Dell sells a wide variety of laptops, and many models are available in multiple configurations to match your performance and budget needs. If you need help finding the right Dell laptop, we can help. Here are the main considerations to keep in mind when shopping for a new laptop.
Price
The search for a new laptop for most people starts with price. If the statistics chipmaker Intel and PC manufacturers hurl at us are correct, you'll be holding onto your next laptop for at least three years. If you can afford to stretch your budget a little to get better specs, do it. That stands whether you're spending $500 or more than $1,000. In the past, you could get away with spending less upfront with an eye toward upgrading memory and storage in the future. Laptop makers are increasingly moving away from making components easily upgradable, so again, it's best to get as much laptop capability as you can afford from the start.
Generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the laptop. That could mean better components for faster performance, a nicer display, sturdier build quality, a smaller or lighter design from higher-end materials or even a more comfortable keyboard. All of these things add to the cost of a laptop. I'd love to say $500 will get you a powerful gaming laptop, for example, but that's not the case. Right now, the sweet spot for a reliable laptop that can handle average work, home office or school tasks is between $700 and $800, and a reasonable model for creative work or gaming is upward of about $1,000. The key is to look for discounts on models in all price ranges so you can get more laptop capability for less. Like other vendors, Dell is constantly rotating sales on laptops on its site.
Size
If you'll be taking your laptop with you to class or work or just down to your local coffee shop most mornings, then you'll want a smaller and lighter laptop -- something with a 13-inch or 14-inch screen. If you're buying a laptop for your home or work and don't plan on traveling with it with any great frequency, then it might serve you well to get a larger 15-inch, 16-inch or even a 17-inch display that gives you more room to work, play and multitask.
Display
When deciding on a display, there are many considerations: How much you need to display (which is surprisingly more about resolution than screen size), what types of content you'll be looking at, and whether you'll be using it for gaming or creative endeavors.
You really want to optimize pixel density; that is, the number of pixels per inch the screen can display. Although other factors contribute to sharpness, a higher pixel density usually means sharper rendering of text and interface elements. (You can easily calculate the pixel density of any screen at DPI Calculator if you don't feel like doing the math, and you can also find out what math you need to do there.) We recommend a dot pitch of at least 100 pixels per inch as a rule of thumb.
Because of the way Windows can scale the display, you're frequently better off with a higher resolution than you'd think. You can always make things bigger on a high-resolution screen, but you can never make them smaller -- to fit more content in the view -- on a low-resolution screen. This is why a 4K, 14-inch screen may sound like unnecessary overkill, but may not be if you need to, say, view a wide spreadsheet.
... continue reading