and-play – that is, you need not restart your computer to use them after connecting them via a USB cable. Windows can automatically install many USB devices when you connect them, requiring no additional input from you.

Memory Card Reader

A memory card is a small, removable digital storage device used in many electronic gadgets such as digital cameras, MP3 players and so on. Many laptops feature memory card readers – small slots into which you can insert a memory card. You can then view the contents of the memory card and even use the memory card as an external storage device to save data from your laptop.

Monitor Port

Some laptop computers include a monitor port. If you want to connect an external monitor to your laptop – for example, to show a presentation on a larger screen or if you use a dual-monitor system in your workflow – you can connect a standard monitor cable to the laptop’s monitor port.

Ethernet Jack

You use an Ethernet jack to connect your computer to a router that controls your local area network (LAN) through a coaxial or fibre-optic cable. You can also use an Ethernet jack to establish a high-speed connection to the Internet. You simply plug the Ethernet cable into the Ethernet jack on your laptop and then connect the other end of the cable to a high-speed modem.

Modem Jack

Although most people use an Ethernet cable or a wireless signal to access the Internet, there may be times when you must use a phone line. If you need to use a phone line to dial up your Internet connection, you can plug a phone cable into the modem jack to pick up a signal.

PC Card Slot

The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), a group of industry-leading companies, defined and developed a standard for PCMCIA (or PC) cards. A PC card was originally a type of storage card but it has expanded to house other devices, such as network cards and modems. Many laptops include slots for PC cards.

Headphone and Microphone Jacks

If you want to use headphones to listen to music from your computer, you plug them into the headphone jack. You can also use this jack to plug in computer speakers. You use the microphone jack to plug in a microphone. You might use a microphone, for example, to communicate with others using a video-chat application.

Choose a Monitor Size

Laptop displays range in size from 5 inches – perfect for portability – to 17 or even 20 inches. These larger monitors are ideal for handling graphics and animations. In addition to varying in size, laptop monitors can also vary in image quality.

Which monitor is right for you depends on how many hours you will spend in front of it and what functions you need to perform. When choosing a monitor, you should keep both size and image quality in mind.

Note that laptop monitors are notoriously fragile. Avoid scratching them or submitting them to extreme temperatures.

Display Size

If you mainly need to check e-mail or type a few memos on the road, a smaller monitor might be adequate. However, if you spend hours reading reports, studying graphs and viewing high-end graphics, a larger monitor is best. Of course, monitor size affects portability, with larger monitors best suited for stay-at-home laptops.

Display Quality

Laptop monitors vary widely in quality. When researching laptop monitors, you will hear various terms, such as backlit and reflective, active matrix and passive matrix and TFT. Generally speaking, TFT, active-matrix, backlit displays are superior. A monitor’s screen resolution indicates the number of pixels that form an image on the screen; the higher the numbers are, the crisper the display. Look for a screen resolution of at least 1024 × 768 pixels – higher if you use graphics-intensive applications.

Tablet PCs

Tablet PCs are a special type of laptop. Most tablet PCs look more like legal pads than laptops; instead of using a keyboard and pointing device to input data, you write directly on the tablet PC’s monitor using a stylus – that is, an electromagnetic pen that sends a digital signal through the screen. What you write on the monitor can be converted to a regular font for improved readability.

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Choose the Right Weight

Laptops started out as portable computing devices for people who travelled regularly. Today, you can find ultra-portable laptops that weigh as little as two pounds. These laptops offer a smaller display and keyboard size and have the advantage of a longer battery life.

You can also buy laptops that weigh as much as 18 pounds. These larger models often include multimedia features and larger screen sizes. In fact, these models are so fully featured, many people have adopted them for use in lieu of a desktop computer.

Choosing the right weight for your laptop involves weighing portability against performance.

Portability

If you need a laptop for use while on the road, consider a lighter-weight model. Be aware, however, that there can be a trade-off in features and price when you buy a very lightweight laptop. A two-pound laptop may be more expensive and less able to handle larger programs or run at faster speeds. In contrast, a larger portable laptop may offer more speed or features, but it may be difficult to carry on long trips.

Stay-at-Home Laptops

Some people use laptops at home in lieu of a desktop computer. Even larger laptops, which boast 17- or even 20-inch screens, take up less space than a computer tower and plugging external devices into them is easier than having to crawl around on the floor or move a heavy tower. With wireless Internet connections and a built-in keyboard and pointing device, they tend to reduce the clutter of cables that come with standard desktop models. Although weight is less of an issue for stay-at-home laptops, consider whether you might want to carry such a computer from room to room or out of the house before you choose the heaviest model.

Rugged Laptops

Some laptops are marketed for their durability. If you work in an industry such as construction, the military, law enforcement, archaeology or any other industry in which your laptop may be subjected to a harsh physical environment in which heat, humidity, altitude or depth may be a factor, one of these rugged laptops may be for you. Water- and shock-proof, their keyboards are sealed to prevent water damage and they can withstand more variation in temperature, as well as the effects of shock, vibration, falls, grease, water and fire. They can also function near electromagnetic transmissions, such as from power generators. Not surprisingly, these rugged laptops are somewhat heavier than traditional models.

Determine Memory and Storage Needs

Your computer needs a certain amount of random access memory (RAM) to run programs and load files. More RAM can also help your computer run faster. Your laptop can read from and write to RAM more quickly than to other types of computer storage.

Your computer needs to be able to store data. You store data on a hard drive. In addition, you can store data on external storage media, such as CDs, DVDs, flash drives and external hard drives. You learn more about these types of external storage media in the next task.

RAM

The more RAM your system has, the faster items load on your computer. RAM exists on an integrated circuit memory chip, which is rated by its maximum clock rate (how quickly it can request data to appear), measured in megahertz (MHz), and its size, measured in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). RAM comes in several varieties, including static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM) and double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM). Note that you may be able to add RAM to your system if it is running too slowly. Doing so involves opening a panel on the bottom of the machine to access the motherboard.

Hard Drive Capacity

Hard drives have a certain capacity for storing data, measured in gigabytes (GB) or, in recent years, terabytes (TB). When you create or save a file on your laptop, the file is saved to your hard drive. You should buy a hard drive with enough capacity to handle your day-to-day data storage needs. Today, a 100GB hard drive is pretty much the minimum standard. The more files you need to store and the more programs you need to run, the larger-capacity hard drive you should get. Hard drives with a faster rotational speed can be useful for power users, enabling quicker access to files.

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