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Buy Notebook Computer

If you're shopping to buy a notebook computer, you'll need to figure out which features are most important to you. You can buy the perfect notebook for your needs within your budget if you focus on which trade-offs you are willing to make. Sure, you can get a laptop that has and does everything if you want to spend $3000 plus. But most people are looking for a notebook to serve a particular function. This guide will show you those features and help you make your notebook buying decision.

Portability

If you're looking to buy a notebook for true portability for travel, you'll want to find one that's lightweight. Laptops range from 3-7 lbs. The Gateway E-100M notebook weighs 3.2 lbs making it one of the lightest on the market. The Dell Latitude D420 starts at 3 lbs.

Another consideration for increased mobility is thickness. The slimmest notebooks are about 1 inch thick and both models referenced above classify as the slimmest notebooks available.

Battery life is also critical in buying an ultra portable notebook. Most laptops will say how long the battery will last so make sure to check that first, but if you're concerned you can always buy an extra battery to keep charged with you at all time for about $150.

Speed

If its speed you want, you'll look for two things when buying your notebook - Processor speed and RAM. These two pieces of hardware contribute to your laptop's speed. Right now the Intel Duo 2 Core Processor is one of the fastest available. Processor speed is important if you plan on doing a lot of multitasking. You can complete projects fast since tasks can be split between two processors. Just keep in mind that the faster the processor, the thicker the notebook, usually. So you will trade portability for speed.

Do you like to have lots of windows and programs running simultaneously? Then we need to look at RAM. If you're a regular business or college student running multiple office programs at once, then 1GB of RAM will work for you. But if you are a high performance user and need to run complicated, heavy programs simultaneously, you may need 2GB of RAM or more

Multimedia

If you want to buy a notebook computer to enjoy multimedia applications like mp3 music, watch movies, photo editing, or play games, you'll need to pay attention to the RAM we just mentioned, the video card, and the screen.

If you're a movie buff or hard-core gamer you may want to invest in the 20 inch screen. Sure, it's pricier, but for your needs, I'm afraid you won't be happy with anything less.

You need a good video card for multimedia intensive applications, so the 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON X1800 Graphics Card is my pick. This comes standard in Dell's top of the line XPS notebook.

Whatever you want to do with your laptop, make sure you buy a notebook computer that fits your lifestyle, your budget, and your computing needs.