Watch our two-minute video for the most important laptop buying tips. Before you start shopping for a laptop, it will help to know the answers to the following five key questions.
On a budget? Skip straight to our round-up of the best cheap laptops. There are three major players when it comes to the software operating system your computer runs on. Buy a Windows 10 laptop if…. Before you buy, particularly if you're buying an older model, check it's going to be compatible with Windows See our free Windows 11 requirements checker. Buy a MacBook if….
See our Macbook reviews. Buy a Chromebook if…. Check out our expert Chromebook reviews. Take our quiz to help you decide! You're best suited to a Chromebook. These lightweight machines are typically very cheap and very simple to use. As long as you don't mind using web-based applications, you'll be off and working in no time at all. Your best option is a MacBook. These premium laptops are silky smooth to use and offer great performance for all sorts of tasks.
Looks like your best fit is a new Windows laptop. With such a wide variety to choose from, there's something for all tastes in the world of Microsoft-powered laptops. In a nutshell:.
Think of clock speed as the speed limit on a road and the number of cores as the number of lanes. As on a road, depending on traffic conditions — the tasks being done on your computer — a road might see a greater benefit from more lanes or a higher speed limit. In the simplest way possible, more of both is better, and each of our laptop reviews will help you out by making it clear what sort of tasks a laptop is good for.
Think of Ram Random Access Memory like a desk and your hard drive like a filing cabinet. The bigger the desk you have, the more items you can access more quickly - the same goes for Ram.
Some cheap computers come with 2GB — this is usually fine on a cheap Chromebook, but some Windows 10 laptops will struggle. Plus you need 4GB for Windows When you close a program or file, it is removed from the Ram and makes room for other things to be accessed immediately. The graphic below shows the four main screen resolutions you'll find on laptops and what they are often called. If you want a longer-lasting battery and a more portable device, you may want to go for an 11, 12 or inch display; most of these will weigh between 1kg and 1.
The largest you're likely to see is 15 or 17 inches, with weight increasing to around 2kg to 3kg. Generally, the higher the resolution, the sharper the picture. Only cheaper laptops should have a lower screen resolution of 1,x This is okay and usually usable, but these screens not only lack fidelity; their cheap nature means they're also lacking when it comes to how well colours are displayed. We also test computer monitors - you can hook one up to your laptop to use as a second screen.
See our guide to the best computer monitors to get the low-down on how to pick one. Storage capacity determines how many things your PC can hold.
Documents, photos, music, movies, programs — they all take up space. Bigger is usually better, although solid-state drives SSDs are often more expensive for considerably less space.
This is because they load much quicker and are completely silent. We're also seeing a lot of cheaper laptops including Chromebooks carrying eMMC embedded Multi-Media Controller flash storage, which is slower than SSDs and gives you very little storage space. MacBooks look great and are ideal for everything from browsing the web to graphics design. Gaming laptops are focused on performance.
View all Gaming laptops. Chromebooks are designed to get you online as easily as possible. They feature the stripped-back Chrome OS operating system that makes navigation simple, making them a great choice if your daily computing is entirely web-based. View all Our Experts Love Chromebooks. Every laptop we sell has at least a dual-core processor.
This allows it to handle several things at once so you can move quickly between different windows, with more apps and tabs running at once. Quad-core processors are great for running demanding software quickly, such as photo editing and music production programs. Modern creative software is optimised to run best with multi-core setups. View all Dual-core laptops. View all Quad-core laptops.
View all Hexa-core laptops. View all Octa-core laptops. This is measured in GHz, and determines how fast the processor runs. A higher clock speed means your laptop can load software and files faster and that it will run smoother during normal use. This means the laptop consumes less power during light computing tasks, which reduces power consumption and increases battery life.
View all laptops 4GB and under. View all laptops 6GB and over. View all laptops 8GB and over. View all laptops 16GB and over. Smaller screens, such as Laptops with The largest screen size available today is While laptops with this screen size can be difficult to carry around, they offer the clearest view of your content and are great for multimedia. View all 12"laptops and below. View all 13" and 14" laptops. View all 15" and 16" laptops. View all 17" laptops and above. A hard disc drive is the most common type of laptop storage.
