Laptop specifications are presented to make comparison difficult. In practice, four things determine whether a machine will still feel acceptable in four years, and most of the rest is noise.
The four that matter
- An SSD, never a mechanical drive. Non-negotiable. 256GB is the practical minimum; 512GB is the sensible choice.
- 16GB of memory. 8GB is adequate today and will feel tight within two years. Check whether it is soldered — if so, you can never upgrade it.
- A screen you can stand looking at. Full HD minimum, and an IPS panel. A dim, low-contrast screen makes an otherwise good laptop unpleasant.
- Build quality at the hinge and keyboard. These fail first. A flexing chassis and a spongy keyboard indicate where the cost was cut.
What you can usually ignore
- The processor generation race. Any current mid-range processor handles email, documents, photos and video calls comfortably.
- Discrete graphics, unless you game or edit video. It costs money and battery life for nothing otherwise.
- Touchscreens on laptops. Most people use them twice and then never again.
- 4K displays on a 14-inch laptop. You will not resolve the difference, and it noticeably shortens battery life.
What to spend
For everyday use — email, browsing, photos, video calls, documents — a sound machine sits in the $600 to $800 range at retail. Below roughly $500 you start meeting soldered 4GB memory and poor screens, which is a false economy. Above $1,200 you are generally paying for thinness or performance most households never use. Our own laptop bundle sits higher than bare retail because it includes the machine, full setup and migration, backup, three years of warranty handled by us rather than a call centre, and ongoing support — buying the laptop alone is always cheaper than buying it working.
We once advised a customer ready to spend heavily to buy at roughly half her intended budget, and put some of the difference into setup and an SSD. Two years on she has had no complaints. Spending less on the right specification beats spending more on the wrong one.