Last week I talked about the principles of buying a laptop computer for your college student (or yourself). Today I'll cover the specific components of a portable PC.
Like automobiles, computers have "stickers" that tell you what's inside. It will be posted on the retailer's shelf, on a technical specifications screen if you're shopping online, and usually on a real sticker attached to the computer itself. Here's what to look for:
The screen
The size and shape of the liquid crystal display (LCD) will determine the ultimate quality of your laptop experience. Like all computers and TV sets, laptop screens are measured diagonally.
Lightweight, ultraportable laptops have screens of 14 inches or less. Although happy Apple customers with 13-inch MacBooks will argue this point, I don't recommend anything smaller than 14 inches for long-term use. Another drawback of a small screen: a correspondingly cramped keyboard that can be nasty to work on for extended periods.
General-purpose laptops have screens in the 15.4-inch range, with an aspect ratio (width to height) of 4:3 - the same as a standard TV or desktop monitor. These are fine for most purposes - large enough for comfort, small enough for lugging around campus. Larger, 17-inch screens will please movie and game buffs, but they're more luggable than portable - and relatively expensive.
Wide-screen laptops, with a more rectangular, 16:9 aspect ratio, are gaining fans because they're shaped more like theater or HDTV screens. But be careful here - the term "wide" refers to the shape, not the size of the screen. In fact, a wide screen has a fractionally smaller viewing area than a standard screen with the same diagonal measurement. Practically, a wide screen lets you view two documents side by side.
A standard screen will display more of a single document. It's your choice.
Resolution: This refers to the number of horizontal and vertical pixels the screen can display. Most debate over this is nonsense. Unless your student has really good eyes, anything more than a 1,024-by-768-pixel display on a 15.4 inch screen is going to produce text that's too small to read comfortably. Higher resolutions may improve games and photo editing.
Finish: Flat-panel screens with glossy finishes look slick on the shelves and may add some depth to movies and games. I think they produce too much glare for concentrated work.
Keyboard