Laptops are available with a wide range of different HDD capacities to suit any requirement. If you want to save a lot of films, music and other large files, look for a laptop with at least a 1 TB hard drive.
View all HDD laptops. Unlike HDDs, solid-state drives have no moving parts. However, they are more expensive than other drives, so tend to be featured on more premium or performance-focused laptops.
View all SSD laptops. They work by storing your most accessed information in a solid-state memory cache so that it can be reached much quicker when needed. This gives you faster loading, saving and booting so you can enjoy quicker and more responsive computing. View all SSHD laptops. View all eMMC laptops. Graphics cards accelerate video-based tasks such as photo and video editing, high-resolution video playback, and the rendering of 3D worlds in games.
View all Laptops with Nvidia cards. The resolution of the screen tells you how many pixels are in the display, and as a result how detailed or sharp the image on screen will be. View All Laptops with 4D resolution. View All Laptops with HD resolution. View All Laptops with standard definition.
AC WiFi is the fastest way to connect to the internet. Any laptop with AC WiFi can work with fibre optic broadband to give you the fastest connection speed possible - perfect for streaming HD videos and gaming online. View all AC WiFi laptops. USB ports let you connect your laptop to a number of different accessories and devices including your external mouse, printer, camera and mobile phone.
USB 3. Although currently not that common, USB 3. View all laptops with HDMI connectivity. VGA ports are an older type of video output although many monitors and TVs still support it. If you regularly need to connect to an external screen, consider a laptop with an HDMI port instead as VGA is normally not included on the latest computers and screens.
View all laptops with VGA connectivity. Just like on your smartphone! View All Laptops with Fingerprint reader. View All Laptops with Face Recognition. If you regularly use your laptop on the go, a longer battery life is useful. A laptop with 10 hours or more of battery life gives you the freedom to work all day without charging - ideal for taking notes in meetings, checking emails on the commute, or watching a film during down time.
View all laptops with extended battery life. You might be surprised at just how light some of the latest laptops are. View all lightweight laptops. View all super lightweight laptops. A dedicated graphics card is a processor with the specific role of handling visuals. They are available in varying specifications and range from those designed to give you improved multimedia playback, to high-performance cards made to run the latest games at their absolute best.
View all laptops with dedicated graphics. You can receive your software via home delivery, collect it in store, or via download, making it easy to get everything you need. View all Software. These are vital for university, school or business computing.
We have the full range of Microsoft Office software to suit everyone from families to small businesses, so you can work and create professional documents easily wherever you are. View all Office Software. View Internet security and antivirus.
Creative software lets you edit photos, cut videos, record music, design professional-looking visuals and more. Educational software includes everything you need to help you and your family develop their education or learn something new. View all Creative Software. View all Educational Software. Instore and online we have software bundles that offer big savings over buying separately. There are too many offers to list here, so have a look at the product pages or ask in store to find out more.
Home Delivery: Choose your software and have it delivered, just like you would any other item. Collect in store: Reserve online and collect your software in any of our stores. Download: Buy now and download straight away. If you delete the software or reset your PC just log into your Currys account to download it again. The Cloud is another term for online storage. You can access the Cloud from any online device, so you can save a file at work, edit it on your phone and finish it at home.
Cloud storage is great for expanding the storage capacity of your laptop or smartphone to give you almost unlimited space for music, films and documents. View all Cloud Storage. External storage gives you huge amounts of space to store data. External hard drives are ideal for backing up large amounts of data from a desktop PC, while portable hard drives are perfect for slipping into your laptop bag and carrying with you for extra storage space on the go. View all Data Storage. On one hand, it's good for consumers that most major manufacturers have adopted the same language and standards for measuring durability at all.
However, on the other, the reality is that having a product be MIL-STDG compliant doesn't always translate into the kind of ruggedness you'd hope it would.
