Ok, so you really must have a laptop? Here are some more buying ideas;

Screen. Laptop screens come in several sizes, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 19”. 15” is the popular size and for good reason. It gives you a good viewing area but isn’t too big. My first laptop, I went for a 17” screen. Fantastic for movies but the text is so small you can’t read it. Yes, the bigger the screen, the smaller the text. Go figure. Get a 15” screen.

Secondly, screens come in glossy or matte. The glossy looks impressive and makes movies look great. But it shows the marks and gets dirty very quickly. Also it reflects light and can be a pain to use if you don’t have perfect control of the lights in the room. Avoid. The matte screens give a better long term experience. Less reflection, less glare. Easy on the eyes.

Hard drive. There is no such thing as too big in hard drives. Data expands to fill all available space. So bigger is better. 100Gb is the go, more if you can. I have 160Gb.

Next, hard drive speed is important. Cheap laptop drives are 4200 rpm or 5400 rpm. The best are 7200 rpm or even 10000 rpm. The faster it spins the quicker it will be. Although faster drives do use more battery power and make more noise. Bugger it, just get 7200 rpm, 160Gb if you can.

RAM. More memory, faster laptop. For Windows, the more RAM the better. 2Gb minimum, 4Gb if you can. For Mac, 2Gb is fine, 1Gb will do if you’re on a budget, although stick to 2Gb if you need to run Windows under Parallels on your Mac.

Windows. XP Pro. No Vista, ever, seriously. Absolute crap. Get XP Pro.

Windows on your Mac? Get Parallels. I really think VM Ware is a better product, but I’ve never got it to work!

DVD drive. Cheap laptops come with a DVD player and CD burner. Avoid. You should be able to get a dual layer DVD burner in the laptop. They do everything then, CD’s, DVD’s of all formats...

Floppy drive. No. Don’t be silly, you’ll never use it. For IT geeks that have to have one, get a USB external one if you must. The rest of you use USB memory sticks please.

Ports, plugs and the likes. Get plenty of USB ports. Just about everything is USB now. The little Dell’s have 4, the big ones have 6. That’s good. My MacBook Pro has 2, that works for me, but only just. Firewire is largely a Mac thing, although useful if you want to do video editing. My Dell had firewire. Card slot. New laptops have “Express Card 34” which is a smaller card, older ones have PC-card (PCMCIA) which is bigger. These slots allow you to plug in accessories like the Next G card.

Bluetooth. This is wireless for keyboard, mouse, PDA, phone etc. Must have.

Wireless. 802.11g or 802.11n is what you want. This allows you to connect to networks in the office, public hot spots, the Internet etc. Must have.

Infra-red. IRDA. Allows remote control of playback. Just like your TV remote. Cute but not necessary. You can use your mouse for PowerPoint shows.

Memory card reader. Yes, if you use a camera a lot you might want a card reader. Not essential.

External video port. Vital if you want to use a projector. Also allows dual screen mode on most laptops.

Network. Yes, must have.

Modem. Probably not. Use dial up? Never! Unless you have to have it for banking, and that’ll be the really old CBA or Westpac systems that don’t use the Internet.

Touchpad. Most modern laptops use a touchpad for the mouse. These work. The IBM has a titty thing in the middle of the keyboard and you balance your index finger on it - crap. No mater what in-built pointer is on your laptop, you’ll probably buy an external mouse, they are more comfortable. This is why you need bluetooth. That way you don’t need a silly USB dongle plugged in every time you want to use the mouse.

Camera. Again most newer laptops have a built in camera for web chat etc. Cool but not essential. Ditto a microphone. If you do any serious recording, Skype, chatting etc, get a USB headset.

Warranty - If you want it to last 3 years, get a 3 year warranty. If it’s a Dell, buy a Dell warranty, Apple, get Apple care.

For HP or any other brand, get ICF extended warranty.

continued in Part 3.