Software
Apple has released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. At the moment all Windows laptops will ship with Windows 7 of some sort, with an upgrade to Windows 8 available at a special price. Come October, however, it will start getting tough to find a Windows 7 system, which is worth keeping in mind, considering the polarising nature of the new operating system.
For consumer-focused laptops, the version of Windows 7 will likely be Home Premium, which will deliver more than enough features for most people (you can always use the inbuilt upgrade function to jump up to Ultimate if you need).
Business-focused laptops will come with Windows 7 Professional. Microsoft is simplifying its lineup with Windows 8 and you’ll find that consumer products will have Windows 8, while business systems will come with Windows 8 Pro.
But it isn’t just the operating system you should consider. Some laptops will come bundled with software packages that will save you money down the track. The most important of these is antivirus – nearly all laptops out there will come with some form of third party antivirus software, but the inherent value of the package will vary greatly. Some will ship with a trial version, whereas others will come with a longer subscription to the package – while it’s a small consideration, it is worth factoring this cost in when comparing between different products.
Other laptops will come with packages like Microsoft Office. Most of the time this will be a trial version of the software, designed to work with a code purchased from a retailer or direct from Microsoft. But you may also be given the option of a cheap copy at the time of purchase, which could save you a few bucks down the track.
The other thing to keep in mind is most laptops will come with a bunch of software utilities that vary from useful to annoying. It is always worth taking a look at the software installed on a laptop and removing the bloatware before installing anything of your own.
Chassis design
One of the biggest factors when choosing a laptop, and probably the most personal one, is the physical design. This includes the keyboard and trackpad, but also the palmrest area and how comfortable it is to use over long periods. It is another area where we suggest you try out a demo unit.
There are a few things to keep in mind when looking at chassis design. The first is the kind of keyboard used. Most laptops now use “scrabble tile” or “chiclet” keyboards, which have discrete keys poking out of the chassis. Some still use the older “classic” designed keyboards, but these are becoming rarer over time.
It isn’t just the way the keys are designed that is important, however; the actual keyboard layouts can vary greatly between manufacturers. Those used to touch typing will often find these layouts annoying for prolonged use, especially if alternating between the laptop and a normal keyboard.
The other thing for some people is the presence of a number pad. Not having one can be a deal breaker if you do a lot of spreadsheets. The constraints of laptop design mean you are only going to find number pads on some 15in or larger models.
Trackpads are also going to be incredibly important, and can vary greatly in usability and quality. Not only is this down to the technology itself, but its position on the chassis and size are also very important to comfort and useability.
What will also be important with Windows 8 is the trackpad’s capacity for multitouch gestures, as the Metro interface becomes a lot more useable if you use the trackpad for gesture-based navigation. Similar techniques are used in OSX, and Apple’s glass trackpads are the gold standard.
Networking
It used to be that you could expect an Ethernet port on a laptop as standard, but this has changed dramatically in recent years. Thanks to a combination of the growth of wi-fi and the push towards laptop chassis designs much thinner than an Ethernet port itself, you can’t guarantee there will be one onboard (ultrabooks, for example, don’t need Ethernet to qualify under Intel’s specifications).
One trend in recent months is laptops using fold-down Ethernet ports. Designed to allow Ethernet on chassis that are too thin for a traditional port, they save on having to carry USB or Thunderbolt-based Ethernet adapters around. What you can guarantee is wi-fi of some sort, but not all wi-fi is created equal.
The best widely available wireless standard is 802.11n (the faster 802.11ac routers have begun appearing but there are currently no adapters on the market to take advantage of them). All modern laptop wireless chips will support 802.11n, but there are other factors to take into account.
The first is the number of antennas attached to the wireless chip. This is designated with a number like 3x3 or 2x2, which refers to the number of simultaneous streams that can be sent by the adapter. For example, a 3x3 adapter like Intel’s top end Centrino 6300 chip is able to send three simultaneous streams to a compatible source (i.e. a router that supports 3x3 speeds).
This triples the theoretical bandwidth of the connection, but it doesn’t mean you can connect to multiple wi-fi sources at once (that will come later as part of 802.11ac).As well as the number of antennas, the other big wireless technology to keep an eye on is dual band. This means the adapter is capable of running on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency, as long as the router supports it.
While it is tempting to just go for the best wi-fi option you can get, the reality is that unless you are regularly connecting to an expensive 3x3 router you won’t get the best bang for your buck. Dual band is more important in our minds, but again it is router dependant.
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