Although the MIL-STDG standard was developed externally, there's no single independent party that's responsible for handing out certification to the standard nor any regulator that's able to call out bad actors for misusing or misrepresenting MIL-STDG.
Manufacturers can absolutely take their testing in-house, "ace" it and put the sticker on the box. There's no limit on how many attempts a product has to pass a certain test, nor even a limit on whether the same product sample needs to survive all 29 tests or whether they can replace it with a fresh model every step of the way.
They don't even need to provide proof that the testing ever happened. From the perspective of any everyday consumer, there's zero difference in how a product that was properly and independently tested to meet MIL-STDG looks and how a product that "fudged" their way into compliance with the standard looks.
This is obviously problematic. For those reasons, MIL-STDG is best used as starting place when it comes to thinking about durability and build quality in your next laptop. It shouldn't be your one and only consideration.
A better way to approach the problem is to look at the laptops design and what specific claims are being made around durability. That's probably a good sign. For as ubiquitous as MIL-STDG is as a standard, it's often unclear how rigorously manufacturers are applying sticking to the spirit of the thing and, if you're keen to make sure your next laptop can take a hit or two, it's worth looking at brands that go one-step further.
When it comes to purchasing a laptop, a big question you should ask is: Should I buy a laptop with LTE? Unlike laptops with built-in network cards, laptops with LTE can connect to mobile data signals. That means instead of having to connect to a wireless network at home, in the office, or at Wi-Fi hotspots, your laptop can connect directly to a mobile ISP for internet access. The main benefit of this is you can use your laptop just about anywhere—when outdoors, traveling on the bus, or even on the beach.
If that convenience sounds good, this option may be perfect for you. However, there are a few caveats. LTE technology sits in the higher-end laptop category, so you will pay for the privilege. Also, just like with your phone, you'll need to either be on a data plan or buy prepaid data to use your LTE.
Know what LTE network your laptop will connect to, since this will determine your internet speeds. But 5G laptops will soon be coming to Australia. These laptops, when available, will feature significantly faster speeds of between Gbs. If superfast internet is a priority, go for 5G. If you are not fussed about having LTE or want to avoid the ongoing fees, a laptop with Wi-Fi-only functionality will do just fine.
You can also use mobile Wi-Fi tethering as a source of Wi-Fi on the fly. The last thing to consider with your internet connectivity, is whether you need an Ethernet RJ port. But, if you're plagued by a weak Wi-Fi signal, or lack Wi-Fi altogether, you should consider it. The speed at which your laptop transfers data from an internet router to your laptop and back is called its link speed and it is measured in bits per second bps.
Even if your internet connection is fast, if your link speed is lousy, your Wi-Fi speed will struggle. Most laptops with network cards connect to wireless hotspots on either the 2. When it comes to Wi-Fi generations, Wi-Fi 4 is getting a bit old now, but Wi-Fi 5 will perform well for almost anything you'd need to do online, such as browsing webpages, watching videos, and running browser-based applications.
For that, network cards that support Wi-Fi 5 will do nicely. On the other hand, if you are a gamer who likes playing fast-paced multiplayer content, or if you stream high-quality video, we recommend you look for a laptop with a network card supporting Wi-Fi 6 connectivity for lower latency.
This is the emerging standard Wi-Fi technology, offering substantial speed benefits up to 9. Of course, you need to balance these features with your budget and your needs, and you might have to make some compromises.
Rarely does a laptop come along that ticks all the boxes, especially when it comes to price. Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more. Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected.
View our privacy policy before signing up. Tags notebooks laptops checklist laptop buying guide laptop features buying tips. Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable. This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on — creating content was super simple.
As the Maserati or BMW of laptops, it would fit perfectly in the hands of a professional needing firepower under the hood, sophistication and class on the surface, and gaming prowess sports mode if you will in between. This small mobile printer is exactly what I need for invoicing and other jobs such as sending fellow tradesman details or step-by-step instructions that I can easily print off from my phone or the Web.
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