Laptop Buying Guide 2010

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Laptop Buying Guide 2010

Rohan Naravane & Roydon Cerejo, Dec 22, 2010 1744 hrs IST

We pick the best laptops in every category

Many decades ago, having a telephone at home meant that you're a well-to-do fella. We still remember the days when an entire building in the housing society had just one or at the most two phone lines, with neighbors making a beeline to make phone calls. Thanks to the exploding mobile revolution in India, that situation is long gone. It's safe to say that a majority of people in a single household today have a cellphone of their own. Following this pattern is another device - the computer.

Soon the computer, just like a cellphone, will become a personal belonging rather than a shared entity. While children are hooked to 3D games, daddy and/or mommy are busy staring into their company laptop. And as laptops are no longer power-crunched (and unaffordable), as they used to be a decade ago, they are the obvious path for the sort of personalized electronic hardware concept we talked about.

There are a myriad of models available in electronic malls these days; with specifications so similar it'll make your head spin. What we're offering you today is a buying guide that helps you pick models that are worth buying.

Caution: Do not imply that just because we haven't chosen a laptop that you like (or own) means that it is pathetic. But what we're saying is that the following models below are worth the money. We'll also tell you what to expect in every price range:

Under Rs. 20,000

This price bracket is primarily dominated by Netbooks - those small 10-inch mini-laptops that are good enough to do basic tasks and generally deliver great battery life. Now, most Netbooks in this price range have almost ditto specifications and pricing - which may make you want to pull your hair out while making a buying decision. So, first things first - if you are looking to spend no more than Rs. 15,000, then your netbook ought to have at least these specs:

an Intel Atom N450/N455 processor
1GB of RAM
160GB hard drive

In this range, the Acer Aspire D255 comes with Windows XP pre-installed and is a decent choice for Rs. 16,000. For people unwilling to cough up the Microsoft tax can save a grand by choosing the Asus Eee PC 1005PX for Rs. 15,000. But if you honestly ask us, we'd say ignore both, invest a little more and get the HP Mini 210-2010tu. As my friend and colleague Prasad once said, "Screwing up a trackpad in a laptop is like screwing up a steering wheel in a car". Netbooks are already crammed for space and when you couple that with mediocre human input peripherals, it just messes up the experience in the long run.

Acer Aspire D255

Asus Eee PC 1005PX

Amongst all the Netbooks I have personally tried out till date, the HP Mini 210's has got to be THE best! The surface is extremely smooth (unlike the ribbed or dotted patterns of some) and the sensitivity is spot-on. Add to that a well-designed chiclet keyboard that's fairly easy to type on as well, and it makes using the netbook more comfortable than usual.

HP Mini 210

It's got a little more grunt than a regular Netbook - an Atom N470 that runs at 1.83 GHz and 2GB of RAM, which drives the Windows 7 Starter aboard without a lag. We already know why it makes sense to choose Windows 7 Starter over XP. Lastly, a 320GB hard drive is more roomy to store your content. It sells for Rs. 20,000 and we feel it's a worthy buy in this range.