How to buy the best laptop in the age of Windows 8

Laptops used to be simple. Almost all of them had a clamshell design, with a display that folded onto the keyboard. You picked the laptop you needed based on factors like price, weight, and performance. But it's different today: New form factors, different operating systems, and disparate user needs conspire to make choosing a laptop a complex chore.

Do core processor specs matter, or has system performance reached the point where users won't even notice a 300MHz frequency bump? Should you buy a laptop at all, or would a tablet better suit your needs? I'll answer all these questions and more as I explore the challenges of buying a laptop (or something like a laptop) in the age of Windows 8.

Define your needs and budget

Before you pull out your credit card, consider how you'll be using your new machine. Perhaps you do a lot of business traveling, and carrying something lighter than your current 6-pound behemoth would improve your life on the road tremendously. Or maybe you're looking for a shared family machine, or a laptop that you can hand off to a student to do schoolwork on. Or you might want a high-performance system that can deliver high frame rates in 3D games.

Let's look at the main buying factors for each scenario.

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Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2018594/how-to-buy-the-best-laptop-in-the-age-of-windows-8.html

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